Council culture under microscope in new review

IMPACTS from May’s State Ombudsman report into senior ranks at the City of Ballarat continue to be felt with interim CEO Janet Dore initiating a review of the municipality’s “organisational culture.”

The investigation will be headed up by Susan Halliday AM and look at range of current and historical issues facing the council and its officers.

“A key focus of my role is to implement changes relating to the findings of the Ombudsman’s report,” Ms Dore said.

“This comprehensive review is designed to assist in identifying systematic historical failures in governance practices leading to inappropriate decisions as outlined in the recent Ombudsman report.”

Ms Dore said the main focus of the review would be to look at, “organisational culture and its impact on governance, decision-making practices and workplace wellbeing, including staff satisfaction, retention and organisation identity.”

However, the interim CEO also said there was scope for Ms Halliday to look outside those issues.

“I am confident the appointment of Ms Halliday will ensure a thorough and robust review of organisational governance and culture at the City of Ballarat,” Ms Dore said.

“I am committed to implementing any recommendations that may come forward.”

At the turn of the century Ms Halliday was the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, and Disability Discrimination Commissioner, roles she filled concurrently.

She then set up her own consulting firm that deals in workplace interventions and investigations, as well as cultural evaluations, training, and compliance.

“More recently, Ms Halliday has undertaken work across a range of sectors in Ballarat in her areas of expertise and is also known for her cultural reform undertakings at the City of Greater Geelong, including her role as the independent chairperson of the Complaints Review Panel,” Ms Dore said.

It is expected the new City of Ballarat review will get underway soon, with findings handed down by the end of September.

Municipal elections are set for 24 October this year, and City of Ballarat council will enter caretaker mode a month before the ballot.

The move to appoint Ms Halliday came seven days after former CFO and director of business services Glenn Kallio departed the organisation.

Ms Dore quickly appointed an acting replacement for Mr Kallio early last week with Sean Portelli installed as interim director of business services.

A statement released by the City of Ballarat said Mr Portelli had been commissioned “on a short-term basis until an ongoing appointment is made” and that his focus would be the City’s 2020/21 budget.

Mr Kallio’s exit from the municipality marked the third senior executive within the City of Ballarat to depart the organisation since the damaging Ombudsman’s report dropped in mid-May.

Former CEO Justine Linley was sacked by councillors on 18 May, the same day former director of infrastructure and environment Terry Demeo fell on his sword and resigned.

Those changes leave three senior directors currently in place from the old regime: Neville Ivey – director community development, Angelique Lush – director development and planning, and Cameron Cahill ­– director innovation and organisational improvement. Although Mr Cahill has since indicated he’ll be departing the organisation at the end of July.

The Ombudsman’s report found issues with elements of hiring practices involving Ms Linley and Mr Demeo.

It found, in part, Ms Linley failed to declare a conflict of interest soon enough in the recruitment of Ms Lush and not at all in the case of Mr Cahill, and that there was a perception that friends and associates of Ms Linley received favourable treatment within the organisation.

Mr Demeo was found to have improperly recruited three associates to the City of Ballarat. The report also raised issues with Mr Demeo’s oversight of purchase order splitting and use of his municipal credit card.