The state government has appointed three commissioners to take charge of the City of Perth, led by the retiring chair of the Western Australian Planning Commission Eric Lumsden, while also establishing a panel with powers of a Royal Commission to conduct an inquiry.
The state government has appointed three commissioners to take charge of the City of Perth, including the retiring chair of the Western Australian Planning Commission Eric Lumsden, while also establishing a panel with powers of a Royal Commission to conduct an inquiry.
As well as Mr Lumsden, former University of Western Australia executive and Perth Education City executive director Gaye McMath, and the retiring chief executive of the City of Rockingham Andrew Hammond will be commissioners.
Local Government Minister David Templeman, who forshadowed suspenion of the council on Wednesday, said today the new inquiry would be in addition to the long-running inquiry being run by his department.
The panalists to run the inquiry have yet to be appointed.
“We have three commissioners in place to make sure the operations of the City of Perth is put back into a stable and strong basis,” he said this afternoon.
“We need to stabilise the City of Perth, and that includes restoring confidence that people will be dealt with fairly and properly.”
He said this action was needed as a result of ongoing and serious concerns of failure by the elected council to ensure that the local government authority performed its functions properly.
The minister declined to speculate on how long the inquiry would take, or on specific allegations against elected councillors.
Western Australian Planning Commission retiring chair Eric Lumsden.
Acting chief executive Annaliese Battista said that the decision is a much needed circuit breaker for the City’s ratepayers, community and 700 hard working men and women at the City.
“It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the highly unusual pressures the City has experienced over the past few years,” shesaid.
“It has been very challenging for city employees, and I know I speak for the CEO when I say staff’s well-being has been our priority throughout this period.
“It would be naïve to suggest the issues facing the Council haven’t impacted the reputation of the City of Perth.
“Our promise is to work closely with the commissioners to restore the community’s confidence in our ability to provide good governance and continue to provide quality services to ratepayers, stakeholders and the community.”
Councillor James Limnios said in an open letter on Thursday that he believed Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi was to blame for the council’s issues.
"It is incredibly sad the whole City of Perth council has been suspended when really only one person should be in the government's sights," he said.
“The fact the Lord Mayor no longer has the autocratic status she once enjoyed is no reason to suspend the whole council.
"The Minister unfortunately does not have the legislative authority to suspend or sack that one person and I think the government needs to prioritise amending the legislation accordingly.
"The City has functioned adequately during the Lord Mayor's absence, and I am convinced it would have been a different outcome had she stayed away."
On Tuesday deputy mayor Jemma Green said the suspension was the outcome that Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi wanted.
"Since the election in October last year, the Lord Mayor lost her majority on Council … and so she's sought to undermine the majority of Council and bring the Council down," Ms Green said.
Ms Scaffidi responded by saying this claim was "spin" and not correct.
"There are some very serious issues that only found out about when I returned to work and I'll leave it at that," she said.
The suspension comes after multiple changes among senior executives at the council.
On Tuesday night at a special council meeting, Ms Battista was selected to become the city’s third chief executive in less than two weeks.
Ms Battista was forced into the role after acting chief executive Robert Mianich went on personal leave following the announcement of Tuesday’s meeting, which was called to remove him as acting chief executive.
Mr Mianich took over the role as acting chief executive 11 days after chief executive Martin Mileham decided to take indefinite leave.
Mr Mileham’s decision came after he became aware of a private investigation by law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, authorised by Ms Green while she was Acting Lord Mayor, into allegations about his conduct.
The investigation found there were no problems.
