$137k spent on suspended Parramatta CEO Mark Stapleton to stay home
A western Sydney council had paid its suspended CEO more than $100,000 for sitting at home for the past 100 days.
A councillor has called for suspended Parramatta Council CEO Mark Stapleton to be paid out as costs to ratepayers soar amid an investigation into claims he faked his CV to get the $500,000-a-year job.
Yesterday marked 100 days since Mr Stapleton was suspended on full pay — a cost of $137,000 so far — after council referred his recruitment process for an external review.
Council says the investigation by former Industrial Relations Commissioner Jane Seymour will run until at least the end of January, when the cost of paying Mr Stapleton to stay home would increase to $197,000.
Independent councillor Lorraine Wearne said council needed to “bite the bullet” and pay out Mr Stapleton as “everyone is in state of flux”.
Councillors given portfolio of Stapleton’s references
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“While not ideal, I suggest we just pay him out (38 weeks’ entitlements) and solve the problem. But we should take off the 12 weeks he’s already been paid for doing nothing,” Cr Wearne said.
“It seems to me that when we’ve reached a point of paying him nearly half a year’s salary to be on what we jokingly call gardening leave, we quite frankly would have been better off biting the bullet and doing something far more substantive about it.
“The issue is now bigger than Mark Stapleton and it’s bigger than the 15 people on this council. The issue is now 300,000-odd people in Parramatta and the impacts on them. It’s all very destabilising.”
Mr Stapleton said he could not comment as he was “bound to confidentiality” during the investigation period. He has earlier denied he falsified his credentials.
Lord Mayor Andrew Wilson said he was “disappointed” the investigation — which was initially expected to take two months — would run into next year.
“But as this is an independent investigation, I have no power over the time it takes,” the Our Local Community councillor said.
Mr Stapleton was appointed to the CEO role six months ago after an 8-7 vote in the council chamber. Five Liberals and three Labor councillors backed him to get the top job.
It came after he was suspended a year ago from his previous council role as director of property and significant assets for eight weeks. Council refused to reveal the circumstances that led to the suspension.
Council’s previous CEO, Greg Dyer, admitted to allowing a third-party recruitment agency to check Stapleton’s bona fides for the top job, before a report was prepared for councillors to vote on.
Mr Stapleton claimed in his job application that he helped manage billions of dollars in construction projects, both before and after he arrived in Australia from Dublin in 2007.
He claimed to have worked in a senior role for Leighton subsidiary Broad in Perth, after a stint at John Holland as design and business development manager. The Advertiser approached each company to check Mr Stapleton’s claims, but both said they don’t comment on past or present employees for privacy reasons.
Among the companies Mr Stapleton claims he worked for in Dublin are Construction Management Partnership (CMP), Timber Frame Manufacturing Co. and MJS Architects & Engineers.
CMP was a joint-venture company between John Sisk & Son and Treasury Holdings. It won the contract to build the Dublin Convention Centre, which opened in 2010.
The Advertiser attempted to contact CMP, but its website is closed down. We sent emails to John Sisk & Son to seek confirmation that Mr Stapleton had worked for CMP.
And yesterday, a John Sisk & Son spokesman said it would now conduct a “review” into the Advertiser’s inquiry.
The Advertiser also conducted searches into Timber Frame Manufacturing Co. and MJS Architects & Engineers, but no records could be found.
We have since contacted the Irish Timber Frame Manufacturers’ Association and companies with similar names to MJS Architects & Engineers in Dublin.
An extraordinary meeting is expected to be held in February to decide the fate of Mr Stapleton’s future at council.
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