Suspended Mayor Lisa Matthews covered a lot of territory when she was the first witness to be questioned at the not-so-public hearings which started this week as part of the Public Inquiry into Central Coast Council.
She spoke about the cost of the merger, the relationship between Councillors and staff and how she sometimes wished (former) CEO Gary Murphy would stand up to the Councillors.
“Sometimes you need a general manager to actually say ‘Stop, Councillors, you’re carrying on like buffoons. This is what you need to be doing’,” she said.
“At times – sometimes I really felt like we needed somebody to crack a whip somewhere and it just didn’t happen.”
Matthews said Murphy did all he could when the financial situation was disclosed and he took full responsibility.
“He did stand up in front of all of us and say that he takes full responsibility,” she said.
“I believe his staff let him down and, again, he’s a softie.
“I think that went against him. You know, the fact that he trusted people that are paid well (audio dropout) he inherited, as did we, I guess, let him down, let us all down.”
Matthews was asked how well the workforce worked together when they were merged.
“I think it definitely did become an ‘us and them’, Wyong versus Gosford,” she said.
“For a long time a Wyong ratepayer couldn’t go into Gosford and, you know, do their business and then the staff there would get upset because people were angry with them because they couldn’t do their job.”
Matthews said the processes didn’t run as smoothly as hoped and the IT was causing lots of problems, including the inability of staff to generate reports.
The Commissioner asked her about a line item being removed from reports from October 2019.
Matthews said that she didn’t notice it at the time but she was very aware of it now.
“That’s because the figure went to zero, but, again, I’d say that there was no resolution of Council to do that,” she said.
“Council did not authorise it, so somebody within somewhere, whether it be the accounting package or an individual, had to have changed it.”
When asked about the culture of the Council, Matthews said that from the get-go, Councillors were pretty much told that their level of interaction with staff was at the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) level and they were not to have access to anybody beyond the ELT.
“Unless you are the fly on the wall, you don’t really know what’s happening,” Matthew said.
“I mean, you hear Chinese whispers, of course, but, you know, my role, and it was very clearly spelt out to me – you’re not to speak to the staff.
“Your direct route is your CEO and your ELT.
“For ages, I kept saying and questioning that … because it would save time and energy if I could pick up the phone to a manager and ask them the question, because they are, in essence, the ones who had their finger on the pulse, they are the ones who do the majority of the day-to-day stuff. They would have the answers,” she said.
Matthews said people talked about it being a Wyong takeover and she would hear that, staff feeling threatened by a Wyong takeover.
“You know, I live and work in this community,” she said.
“There’s lots of Council staff that live in my street. So, you know, it’s hard not to hear that.
“But at a Councillor level, you really don’t know that unless you’re hearing the Chinese whispers.”
After the questioning concluded, Matthews was asked if she wanted to add anything.
She expanded on the ELT and their relationship with the Councillors.
She said in March 2020 a report was handed down about the relationship and what struck her was that there was no relationship.
“The report actually said that there was a lack of trust between the two parties,” she said.
“It happened in March 2020 and by October, of course, we were gone, and then from March 2020 we had (the issues of) COVID (and the) coastal erosion.
“So we got the report, which was great, but we never got an opportunity to deal with some of the issues in that report.”
She said the relationships were guarded and for a successful Council, they needed to be a team.
“We were not one team,” she said.
The hearings experienced technical difficulties which meant the livestream to YouTube was not public but the Commissioner of the Public Inquiry was unaware as she opened proceedings on Monday, September 27.
The hearings were adjourned on Monday afternoon and again on Tuesday as the difficulties continued.
The transcript from the interview with Matthews was made public on Tuesday.
Matthews answered a series of questions from the Commissioner, including why she did not lodge a submission.
Matthews said it was for personal reasons.
“It’s been a really tough time for me personally,” she said.
“It has had an effect on my mental health. Not only my mental health, but also on my family and I was really worried about backlash, and I – yes, I chose not to submit something, and obviously I would be available to answer questions to the best of my ability and knowledge if I needed to.”
She said she had been subject to death threats, bullying and harassment.
Merilyn Vale
If Hart wants to extend the 15% rate rise then let him dug in his own pockets. People need to realise that we had to dig deeper some years back when the then council failed again and out rates went up. Those clowns we had in council should be made to make up some of the losses THEY were responsible for.