Minister for Local Government monitoring Parramatta council after CEO suspended
A former mayor is disgusted by the current issues plaguing Parramatta council, and the minister for local government Gabrielle Upton is “monitoring” the situation.
Parramatta
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Former Parramatta councillor Laurie Bennett has called on the Local Government Minister Gabrielle Upton to scrap the entire council after weeks of infighting led to the suspension of its chief executive officer.
Mr Bennett, a councillor from 1968-1974, said Ms Upton should sack the council.
“I’ve spoken about this with a few former mayors,” Mr Bennett said.
“It’s a mess. The whole council needs to be shut down. They all need to go.”
Councillors voted 13 to two to suspend CEO Mark Stapleton on Friday night following allegations he overstated his experience on parts of his CV to secure the $500,000 role.
Mr Stapleton denies the allegations and the council has ordered a full investigation into the issue.
Former mayor of Parramatta Paul Garrard said he is disgusted by what is happening to the council he used to run. Mr Garrard, who currently sits on neighbouring Cumberland council, said he had never seen the events that council now face during his time in the city.
“I’ve never seen this type of behaviour when I was mayor from the councillors and what I’m seeing is a lack of governance and a chamber with undue influence by politics,” Mr Garrard said.
Mr Garrard was mayor five times during his more than 20 year career on Parramatta council, from 1995 to 2016.
The current Parramatta Lord Mayor Andrew Wilson said the council was running as well as it had in years.
“There’s been a lot of speculation in the media at times,” Cr Wilson said.
“They say we are dysfunctional, but nothing can be further from the truth.
“I’m amazed by the professionalism of the councillors to fulfil their function on the council.”
While voting to suspend the CEO, Labor councillor Pierre Esber said he hoped Mr Stapleton was cleared.
“I think enough has been printed,” Cr Esber said. “A lot of the comments have been unfair …”
Labor councillor Paul Han and Liberal councillor Ben Barrak were the only two councillors to support Mr Stapleton.
“The information that was presented was the same when we chose Mark, it was consistent in my view,” Cr Han said. “I didn’t change my vote because there was not any new information.”
North Parramatta Residents’ Action Group president Aidan Anderson said residents were concerned about the crisis.
“People are worried that the State Government will use the chaos at Parramatta council as another excuse to ignore (the) ratepayers,” he said.
Mr Anderson said the progress made in building relationships with the council could be lost if the government intervened.
Ms Upton’s office said they were monitoring the situation in Parramatta.
“Under the Local Government Act, the governing body of a council is responsible for appointing a general manager and for monitoring their performance,” the spokesman said.
“Any allegations of misconduct should be reported to the Office of Local Government …”