Parramatta councillors decide to cut ties with CEO Mark Stapleton

Parramatta councillors decided to call its quits with suspended CEO Mark Stapleton after marathon five-hour meeting.

Mark Stapleton will be shown the door by Parramatta Council after councillors authorised last night for him to be moved on.

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MONTHS of staff uncertainty, legal wrangling and a chief executive officer earning a cool $1000 a day for staying home came to a dramatic end on Monday night when councillors moved to cut ties with the man overseeing Sydney’s second biggest council.

Mark Stapleton had been under investigation since September over allegations, denied by Mr Stapleton, he faked his CV to land the $500,000-a-year job at Parramatta Council.

An independent report by former Industrial Relations Commissioner Jane Seymour was tabled at this week’s council meeting in closed session, but it’s understood the findings were inconclusive despite some holes being found in his previous work experience.

Councillors were tight-lipped after the marathon five-hour meeting, but sources say the trigger for the decision surrounded Mr Stapleton’s alleged­ relationship with staff.

Golden handshake: Cr Wilson with Mark Stapleton shortly after the latter was appointed to council’s top job last year.

This afternoon, Labor councillor Pierre Esber, who originally voted to appoint Mr Stapleton to the CEO job, told the ABC there were “some anomalies” in Mr Stapleton’s references.

“Some of them were quite minor, some of them were quite serious … there was one position where he said he was in a certain position and he was contradicted by his boss who said ‘no he never held that position, he held the junior position of that’ so that didn’t go down well with us,” Cr Esber said.

The council’s resolution, which it’s believed had one dissenter, authorised acting chief executive Sue Coleman and Lord Mayor Andrew Wilson to “negotiate” with Mr Stapleton in relation to the terms of his contract.

Its wording was somewhat ambiguous, but it’s understood that attempts will be made as early as today to move Mr Stapletonon.

If he agrees to the terms offered by council, Mr Stapleton will be the third straight council chief executive officer to receive a six-figure severance package.

He is in line for a 38-week payout, taking the cost to ratepayers in excess of $560,000 since his suspension and the total CEO golden handshakes since 2014 to nearly $1 million.

The Advertiser can reveal the previous two chief executive officers, Greg Dyer and Robert Lang, received a collective golden handshake of $535,869 over the past five years.

Mr Stapleton was appointed to the CEO role in late June 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. The council refused to reveal the circumstances that led to the suspension.

Mr Stapleton did not respond to a request for comment today.