Toodyay Herald

She quit on March 13 amid claims of personal denigration and workplace bullying after receiving a personally attacking email from Shire CEO Stan Scott who accused her of inexperience and having a “very limited understanding” of local government.

“Really, how would you know what was unusual behaviour in local government?” he wrote in defence of his decision to withhold information from councillors over a State Government warning that the shire was being monitored and that “further action may be warranted”.

Ms Granger – who won election on a platform of “communication, leadership and governance” – described Mr Scott’s email as “the last straw” and resigned from the council two days later, saying “all the joy has been sucked out of my life – I want it back”.

She is the second Toodyay shire councillor to resign in a month, following former Cr Sally Craddock’s resignation in February, and the third in less than a year after former Cr Kate Wood resigned last May to move to Geraldton.

‘Awful experience’

MS WOOD posted on Facebook last month that she was sorry former Cr Granger’s short time on council was “such an awful experience” and that she too had “experienced some similar treatment, though thankfully without the aggression you’ve experienced”.

Ms Wood’s East Ward vacancy was filled in last October’s shire elections by new Cr Ben Bell.

A postal ballot for the two new vacancies – in Central Ward and West Ward – will be conducted by the WA Electoral Commission on June 15.

Nominations for the two seats open on Wednesday May 2 and close seven days later.

Former shire president David Dow said he was “seriously considering” recontesting Central Ward, where his wife, Cr Judy Dow, holds the ward’s other seat on the nine-member council.
Ms Granger polled 196 votes to Mr Dow’s 121 last October, and Linda Rooney polled 66.

Former shire deputy president John Prater – who recently started attending council meetings as a visitor – said last month that he too was also considering running in Central Ward.

Lawyer Bill Manning, who has helped finance and lead a long-running local community campaign to prevent Opal Vale from starting a large rubbish tip for metropolitan waste in Hoddys Well, has confirmed that he will run in Central Ward.

In West Ward, Morangup candidate Craig Brook, who ran second to Cr Paula Greenway last October, has confirmed that he will run for the seat vacated by former Cr Craddock.

Mr Brook – an oil and gas industry health and safety officer – last year polled 158 votes to Cr Greenway’s 214 and Andrew Walker’s 82.

More than half of last year’s 1047 registered West Ward voters live in Morangup, which has not been represented by a locally based shire councillor since 2011.

Ms Granger – who served less than five months as a councillor – is a consultant in organisational development in government and corporate sectors, and is currently contracted to provide professional services to the WA Department of Mines and Petroleum.

She ran for office on a platform of “communication, leadership and governance” and defeated former shire president David Dow in last October’s shire elctions.

Ms Granger said she was made to feel unwelcome from her first day on council.

Soon after, she and fellow new Cr Ben Bell were accused of leaking confidential shire information about legal costs after details were published in the December Herald.

The same information had already appeared in a publicised submission to the State Government well before the shire elections.

Cr Bell was also accused of breaching the council’s code of conduct and showing lack of respect by “adversely reflecting” on council meetings on his Facebook page.

Former Cr Granger said the “last straw” was an email copied to all councillors from Shire CEO Stan Scott on Saturday March 10 in which he claimed Cr Granger lacked experience and had a “very limited understanding” of local government.

“Really, how would you know what was unusual behaviour in local government?” Mr Scott wrote.

“I expect that council leadership will immediately jump on inappropriate and ill-informed criticism such as that contained in your latest email.”

Cr Granger had asked Shire President Brian Rayner and Deputy President Therese Chitty that councillors be kept informed of the “to and fro” between the CEO and WA Local Government Department, which in January placed the shire on notice of possible “further action” over concerns about shire operations and affairs, which the department said it was monitoring.

“I am appealing to you as leaders of this community and would like to understand why this communication is not readily available to elected members, those that oversee and govern the capability of the shire administration,” she wrote.

“It is confusing and not usual practice for a CEO of government or business to not keep his council or board informed.

“This is really unusual behaviour and one that needs to be addressed and remedied sooner than later.

“I wish to strongly voice my concern with the actions of the leadership at both admin and council regarding the handling of this matter.”

Although Cr Granger’s email was copied to Mr Scott and not addressed directly to him, he responded directly to her the following Saturday afternoon and claimed that he was being bullied.

“I would like to strongly voice my concern that in the face of a scurrilous and dishonest public campaign to drive me out of my job and potentially destroy my career in local government that some councillors are jumping on the bandwagon of this bullying campaign,” Mr Scott wrote.

“What I expect is that I will have a safe working environment free from bullying.

‘Not an all-in brawl’

“CEO performance management is based in the processes set out in the (Local Government) Act and my contract – it is not a rolling maul or an all-in brawl where everyone should feel free to share their ill-considered opinions on a whim.

“Perhaps before denigrating me or the council leadership, you should first take some advice from that leadership about what is and is not appropriate.”

Ms Granger said she was taking legal advice on further action.

Meanwhile, Cr Bell has lodged a public Freedom Of Information request asking the shire to release copies of all emails between councillors and the CEO that refer to former Cr Granger’s March 9 email and a Local Government Department letter in January that raised concerns about the shire’s operations and affairs.

The request – which is published online at righttoknow.org.au – includes “the email from Cr (Paula) Greenway, which was not sent to all councillors, which was sent following Cr Granger’s March 9 email”.

Shire President Brian Rayner said Mr Scott “shouldn’t have played it so strong” in his email to former Cr Granger.

“He was upset because he felt that Cr Granger was trying to run administration,” President Rayner said.

President Rayner said Mr Scott had not consulted him before sending his weekend email to Ms Granger, and he was surprised to read it the following Monday morning.

