LETTER TO THE EDITOR
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We want to outline why we did not vote to terminate the contract of the City of Ballarat CEO, Justine Linley, on Monday night, as six other councillors did.
Since then, we have been crucified on a cross of misinformation. This has been achieved via erroneous commentary in the mainstream media and in the faceless forms of social media.
But it was initiated by Councillors Taylor and Amy Johnson who have both perpetuated an untruth about why we voted the way we did.
They have said we wanted a new investigation.
This is not correct.
Democracy depends on truth, not the warping of reality.
At the council table, each of us has a vote.
It is perhaps the most powerful tool democracy gives us.
A dictatorship would demand uniformity.
THE COURIER'S OMBUDSMAN REPORT COVERAGE
- City of Ballarat ombudsman report: 'jobs for mates' allegations regarding Ballarat Council executives
- Ombudsman report into Ballarat council: councillors express disappointment
- Ombudsman report into City of Ballarat: Councillors told to scrutinise CEO behaviour
- City of Ballarat ombudsman report: The intriguing finer details
- Council executive resigns after scandalous Ombudsman report
- City of Ballarat CEO Justine Linley sacked by councillors
- Ombudsman's report into Ballarat Council: What next for council officers?
- Ombudsman report pressures Ballarat Council to change complaints process
- Ombudsman's report: More woes for City of Ballarat with queries over acting CEO
- Ombudsman report into the City of Ballarat: the way forward
Given the Mayor has repeatedly refused to answer media questions or correct this wrong information about the divergence of votes, we want in this piece to set the record straight and tell the community directly why we voted against the motion.
Transparency is important.
Of the 940 people employed at the City of Ballarat, just one is employed by the councillors. The CEO.
Justine Linley was sacked by the council after it invoked a clause in her contract which basically said she can be axed at any time for no reason.
It could have been invoked three years ago, 18 months ago, 3 weeks ago. Anytime at all for any reason, or none.
The majority of Councillors decided this was the best way to get rid of her following the tabling of the Victorian Ombudsman's Report into alleged improper conduct by executive officers at the Ballarat City Council.
A minority of councillors thought it more appropriate to allow the CEO 'due process' and an exercise of her natural justice rights before such a big decision was made. A handful of days would have achieved this.
After an 18-month expensive process the Ombudsman, Deborah Glass, found no criminality at all.
At worst, she found conduct by leadership that was "...at the lower end of the spectrum of bad behaviour." This is where the problem arises.
You would think given Ms Linley was our only employee, that the Council might want or even had an obligation to talk to her about the report - give her a chance to explain.
We might ask what she thought about it.
Was it fair? Was it accurate? Was due consideration given to her responses? Did she agree with it? Did she disagree? What recommendations might she suggest for fixing the problems? What learnings could she share?
But no.
Led by the Mayor, six of nine councillors decided to all land on the same conclusion: that Ms Linley must go without saying a word.
We didn't say thank you to her. We didn't say sorry. We didn't say anything. We didn't ask one question of her.
And we certainly didn't enact natural justice.
It was the very least we could have done - to have heard from our one employee about what she thought about the findings against her. It could have been step one in a process that may still have led to her contract being terminated.
On Monday night - while the meeting was already underway - Councillors were handed a piece of paper. It was a letter from Ms Linley requesting she address the Council in the interests of natural justice.
All she wanted was the opportunity to talk to her boss.
And six of nine councillors decided we couldn't do that. No way. Apparently a quick decision had to be made about a report that the Ombudsman admitted was about perception. She said she was not "...tabling the report because of the scale or severity of the conduct".
We haven't even sat down as a Council to go through the report together, page by page.
We might bring different experiences to the Council - but we strongly believe there is a place in our city for respect, fairness, proper process and thanks.
The tail has wagged. Job done.
At the heart of the report was a perception that Ms Linley had employed her mates and former colleagues from the Northern Grampians Shire. It is something she strongly disputes.
As Councillors, three of us would have preferred the opportunity to speak with her about the report and why she believed she had acted correctly.
That's what we voted for: more information. A chat with our one employee: an employee who came into the job with a steely determination to get rid of deeply ingrained cultural and procurement problems at the council.
It would seem there is more work to do there, whoever has the job of fixing it.
Ms Linley's defence was that a conflict of interest isn't inherently simply because you have worked with someone, or met them at a networking function, or a dinner, or walked to work on the same footpath.
This report will send shudders down the spines of every CEO in Victoria.
In fact, the Ombudsman doesn't even hide the fact that she is using Ballarat as an example: "It may be a painful lesson for Ballarat Council, of which others in the sector should take heed."
But that is not the problem for the Councillors. We cannot get involved in internal matters - or operational matters. It is the paid officers who deal with that.
We are worried about the damage this kind of report does to Ballarat as a whole. It slurs our national reputation in a way that no Be Kind campaign can remedy.
It was a campaign we thought applied to everyone in our city.
We might bring different experiences to the Council - but we strongly believe there is a place in our city for respect, fairness, proper process and thanks.
Councillors Samantha McIntosh, Jim Rinaldi and Grant Tillett are City of Ballarat councillors.