The world’s first openly intersex mayor, Councillor Tony Briffa, faces allegations of serious misconduct and was challenged today to face a tribunal by colleague Councillor Peter Hemphill.

Cllr Briffa called a press conference last week to ask Cllr Hemphill to drop his allegations to save taxpayers the costs of a tribunal. Cllr Hemphill responded by challenging Cllr Briffa to attend the tribunal without ‘expensive’ lawyers.

‘Cllr Briffa has sent the cost off the Richter scale and is using this as an excuse to evade the justice system,’ Cllr Hemphill said, as reported by local newspaper Williamston, Altona, Laverton Star. ‘If he is confident of his innocence, why is he using expensive lawyers?’

The allegations relate to threatening emails sent in March 2011 to local resident Maureen Short, a former public relations advisor to Mobil, who have a controversial environmental record in the area. The emails, that were copied into her employer and other community members, accused Short of behaving inappropriately at a public meeting and called for her to be sacked.

An internal Councillor Conduct Panel found that Cllr Briffa’s behaviour was in breach of the council’s code of conduct and ordered that he apologise to Short, and have 12 months counselling and mentoring.

When asked to stand before another conduct panel into the incident, Cllr Briffa opted to refer the matter to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), an independent mediator for disputes in the state of Victoria, saying he had ‘little confidence’ in the internal procedure.

‘I think residents can see this complaint exactly for what it is: a political witch-hunt and a frivolous and vexatious complaint by a political antagonist before the election of mayor,’ Cllr Briffa said at the time (November 2011), as reported by local paper Hobson's Bay Weekly.

The tribunal is due to meet on 25 May, but Cllr Briffa requested last week that Cllr Hemphill accept his third apology to Short to save the taxpayers up to $250,000 (Australian dollars, $259,868, €194,733) in legal fees. If found guilty of serious misconduct at the tribunal, Cllr Briffa would lose his mayoralty.

Cllr Briffa became the world's first openly intersex mayor last December when elected by other councillors at Mayor of Hobson's Bay, after serving two terms as Deputy Mayor. He was born with a genetic intersex condition and doctors decided he should have his male body parts surgically removed and be raised as a girl. When he was older he learned the truth of his condition and started to take male hormones and had his identity officially recognised as male.

Although he uses the male pronoun, Cllr Briffa says on his website: ‘I am not male or female, but both. I am grateful for the years I lived as a woman and the insight and experiences it gave me. I am still “Antoinette” and have now also incorporated and accepted my male (“Anthony” or “Tony”) side. I feel whole. I’ll continue to live as Tony but I feel I am now at a point in my life where I can celebrate being different.’