A councillor has called for a Municipal Monitor at Greater Dandenong after her motion for the council to launch an external independent assessment into an anonymous email’s allegations was defeated.
A five-ALP-councillor majority voted against hearing independent councillor Rhonda Garad’s urgent-business motion on Monday 13 October, therefore the motion’s contents were not publicly disclosed.
Cr Garad, independent councillor Bob Milkovic and Greens endorsed member Isabella Do voted in favour of hearing the motion.
It’s believed the council will instead embark on an internal audit of the claims made in the email, which was sent purportedly on behalf of “we, the staff“ from an encrypted email address.
The email makes allegations about council’s internal culture, its “chaotic restructures” and repeated use of external consultants.
Allegations include favouritism, staff excluded from key decision-making, undermining staff morale, internal capability ignored while external consultants are excessively used, a divided leadership, and unfair salary banding where some managers with less qualifications or experience are paid more than better qualified colleagues.
Labor councillor Sean O’Reilly said he didn’t think anything Cr Garad said at the meeting met the test for urgent business.
“I think where the difference was – she thought her motion was important, but being important is different to urgent.
“There is no evidence of any urgency, therefore the test fails.”
Cr Garad says her motion was emailed to all councillors prior to the council meeting.
She says a Municipal Monitor should be called by the Minister for Local Government to investigate the governance issues.
“I think we are moving to that stage. We are seeing so many concerning behaviours.
“We are moving to a point where that would be a possibility.”
As urgent business, she outlined the impact on council’s operations and services to the community, citing the Local Government Act “to ensure good governance” and “not only to act but act quickly and be seen to act quickly.”
She outlined the uncertainty, stress and “environment of tensions” among the organisation’s staff.
Cr Garad says a councillor-only meeting to discuss the issue was denied prior to Monday’s council meeting.
However, a councillor session was held after the council meeting with Michael Shatter, the chair of the council’s audit and risk committee.
Council’s CEO Jacqui Weatherill, in a pre-meeting with councillors, is reported to have said the anonymous email complaints were “none of the councillors’ business.”
Cr Garad described both meetings with the CEO and the chair for risk committee Mr Shatter as “browbeating” and “intimidating” .
“It was like, you keep and support me or support that motion, to me it was almost like an ultimatum.”
According to Cr Garad, councillors were informed that Weatherill, with Shatter, would “determine the scope of an internal audit” and later report the findings to councillors.
Cr O’Reilly was hesitant to comment on the “internal discussions” as a matter of confidentiality.
“My understanding is there’s going to be several parties having input into (the audit).”
Labor councillor Phillip Danh says it’s “reasonable” to expect the CEO to be part of the internal audit and that he trusts the process.
He described both meetings as “helpful”.
“The dialogue was good to understand what the process looks like, the context behind what happens when these sorts of issues arise – having a major reaction to an unverified piece of correspondence isn’t always the best path forward.”
According to Cr Garad, it was made clear by Shatter that the internal audit only addresses the allegation of council staff salary banding.
“Audit risk only looks at financial issues, governance in terms of systems and its implementation particularly around safety and issues like fraud. They don’t look at cultural issues,” Cr Garad says.
She says that her separate legal dispute against Weatherill was used against her, with Shatter describing it as a conflict of interest on multiple occasions.
In Cr Garad’s view, a conflict of interest should only apply when the legal dispute is being discussed.
“It’s a blatant attempt to punish accountability and shut down scrutiny.”
Recently, her legal conflict with Weatherill escalated after the council refused her ‘cease-and-desist’ demand to publicly apologise and retract a media statement on her social-media retweets over the Gaza. conflict.
She has lodged her legal complaint at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT). No hearing dates have been confirmed.
Weatherill, has refused to comment on the email, saying the council doesn’t communicate “with or about our staff via the media.”
“The residents of our city benefit from officers’ hard work every day and we couldn’t be prouder of their efforts,” she recently stated.
“We promote a culture of open feedback and take it seriously.
“Council staff can raise any issues with their manager, human resources advisers, their union or through our structured staff consultations and regular surveys.”
