Councillor muted during tirade against media and auditor report

In the middle of the meeting, which was broadcast live, Cr McIntosh also attempted to play a voicemail left to her by Ms Dore, prompting the CEO to object by saying: "I will protest in the strongest terms."

As this episode unfolded, the meeting chair mayor Cr Daniel Moloney said: "I'm not sure what to do about this, sorry."

The tense discussion, which took place virtually rather than in the town hall due to ongoing COVID restrictions, surrounded the publication of a report into two City of Ballarat projects: the Gatekeepers Cottage and the Fernery.

Questions had been raised over their scope, budget and oversight.

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Released to the public for the first time in the agenda, the auditor's study - carried out by Pitcher Partners - also looked into purchasing procedures, reporting the finance department's estimate of $17,000 spent with a local florist.

Acknowledging that the report covered her time as mayor, Cr McIntosh described the auditors' findings as inaccurate and said she had not been given a right of reply. "It beggars belief inquiries have not gone to the source."

Former mayor Cr McIntosh also took aim at this newspaper, describing the articles published in The Courier as "cheap journalism" and full of "inaccurate material". At this stage Cr McIntosh appeared to be placed on mute by the administrator of the Microsoft Teams technology that broadcast the meeting.

Earlier on, Cr Peter Eddy had trodden a careful diplomatic line in an attempt to steer the discussion onto safer, less contentious territory.

He acknowledged the need to take on the issues highlighted by the report, saying: "Everyone needs to be held accountable from councillors through to the CEO and the staff."

However, he also paid tribute to previous work before he was elected: "I don't think we should lose sight of the fact of how much good work has been done by the staff and the council over recent years. We also need to be positive about our city, and about our future."

LISTEN: Final 16 minutes of heated discussion surrounding CEO's final report. The attempt to play the voicemail starts around 12:20.

It seemed for a while that councillors would follow the course set by Cr Eddy, notwithstanding earlier contributions from Crs Mark Harris and Des Hudson. Cr Harris in particular said he was "miffed" there were not clearer recommendations coming from the report. "It looks more like sweeping things under the carpet than real change," he said.

The real conflict flared after Cr Amy Johnson spoke to the report. "The main question is around the mayoral spending on flowers."

"People were shocked that such a significant amount could be spent at a local business at the mayor's request without going through a proper process."

Ms Dore said spending procedures had been tightened. "There are clearer guidelines and going forward those expenses will be authorised, approved and properly managed."

In a follow-up question, Cr Johnson asked the CEO whether any future action by the local government inspectorate was likely: "What is our plan to address that behaviour?"

"The inspectorate has looked at this report, accepted we have been actively improving our policy and procedures," responded Ms Dore. "As far as I am aware, there is no retrospective capability for addressing these issues other than from making sure ... if they were inappropriate or not properly authorised, that doesn't happen again in the future."

Cr McIntosh then said the $17,000 figure published was "not correct information," and asked if there had been any work done to confirm it.

Struggling with intermittent audio, Ms Dore defended the report, saying: "The auditors could only deal with documentation that was there. It wasn't very well kept. It's accurate as far as what was on our files."

Cr McIntosh continued: "I wasn't able to have a second viewing of the report to clarify the information that appeared significantly incorrect."

"I want the report to be tabled, and I want it to be accurate at the same time and it's not."

Speaking about articles in The Courier, she said: "How do the figures for the fernery and the Gatekeepers Cottage consistently get misreported, changed, different truths conveyed?

"The material at times appears misleading and divisive."

Cr McIntosh then referred back to the build-up to the elections and said there was "ugly gamesmanship" against her re-election.

Again refuting figures quoted in the report, she said floral arrangements in total cost $810. She then returned to an attack on The Courier's reporting, which was when she appeared to be put on mute.

"I haven't muted you, but someone has," said Cr Moloney. "Probably the governance team have muted that feed, apologies but we did need to wrap it up."

Once audible again, Cr McIntosh had another question for the CEO, asking what would be done to stop information from being misconstrued again. Ms Dore said: "I do not accept it was misconstrued."

Then Cr McIntosh said: "Could I please ask Madam CEO to confirm this conversation?", then started to play a voicemail message from Janet Dore, before the feed was cut off once again.

'Secret' report released: what is in damning Pitcher Partners audit of council projects and procurement?

GATEKEEPER'S COTTAGE: From $100,000 to half a million dollars: How the Gatekeeper Cottage costs kept growing

THE FERNERY: 'Poorly conceived' council project now more than a quarter million dollars over budget

Cr Tracey Hargreaves, who only joined the councillor group following the October elections, was the final contributor:

"I am just sitting back, trying to keep up at this point.

"A lot of this I just don't know, I am new here. I would like to see some kind of line drawn under this and better work done going forward."

And after more than an hour of discussion councillors moved a recommendation to note the report.

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