Carol Altmann – The Terrier

It’s 200 days since the plug was pulled on Lyndoch Living CEO Doreen Power and we still don’t know if Ms Power remains on the payroll, remains “on leave”, or why she disappeared so rapidly in the first place.

Ms Power’s position within Lyndoch is one of many, many unanswered questions that still hang over our community owned aged care home and which we will continue to pursue – one by one – until we have all the answers.

We will continue to pursue these answers because we have a right to know, particularly when – under the direction of Ms Power and a complicit board – Lyndoch has suffered its greatest crisis since it was started by the community more than 60 years ago.

This crisis has touched every corner of Lyndoch, from the care of elderly and vulnerable residents and retirees, to the care and wellbeing of the staff, to its financial viability, and its reputation.

So many people have been left traumatised.

It’s a long, slow road back and we all want to see Lyndoch survive and succeed, but that doesn’t include giving a free pass to those who sat at the top and steered Lyndoch into the iceberg.

The focus now is on accountability and demanding full and truthful information.

So let’s start at the top.

Ms Power, for all intents and purposes, is a public servant.

I am reliably informed that her total salary package (salary, car, super) is around the $310,000 a year mark, so she is one of the most highly paid public servants in Warrnambool.

If Ms Power has been “on leave” for 200 days, she is still drawing on this salary package…for doing what, exactly?

As this is public money – the equivalent of around $1000 a day – we have a right to know.

It’s not good enough for Lyndoch to keep rolling out the line that Ms Power is on leave and we must respect her privacy.

The latter is not a problem, but we want to know what Ms Power is doing for her salary, is she suing Lyndoch, is she fighting to come back? Or is she actually in the Bahamas on an extended holiday? I doubt it.

I’m hoping to shed some further light on the CEO’s status later this week.

This is the beginning of my second, deep and slow dive into Lyndoch where I will follow all the breadcrumbs back, because it’s astonishing that despite all that has happened, all that has been uncovered and reported and confirmed, not one person has been held to account, accepted responsibility, or apologised to the people of Lyndoch and the wider community.

Not one.

This seems to be a worrying trend.

A Royal Commission in Brisbane into abuse within a disability service commented last week that:  “The board … has issued no public statement or statement to staff regretting the failures of the past and acknowledging responsibility. The board remains largely unchanged.”

“What seems to me to be striking … is nobody seems to have been held accountable,” Commissioner Ronald Sackville said, in a report on the ABC.

Sound familiar?

 

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Lyndoch staff were today sent a message from board chair Sue Cassidy announcing that CEO Doreen Power is on ​”​annual leave​”​.

The chair may be hamstrung, legally, by what she can say at this point, but “annual leave” only creates confusion and uncertainty for staff.

The same statement was made to the local paper and explains nothing.

This is how Lyndoch has rolled for the past four years: full of uncertainty, mistrust, confusion and “who do we believe?”.

So, in the face of this “who do we believe?”, I again defer to my rock solid sources​ ​who have never let me down these past four years while ​we have navigated ​a​ lonely and torrid river toward the truth​.

I can tell you this: Ms Power went to work yesterday and was gone from her office by 4pm, apparently lugging two large bags. They were not suitcases packed for a trip to Port Douglas.

Also in the building yesterday afternoon were board Chair Ms Cassidy and Treasurer Kane Grant who met with the CEO.

They were not checking on her holiday plans.

What I understand is at that meeting, the CEO was given the option to resign, or an independent investigation would be launched into the many allegations surrounding her “management style”.

The board would then use the results of this investigation to make a decision on her future.

Such an investigation would protect the board from any claims by Ms Power of unfair dismissal, because – as we know – the board has fully supported the CEO and everything she has done.

Ms Power now has a choice while on “annual leave”: resign and, most likely, be paid out for the remainder of her contract OR remain on leave and be mired in a full-blown investigation.

But why did the board act NOW? Why not last week? Or last month? Or last year?

My sources tell me there was movement from ​health worker unions and WorkSafe that was about to hit the board with a sledgehammer.

Worksafe and the State Health Minister have been watching Lyndoch closely, and my sources tell me that Wednesday, the day before Ms Power was confronted by the board members, another long list of complaints had been formally lodged with Worksafe by a lawyer.

There can only be so many complaints and allegations about over-work, intimidation, bullying, toxicity and pressure to “do certain things”, before the hammer swings.

The board has legal obligations around staff safety which it must uphold or it may face serious penalties as individuals, including fines and jail.

The State Minister also has a duty of care, as Lyndoch Living is contracted by the State Government to run its state-funded beds at Lyndoch.

This explains a lot.

We all know the seven board members didn’t wake up yesterday morning and suddenly decide the CEO was not the same person they had backed all the way for seven years.

Just three weeks ago, the board refused to let our local MP speak confidentially at its board meeting about the CEO.

But yesterday, after our local MP spoke about the CEO in Parliament on Tuesday, they were all action stations.

Turn out they could be all running for the life boats because with WorkSafe now heavily on the case, it’s either the CEO, or it could be them.

Trouble is, the board has lost community trust and credibility.

We lost faith in them a year ago, not only because they have continually backed the source of all the toxicity and troubles, but they have treated the community with contempt.

They must go.

All of ​those responsible for enabling the culture that has almost killed Lyndoch cannot be a part of its ​healing and its ​renewal.

The next Lyndoch AGM is in October: all board positions should be advertised now, for a complete spill and a new start.

We, as a community, deserve nothing less than a clean sweep.​