Peter Brooks has left the Glenorchy City Council

GLENORCHY community leaders and its former mayor want to know whether general manager Peter Brooks has received a payout after leaving the council.

Glenorchy City Council general manager Peter Brooks has been dismissed.

GLENORCHY community leaders and its former mayor want to know whether general manager Peter Brooks has received a payout after leaving the council.

The Mercury last night obtained an email from Glenorchy Commissioner Sue Smith telling staff Mr Brooks had not been employed since November 14 and acting general manager Tony McMullen has been appointed his replacement.

Glenorchy Ratepayers and Residents Association committee chairman Phil Butler said the community deserved to know if Mr Brooks had been paid out.

Mr Butler said former Huon Valley general manager Simone Watson was paid out for 12 months of her contract after she was dismissed by Commissioner Adriana Taylor.

“We wonder what the terms of the Brooks departure are: was he paid out or was his contract terminated by dismissal? Why, if as reported, it happened two weeks ago, weren’t residents made aware of such a significant event?” he said.

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Former mayor Kristie Johnston also called on the council to tell the community if Mr Brooks had a payout.

“But it begs the question on behalf of the Glenorchy community what are the circumstances and if it cost them money,” she said.

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Mr Brooks, who had been on indefinite paid leave since April on his $285,000-a-year contract, declined to comment.

Mrs Smith and Mr McMullen did not answer calls.

“Dear GCC staff members,” Mrs Smith wrote in the email.

“I advise that Peter Brooks no longer works for Glenorchy City Council as of 14 November 2017.

“In order to ensure the stability of council, I intend to appoint Tony McMullen as General Manager for a three-year contract period subject to satisfactory contract negotiations.

“I trust that you will give Tony every assistance as we move to return council to normal operations.”

Glenorchy Commissioner Sue Smith. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

The email said Mr Brooks had not worked for the council since November 14. For the past two weeks the Mercury has asked Mrs Smith numerous times about the future of Mr Brooks but she has declined to comment “on individual staff members”.

It is understood people working in the general manager’s department were unaware of the departure until Monday night.

The Mercury understands that as part of Mr Brooks’s previous contract, if he is terminated with notice he will receive a six-month payout and if there is termination by resignation he needs to give three months notice and will receive payment in lieu of all or part of the notice period.

But if there was immediate termination for misconduct then Mr Brooks would not receive any payout.

Mr Butler said there were also concerns about the nature of Mr McMullen’s appointment.

“We have the greatest respect for Tony McMullen and congratulate him on his appointment, but we are concerned that the process appears to have been conducted in secret, with no advertising for candidates and no competitive process undertaken,” he said.

“The new council should have been given the opportunity to choose the GM that they were comfortable working with to rebuild community trust, to unravel the current financial difficulties and to undertake the agenda that the new council sets.”

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The revelation that Mr Brooks no longer works at the council comes on the eve of the public release of the long-awaited Board of Inquiry final report. Mr Brooks had initiated action against the board in the Supreme Court but it was eventually dismissed by the Full Court.

The Board of Inquiry was set up in response to allegations of a breakdown in the relationship between Mr Brooks and now-sacked mayor Johnston.

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Mr Brooks also came under fire from the Tasmanian Auditor-General in a recent report into the council’s tendering process, which he defended.

Mr Brooks was appointed as Glenorchy general manager in 2011 after stints at the Burnie City Council and the Griffith City Council in NSW.