IMPORTANT NOTICE

SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING

 5 PM TODAY 6 OCTOBER 2015

Lesser Hall 

 
PURPOSE OF THE MEETING  

1. To consider the actions recommended by Detective Sergeant Kearns Gangin, Major Fraud Squad Western Australian Police Force. 

2. To provide clear direction to the Acting CEO by way of Council resolutions to:

• Request the Major Fraud Squad to investigate possible offences as discussed at the meeting of Council, and Acting CEO with Detective Sergeant Kearns Gangin and Detective SergeantStuart Mirfin, Major Fraud Squad Western Australian Police Force at 2.00pm Monday 5 October 2015.
• Immediately provide a full copy of the Shire of York Response to the 'Show Cause' notice, as tabled at the Special Council Meeting 11 December 2014, to Detective Sergeant Kearns Gangin, Major Fraud Squad Western Australian Police Force. 
• Immediately write to Detective Sergeant Kearns Gangin, Major Fraud Squad Western Australian Police Force, requesting that the Major Fraud Squad investigate possible offences.   

Graeme Simpson

ACTING CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER               

Date: 6 October, 2015

NOTE:  At the OCM on 21 September 2015, Mr. Julian Krieg related that he had approached the Commissioner of Police regarding alleged financial illegalities connected with the administration of the Shire and referred to in the Shire’s response to the Minister’s ‘Show Cause’ Notice of December 2014. 

He cited in particular alleged misuse of credit cards, allowances and other benefits.  The Commissioner had asked him to provide evidence of criminal wrongdoing. 

Mr. Krieg stated that the Shire should forward evidence of such wrongdoing to the WA Police Major Fraud Squad.  The Shire President, for his part, reported that the present Council had done its best to investigate the practices mentioned by Mr. Krieg but that the Shire administration had thwarted its efforts at every turn. 

Actually, the Shire President didn’t specify the Shire administration as the villain of the piece.  He didn’t have to.  I don’t think anyone in the gallery was in any doubt regarding who might have been and still is to blame.

 

Another thing…I seem to remember the Shire President saying at the September meeting that according to the Department of Local Government he had no power to respond on the Shire’s behalf to the Police Commissioner’s request for evidence of criminality.

I may have got that wrong.  My notes are inconclusive.  But just in case I’ve got it right, let me counter the opinion thus attributed to the Department with this simple observation.

As a citizen, the Shire President (I'm now using the term generically, not with specific reference to Shire President Reid) has a moral responsibility to report criminal wrongdoing to the authorities, usually the police. 

As an elected public official, it is also his responsibility to ensure as best he can that the council over which he presides and its executive arm do not transgress the law.   If he believes, for example, that a member of the council or the administration has engaged in fraud or theft of municipal funds—in the latter case, I think the legal term is ‘stealing as a servant’—it is surely his right and duty to instruct the CEO to look for evidence to be passed on for investigation to the police.

But what if the CEO—being perhaps a culpable party, or from misplaced loyalty to other employees past and present—refuses to obey that instruction?

In that case, in accordance with section 5.92 of the Local Government Act 1995, I think it would be within the scope of his work as a councillor and especially as Shire President to insist on seeing relevant files and other records for himself. 

It would of course be wise for him to be accompanied by a police officer who could take those materials into custody for closer examination.

The Department makes a big issue of probity in local government, and rightly so.  It seems to have got the Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi, bang to rights.  It did so thanks to the efforts of the CCC, the same CCC, I note with sadness, that turned up its nose at Council's request for an investigation into alleged corruption in York.

If the Department disagrees with my analysis, I should like to know how and why.  A different script might be nothing better than a rogues’ charter.

NEWSFLASH:  At today’s meeting, Council voted to instruct the Acting CEO as indicated by the wording of the agenda item cited above.  

During a mercifully brief Public Question Time, Darlene Barratt asked what would happen if the Acting CEO refused to carry out Council’s instruction.  The Shire President said that would be ‘a matter for the new Council’.

True to form, the Acting CEO seemed unruffled by Council’s decision.  Others looked less cheerful.

Don’t worry, we’ve got you, babe...

 *******

 

REMINDER

‘Meet the Candidates’ Evening

Organised and hosted by AVRA

Where:  Church of Christ, Avon Terrace

When:  7.00 pm Wednesday 7 October 2015

There are nine candidates for five vacancies.  The candidates are (in the order in which they will appear on the ballot paper):

HEATON, Pamela

SAINT, Heather

SMYTHE, Denese

RANDELL, Trevor

FORSTER, Robert

FERRO, Jane

FLYNN, Patrick

PLUMRIDGE, James

WALTERS, Tricia

You can read candidates’ profiles on the Shire of York website.

Written, authorised and published by James Plumridge, 14 Harriott Street, York 6302