Southport councillor Brooke Patterson vows to speak up for City staffers
A Gold Coast councillor previously forced to apologise for how she interacted with some council employees has now emerged as their champion.
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A Gold Coast councillor forced to apologise for how she interacted with some council employees is now vowing to be their biggest champion.
Controversy-prone Southport councillor Brooke Patterson says she will speak up for concerned staff members when councillors debate a new “cultural” survey of the city’s second biggest workforce.
In a Facebook post, Ms Patterson appeared to question the survey’s positive results.
“To the council workers who have shared concerns with me, I promise, elected reps (sic) will interrogate the recent workplace culture survey results when they are presented to council,” Ms Patterson wrote.
Some employees said morale among council staff had nosedived recently, noting surveying took place before announcements after council’s latest Budget which forecast staff changes.
Soon after, a process began to brief almost 4000 staffers on plans for 100 redundancies, with CEO Tim Baker tasked with finding $75m in savings in 12 months.
“People are genuinely concerned. A lot are stressing. They think they are in the gun,” a staffer said.
City sources say Ms Patterson’s remarks put her on a collision course with Mr Baker.
The Southport councillor was furious last month after the City published allegations from an investigation into her conduct but stalled debate allowing her to address them.
Mr Baker apologised, saying he was only made aware just before the meeting of the report being published.
Private contractors have claimed it takes six months for City workers to fix a small section of footpath.
“Subcontractors would have done it less than two weeks,” a private contractor said.
Mr Baker earlier said there had been a “clear and deliberate turnaround” in staff morale after the survey showed positive feedback.
Last year, in a separate “engagement survey” almost half of the staff who took part said they were not motivated to work at council, with whistleblowers describing it as a “nightmarish hellscape”.
But Mr Baker has welcomed new separate ‘cultural’ surveying by Keogh Consulting, showing a “statistically significant uplift” in organisational culture.
Key takeaways from the cultural surveying, to almost 4000 staffers, include:
● “Aggressive behaviours” down 21 per cent from 2022 to 2025.
● Staff were asked if the city was committed to employee safety at work and understood their responsibilities, which led to an 82 per cent positive response.
● On questions of whether “I am proud to be working for the City”, there was a mean average of 3.76 out of 5 result.
● There was a 72 per cent participation rate, with more than 3900 staff completing the survey.
Councillors are yet to debate the findings in open council.
Ms Patterson in March last year made a brief public apology, after colleagues found she had acted inappropriately towards staffers.
At a council meeting the previous month Ms Patterson was told she had to publicly apologise and undergo training after councillors found some official complaints by staffers against her were substantiated.
Ms Patterson was aggressive towards council staff and tried to influence a work experience selection process, an independent investigator had found.
Ms Patterson had robustly defended her position during the previous meeting, claiming the real problem was “new bureaucrats” had “a more delicate appetite”.
Mr Baker strongly defended staffers and rejected Ms Patterson’s criticisms.
At the next full council meeting later the on July 29, Ms Patterson can address the latest allegations into her conduct with staffers which related to a town hall meeting on the so-called ‘View Tax’ hosted by her in August last year.
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Originally published as Southport councillor Brooke Patterson vows to speak up for City staffers
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