Following months of speculation, General Manager Emilio Reale has this week resigned from his position with the Huon Valley Council. Reportedly he is returning to his former position as Director of Infrastructure and Works at the Glenorchy City Council.

Commentators who have contacted Tasmanian Times have expressed no surprise at this announcement, as many have been wondering how he has endured the post of GM for so long under the duress of dealing with Mayor Enders, to include suggestions of bullying, power play and extreme control emerging as key issues.

Reale, out of respect and befitting his style, has declined to comment to a request from TT for more information, and Enders has advised Tasmanian Times: “I will no longer be providing any comments to the Tasmania Times,” which is a new development by the Mayor.

Enders, who is normally quick off the mark to grab the headlines, has so far elected to not issue a media statement as news of the GM’s departure spreads like wildfire throughout the Huon Valley.

Even the Council-centric Huon News chose to keep quiet this week.

In her role as Mayor, Enders has been undertaking ratepayer funded media training. Reflecting on her comments about Tasmanian Times in November 2020 she demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of Tasmanian media when she wrote:

“As for this being a media enquiry, Council does not recognise the Tasmania Times as an official media outlet and we are not aware which writers are accredited journalists.”

Readers of Tasmanian Times will know that TT has been a well-recognised and well-read media outlet in Tasmania since 2002, particularly in government circles, and has an accessible archive of some 55,000 articles and growing weekly.

In March 2020 Reale’s contract was renewed for five years and his annual salary package was boosted from some $180,000 to $240,000. Mayor Enders was quoted at the time in the local Huon News;

“Mr Reale had received strong and positive feedback for his leadership in Council through peer and Councillor review. The consistent feedback supported Mr Reale securing a five-year contract.”

Reale was appointed to the position of General Manager in March 2017 during the reign of Commissioner Adriana Taylor. Previously Reale and Taylor had worked together at the Glenorchy City Council for some ten years, and following an extensive Australia-wide talent search by recruitment agency Red Giant, which resulted in 26 applicants, Reale was chosen as the best candidate by Taylor.

The curious question, almost four years on to the day, is what is behind the decision by Reale to walk from a $240,000 executive management role which carries an element of prestige.

General Manager Emilio Reale

In his role as General Manager he has been heading up the Huon Valley Council of some 160 employees in a local Government region that is growing at a rapid rate.

The Huon Valley Council has an annual income of around $28 million, with $13.4 million in cash reserves plus land and building assets. On the surface, this Council is in a healthy position and at the recent AGM ratepayers called on Council to use some of the cash reserves for much-needed infrastructure at this time of extremely low interest rates which is not assisting the bank deposits at this time.

Admittedly Reale has been commuting to and from his home in Sandy Bay for five days a week which means presumably the job does not tick all the boxes, and keeping his professional poker face at Council meetings whilst dealing with the gaffs and giggles from the Mayor must have been extremely challenging.

He is noted for his calm demeanour and on the surface his stabilising influence.

Is there more to this story?

Tasmanian Times has been alerted to a number of possible reasons as to why he has called it quits, over and above the reported taunting and ongoing bullish and bullying behaviour of Enders.

As reported earlier in TT, https://www.tasmaniantimes.com/2021/03/has-mayor-enders-conned-the-ratepayers/ , the recent attempted coverup over the extraordinary 4pm commencement of the AGM is perhaps the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’.

The reason provided by Council for an early 4pm meeting was to save ratepayers from the additional costs of a 6pm commencement.

On the day of the AGM, when asked ‘what are these additional costs’, Reale responded:

“Yeah, okay. I’ve done a bit of an estimate, just while we’ve been here, and it’s around about $400.00”

Hardly a deal breaker when one considers that before the Ordinary Meetings of Council, Councillors and executive staff (some 18 in total) are all fed and watered at the ratepayers expense prior to the 6pm meeting. It was also obvious from Reale’s response that the supposed additional costs had not even been calculated.

When COVID took a stronghold Mayor Enders made the unilateral decision to turn her Mayoral office in the Council building into yet another meeting room, and she has been working from her newly built home in Franklin ever since. This move away from Council premises came amidst reports that Enders was not being well accepted by Council staff due to her controlling nature and apparent self-importance.

In recent months it is reported Enders has further isolated herself from her fellow Councillors, with the exception of Deputy Mayor Doyle, and is no longer joining staff and colleagues in their pre-Council meeting meals or after meeting refreshments.

Enders also reported at the February Council meeting she was no longer attending the very questionable pre-meeting Agenda meetings with fellow Councillors and Council Executive staff. For the past two years Enders has continued to deny these are discussions about the Agenda, despite this being the description used on some Councillors reports.

Ultimately Enders renamed them as Q&A meetings given any discussion on Agenda items between staff and Councillors is a contravention of the Local Government Act.

According to multiple sources Enders has been attending most of these meetings.

As the Mayor, Enders also appears to struggle with her relationships with some members of the community. There is anecdotal evidence of an initial interest, of an efficiency in setting the meeting to a tight agenda, promises being made along with an assumed understanding of the issues; and then nothing. Follow up and action do not appear to be amongst her strong points.

In the recently released HVC Annual Report provided at the 10 March 2021 AGM, Enders states on page four:

“Out of respect for those in our community facing financial hardship, Councillors declined an annual increase for their 2020/21 allowance and in June 2020, I delivered the Mayor’s vehicle back to Council for sale.”

Enders did indeed return her mayoral car. However Enders was then being chauffer driven which led to much speculation as to why. In going down this path she has been charging Council for the mileage which has not been a cost saving to Council, and because her Mayoral car was barely 12 months old, Council took a financial hit in reselling the vehicle.

