Carol Altmann – The Terrier

What a difference a year makes.

This time a year ago, the Warrnambool City Council was in the absolute doldrums, with community satisfaction at an all-time low.

The annual satisfaction survey clearly showed Warrnambool was fed up with what had been years of suffering under a deeply divided council and a toxic internal culture – the good ol’ mate’s club – that had been allowed to flourish.

It’s two years, almost to to the day, since I wrote my first piece on the council credit card abuse.

Last year’s shocking survey result was not a consequence of just one bad year, but years of wobbling off course.

In seven of the past 10 years, for example, the council struggled to score any better than 50/100 for “overall direction”.

In 2015, it fell to just 38/100 on that score.

Last year, it bottomed out at 32/100.

As was said at the time of CEO Peter Schneider’s arrival in 2019, he inherited a shit show.

But this week, just days before Mr Schneider resumes his role after being removed illegally on 13 July, the council has bounced back big time.

The latest survey shows it has improved on every single measure.

The biggest leap was in “overall direction” which skyrocketed from 32 to 59 points.

[At this point, I have to dip my hat to the long-suffering WCC customer service team who, despite everything that has been thrown at them, have consistently scored really well in these surveys.

Being on the front line at the WCC cannot be easy.]

Enormous change has swept through the WCC these past 12 months, including the election of a brand new council in October and a change of several senior officers, right up to this week’s resignation of former Acting CEO Vikki King.

The latest Acting CEO Gary Gaffney also made an instant impact, despite only being in the place for a few weeks.

Not only was Mr Gaffney direct and decisive, he made a point of getting to know the people who worked for him – the staff – and the people he worked for, the citizens of Warrnambool.

The challenge for Mr Schneider is to maintain this momentum.

There can be no going back now.

The people have made it clear what they want and expect and the WCC is clearly tracking in the right direction.

Mr Schneider now has 12 months, before his contract will be up for renewal, to show his strengths and the next community survey results – also due in 12 months – will be a true test of his success.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Today’s emphatic victory in the Supreme Court by Warrnambool City Council CEO Peter Schneider did more than give him his job back – it has exposed the poisonous culture that tries to silence our city.

This victory exposes a rotten culture of power and entitlement that was allowed to take root and fester in the council for almost two decades.

Mr Schneider, wide-eyed and pink-cheeked off the plane from WA, walked into a culture that thrived on the cruel concept of  “insiders” and “outsiders” and the snivelling, sycophantic silence of those who quickly learned how the game was played, and who chose not to speak up, but to join in.

By joining in, they thought they might have a tiny slice of power too.

How did that work out?

Mr Schneider walked into a joint that had not had seen a staff review in 12 years.

The WCC had become a place of power plays, backroom deals, favours, payback, revenge, circles of influence, pet projects and political aspirations.

In this culture, one councillor who was on council for 16 years, Michael Neoh, was elected Mayor five times.

Peter Hulin, who was on council for a decade, was not allowed to be Mayor, even once.

Insiders and outsiders.

Mr Schneider was an “insider” for about 23 minutes – having been chosen for the job and relocating his family from across the other side of Australia – only to find he wasn’t an insider at all.

He didn’t fit the plan.

When those who thought they held all the power decided he had to go, they gathered, they plotted, and they ripped his voice out.

As Justice Michael McDonald’s judgment said in no uncertain terms today, Mr Schneider was denied the basic right to defend himself.

He was silenced.

Three other members of council, including the Mayor and a former Mayor, tried to ask questions.

The four councillors who believed they had all the power, stayed mute.

Is there any more brutal example of those who are allowed to speak and those who are not?

We have seen this silencing time and again in Warrnambool: where the cliques have gathered to protect their own and the powerless were ignored.

We see it in the ribbons fluttering on the Loud Fence outside St Joseph’s church in Lava St.

We saw it during the March4Justice rally on 15 March when sexual abuse survivors spoke for the first time.

We saw it in the battle to save Levy’s Beach from the might of the racing industry, where the words of the indigenous elders were lost in the tailwind of Darren Weir’s blazing comet.

We are seeing the same silencing take root in Lyndoch Living right now, in real time, where becoming a member or board member is no longer an opportunity open to everyone, but to a select few.

As a result, we have a situation where more than 1000 people have now signed a petition asking Lyndoch simple questions that it refuses to answer.

Insiders and outsiders: that’s how Warrnambool used to roll.

Mr Schneider’s victory today should send a message to all those who believe the voiceless will stay silent that those days are over.

The days of stepping on heads for personal power – those days are done.

But the cultural clean-out at the council is still not over.

There is an ongoing Local Government Inspectorate investigation that we all hope will provide answers to exactly what happened in the lead up to Mr Schneider’s illegal sacking and afterward.

This includes the “free” legal advice provided to then Cr Neoh, and the appointment of Vikki King as Acting CEO who, before the ink was dry on that deal, was also reappointed for another five years as manager of Community Services.

None of Ms King’s managerial colleagues signed off on that deal, so it was passed to a subordinate – a casual.

I have always believed that the truth rises and it will, and when it does, it comes with a roar.

Find the full judgment here:

Schneider v Warrnambool City Council [2021] VSC 337

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

After a three-day hearing in the Victorian Supreme Court, the fate of sacked Warrnambool City Council CEO Peter Schneider now comes down to three options:

First, he loses his case.

