Mosman Council asks ex-general manager to return council mobile phone number

MOSMAN Council has asked its former general manager to return the mobile phone number allocated to her when she worked for council.

Mosman Council’s coveted “001” mobile phone number and who owns it was a contentious topic at the council meeting this month.

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THE question of who owns Mosman Council’s coveted “001” mobile phone number intrigued councillors at a meeting last week.

Telstra allocated to council a series of sequential numbers corresponding to internal extension numbers soon after council moved to the Mosman Civic Centre in the late 1980s.

Deputy mayor Roy Bendall revealed at the council meeting on Tuesday that former general manager Veronica Lee had retained the number given to her when she worked for council. Council stopped paying the bill when Ms Lee left.

Cr Bendall said council should ask for the number back.

“Each of the four general managers have had that number,” he said.

Former Mosman Council general manager Veronica Lee retained the mobile phone number given to her when she worked for council. Picture: Craig Wilson

Cr Simon Menzies said he was in “furious agreement”.

“This intrigues me,” he said.

“Why can’t we just take it back? It’s a number that’s registered to Mosman Council.

“How can a person using that number during their employment take it with them legally?

“It’s the number one mobile number.”

Mayor Peter Abelson said some people would still ring that number and get the wrong person.

Councillors voted unanimously for an amended policy to prevent a repeat of the situation and to ask Ms Lee to return the number.

The Mosman Daily contacted Ms Lee but she declined to comment.

Cr Bendall said after the meeting that he hoped Ms Lee “did the right thing” and gave the number back.

“To purchase the handset is fine, however, to keep the phone number which is one of 50 sequential council numbers with the suffix 001, flies in the face of convention,” he said.

“Previous general managers and senior staff have always returned the number when changing roles or moving on.”

Mosman councillor and deputy mayor Roy Bendall believes the former general manager should return the mobile phone number allocated to her when she worked at council. Picture: Annika Enderborg

A council spokeswoman said that council asked Ms Lee to return the number but she declined.

“Council mobile devices are provided to staff on a business-needs basis, some of which have a number corresponding to their extension number,” the spokeswoman said.

“Under council’s Payment of Expenses and Provision of Facilities to the General Manager policy, the general manager may buy his or her mobile device upon leaving council.

“The former general manager purchased her council-owned mobile phone at an agreed cost and now council has no further financial obligations in regard to the device.

“While this situation is not unprecedented at Mosman, last week’s council resolution means this cannot occur again.”

According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, telephone numbers are a national resource owned by the Australian Government.

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