Dubbo council’s independent inquiry report released in part

The mayor of a regional NSW council engulfed in scandal says a report may show complaints were covered up and misconduct in public office occurred.

Council staff not knowing how to handle complaints, councillors interfering and issues being resolved by people without the authority to make such determinations.

Those were just some of the findings of an independent inquiry into Dubbo Regional Council’s handling of code of conduct complaints.

Dubbo Mayor Stephen Lawrence. Picture: Toby Zerna

After months of drama and deliberations, councillors on Monday agreed to release a redacted version of a Pinnacle Integrity inquiry’s report into its handling of code of conduct complaints.

The report apportioned no blame to any individual, however it was scathing in its assessment of the knowledge levels council staff had and the way councillors had conducted themselves.

As part of its inquiry Pinaccle Integrity examined how 18 code of conduct complaints were dealt with.

A total of 26 current and former councillors, council staff and community members were also interviewed as part of the inquiry.

“It should be noted that participant responses did reveal a high level of consistency which support the validity of the main conclusions drawn from this inquiry,” the report stated.

“Observations contained within this report are based on a synthesis of views, experiences, and opinions of participants, together with ‘background’ material supplied.”

The inquiry found most of the complaints examined had been finalised during what was known as the triage stage of the code of conduct process.

Part of the redacted report prepared for Dubbo Regional Council.

The term ‘triage stage’ generally refers to the point at which council staff first become aware of, or look into, a complaint someone makes.

“Council failed to refer matters to an independent conduct reviewer in circumstances where they were legally and procedurally required to do so,” the report stated.

“The inquiry also found that potentially irrelevant matters were being considered at the triage stage.”

Systemic issues identified in the report included “a belief councillors conducted themselves very poorly by attempting to become involved in, or find out about, operational matters including the handling of complaints”.

Also referenced was “leaking confidential information regarding complaints and a belief expressed from council staff that if they “made a code of conduct complaint, it would not remain confidential and that they may be subject to some form of reprisal”.

“A common thread throughout the interviews conducted as part of this inquiry was the view expressed by council staff that councillors continually ‘overstepped the line’ by making inquiries about, or attempting to become directly involved in council’s administrative business,” the report noted.

“This includes code of conduct management.

“During interviews for the purpose of this inquiry council staff reported that a councillor might make a code of conduct complaint on behalf of a constituent. The councillor would then continue to press for how the matter should be handled, or continue to make inquiries as to how the matter was being handled.”

Dubbo Regional Council wanted to release the full report but received legal advice stating it was not possible. Picture: Ryan Young

Alarmingly the report noted knowledge deficits council staff had.

“The interviews conducted as part of this inquiry indicated a significant lack of detailed knowledge as to how code of conduct complaints are handled by council,” the report stated.

“This lack of knowledge was particularly evident in the majority of council staff who were interviewed.”

The report concluded there was evidence council failed to properly assess complaints and “council staff inappropriately and without authority” decided to resolve complaints when not authorised to do so.

“Several participants said that Dubbo Regional Council had lost its sense of service to the community,” the report stated.

Council’s internal ombudsman, which was a new addition to the organisation’s staffing ranks after the new council was elected in 2017, “appears to have encroached into the area of a conduct reviewer and the responsibilities of the CEO”, the report said.

Current mayor Stephen Lawrence said he understood why the community would be upset about a redacted version of the report being released, however the move was made based on legal advice.

“Even if the full report was released it still wouldn’t answer a lot of questions which are legitimate that the community has,” Councillor Lawrence said.

“People understandably want to know who did the wrong thing and what did they do, but we couldn’t get an independent investigator to look at those things because the law doesn’t allow it.

“All we could look at was the handling of code of conducts over this term of council is closely linked to this question of wrongdoing. It’s quite clear that serious allegations of misconduct were made, those allegations were covered up.”

Cr Lawrence said the report “certainly cast aspersions on the group of councillors, there’s no doubt about that” and his comments reflect statements he made in a mayoral minute tabled at Monday’s council meeting.

“That was something we in advance of releasing the report certainly talked about, but it would be quite unfair for anyone to draw any inferences against any individual councillor because these findings are cast in very general terms,” he said.

After previously promoting his desire for the Independent Commission Against Corruption to examine council’s conduct, Cr Lawrence said he wouldn’t back down despite ICAC being preoccupied with NSW Government scandals.

“I wouldn’t assume for a moment that ICAC will not be interested in the events that have occurred over this term of Dubbo Regional Council,” he said.

“I’m very concerned that the sum total of what’s revealed in this report amounts to misconduct in public office and that is something that I will be pressing in my letter to ICAC.”