She pledged to leave no stone unturned in her radical overhaul of the organisation’s internal operations.  

“I am determined that we will have a very robust, thorough and transparent organisation that is able to regain the trust of the Ballarat community,” Ms Linley said. 

Her first two and half months at the helm of the council have been plagued by controversy after it emerged the Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) was investigating accusations a mid level officer – who has since left the organisation – misappropriated funds.

It is also alleged the officer’s offending was covered up over an extended period of time by another council officer.

All nine councillors also faced being sacked in the wake of an administrative blunder which saw them fail to sign a code of conduct document within a one month statutory deadline. 

Councillors from up to 50 councils across the state could also be dumped from office next month because they failed to properly sign the new code.

The defiant chief is undertaking an extensive review of the organisation to ensure accountability and transparency at every level of the council.

“This is not a witch hunt,” Ms Linley said.

"It’s not about trying to find somebody to pin blame on.This is about establishing a process of improvement to ensure this never happens again.”

She also hit out at speculation surrounding the identities of at least two council officers embroiled in the IBAC investigation. 

“The rumours of people who have so far been named is incorrect,” she said. 

“Good peoples’ reputations are being besmirched in this community and it is completely unfair.”

“Speaking publicly for the first time about the IBAC investigation, Ms Linley urged the community to be mindful of making unqualified statements about councillors or the incompetency of council officers and staff.

“I’m prepared to say, yes, we have been the subject of an IBAC investigation and that investigation is still ongoing,” she said. 

“I won’t know the outcome that investigation until it is completed and IBAC provide us with that information.” 

“It could take a week, months, it could even be in two years time. We just have to wait.”

But Ms Linley who took on the role of the council’s chief in May, conceded there had been a systematic failure in the lead up to the council’s current crisis. 

She also admitted there were multiple areas in the council’s internal operations which she had serious concerns about and was working to rectify.  

At the top of Ms Linely’s agenda was increasing transparency around conduct and expanding the level of information made available to the public via council reports.

“Our transparency around getting council agendas up and ready for meetings and giving those reports ample time to be scrutinised by the community are the sorts of things I want to include in the review,” she said. 

She also proposed an administrative realignment of the organisation.  

“There are a lot of direct reports to the CEO and it becomes almost unmanageable given the volume of work,” she said. 

“In my view, to streamline that workload and to make sure that there is accountability and responsibility at every level is critical.”

“It will help to improve efficiency and makes it very clear who is accountable for a particular matter.”

Despite the hurdles laid out in front of her, Ms Linley was confident the public’s faith in the organisation could be restored. 

“We have a lot to look forward to, we have an election,” she said. 

“We’ve got a lot of work to do in getting over this significant hurdle with the code of conduct error, but on balance, I believe we have a great council and a great organisation.”