Casey councillors resign before expected sacking over developer donations scandal
Embattled former Casey mayor Sam Aziz has fired back at a departing councillor, accusing him of struggling to “make a single meaningful contribution” during his term.
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Casey councillors are embroiled in an ugly slanging match, with two having resigned before the scandal-plagued council is almost certainly sacked by the Andrews Government next week.
A bitter war of words was sparked by the departure of deputy mayor Rex Flannery and former deputy mayor Timothy Jackson on Friday, which followed an independent monitor recommending the government remove the council.
Casey has been rocked by an explosive Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission inquiry, which heard last year that councillor Sam Aziz pocketed $900,000 from property developers.
Mr Flannery fired a parting shot at Cr Aziz on Friday, saying he “has brought this council down”.
“He’s had a huge impact on the council the past few years and it’s just such a shame because overall Casey is such a great council,” Mr Flannery said.
Cr Aziz — who flew to Egypt last year before he could be called to appear at IBAC’s hearings — hit back at Mr Flannery, describing him as a “one-term wonder” who had “struggled to make a single meaningful contribution”.
“One minute he has been praising the work I have done, apologising to me for previous unfounded and ignorant remarks, and admitting that he has ‘had to eat humble pie’, and the next minute he is attacking me, again,” Cr Aziz said.
Mr Jackson urged the government to “end the uncertainty at Casey” because “residents deserve better than this”.
He said “some individuals have put their interests above that of our community” and caused “significant reputational damage to the City of Casey”.
The government is considering the monitor’s report, with Cabinet to meet on Monday to decide if the council should be sacked.
Casey Mayor Susan Serey lashed out at the “media coverage speculating on the imminent dismissal of Casey councillors on the back of apparent government insiders”.
She called on the government to release the monitor’s report, and to change local government laws so that individual councillors could be dismissed rather than whole councils.
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Opposition local government spokesman Tim Smith said the councillors “should have been sacked months ago”.
A government spokeswoman said the monitor’s report would be “released in due course”.