Kangaroo Island Council takes legal action against former chief executive Andrew Boardman
A stoush between a council and a former chief executive who converted hundreds of hours of time owing into cash has reached the courts.
SA News
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A regional council is taking legal action against a former chief executive to recover $57,000 in wages he claimed as time owing.
Kangaroo Island Council has lodged proceedings in the Adelaide Magistrates Court against Andrew Boardman, who was sacked in early 2019.
Mr Boardman’s employment was terminated during an official investigation into an arrangement with the council’s previous mayor, Peter Clements, to be paid for accrued time-off in lieu.
The inquiry by State Ombudsman Wayne Lines found the pair did not seek the approval of the full council before Mr Clements authorised six payments totalling $57,701.
In his findings, Mr Lines said Mr Clements had agreed Mr Boardman could claim for time spent working on council projects at nights and during weekends.
Contacted for comment, Mr Boardman said he had been expecting the council to take legal action to recover the money.
“This isn’t particularly a surprise to me,” he said.
“I don’t know why it has taken so long to get to this point.”
Mr Boardman, who lives on Kangaroo Island, said he was entitled to accrue additional working days as time owing under a variation to his employment contract.
“Every member of council who voted in 2014 to permit time off in lieu of additional days worked is prepared to stand witness that I was authorised properly by council to do so,” he said.
In his report last July, Mr Lines found the full council should have approved the arrangement, rather than just Mr Clements.
He accepted Mr Boardman had been transparent about the hours he had worked, publishing a diary in each council agenda.
Neither had he “acted deliberately in relation to possible breaches of his employment conditions”.
Instead Mr Boardman had “openly provided explanations” when asked questions by elected members at meetings in early 2018.
“However, his actions have resulted in a significant amount of public money paid to him without authority and without the knowledge of all elected members,” said Mr Lines.
“I expect that the public expect more from Mr Boardman and that Mr Boardman’s conduct could erode public trust and confidence in the council.”
Mr Lines recommended the council “considers steps to require Mr Boardman to pay back any additional financial payments not made in accordance with his EA (employment agreement)”.
Mr Boardman said he agreed there had been “an error of process” but he was still entitled to be paid for the extra hours which he had worked.
“I approached the mayor and told him that I had more than 17 days accrued and that taking the leave would unreasonably impact council, so an alternative was payment,” he said.
“I asked whether we should go to council and he said that it would just get paid out under his authority.
“As CEO it was my role to ensure the mayor was properly advised and I should have insisted that he seek a formal direction of council but I did not and therefore erred in this respect.”
The arrangements came to light as a result of a freedom of information request by former Liberal MP Michael Pengilly, who was critical of the council and Mr Boardman.
Mr Pengilly paid compensation and provided written apologies to Mr Boardman over public comments he made about him before becoming mayor in 2018.
Mr Clements declined to comment.