Geelong city director Guy Wilson-Browne resigns for new gig following 2019 Internal Ombudsman report

A controversial city director has resigned to take up a new position, shortly after revelations of a 2019 Internal Ombudsman’s report investigating allegations he had ‘misused city resources’.

Guy Wilson-Browne has resigned from COGG.

A controversial city director has resigned to take up a new position, shortly after revelations of a 2019 Internal Ombudsman’s report investigating allegations he had ‘misused city resources’ while pursuing matters relating to his St Albans Park investment property.

The City of Greater Geelong has now seen at least four of its most senior staff resign over a six-month period.

The city’s acting chief executive Kaarina Phyland on Monday evening emailed the organisation’s senior leadership team to confirm director Guy Wilson-Browne would be leaving the organisation.

“Guy Wilson-Browne Director City Services has been successfully appointed to the role of General Manager (of) Infrastructure and Planning at North East Water,” Ms Phyland wrote.

“Guy’s [sic] commences in his new role on Monday 6 February 2023.”

“In the interim we will conduction [sic] an EOI for the acting City Services Director role.”

Ms Phyland also paid tribute to the director’s five-year stint at the city, where he “played a leading role in achievements such as our Keep Victoria Beautiful Sustainable City of the Year Award in 2021 and overall improvements to community and staff satisfaction”.

Mr Wilson-Browne on Tuesday afternoon released a short statement.

“After five years with the City of Greater Geelong, I have generally achieved what I set out to achieve, and am now excited to be moving on to a major career opportunity in the Victorian water industry,” Mr Wilson-Browne said.

The director’s resignation comes after the city in July refused to reveal details of a 2019 internal Ombudsman’s report investigating allegations he had ‘misused city resources’ while pursuing matters relating to his St Albans Park investment property. It is understood no action was taken regarding the report.

The refusal came after Mr Wilson-Browne reintroduced a controversial planning application to subdivide his 3500sq m Oakwood Ridge property into two lots, having abandoned initial efforts in 2019 following community backlash.

The Geelong Advertiser is not suggesting Mr Wilson-Browne acted inappropriately, nor that he resigned from his position due to the Ombudsman report.

Both the city and the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) rejected Geelong Advertiser’s Freedom of Information requests for access to a 2019 Ombudsman report relating to Mr Wilson-Browne and the investment property.

Guy Wilson-Browne has resigned from COGG.

As set out in OVIC’s decision, the request was for access to “a report by the former City of Greater Geelong Internal Ombudsman John Brown, understood to have been handed to the CEO in 2019, investigating a complaint that then city services director Guy Wilson-Browne misused city resources (namely emails) to pursue private matters relating to his property at 7-8 Oakwood Ridge, St Albans Park”.

While the city refused to hand over the report, it did confirm it had located “one document falling within the terms of the Applicant’s request”, while OVIC noted the document was a four-page “memorandum” dated April 7, 2019.

“The memorandum subject to review was prepared following an internal investigation conducted by the Agency in relation to the conduct of a senior Agency officer,” OVIC’s Notice of Decision noted.

The Geelong Advertiser is not suggesting Mr Wilson-Browne was found to have misused his position in dealings relating to his investment property.

The council’s Planning Committee in October rejected the then-director’s planning application, citing “alarm bells” raised by the city’s refusal to reveal details of the Ombudsman’s report.

Councillor Belinda Moloney said there was a need for further investigation into a potential conflict of interest around the planning application.

“I believe that in this case the simple notion of not receiving an FOI when requested rings alarm bells for me,” Ms Moloney said.

“The main issue I have here is the big empty spots where we need information to make a very clear and transparent and correct decision.”

Cr Stephanie Asher, who put forward the motion to reject the planning application, noted she felt “particularly uncomfortable with perceptions of transparency, or a lack of transparency” relating to the application. It is understood Mr Wilson-Browne has since appealed the decision to the state’s planning umpire.

Mr Wilson-Browne’s resignation is the latest in an exodus of senior leadership from the city, with Ms Asher in June resigning from the position of mayor to help protect the relationship between the council and Labor state and federal governments, following her failed federal election campaign for the Liberal Party.

Former chief executive Martin Cutter then announced his resignation less than a month after Ms Asher, despite there being a year left on his contract.

And in mid-July it was revealed former Customer and Corporate Services Director Michael Dugina – whose position was above the city’s Chief Financial Officer – quietly resigned almost a month earlier.

Originally published as Geelong city director Guy Wilson-Browne resigns for new gig following 2019 Internal Ombudsman report