The 55-minute lunch, the ‘brazen signal’ and the council in chaos

The state was nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, and days away from long-delayed local government elections, when Liverpool City Council’s then-chief executive, Dr Eddie Jackson, met Liberal mayoral hopeful Ned Mannoun for lunch at The Paper Mill precinct in December 2021.

Jackson, a native Irishman, told an inquiry into the council on Friday it was his habit to meet mayoral candidates before election day to get a sense of their priorities should they be elected.

Former Liverpool Council chief executive Dr Eddie Jackson appears at the Office of Local Government inquiry on Friday.Credit:

“As the Irish say, he didn’t draw breath for 55 minutes,” Jackson said of his lunch with Mannoun.

In their “wide-ranging” conversation, Mannoun, who was eyeing his second stint as mayor of the south-west Sydney council, spoke about his election campaign and a “sense of urgency and desire to get things moving quickly”. He outlined an ambitious agenda for his potential first 100 days in office, which included plans for two new swimming pools, creating a new department within the council, and setting up an outreach planning office for a residential development in Austral.

He had also proffered a “highly critical” analysis of the council and its directors, Jackson said.

“I said, as long as we adhere to the Local Government Act and the Industrial Relations Act, I think we’re in pretty good shape,” Jackson said he told Mannoun. He explained that “implicit within that [remark] was the separation between the CEO and mayor, and the need for good governance”.

“It was at that point [Mannoun] said, ‘Eddie, I don’t want us to argue, I respect you too much, and we’ve worked together in the past. But you’re not the type of CEO that I want as mayor.’ ”

Liverpool Council is under the microscope of an Office of Local Government inquiry that was triggered by an interim report detailing allegations of dysfunction and maladministration.

Among the matters under examination are councillor conduct, the council’s handling of its finances, and state government grants for infrastructure, property purchases and staff employment – including its revolving door of 10 acting or permanent chief executive officers in eight years.

On Friday, the inquiry heard Jackson – who lived in Northern Ireland through The Troubles and was once chief executive of the Belfast Local Strategy Partnership – started work at the council in 2014.

Mannoun allegedly suggested he wanted to sack Jackson during a meeting at The Paper Mill precinct in Liverpool in late 2021.Credit:

He had replaced the council’s former boss Kiersten Fishburn, who is the current secretary of the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, as chief executive in November 2020.

By the time of his lunch with Mannoun in late 2021, the inquiry heard Jackson was one year into his five-year contract and fresh from a positive performance review. He had steered more than 800 staff through the departure of a “highly popular” former chief executive, a restructure and the pandemic.

“The organisation was exhausted, we didn’t need further upheaval,” he had told Mannoun. When he had quizzed Mannoun about what he meant by his remarks about the chief executive role, Mannoun had not responded, but instead asked Jackson about the process required to terminate his contract.

Jackson said he had phoned Mannoun when he secured the mayoralty on December 20.

“I congratulated him on his success and he immediately said, ‘Have you thought about my proposition to you about leaving the organisation?’

“I said, ‘I think you’re making a mistake, but if you’ve got the numbers, we know how it plays out.’ ”

Mannoun said that “his group” had agreed to a settlement of 50 weeks’ pay, which Jackson understood was a reference to Liberal councillors, of which there were five on the council.

He had also expressed a desire to Jackson that they manage his “transition” out of the role in a professional manner, agree on core messaging for staff and keep details of the matter confidential.

Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun in July after Minister Ron Hoenig announced a public inquiry into the council.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

At a meeting on January 10, before the first meeting of the new council, Mannoun had said: “Eddie, the people of Liverpool have elected their mayor and new CEO.”

Jackson said: “That, to me, was a very brazen signal of his intent to take a direct role, contrary to the [Local Government] Act, in the appointment of directors and day-to-day operations of staff, and he had no qualms about seeking to direct or influence members of staff, or directors in particular.

“I was very concerned about that.”

Jackson said Mannoun had reiterated his dissatisfaction with the council directors’ recent performance, which Jackson thought was “unfair”, “very dismissive” and “an arrogant approach”.

“I’m speaking in the context of living through Belfast in the worst of times – COVID tested everyone in a way that was unprecedented.”

Councillors voted six to five to terminate Jackson’s contract and replace him with acting chief executive Peter Diplas at a council meeting on February 2.

Jackson met Mannoun a few days later to discuss his settlement, which was reached months later.

“The meeting concluded, I shook his hand at the door, and that was the last contact I had with Mr Mannoun,” Jackson said.

Jackson will be cross-examined next week, and Mannoun is yet to provide evidence.

The inquiry continues. It is being heard over five weeks in front of commissioner Ross Glover.

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