Ex-Casey mayor Susan Serey ‘forgot’ to excuse herself from discussions about Woodman
Casey councillor’s former mayor Susan Serey said she forgot to excuse herself from some discussions and decisions where developer John Woodman was involved.
VIC News
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Former Casey mayor Susan Serey remained in council meetings when a developer’s project was discussed on at least eight occasions despite previously admitting she had a conflict of interest.
Ms Serey received donations from John Woodman or his related entities in 2014 when she ran for state government, and had declared a conflict of interest in 2015.
However, an Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission probe into Casey Council developments and political donations was told Ms Serey went back to considering Woodman-related matters - including contentious land rezoning in Cranbourne West - at meetings.
The IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich said this appeared to have happened on at least “eight or nine occasions” with regard to the rezoning, after 2015.
Ms Serey said she did excuse herself from matters on a couple of occasions because her fellow councillors Amanda Stapledon and Geoff Ablett - who had also declared a conflict with Mr Woodman following his donations - left council meetings during certain matters.
Asked about the other occasions she remained present for discussions, Ms Serey said “I just forgot”.
Failing to declare a conflict of interest is a breach of the Local Government Act.
Shown a council report showing Mr Woodman was involved in a project she debated in council, Ms Serey said she rarely read the entire council report on matters as they could run to 600 pages and may not have known the developer was involved.
This meant she may not have known Mr Woodman was involved.
“Reports can be long,” she said.
“I was very busy at the time and I don’t think I read the full reports in those situations.” Earlier, Ms Serey broke down when discussing an independent monitor’s report into Casey Council that recommended it be sacked, saying it was not fair and inaccurate in some instances.
Ms Serey said Sam Aziz never disclosed his relationship with Mr Woodman, who is the director of Watsons Pty Ltd.
“I didn’t know he (Mr Aziz) had a conflict of interest,” she said.
Ms Serey is a former Liberal candidate for Narre Warren South, who received about $15,000 worth of declared donations from Mr Woodman over two elections, and said she thought he was only a Liberal donor.
“I thought that Mr Woodman was just a Liberal supporter,” she said.
Ms Serey agreed that the current requirements for councillors to declare conflicts was deficient, and said she didn’t know the scale of the relationship Mr Woodman had with councillor Ablett.
Mr Ablett allegedly pocketed $330,000 from Mr Woodman or his companies, including to look after a racehorse that never raced.
Earlier in the hearings, records were revealed of Mr Ablett’s bank account containing just $33 before Mr Woodman used a fake name to deposit $5000 cash in November 2013. Another $5000 was added in early 2014.
Mr Ablett told IBAC that he assumed the payments were related to racehorse costs and denied he was “on the take”.
The former councillor later alerted Casey to some donations from Mr Woodman, including $40,000 at a state election, in 2015.
Ms Serey said she didn’t talk to Mr Ablett outside of council meetings after a political falling out between the pair in 2014.
The hearing continues.