Council financial reports also show that all Councillors accepted the annual increase apart from Cr Gibson, Doyle and Lovell, which is not as Enders stated in the Annual Report.

When it comes to her affiliation with numerous associations like the Southern Tasmanian Councils Authority and Destination Southern Tasmania where Enders is a Board Member, and in her frequent participation alongside Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam and other members of the Liberal Party, Enders is highly visible, especially in the media and government circles.

In a communique from her supportive husband he advised that Enders will make herself available for any media opportunity in the Huon Valley. An outcome of her recent media training has seen Enders adopting a particular stance for all her photo opportunities when she is regularly featured in the weekly edition of the Huon Newspaper.

Media savvy Mayor Bec Enders appearing in the Huon News in December and January

A public question was put to Council in January 2021 seeking her confirmation of scuttlebutt that was circulating within the Valley and Government circles.

“In the past few months, there has been Government comment and community discussion that our Mayor is intending to stand for a seat in Parliament in 2021.”

The Acting General Manager Grimsey responded:

“The Mayor has advised that she will not be accepting this question as it does not relate to the affairs of the Council”, and on appeal, citing it is very much a matter of Council, “The Mayor has affirmed her position to refuse the question for tonight’s meeting.”

Looking back on her two years as Mayor, her highly visible cosiness with members of the Liberal Party, her residence being in the seat of Franklin which is not a strong Liberal seat since Hodgman retired, and information emanating from Government circles, it is looking like a very strong possibility Enders will be standing for pre-selection and that her role as Mayor of the Huon Valley is little more than a stepping stone. The possibility of standing for Labour in the seat of Franklin also cannot be ruled out.

During the two years when Commissioner Taylor was at the helm following the sacking of the previous Council, Public Question time was a time when residents and ratepayers could ask questions freely, elaborate on the question if needed, and there was no time limit or restrictions. Taylor once stated how important Public Question time is for the community. On one occasion Public Question time ran for 40 minutes as community members had many queries of Council which were answered there and then.

Once Mayor Enders took control of the Ordinary Meetings of Council, a stipulated 15 minutes only was allocated to Public Question time. In the early months it meant members in the gallery, some still with their hands raised and waiting patiently, missed out on being able to ask their question(s). For a period of time Enders instigated a bell, then an alarm timer on the GM’s mobile phone to sound when the 15 minute allocation time up, only to then allow fellow Councillors to speak on a range of topics to include on a few occasions matters in their personal and family life.

There were questions which were cut off as the Mayor read the riot act as to what can and cannot be asked, and what will and will not be answered, and a maximum of only two questions is permitted. Before very long regular attendees of meetings were so frustrated with the process, along with the realisation that answers were not properly forthcoming, they stopped attending Council meetings, and they stopped asking questions.

A perusal of past meeting minutes and Public Question time is testament to this silencing of ratepayers and the obfuscation of the responses is very evident.

With the advent of COVID and now in excess of 12 months of online streamed meetings only, all questions must be supplied to Council before the meeting. This has enabled Council to consider the questions and to draft a carefully crafted response, which on many occasions does not properly address the question. The response is read out by the Mayor during the meeting in a decidedly monotone voice lacking any inflection. It is read as if it were the first  reading, and in many cases, it is apparent there is a lack of understanding of the question and the answer which has obviously been drafted by staff, most likely from Legal and Governance.

For some 18 months Council rejected requests from the community to live stream an audio recording of Council. The excuses provided by Enders included no budget, no strategic plan and that it would need the endorsement of all Councillors. When it was pointed out the costs are in fact very minimal, and that an audio stream required no more than a mobile phone connected to the Council internet service, along with a $12 audio jack cable connected to the meetings sound system, the matter was shut down by the Mayor with no more discussion to be entered into.

When it was revealed the cost of the recently installed cameras in the Council Chamber came in at $12,500, and that they are now in a fixed position; it was yet another example of a Council being out of touch with the community’s needs.

Enders then found the need to explain this away during one of her regular interviews on the local HuonFM radio station which tends to cover topics that emanate from her list of recent highlights.

With the news of the GM’s resignation, and that of an important Executive Director last week, the Mayor and her fellow Councillors have a big task ahead.

With Enders only ever wanting good news stories in the Valley during her four year term, with the situation hopefully leading to a position in Parliament, this is a huge setback for this previously tarnished Council.

It is assumed the Director of Legal & Governance Services Matthew Grimsey will assume the acting role until such time as Enders troubleshoots the outcome of Reale’s resignation.

Reale may serve out his three month resignation term, or he may well cite irreconcilable differences with the Mayor, and seek an early departure.

It also brings to the surface a number of issues for an incoming General Manager who may not have the learned experience and skill sets of the soon-to-depart Reale.

For the first time in the history of the Huon Valley Council the General Manager has been provided with a considerable amount of unscrutinised freedom. The GM role has considerable delegated authority over planning matters that were once the realm of the elected Councillors; and his ability to approve contracts and expenditures with relative ease and minimal quotes with very little accountability will surely need to be revisited as the Huon Valley Council once again enters a period of turmoil.

Interesting times ahead that will certainly test the calibre and skills of the Mayor who until now has been able to delegate matters to the General Manager, sometimes with a giggle, who at times was caught completely unawares.

Whether the resignation of the General Manager will trigger another Board of Inquiry, as has been raised when other Council GM’s have resigned under extraordinary circumstances, is yet to be seen.