Electoral manipulation and conflicted business dealings are among the most damning allegations to be aired in the City of Perth inquiry’s final report.
Electoral manipulation and conflicted business dealings are among the most damning allegations to be aired in the City of Perth inquiry’s final report.
Released earlier this afternoon, the four-volume, 2000-page report and an accompanying summary can be read here.
It comes after the inquiry presented a summary of its findings in late June, revealing that 135 matters of suspected wrongdoing had been referred to federal and state authorities.
Commissioner Tony Power at the time levelled harsh criticisms against both the council and administration, accusing both of being poorly led and dysfunctional.
Mr Power however reserved his harshest words for then-Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi, who he described as a divisive figure who encouraged factionalism within the council.
Local Government Minister David Templeman said this afternoon that the report’s findings provided lessons for the entire local government sector.
“It reveals the implications of what can happen when governance breaks down and members overreach their responsibilities and interfere in the administration,” Mr Templeman said.
“Part of the response to this report will include amending legislation to put the relationship between elected members and the administration beyond doubt.
“I urge everyone in local government to read this report and understand the implications for the sector."
The report, which describes the city as being wracked with widespread cultural and systemic failings, outlines a range of key areas in which both the council and administration had failed to govern appropriately.
Particular attention is paid to the culture within the council, with the report describing it as factionalised under Ms Scaffidi’s leadership.
The report suggests that Ms Scaffidi had aligned herself with Judy McEvoy, Janet Davidson, Lily Chen, James Limnios, Keith Yong and Jim Adamos after the 2015 election, with the group making childish and spiteful observations about the other members of the council in a WhatsApp messaging group.
Mr Limnios was believed to have fallen out of favour with Ms Scaffidi in 2016, discontinuing his involvement with the group.
When Ms McEvoy and Mr Yong were not re-elected in 2017 and subsequently replaced by Alexis Barton and Steve Hasluck on council, Ms Scaffidi and the councillors aligned with her were believed to have lost power, with factions subsequently reformed.
Ms Scaffidi was harshly criticised in the findings, with the inquiry saying she encouraged factions and led her own to the exclusion of other council members.
“She did not exemplify how council members should behave,” the report said.
“This was not how the role of a Lord Mayor should have been conducted, and it was poor leadership.”
At the same time, the city’s administration was also said to have suffered after the council terminated the employment of former chief executive, Gary Stevenson.
Martin Mileham succeeded Mr Stevenson in the role in 2016.
Several figures within the administration concurrently described operations as strained because of archaic processes.
The report said Mr Mileham had no relevant experience as a chief executive having not worked in local government prior to his appointment as the city’s director of planning and development in 2012.
Mr Mileham was also said to have been incapable of making firm, clear and consistent decisions, which hindered any attempt to repair dysfunction in the city's administration.
By early 2018, relationships between the city's council and administration were thought to have deteriorated to such a degree that good governance of the city was near impossible.
The report acknowledges that, though the city was in the process of a restructure at the time, Mr Mileham did not bring necessary experience or clear decision making skills to the position.
“He was not an effective CEO, at a time when one was required,” the report said.
“Under his leadership, the ELG did not function effectively as an executive team and suffered from a combined lack of local government experience.”
Allegations of wrongdoing run the gamut
While the report’s allegations of wrongdoing are wide ranging, decisions on development and sponsorship applications particularly were scrutinised for possible conflicts of interest.
Five instances of procurement between 2015 and 2018 were investigated, with particular attention to the city’s decentralised approach to the process.
Former chief executive Murray Jorgensen told the inquiry that these processes were one of the city’s weaknesses.
One incident highlighted in the report detailed the city’s chief executive requesting and accepting tickets to a sporting event from a business owner.
That busines was later successfully quoted for to provide services to the city, and the chief executive allegedly did not accurately declare the gift.
Other incidents involved failures to make proper disclosures, including allegations that councillors made improper declarations of rental income on secondary properties and existing business interests.
Ms Chen was singled out in one instance for what was described as a substantial non-disclosure of income while on council, having accepted ongoing commissions from two different companies as part of existing referral arrangements.
The report argued these incidents were not attributable to ambiguities in the relevant legislation.
That was on top of an incident in which Ms Chen failed to disclose $307,200 in commissions from a Perth-based property development group, telling the inquiry she had forgotten to declare the income.
She later admitted she should have disclosed the income.
Some of the most damning accusations made in the report are several instances of alleged electoral fraud by Mr Yong.
The earliest incident detailed in the report occurred in 2012, when Mr Yong attempted to run for council as a corporate nominee.
He was told at the time he was ineligible to run for council under the corporate address he had nominated to vote under, and subsequently told the inquiry he provided a falsely backdated document to the city in order to nominate as a candidate.
He was asked to provide a copy of his new lease ahead of the 2017 election, which he allegedly did not do.
Mr Yong subsequently admitted to making false allegations of voter fraud against five companies in the city in 2013, in the belief they would support other candidates in the race.
Two years later, he had arranged for at least 45 associates to be corporate nominees under the address of post office boxes controlled by him and other family members.
