Media release – Geoffrey Swan, Candidate for Mayor and Councillor Huon Valley Council, 9 October 2022
Flawed GM recruitment process is not over
Mayoral candidate for the Huon Valley Council Geoffrey Swan is standing for transparency, honesty and integrity, something he believes has been missing in this last term of Council.
“We have endured yet another dysfunctional Council from the moment former Mayor Enders, midway through her term, made the decision to run unsuccessfully for a Liberal seat in the lower house of Parliament,” said Swan.
“This was at a critical time when Councillors were tasked with searching for a new General Manager, and with Enders taking time out it left only three Councillors on the GM recruitment committee instead of the required four; and none of the three were experienced in matters of executive recruitment.”
The Auditor General has since undertaken a “limited assurance” review of the process, rather than a “reasonable assurance” review which would have been more comprehensive, but even with the limited review, he has described the recruitment process as being “flawed”.
Swan said, “There will forever be a dark cloud over the General Manager of the Huon Valley Council given his conflict of interest with his partner Joanne Inches, the Managing Director of the recruitment firm Red Giant who were contracted for the job of selecting candidates for the role. This must be resolved one way or another to the satisfaction of our community and Council staff.”
Geoffrey Swan is openly campaigning to open up all the correspondence and documentation taken into closed council for the new Councillors to review. This review be at no further cost to the ratepayers as it will only involve Councillor time.
As a ratepayer, Swan’s Right to Information request for the Edge Legal report which was the result of an independent investigation into the flawed process was refused by Council. This was then taken to the Ombudsman who fast tracked the appeal. The Ombudsman denied access to the report on the basis of legal privilege.
Former Mayor Enders promised to release the findings of the Edge Legal report, however this did not happen. Council supplied their own summary of the report and despite community protest, would not even release a redacted version of this report citing potential legal issues if they did so.
“Over 20% of the electors in the Huon Valley have voted with their feet about this flawed recruitment process with a town hall meeting in February this year putting up 18 motions which were subsequently all rejected in meeting of Closed Council.
“There have since been a number of petitions before Council calling on Council to restart the process again, for the General Manager to resign, for the Councillors who were complicit in the appointment to also step down, and to not stand again for Council.
“However, all the petitions have been taken into Closed Council and rejected with no further comment or explanation from Acting Mayor Doyle who was one of the GM committee members.”
“The Acting Mayor and Councillor Newell who were on the GM recruitment committee have since received Code of Conduct determinations against them for bringing Council into disrepute.
“The current Council very much wants this to all go away, but an appointment of such significance to the Council, to Council staff and to the community must not be swept under the carpet.
“We must also accept this is a five year contract in excess of a $1.25 million dollars, and because of the way the recruitment was handled, we will never know if the current GM is the best person for the job, or indeed if he is properly qualified for the role,” said Swan.
The recruitment advertising attracted 85 applicants from across Australia and the partner of the successful candidate ruled out 71 of the applicants with no input from the Council GM committee.
The shortlisted 14 candidates were then provided to the committee and at some late stage in the process Red Giant declared a conflict of interest.
“It was at this point the Councillors should have immediately restarted the recruitment process and appointed a new executive recruitment agency,” said Swan.
“Instead, they pushed on regardless which at the end of the day has culminated in a conflicted GM appointment, a Council being brought into disrepute, considerable media coverage, and all Councillors undergoing ratepayer funded conflict of interest training of $7920 – with now only one of the previous Councillors standing again.”
“Should I be elected as Mayor or Councillor, I will encourage my fellow candidates to review all the documentation taken into Closed Council, the Edge Legal and Simmons Wolfhagen Reports, the General Manager’s contract and the results of a staff satisfaction survey which is due for completion late October.
“If after the review the majority of the new Councillors see no reason for any further action then it will be appropriate to provide the community with a full and clear explanation along with a redacted version, where necessary, of the Edge Legal report.
If not, then it will require a motion and a majority vote to start the process over again,” said Swan.
Editor’s note: Geoffrey Swan is an occasional contributor to Tasmanian Times. In this case his media release was submitted to the Chief Editor for consideration. No other HV Council candidates have to this point submitted material for publication.
John
October 10, 2022 at 16:35
There have already been two thorough reviews. The position was finalised in March and the new GM passed his probation and by all reports is doing a good job. The HVC has already rejected two petitions on this issue.
To terminate the position and undertake a new recruitment would cost a lot, potentially well over the GM’s $1.2 M contract, and with several month’s disruption.
Seeing that the HVC is happy with the position, and that there were no recommendations for ongoing action, it seems this candidate is just trying to be as disruptive as possible.
Geoffrey Swan
October 10, 2022 at 18:26
We have been through this already in local FB groups, John.
The Auditor General review was a ‘limited’ review – as against a ‘reasonable’ review which in layman’s terms means the review was only to be sure there were no untruths, and that is why the most the AG could report is that the process was ‘flawed’. A reasonable review may have unearthed a whole lot more about this entire debacle … and indeed there may still be more to the story once a new set of non-conflicted independent Councillors review the documentation, and in particular the Edge Legal report that has been locked away from prying eyes.
The cost to terminate, or if the incumbent GM decides to step down, is nothing like you are suggesting – and there are suggestions it will not be an unpalatable payout if that were to happen. The recruitment process was reportedly $50,000 to his partner, but again, the advice is that the market rate is closer to $30,000.
The reason I have taken this position on a matter which I have pursued with vigor since June 2021 when I was first informed of the conflict of interest, is because of information I have received that all is not well with this appointment, and therefore we need to resolve this mess one way or another.
Gerrya
October 13, 2022 at 08:06
It seems to me that the focus of any review is too narrow. I suggest that it is about time that concepts of accountability and responsibility be reviewed and reinforced.
All GMs and Senior Managers in any council must be set specific targets, that, if not met, would lead to a reduction in salary. Contracts for these managers should include a base rate just above supervisory levels, followed by two or three levels of incentivisation. I suggest that for the HVC, one of the first targets to be set be the “Infrastructure” Manager, as our valley’s gravel roads are a disgrace and downright dangerous.
Perhaps it’s no wonder that when the last time work was done on our road I saw at least three truckloads of gravel scraped from the surface and carted away.