Administrator appointed after Local Government Minister Melissa Horne dismisses Moira Shire councillors

A union has called for Moira Shire’s senior staffers to resign in response to a scathing report released earlier this week. Read the latest.

Local Government Minister Melissa Horne, pictured in 2021, has accepted recommendations to dismiss Moira Shire Council. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

The state government has appointed an administrator to a north Victorian shire whose councillors were sacked in the wake of a parliamentary commission of inquiry.

MP Melissa Horne announced on Tuesday she would dismiss Moira Shire Council, located north of Shepparton, after a report into its eroding governance and allegations of serious misconduct was tabled in parliament.

Legislation to remove the shire’s mayor and councillors consequently passed both houses of parliament and awaits Royal Assent.

The Commission of Inquiry into Moira Shire Council’s report said, among other things, the murder of council operations manager Rick Devlin by colleague and Nathalia Works Depot worker Andrew Paterson might have been “preventable”.

As part of their inquiry, commissioners Frances O’Brien KC and John Tanner AM interviewed current and former Moira Shire councillors, employees, and chief executives, and they received submissions from the public.

In the wake of the report, Australian Services Union branch deputy secretary Tash Wark said afterwards that anyone who was aware of the council’s management problems and remained in positions of authority “should do the honourable thing and resign”.

Moira Shire Council released a statement calling the findings “concerning and confronting” and said it had already begun to make changes.

“Our commitment is to ensure that staff feel safe and supported, and that our residents have faith in our policies and procedures,” it said on Wednesday.

“Although the nine councillors have been dismissed, 240 council staff remain working for the community.

“While we don’t expect any changes to usual council services due to the presence of administrators, some services may be impacted as staff take time to focus on their health in light of the commissioners’ report.

“We understand that rebuilding trust will take time, but we promise to work diligently towards becoming the best organisation we can be – honest, capable, and reliable friends in our community.”

Richard Paul Devlin (pictured) was murdered by Andrew Robert Paterson.

The murder of Rick Devlin

The commission’s report said the 2021 murder of council operations manager Rick Devlin by colleague and Nathalia Works Depot worker Mr Paterson could have been avoided if Mr Paterson had not been “set up” and falsely accused of theft, and if his request for a redundancy package had been accepted.

It said the works depot “broke some men”, was “fundamentally unsafe”, and was the “epicentre of a bitterly divided workforce riven by victimisation, threats, bullying, harassment, accusation, and counter accusation”.

Mr Devlin, it said, was the highest-paid manager below executive level at the council and “ran the depots and the outdoors workforce without any effective scrutiny or interference”.

The report called consequent events a “catastrophic governance failure” and said the council’s senior executives should have been aware of such risks and taken action.

“The failure of the Council’s administration to ensure a safe and healthy environment in the depots and for the outdoors workforce has been compounded by the abject failure since the murder to put in place any plan or process to bring about the fundamental cultural and behavioural changes required,” it said.

Mr Devlin was killed outside his Numurkah home.

Governance

The report said governance in Moira Shire was “steadily eroding over most of the last decade”, citing as examples the appointment of an inexperienced CEO - consequently given a salary increase - and a confrontation between a former mayor and a councillor.

The report alleged that for three years from June 2017, an employee directed more than half a million dollars of work to a company for which his son worked, and later to a company partly owned by his son, without tendering or obtaining three quotes.

The employee was stood down with normal pay in 2021, but remained an employee while on Workcover until January 2023.

The commission referred that employee’s “suspected corrupt conduct” to IBAC.

Asbestos dumping

The commission considered the council’s alleged dumping of asbestos-contaminated fill at tips at Tungamah and Strathmerton in 2020, despite waste and recycling coordinator John Mangan’s warnings, “serious misconduct”.

“The safety risks for the council’s workforce, for the contractors engaged, and the community were outweighed by Council’s determination to implement a solution less costly than transporting the contaminated fill to a licensed facility in Shepparton,” the report said.

It referred the matter to IBAC.

Public projects and perception

The report pointed to a 2022 survey which showed a “significant decline” in positive public perception of the council.

One councillor was quoted as having replied that “people who have an axe to grind will comment”, whereas “ones who are happy like me don’t bother”.

“The Commission was provided with numerous examples from across the shire of what residents saw as Council’s failure to respond in a timely way, if at all, to issues raised by individuals and groups within the community,” the report said.

It called proposals for a new Yarrawonga library and sports stadium “case studies in how not to approach complex capital projects” and said that nearly five years after the adoption of a plan for a new levee bank at Numurkah, little had been done to implement it.

It added that the council had failed to meet its obligations to provide a safe workplace with “sad and regrettable consequences for [workers’] health and wellbeing and that of their families”.

“Successive CEOs and the council’s department of human resources failed abysmally in their treatment of these employees,” it said.

“The Commission discerned a well-established pattern in which the accused employees were stood down without properly disclosing the allegations against them … It was, on any measure, a cruel misuse of poorly documented disciplinary policy and processes.”

Recommendations and dismissal

The commissioners recommended the dismissal of the council and the appointment of an administrator for six months, with one or more administrators to then be put in charge for five years.

It advised that the council’s policies be audited, that the CEO’s performance be reviewed, that part of the council be “overhauled” - giving “priority attention” to governance and human resources - that the council’s defence against Mr Mangan in federal court be discontinued, and more.

Ms Horne, the Local Government Minister, said the commissioner’s findings were “deeply concerning”.

“Councils must properly represent the communities they serve, and Moira residents deserve to have a council that puts their interests first,” she said.

“I have accepted the commission’s recommendation to dismiss the council and appoint an interim administrator.

“The government has introduced legislation into parliament today to allow this to happen.”

She announced on Friday that Mr Tanner, the commissioner, will be appointed as interim administrator for three months.

“An ongoing panel of administrators will follow this interim appointment and will be charged with addressing the serious issues identified in the report so that elections can be held at Moira Shire in 2028,” Ms Horne said earlier.

“I am confident that administrators will restore good governance to Moira Shire Council and provide a foundation for building effective leadership, project delivery, community engagement and a positive culture within Council.”