A report on a WA Government inquiry into Toodyay Shire Council and its administration listed 25 adverse findings against former shire CEO Stan Scott and the previous council.

It said the former council failed to properly manage the former CEO’s behaviour and actions over the seven-year period investigated.

Those held responsible include two current serving councillors whose four-year terms expire in October.

They are former Toodyay shire president Brian Rayner (right) and former shire deputy president Therese Chitty (far right).

Adverse findings against the former council and the former CEO were tabled in State Parliament last October.

Mr Hammond’s independent review is scheduled to be finalised on September 30.

A final report and recommendations are due to be submitted to the State Government according to a timetable agreed by the WA Local Government Department.

Director General Duncan Ord last month granted a request by the debt-laden current council that the State – not Toodyay ratepayers – cover the review cost.

Management consultant Hammond Woodhouse Advisory was selected behind closed doors at last month’s council meeting.

The contract price was kept confidential.

The shire had earlier estimated the cost at between $20,000-$50,000, which would have wiped out most or all of this year’s $40,000 shire budget surplus.

In a letter dated April 13 tabled at last month’s council meeting, Mr Ord wrote to Shire CEO Suzie Haslehurst noting the “positive and proactive manner that the shire has responded to the recommendations of the authorised inquiry report”.

He asked the shire to “complete the current request for a quotation” and said his department would pay for the review “in accordance with the Shire of Toodyay Scope for Work of Governance Review previously provided by the department”.

Mr Ord said his department would also need to agree to who conducted the review.

Shire CEO Suzie Haslehurst said the department had provided a template for the governance review terms of reference to use as the basis for its scope.

It was emailed to councillors for feedback before quotes were sought.

Former Toodyay Progress Association chair Larry Graham (pictured left telling a 2019 WA Parliamentary Select Committee hearing that five local councils, including the Shire of Toodyay, should be axed and merged into a single new Avon Regional Authority) told last month’s council meeting that the invitation to seek quotes “should not have been made”.

He said the review terms of reference had not been authorised by the Director General of the Local Government Department, as recommended in the inquiry report.

It was not enough that it be approved by the department, he said.

“The administration of neither the shire nor the department know what the council or the Director General may or may not approve,” Mr Graham said.

“It’s not dancing on the head of a pin.

“You are not allowed to be ambushed and you have been.”

Budget hamstrung

It jeopardises the shire’s 2018 long-term financial plan which requires 10 years of annual rate increases of 2.5 per cent.

The recreation centre debt also hamstrings this year’s shire budget after the council froze Toodyay’s 2020-21 rates in response to WA Premier Mark McGowan’s call on local government to ease financial stress on the community due to Covid-19 job losses.

Cr Susan Pearce told last month’s council meeting that she was concerned that shire debt might affect long-term financial support for the annual Toodyay Agricultural Show.

The lack of a fresh business case for the council’s hastily revised $12.1 million plan (now $15 million) in December 2017 was revealed in answer to a public question by former Toodyay Progress Association chair Larry Graham at last month’s council meeting.

Shire CEO Suzie Haslehurst said a business case for an “original concept’ was presented to the former council in November 2017 but there were “some amendments to those concepts”.

$9m pipe dream

Shire records show the former CEO originally recommended that the council approve a whopping $8 million loan on top of the $1 million it had already borrowed.

The plan included a new oval for football and cricket which he said would “cater for events such as the Toodyay Agricultural Show plus festivals, trade shows and community celebrations”, a rectangular playing field for hockey, soccer and rugby, netball basketball and tennis courts, and a new function centre for corporate events.

The $23.1 million scheme was approved 6-2, including former acting president Therese Chitty and recently retired Cr Paula Greenway in favour, and Cr Ben Bell and former councillor Sally Craddock against.

Former shire president Brian Rayner was absent on council-approved leave.

The December 2017 Herald reported that an $8 million loan would cost $10 million in interest, quadruple shire debt, cost ratepayers $900,000 a year for the next 20 years and require annual rate rises of 17 per cent.

Showground denial

The former CEO later denied that the shire planned to sell the historic showground to pay off the huge debt, though his business case said the first stage would “cater for events such as the Toodyay Agricultural Show”.

The massive costings blunder forced former shire president Rayner to call a special council meeting two weeks later to rescind the flawed November 28 decision.

The special meeting was presented with a new plan that had to be rushed through the council to meet a December 19 Federal funding deadline.

The former CEO used the same business case and cost-benefit analysis from the previous flawed decision to justify his new plan at the December 12 council meeting.

It was carried 6-3, including former president Rayner, former deputy president Chitty and former Cr Greenway in favour, and Cr Bell and former councillors Craddock and Di Granger against.

No record

No public record of that meeting was posted on the shire website.

The omission was questioned by The Herald at the start of this month.

Ms Haslehurst said she would check the shire’s 2017 online public records.

Shire President Rosemary Madacsi – who was re-elected to the council last October after a four-year absence – said in answer to public questions last month that what occurred in 2017 was “well before our time”.

“To be quite frank, it is done and dusted – that business was already in place,” she said.

“We are dealing with the impact now and moving forward now.”

The council is now considering how to manage next year’s budget with a wafer-thin surplus of only $40,000 due at the end of this financial year and the first full year of increased monthly debt repayments starting on July 1.