A former shire president of the Wheatbelt town of York says a "clean-out" of all council positions is needed to restore community confidence.

On Tuesday, York Shire council was suspended for six months following a State Government probe into ongoing complaints about its ability to provide good governance.
A commissioner, business consultant and former South Perth Mayor James Best, was also appointed to oversee the shire while councillors and staff undergo training.
Tony Boyle resigned in December after serving on York council for nine years, and as shire president for two of those.
Mr Boyle said he could no longer see a way forward for the council.
"They were dysfunctional in that there was no trust and accusations were flying left, right and centre," he said.
"It got to the point where a certain group of residents in the town were making it almost impossible to govern, with continual harassment to council and staff - particularly senior staff."
Mr Boyle has welcomed the suspension but said it may take an entirely new council to regain community confidence that has been lost over the last 12 months.
"I would prefer to see a new team but then again I wonder who would stand after seeing what's been happening," he said.
Mr Boyle has concerns the suspension has tarnished the shire's reputation and said the council should be suspended until October, when Local Government elections are held.
"I think a clean-out of all positions and then I really think this will pave the way for amalgamation," he said.
"But then again it poses the question; who would want to amalgamate with a council that's in the hands of a commissioner?"
Today, Local Government Minister Tony Simpson acknowledged that there were tensions between council and the York community.
"There are some issues to do with the wider community but I think the important part here is trying to deliver good governance for the people of York," he said.

Minister acknowledges tensions between council and community

In November, Local Government Minister Tony Simpson wrote to the council giving it 21 days to respond to concerns regarding staff conduct and procedures.
The decision to suspend the Wheatbelt council followed a two-month investigation into the shire's activities by the Department of Local Government and Communities.
In the department's report, it was alleged the shire had failed to maintain a proper documented record of its decision making processes, failed to deal with a code of conduct complaint in a professional manner and failed to control public question time at council meetings.
A number of allegations were directed at Shire President Matthew Reid, who has systematically denied the accusations labelling them as "baseless".
"There is no basis for those allegations and that's part of the evidence that we've provided but the Minister has chosen not to discuss that with council," he said.
"It's quite clear the statements that they're making...that we've refuted with hard evidence, as in tape recordings, to show that they're not accurate."
The department alleged there were ongoing conflicts between Mr Reid, the former acting chief executive Michael Keeble and other staff, which compromised their ability to make good decisions.
Mr Reid said the evidence the Minister and his department used to compile the show cause notice, which was issued to the shire to alert them of an intention to suspend it, was not accurate.
"There are some very significant flaws in the documentation that he used to draw up the show cause notice from and I'm very concerned that nothing is being done to rectify that situation," he said.
A spokesman for Tony Simpson said the Minister would not comment further on the matter.
Mr Reid said council still had the backing of the community.
"I think there is actually a lot of confidence in the council," he said.
"There were between two and three hundred people who came to the last town meeting to vote their support for council."