Tea Tree Gully Council Mayor Kevin Knight expects to be pushed aside over staff complaints
Tea Tree Gully Mayor Kevin Knight is expecting to be pushed aside for lodging complaints against senior staff, effectively declaring war on his own council. Now he tells his side of the story.
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- Tea Tree Gully mayor Kevin Knight declares war on his council
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Veteran councillor Kevin Knight knows his days as mayor of Tea Tree Gully are numbered.
But, with his 12 elected members poised to hold a special council meeting to discuss his decision to make public formal complaints made against senior staff, the 70-year-old is determined not to go down without a fight.
A councillor since 1993 and former software sales manager, Mr Knight has been under intense scrutiny since he was investigated late last year over a sexual harassment complaint for tapping a young female staff member’s backside with rolled up paper.
During an interview with The Advertiser, the former Liberal Party member who unsuccessfully sought preselection in 1991 for the seat of Makin has lashed out at the council for removing him as its principal spokesperson and banning him from hosting citizenship ceremonies, one of his favourite activities.
Mr Knight said a number of “false and unproven” allegations had been presented to councillors “as fact” in a way which had portrayed him as “a predator”.
“I have been accused of various things because someone has gone through five years of emails, none of which were ever brought to my attention,” Mr Knight said.
“Well, I tell you now, this is just crazy stuff. The times I have done anything to anybody which could possibly be construed as sexual harassment is absolutely zero. Zero.
“I am known for being brutally honest and I am telling you now, all of these things that are being said about me just did not happen.
Mr Knight said the incident involving the young female staff member last October had “been blown out of all proportion”.
“I was on my way to a citizenship ceremony and went to collect my script (from the council’s administration section),” he said. “I was running late so I was travelling at a rate of knots and she was by a partition bobbing up and down like a cork in the ocean.
“I thought she was going to walk backwards into me so I gave her a tap with the script to let her know I was behind her. I made a comment about the sunglasses she had on top of her head and the colour of the lenses which were blue.
“The next thing I know I was taken aside and told by one of her managers very aggressively that I said something about her shorts and I had to stop making comments about what female staff members were wearing.
“I didn’t even know she was wearing shorts. I never said anything about her shorts. Didn’t even see them.”
Mr Knight said he was approached two days later by his long-serving chief executive, John Moyle, in a cafe at the council’s Modbury civic centre and asked to apologise to the young woman as a complaint about him had been made by a senior colleague.
According to Mr Moyle when questioned later at a council meeting, Mr Knight responded by giving him a two-fingered salute and swearing at him.
“I tell you now, that never happened,” said Mr Knight. “What I did do was tell him to go and tell the person who made the complaint to go and take a flying leap. What I should have done was tell him to go and take a flying leap.”
The relationship between the pair had been strained since late 2018, when Mr Knight, regarded by some as a pugnacious individual, shouted at an election rival, Paul Barbaro, during a meeting.
Mr Knight repeatedly told Mr Barbaro to sit down before questioning his relationship with a property developer, who witnessed the exchange from the public gallery before describing it later as like something which would happen in a hotel front bar.
Mr Barbaro lodged a code of conduct complaint which led to a $16,000 investigation. Mr Knight was told to publicly apologise for calling Mr Barbaro a “bloody idiot”, threatening to report him to ICAC and – during a later media interview – a “knucklehead”.
Mr Barbaro responded by launching a defamation action, which is still progressing through the District Court.
Councillors heard at a meeting in February that $14,500 had been spent dealing with a freedom of application submitted by Mr Barbaro for any council documents dealing with complaints made against Mr Knight about sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct.
The same meeting also went behind closed doors to discuss a “third party referral” about Mr Knight, the details of which cannot be disclosed for legal reasons.
Councillors voted to ask Mr Knight to stand aside and removed him as the council’s principal spokesperson while the matter was investigated by its law firm, Norman Waterhouse.
“What they did to me was just plain wrong,” said Mr Knight.
“My life for the past eight months has been hell. How can someone who has built up a reputation for over 60 years just be shredded like I have been. I can’t understand how I have no rights whatsoever.”
Mr Knight said he had decided to lodge complaints against Mr Moyle, two other senior staff and Norman Waterhouse because his situation highlighted deficiencies within local government over the management of code of conduct complaints.
“In my opinion the allegations which have been made against me are the most vile, disgusting and malicious I have ever seen,” he said. “The way the CEO has handled this has extremely disappointed me. I thought we had a much better relationship than that.”
“Every elected mayor and councillor in SA, and I would include members of both federal and state parliament, should be interested in what is happening to me.
“This could happen to any elected representative when faced with allegations from a bureaucracy that apparently does not react well to criticism. Where is the natural justice when you can’t defend yourself against complaints which have no substance.”
Mr Knight, who is on the board of the Local Government Association, said he was contemplating resigning from council but did not want ratepayers to spend around $100,000 on a supplementary election to replace him.
A regular walker and O-Bahn user, Mr Knight refused several years ago to use a mayoral car or corporate credit card and, during his first term as mayor, asked for his allowance to be reduced.
“I love my city and have worked all my life for my city,” he said. “I have done great things for this city but I know my time is probably up. I love what I am doing but I am not glued to it. I turned 70 last Tuesday and there are other things I could be doing, like spending more time with my grandkids.”
Mr Knight, who built his first home in the northeast with his wife, Karen, five decades ago at Greenacres before moving to Modbury, wrote a letter to the council’s outdoor staff this week, praising them for maintaining the city’s reserves and gardens.
Recounting how he picked some oranges from a council tree to make marmalade, he said: “This may be one of the last chances I have to let you all know what a great job you do”. With councillors expected to meet within days to vote on a motion of no confidence in Mr Knight and ask him to stand aside permanently, he may well be correct. The council — including Mr Moyle — would not comment on legal advice.