He then arranged a private mediation meeting between Mr Scott and the remaining councillors, and more meetings would be held this month.

“There are ongoing differences between the CEO and councillors, and we are trying to work through that,” President Rayner said.

“We have laid out a process and everyone has agreed to take part.”

Toodyay Shire CEO Stan Scott responded with the following comment which was emailed by him to the Herald at 9.07am on Wednesday, April 4 (too late for print publication) and was received two hours before the paper appeared on the street and was posted online.  Tuesday, April 3 was not a Public Holiday.

“In my view the correspondence in question is confidential communication which was never intended for publication.

If former Cr Granger has indeed passed on copies of the correspondence to you or for that matter, to anyone else with the intention of causing me detriment or to embarrass the Shire, I believe this is an offense (sic) of Section 5.93 of the Local Government Act 1995.  I cannot assume that because you quote the date of correspondence that you actually have copies, and I will continue to respect the confidentiality of that correspondence.

I would also point out that the Shire President offered mediation through an independent professional mediator, an offer that former Cr Granger declined prior to her resignation.”

Local Government Act 1995

Section 5.93

Improper use of information

A person who is a council member, a committee member or an employee must not make improper use of any information acquired in the performance by the person of any of his or her functions under this Act or any other written law –

(a) to gain directly or indirectly an advantage for the person or any other person; or

(b) to cause detriment to the local government or any other person.

Penalty: $10,000 or imprisonment for 2 years.

A WA Local Government Department spokesperson in Perth said the Shire of Toodyay was continuing to “work cooperatively with the department to improve some of their governance processes and procedures”.

“As this process is ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment further,” the spokesperson said.

The department did not dispute last month’s Herald Page 1 story that the shire had been put on notice of an inquiry risk.

Nor did it support Mr Scott’s claims in a letter to the Herald last month that the department was “horrified” by the headline and that the report was the “almost complete opposite” of the thrust of a letter written by the department’s Governance Manager, Ron Murphy, in January.

Though Mr Murphy declined to respond to several Herald phone calls, he met two representatives from the Toodyay Progress Association in Perth last month and reportedly confirmed that the news story was accurate, and that the shire continued to be on notice of possible further action.

Mr Scott claimed earlier that the story was a “deliberate inaccuracy” and, in his view, breached Australian Press Council principles and the Journalists’ Code of Ethics.

In a letter to The Editor, Mr Scott said: “I would have thought that as a former WA Branch Secretary of the MEAA (Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, which includes the Journalists’ Association), you would be a champion for these standards.”

In last month’s shire newsletter, Mr Scott wrote under the heading “Toodyay Herald – March 2018 Front Page Error” that the Herald headline “and indeed most of the article is just plain wrong, and is in fact the opposite of the truth”.

The Herald stands by its report and declines Mr Scott’s request to “withdraw the article in its entirety and publish a correction”.

The Herald accepts that Cr Greenway was not talking about the existing weekday service but was in fact referring to a coach service that could replace a former expanded AvonLink service, which was scrapped in June last year due to a lack of sufficient passenger numbers after an unsuccessful three-year trial.

The trial was implemented after former Liberal Government State Treasurer Troy Buswell announced in 2013 that the under-used AvonLink passenger rail service through Toodyay was costing WA taxpayers too much money and would be replaced by buses, causing a public outcry and political backlash by local WA National Party members in government.

Labor State Government funding for the current weekday AvonLink service – which generally operates at no more than half capacity – is currently budgeted to end on June 30.

Former Cr Di Granger, who chairs Toodyay’s AvonLink Supporters’ Group and was not present at the Annual Electors’ Meeting, said there were no indications from the group’s regular discussions with rail service operator Transwa that the AvonLink would not continue to be funded in the next State Budget, which is due to be announced later this year.

Below is a full shire transcript of Cr Greenway’s remarks in response to a ratepayers’ questions at last month’s Annual

Electors Meeting:

Summary of Question Three: “Has any thought been given to making use of the Avon Link line using the Merredin link? Does anyone have figures on how well the Merredin link is used, in terms that if it is not being used, whether or not we can “grab the train” on one of those days and have it come to Toodyay and then go back to Northam again?”

Cr Greenway: “We cannot really do anything further in respect to the Avon Link line. We are all on hold at present. Nothing more can be said other than that.

“Since the Avon Link service stopped its extra services/trips, the Merredin Link numbers have increased quite a lot. Are you asking whether we can increase the Avon Link services? If so, we’ve gone down this road before. We cannot get the numbers.

“We had a trial but could not get the patronage. I can find out what is happening in respect to future planning.”

Summary of Question Four: “So if we don’t use it we lose it?”

Cr Greenway: “We are waiting on the results of a TRANSWA survey. The results could mean a reallocation of their coach services. TRANSWA are doing the survey themselves.

“Other transport alternatives may be provided, depending on the results of this survey. The results that come in from the survey will provide other options.

“Not enough people used the Avon Link train service but if a coach service is put in place as an alternative, Morangup could benefit from a coach service, should it be put into place by TRANSWA.”

Shire President Brian Rayner asked Cr Greenway to ensure the information was available prior to the February 2018 Council Meeting.

This advice is as follows: “The Draft Transwa Route Rationalisation Report prioritised possible service improvements which are targeted to assist as many people as possible at little expense considering a constrained operational budget.

“Unfortunately, the suggested service of a road coach servicing Morangup and Gidgegannup did not make the priority list.

“The Transwa network is continuously reviewed to maximise the benefit that can be derived from the finite resources available to provide these services. Transwa have committed to monitor the growth of this area and will reconsider this option in future service reviews.”