Stonnington Council CEO Dale Dickson takes ‘full responsibility’ for mayor’s ‘incomplete disclosures’
Stonnington’s top dog is taking “full responsibility” for the mayor claiming her main source of income is a baking business after it was revealed she had a $510k taxpayer funded gig.
South East
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Stonnington Council’s top dog is taking the heat over a claim the mayor failed to properly declare her main source of income.
The Herald Sun on Monday revealed Ms Sehr began a fixed $510,000 contract for an undisclosed period with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in October 2023.
The contract was awarded to Ms Sehr’s baking business Wonder Ever After which was also listed in council documents as an income source exceeding $10,000.
Wonder Ever After’s website features gingerbread houses and cookies and invites customers to email orders to Melina, “the Gingerbread Queen”.
Ms Sehr’s publicly available personal interest disclosure did not include details of the VCAT contract.
Chief executive officer Dale Dickson on Tuesday said an “administrative error” meant council documents detailing Ms Sehr’s main source of income were incorrect.
In a written statement Mr Dickson confirmed that Ms Sehr’s personal interest disclosures in 2024 were “properly made” but “not properly transcribed” to the publicly available version on the council website.
“As Council CEO, I take full responsibility for this error, and apologise unreservedly to Cr Sehr,” he said.
A council spokeswoman later said Cr Sehr had declared the purpose of Wonder Ever After as ‘baked goods/IT services’ in both her March and September 2024 personal interest returns. “An internal administrative error resulted in the text ‘IT services’ being removed in the summary documents that were uploaded to Council’s website,” she said.
At 1pm on Wednesday the publicly available version for March 2024 had not been changed and still listed Wonder Ever After as only a baked goods business.
The spokeswoman said the document was in the process of being updated and would be uploaded to the website “in due course”.
Mr Dickson defended Ms Sehr’s performance as mayor, criticising Council Watch president Dean Hurlston for describing her “day job” as “double dipping”.
“It is time to call out the hypocrisy of such a statement,” he said.
“Cr Sehr is performing her mayoral duties while also earning an income, which is the reality for many Mayors, including her immediate predecessor.”
The Herald Sun asked Ms Sehr questions about her personal interest disclosure via her council executive assistant on January 30.
She has not responded.