Second, he wins his case and accepts an untold amount of damages that are yet to be decided.

Third, Mr Schneider wins his case, his termination is quashed, and the new WCC councillors are left to decide whether they would like to keep him or replace him.

Any move by the new council to sack Mr Schneider would require a fresh motion and – no doubt – the opportunity for him to defend his record: an opportunity which his lawyers say he was denied on 13 July last year when the axe fell by way of a 4/3 vote. (Mr Schneider’s contract was due to expire in Feb 2023.)

The presiding judge Justice Michael McDonald says he hopes to hand down his judgment by 28 June and my word, it can’t come soon enough.

Because regardless of the outcome, this bruising court battle has done our city no favours.

By the time this is settled, our city will have been left sitting in grid lock for almost a year, unable to move ahead with a permanent leader.

Just as bruising is the spotlight on the tribalism within the old council.

By way of the written affidavits and evidence lodged with the court, the factionalism, infighting and petty nastiness within the previous council has been put on display outside of the Liebig St bubble.

We might have become used to it as part of our Stockholm Syndrome (since cured), but those exposed to it for the first time must have been astonished.

It’s perhaps not surprising that Justice McDonald dismissed most of the “he-said, she-said” evidence with one swipe on day one of the hearing on Tuesday, saying he wasn’t interested – “for heaven’s sake” – in the inner workings of the WCC.

He was attuned, however, to the implications of allowing a senior public official to be “caught in the cross-fire of factional warfare between councillors”.

As Justice McDonald said with punch yesterday, any CEO caught in this crossfire could be “figuratively get taken out the back and shot”.

He repeated this theme today, saying there were specific laws to protect a public official, like a council CEO, from “the capricious and whimsical actions” of others.

“Because of the close contact between a CEO and a council, this is the very example of (an officer) needing that protection.”

As I wrote last night, the case hinges on whether Mr Schneider’s individual contract and its “no reason” clause holds more sway than section 94 (c) of the Local Government Act, which, by law, says all council workers must be treated fairly.

As Justice McDonald outlined yesterday, it is a case with potential implications for every council CEO across Victoria.

In fact we learned in the final day of the hearing today that this is the first time in 28 years that the Local Government Act (1993) has been challenged in this way.

No other council in Victoria – in recent history at least – has had a legal battle between a sacked CEO and a council make its way to the Supreme Court.

So Warrnambool will make history and Schneider v Warrnambool City Council will probably find its way into the text books of the next generation of civil lawyers.

But no doubt ratepayers, who one way or the other are paying for this battle and the fallout, would prefer this chapter had never been written.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

If you think the Supreme Court battle between the Warrnambool City Council and dumped CEO Peter Schneider is just a local bunfight, think again.

The potential implications of this case for council’s right across Victoria was made clear by the presiding judge today.

The Honourable Justice Michael McDonald said if Mr Schneider loses his legal fight on the grounds argued by the WCC, every council CEO across Victoria was at risk of “figuratively (being) taken out the back and shot”.

“If you are successful, then any local government within Victoria would then have the power to terminate a contract for no reason at all,” Justice McDonald told counsel for the WCC, Ragu Appudurai.

Justice McDonald said, “looking at the very broad, non-legalistic picture”, the outcome of this case had wide-reaching implications for councils far beyond Warrnambool.

One is the “no reason” clause – like that used to dismiss Mr Schneider – left all council CEOs vulnerable to tribalism of councillors.

“A CEO could be caught in the cross-fire of factional warfare between councillors and figuratively get taken out the back and shot,” Justice McDonald said.

Justice McDonald said the CEO position was “an extremely important position” and if the WCC was found to be able to sack Mr Schneider without reason or fairness, the impact on good governance would be devastating.

“That would be an extraordinary outcome and extraordinarily destructive for good governance,” he said.

“(It would be) quite an extraordinary outcome …a council can simply employ someone on a contract which permits the council to (dismiss them) for no reason at all.”

The nub of the case is whether Mr Schneider’s individual contract holds more sway than section 94 (c) of the Local Government Act, which guarantees all council workers will be treated fairly.

Mr Appudurai today spent several hours outlining the council’s argument that Mr Schneider is not a regular council employee, but a senior employee on a specific contract.

As such, the council could sack him using the “no reason” clause in this contract and had no obligation to treat him “fairly”.

This lack of fairness included the four ex-councillors not giving Mr Schneider a chance to defend himself on the night of his sacking.

Lawyers for Mr Schneider, however, argue that no individual contract can over-ride the Act, which is the law.

They say that Mr Schneider was sacked unlawfully and so is – technically – still the CEO of the Warrnambool City Council.

This is part of what Justice McDonald will have to determine in his judgment that he hopes to hand down by 28 June.

In the meantime, an interesting question raised by the Justice today was, if Mr Schneider wins his case, what happens to the $200,000 payout he received last year?

Would it need to be repaid?

Not according to Mr Schneider’s lawyer David Grace QC, who argued that because Mr Schneider was sacked illegally, this money (after tax) was the wages he would be entitled to keep from the day he was sacked to the day he is reinstated.

In other words, Mr Schneider is still – technically – the CEO.

The WCC, however, saw this payout as “the price it had to pay” to sack Mr Schneider without reason.

To quote Justice McDonald: “there are plenty of curly questions being thrown up by this case”.

That might be the understatement of the year.

Final submissions will be heard in the Supreme Court tomorrow.