Inner West Council: CEO’s departure referred to ICAC by councillors

Three councillors have asked the corruption watchdog to probe a series of complaints relating to the departure of Inner West Council’s controversial CEO.

Former Inner West Council CEO Michael Deegan.

Three inner west councillors have written to ICAC asking it to investigate the circumstances surrounding the council CEO’s departure.

Independent John Stamolis, Liberal Julie Passas and Green councillors Marghanita Da Cruz have all signed a letter demanding ICAC investigate a string of complaints about the council and its former CEO Michael Deegan.

It comes a week after they made the same request to Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock and the Office of Local Government.

A key part of their concerns is the terms of Mr Deegan’s departure in October, and whether he received any pay-out when his contract was terminated.

Cr John Stamolis. Picture: Adam Yip

Mr Deegan’s role as Inner West Council’s CEO first made headlines in June 2019 after revelations he had been found to have engaged in misconduct while working for the South Australian Government.

Some of the findings made by the South Australian Ombudsman related to him signing off on FOI requests into his own spending and using taxpayer dollars to fund extravagant booze-fuelled lunches.

The council was reportedly never made aware of those allegations before hiring him, according to numerous sources, and sparked 12 months of internal infighting over what to do.

That came to a head in September when Mr Deegan sent a group email to council’s 1400 staff to say he was seeking help from the United Services Union to negotiate his contract termination.

A month later Inner West Council announced Mr Deegan would be leaving and they had begun a search for a replacement.

Cr Da Cruz.

Mr Deegan has previously never spoken about the ongoing saga and was unable to be reached.

He was previously appointed as the head of Infrastructure Australia when federal opposition leader Anthony Albanese was Transport Minister.

Inner West mayor Darcy Byrne is a former long-time staffer to the Marrickville MP and voted to hire Mr Deegan as council’s CEO.

“Mr Deegan’s contract was concluded in accordance with the Office of Local Government guidelines. The Office of Local Government was fully informed about the matter,” a council spokeswoman said when asked a series of questions after the same letter was sent to the OLG last week.

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