The Victorian Government this week threatened the jobs of over 100 councillors, but will now bring in a bill to save them.

Councils had until September 1 to sign up to a new code of conduct, but many refused or did not follow proper process.

This meant that 107 councillors from 13 different councils faced disqualification.

But the Andrews Government says it will introduce legislation to extend the sign-up to February 1, preventing ratepayers from having to foot the bill for administrators.

“This is not the greatest day for local government today,” acting Local Government Minister Richard Wynne said.

“The Government is proposing to resolve this question, particularly in the interests of ratepayers, because obviously there would have been a significant cost involved in having to put on administrators to the 13 councils for a period of seven weeks.

“Frankly I put on notice particularly the three councillors who either wilfully did not sign the code of conduct, or indicated they were signing the code of conduct under duress.

“They ought to think very carefully about … standing for local government again.

He hopes to new legislation will pass smoothly.

“Obviously we look to have discussions with the Opposition, the Greens and the crossbenchers... [but] from our point of view we would like to have this legislation through the parliament this week if possible, if not, in the following week.”

Municipal Association of Victoria spokesperson Bill McArthur said administrative errors were behind a lot of the non-compliance.

He said appointing administrators would have come with enormous costs and logistical issues, so giving council more time was a much easier way to go.

Premier Daniel Andrews had earlier been warning councils that they had “failed to comply with the laws of our state”.

“Be in no doubt, councils have written to us and said, fully copped the fact, that they have done the wrong thing,” he said.

“I'm sure a lot of Victorians will think about when they were just a couple of minutes late and the parking meter ticked over, or when they were just a bit late in paying their rates, or whatever it might be, they didn't get any help from their local council.

“But in the interest of ratepayers we'll do the right thing and fix this.”