By Clay Lucas and Richard Willingham
Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons threatened to shut down a city business, told one staff member he "should be picking up dog shit", and threatened to sue his chief executive if bullying allegations against him became public, an investigation into the council has found.
An inquiry into Geelong Council, tabled in the Victorian parliament on Tuesday, also found the mayor's bullying was so excessive that one staff member resigned and another had to be moved to another workspace.
And it found the council was "riven by conflict", with widespread "bullying, harassment and inappropriate interventions by councillors pursuing their own wants and ward interests".
In the wake of the inquiry, the Andrews government on Tuesday moved to sack Cr Lyons and Geelong's 12 councillors, and install commissioners until 2020.
Darren Lyons says he is 'bullish... not a bully'.Credit: Penny Stephens
But the Coalition did not support sacking the mayor and councillors for four years, and voiced concerns about any future council's structure.
The lower house voted for the council's sacking, but Parliament's upper house - where the government does not hold the balance of power - will now decide when it is sacked, and for how long it is placed into the hands of commissioners.
The report by the government-commissioned inquiry, chaired by former public service head Terry Moran, is littered with complaints against Cr Lyons.
Many were found to be substantiated in the 115-page report, which also contains much evidence of misbehaviour by councillors and council staff.
The report included an allegation that a manager frightened a pregnant staff member by wielding an axe, when she asked for a chemicals shed at her workplace to be better ventilated.
"Ventilation, I will give you f..ing ventilation," the manager is found to have said. "The manager then took to the walls of the shed with an axe," the report found. "The employee returned to work two years later and requested induction training," the report found, only to be "abused and sworn at for her trouble in front of other staff".
The report found Cr Lyons - who was unrepentant on Tuesday - regularly bullied staff, particularly those he worked closely with, "resulting in the resignation of one staff member and the physical relocation of another".
He also, the report found, regularly used aggressive language with staff. "F*** me, I'm the mayor, I don't need to be meeting with someone one week and then meeting with them the next," he is said to have told one council employee.
Cr Lyons, who fronted media outside his Geelong home on Tuesday morning, said his removal was unjust.
"It is a disgrace. The state government is intent on stopping this council from serving its people," he said. "We should not be removed from office. We should not be a victim of party politics. Shutting down democracy is not good for Geelong."
He said he had not observed any culture of bullying but had encouraged "robust debate" on council.
"I was delivered to bring some old school grey-suited mentality into a modern 21st century smart city. I make no apologies for that. I was bullish – I'm certainly not a bully," he said. "Is my council dysfunctional? I don't think it is. Today we're seeing politics played out in the poorest fashion."
But the wider culture of Geelong Council was given a forensic examination by commissioners, who found that the treatment of women in the workplace particularly "reflected outdated and stereotypical views that belonged in the past". And its human resources practices were "redolent of another time", it said.
The report also found:
- A "deep-seated culture of bullying" and harassment, with staff complaints ignored
- No long-term vision for the city and
- a breakdown in the relationship between the mayor, councillors and staff
- that the council should be suspended for two years - not four as the government wants
And it found councillors regularly getting involved in issues where only officers should have played a role. One councillor got involved a live tender, pressuring council staff to meet with one of the competing companies.
On another occasion, the report finds, "a councillor known ... for 'going off his cruet' became so aggressive at a community meeting that the police had to be called".
On Tuesday night, the government was negotiating with all parties in the upper house over when the council would be sacked, and for how long.
Local Government Minister Natalie Hutchins said the structure and system of the council was broken and that no individual was to blame.
She said one in four employees had experienced bullying, and that fixing the council would "take years".
Opposition leader Matthew Guy said the government was rushing an important debate, and that the community should be given a chance to digest report. He also said that the culture issues at the council predated Mr Lyons' tenure at the council.
Greens leader Greg Barber said his party wanted to have a close look at the government's plan, including when elections would be held and the voting system. "Labor's unholy rush on this means that scrutiny will have to happen in the upper house," Mr Barber said.