“I‘m not going to resign”: Huon Valley mayor vows to rebuild trust

Huon Valley’s mayor has conceded she’s likely lost the trust of some members of her community after a controversial GM appointment. WHAT SHE HAS TO SAY + FULL TIMELINE >>

Huon Valley mayor Bec Enders has conceded she’s likely lost the trust of some members of her community because of the way the council handled a conflict of interest in the recruitment process for general manager.

The mayor said she didn’t want her time as mayor to be defined by the situation, after it was revealed the successful applicant, Jason Browne was in a relationship with the head of the recruitment agency contracted by the council.

Prior to the council meeting on Wednesday, which was Mr Browne’s first meeting, community members protested outside the Huon Valley Town Hall, with many calling for Mr Browne to be suspended and some calling for Cr Enders to resign.

“Clearly there are people in the community who are extremely upset,” Cr Enders said.

“I absolutely can see why they are upset.

“Yesterday I apologised to them in regard to how council managed the conflict of interest.”

Huon Valley Council Mayor Bec Enders. Picture: Chris Kidd

A review of the process cleared the council of breaching the code of conduct and local government act but said the council’s handling of the conflict was not up to scratch.

There is no suggestion Ms Browne is not qualified for the role.

“The main thing is for us to learn from that and undertake all the training,” Cr Enders said.

“There will be some people in the community who will not be satisfied with that response.”

Cr Enders didn’t believe all community members shared the views of Wednesdays protesters.

Protesters outside the Huon Valley Town Hall on Wednesday. Pic: Judy Augustine

“We have 17 and a half thousand residents in Huon Valley,” she said.

“There are of course people that have approached councillors that have been disappointed but many are relieved there were no breaches,” she said.

But the mayor admitted some trust had been lost.

“Without a doubt the people who were protesting yesterday for example will certainly have lost trust,” Cr Enders said.

Breaking News Breaking News Newly appointed Huon Valley Council GM Jason Browne. Pic Supplied

Cr Enders said she would now focus on regaining that trust.

“This is three years of a four-year term and I’ve had a very good relationship with the community up until this event,” she said.

“We’re been through the bushfires together, we’ve been through Covid together, there’s been some really good work here done by council.

“I certainly don’t want to be defined by one event in three years in a four term.

“My aim is to get out into the community more frequently as well as meeting with businesses again to build up the relationship I had with them for a considerable amount of time.”

Despite calls for her to do so, Cr Enders said she had no plans to resign any time soon.

“I’m not going to resign,” Cr Enders said.

“I’ll leave that up to the authority who I answer to.

“If they find a reason why I need to resign, they will tell me and I will do that.”

There have also been called for the council to release the report into the review of the process, in full and with no information redacted.

“The advice we received was it did need to be a redacted form,” Cr Enders said.

“That was to protect the council from breaches of confidentiality, privacy and possibly defamation.

“We discussed that and the risk was too great to the council to release the full report based on the advice.”

The mayor also poured water on rumours she was planning to leave her position of mayor behind and run for the Upper House seat of Huon, which is set to become vacant when Labor’s Bastian Seidel steps down in December.

“No, I’m not,” Cr Enders said.

“Gossip is a big thing isn’t it?”

FULL TIMELINE AND KEY DATES

• March 15: Emilio Reale resigned as Huon Valley General Manager.
• March 31: Huon Valley mayor Bec Enders, deputy mayor Sally Doyle, Cr Mick Newell and Cr Mike Wilson were appointed to the recruitment panel for new general manager.
• April 16: Emilio Reale finished up as general manager.
• April 19: Paul West and Andrew Wardlaw became acting general managers.
• April 22: Red Giant was appointed as recruitment agency.
• May 5: Red Giant advertised general manager role.
• May 24: The application was period extended to May 26. The council had initially told the Mercury the application period “was always intended to be for 3 weeks, concluding on 24 May 2021”, claiming the period was originally advertised in error as two weeks. It later clarified in its answer to a question taken on notice that the statement provided to the Mercury was incorrect and the extension was actually from the 24th to the 26th.
• May 26: Application period closed with 85 candidates applying for the role. Head of Red Giant Joanne Inches would go on to submit 14 candidates to council, dismissing the remaining 71.
• June 16: Huon Valley Council announces Cr Mike Wilson is no longer eligible to serve on council. Mr Wilson is consequently removed from the recruitment panel.
• July 7: He was replaced on the panel by Cr Christine Campbell who later stood down.
• August 17: Council confirmed Red Giant assessed 47 applications and identified 14 candidates to be submitted to the recruitment panel for review.
• August 23: Geoffrey Swan from the Tasmanian Times alleged a conflict of interest in the recruitment process for general manager, revealing the candidate set to become general manager was “directly linked” to Ms Inches.
• August 25: Council decided to appoint Jason Browne as new general manager at closed council meeting.
• August 31: Huon Valley mayor Bec Enders announced a review had been commissioned due to community concerns raised.
• September 15: A special closed council meeting held to discuss the results of a review into the recruitment process confirmed Mr Browne as GM. The council claimed the review cleared it of breaching the local government act, code of conduct and Huon Valley governance framework, but said the review did find the management of the conflict fell below expected standards. The council said it would release further details, including a copy of the key findings “in the coming days”.
• September 21: Mr Browne began as general manager.
• September 29: Community members protested at Huon Valley Town Hall. Huon Valley Council decided to release a redacted version of the Edge Legal report to the public.