A special committee of the City of Perth has secretly discussed the details of a report into the wellbeing and safety of staff and councillors.
Secrecy surrounds the outcome of a City of Perth council meeting to discuss a “psychosocial report” into the wellbeing and safety of some elected members and staff.
The council’s audit and risk committee, chaired by former WA auditor general Colin Murphy, was specially-convened on Wednesday afternoon, after city chief executive Michelle Reynolds commissioned an external consultant “in accordance with her obligations under the Work, Health and Safety Act”.
But the entire meeting, which ran for around three hours, was held behind closed doors.
A very brief agenda, published online before the meeting referred to a document containing recommendations to deal with psychosocial risk at the council, suggesting system failures have been uncovered.
Whether those recommendations will cost ratepayers more money – and whether the matters discovered by the report are irreconcilable - is unclear.
Media outlet WAToday is reporting that the psychosocial review found “intimidating behaviours appear to function to establish dominance and suppress challenge, reducing psychological safety".
As revealed by Business News last week, ratepayers will already have to pay more than $35,000 after the Local Government Minister Hannah Beasley and the newly-created local government inspector, Tony Brown, appointed a monitor to watch over the troubled council.
The monitor, former Kwinana mayor Carol Adams, sat in on Wednesday’s confidential meeting.
The term psychosocial refers to any behaviour that might cause harm to people’s mental health.
The catalyst for the report appears to be contained in public minutes of a council meeting on December 9, when the then acting chief executive Peta Mabbs referred to complaints from councillors and staff about “wellbeing and safety”.
“In 2025, 10 complaints have been received from staff and elected members regarding the behaviour of elected members,” Ms Mabbs told the council.
“Eight of those have been received since June 2025.”
Ms Mabbs has since resigned.
Also, in a letter to councillors dated December 8, Ms Reynolds raised concerns that the Lord Mayor Bruce Reynolds was trying to remove her as chief executive while she was on personal leave.
Lord Mayor Reynolds responded to his chief executive’s assertions in December via a statement to ABC Radio, saying “a number of claims are inaccurate and, quite frankly, false”.
“In my time at the city, I have been the subject of one complaint from a staff member,” he said.
“The matter was referred to an independent assessor, who reviewed all available evidence, including testimony from witnesses who were present at the time, and dismissed the complaint under the basis of all likelihood and evidence it did not happen.”
The next opportunity for the public to ask questions about the secret psychosocial report and recommendations will be at the annual electors general meeting on Tuesday.
