Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Former Lyndoch Living board member Percy Eccles has called for the entire board to “consider their positions” in the face of rising pressure for them to resign.

Mr Eccles, who served on the board for almost 10 years before his resignation last year, was speaking after CEO Doreen Power was stood down last Thursday.

He said he believed the board was “led by the CEO” and that they followed her direction, rather than the reverse.

“If the information I have been reading (about the CEO being stood down) is correct, then it’s a very good day for Lyndoch,” he said.

“I call upon all of the board members to consider their positions, because it’s my belief that they were led by the CEO, rather than the CEO being led by the board.”

Mr Eccles said it was one of the greatest pleasures of his life when he served as a Lyndoch board member in the early years, but that this changed dramatically in recent years.

“As a board member for almost 10 years, it was one of the joys of my life to serve the people and the staff, especially when Lyndoch was under the leadership of former CEO Rhys Boyle,” he said.

“But in the few years prior to my resignation, I have never been more disappointed in the board’s direction,” Mr Eccles said.

Mr Eccles has been unable to speak publicly until now due to fears of legal action by the highly litigious CEO.

Following reports on The Terrier that the CEO has departed, however, Mr Eccles said he felt able to speak up.

While Mr Eccles could not comment on specific discussions within board meetings, it’s understood one of the many issues he pursued vigorously while on the board was a breakdown of how much was spent each year on lawyers and consultants.

A line-by-line breakdown was never provided.

[I have also attempted to obtain this breakdown, but the figures are exempt from Freedom of Information due to Lyndoch now being a quasi-private company.]

It’s widely known within Lyndoch, however, that a handful of highly paid consultants have been contracted multiple times for their services.

One of these includes a consultant who had an existing relationship with Lyndoch and was on the selection panel when the CEO was selected in 2014.

That particular consultant, who is not from Warrnambool, has since been employed multiple times and was a regular attendee at board meetings. It’s understood this consultant was paid $3000 a day.

It’s also known that, in recent years, Lyndoch changed its legal firm from a local based firm to a top law firm in Melbourne who, among other things, was paid by Lyndoch to launch personal defamation actions on behalf of the CEO and another corporate staff member.

Mr Eccles was also one of three board members on the selection panel when Ms Power was appointed in 2014.

Mr Eccles said he did not agree with the choice of Ms Power and made this known to the panel at the time.

When the other two board members decided Ms Power was the best applicant, however, he signed off on the appointment for the sake of cohesion.

Ms Power’s tenure has seen a dramatic decline in residential care at Lyndoch, largely due to a mass exodus of experienced staff, many of whom tried to speak up about the toxic culture that had developed.

The board did nothing in response to these concerns.

Lyndoch chair Sue Cassidy told media and staff Ms Power was on “annual leave” as of last Thursday. It’s still not clear exactly what prompted the board to suddenly stand Ms Power down.

Pressure is now mounting for the board to follow, with almost 2000 signatures in an online and offline petition that began before Ms Power’s departure.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Another member of the Lyndoch Living board has resigned – the second resignation from the board in two months.

Suzanne Coulson, a researcher and lecturer at Deakin University in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, joined the Lyndoch board in 2017.

I don’t know why Ms Coulson resigned, and I doubt she could speak to me anyway, as all board members are bound by a confidentiality agreement which was introduced after the departure of former CEO Rhys Boyle in 2015.

Ms Coulson’s resignation follows that of veteran board member Percy Eccles, who left in March after serving almost 10 years.

Ms Coulson was one of only two board members with medical qualifications. The other is fellow lecturer in the Deakin School of Nursing and Midwifery, Lorraine Mielnik.

The resignations of both Mr Eccles and Ms Coulson come as Lyndoch Living faces mounting pressure to explain a number of concerns around its plan to build a $24 million medical clinic on site, with fears the project could send Lyndoch broke.

Lyndoch’s former Acting Chief Financial Officer Allan Conway raised the red flag publicly when he said he did not support the clinic project in its current form.

Lyndoch recently appointed its third chief financial officer in five years, with the departures of David Knight and Katie Wright.

Other recent executive resignations include IT director Dr Ed Rhode and Director of People and Resilience Fiona Moore.

A community action group made up of Warrnambool residents concerned for the future of Lyndoch was launched last week – you can follow/like the “Keep Lyndoch living” group on Facebook here.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Long-standing Lyndoch Living board member Percy Eccles has resigned.

Mr Eccles, who has been a Lyndoch board member for nearly 10 years, said in a brief comment today that he resigned because he didn’t “feel I could have any more input, other than what I have already done”.

He declined to comment further.

Mr Eccles’ resignation comes as Lyndoch prepares to launch into building a $20-million-plus medical clinic on the former Tomlinson site that will house up to 20 GPs, a dentist, radiologist and education centre.

The ambitious project will be entirely funded by Lyndoch, including via bank loans and borrowing from Residential Aged Care bonds (as is currently allowed under federal aged care laws).

Mr Eccles’ resignation also comes as Lyndoch prepares to announce its new Chief Financial Officer, which will be its third CFO in five years, following the departures of David Knight and, later, Katie Wright who did not return from maternity leave.

Acting CFO Allan Conway – who filled in for Ms Wright – did not apply for the position and has also recently left Lyndoch.

Since Lyndoch first announced its $100 million masterplan in 2016, there has been growing concern over its ability to fund its rollout and the risks involved, particularly around the medical clinic which is due to open in 12 months.

A smaller, interim medical clinic is already under construction at Lyndoch, on the ground floor of the new Swinton Wing.

From what I am being told, there is a growing belief inside and outside of Lyndoch that the smaller medical clinic would be a far less risky investment and the larger medical clinic should be put on hold, if built at all.

In the meantime, we will have to wait and see if the board vacancy is advertised, or if a replacement for Mr Eccles will be appointed behind the scenes, as happened with the appointment of Prof Rob Wallis to replace former racing club CEO Peter Downs.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

This past week has seen two extremely serious issues arise at Lyndoch Living aged care in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and yet the response from the board is a wall of silence.

First, Lyndoch only issued masks to all of its staff yesterday: 12 days after the Federal health minister declared masks mandatory for staff in all aged care homes in Victoria.

Second, Lyndoch allowed two people from Melbourne into its facility last Thursday and Friday, despite that city being in full lockdown and a declaration from the Victorian Chief Health Officer that, as of last Wednesday night, tightened access to aged care homes even further.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

The time has come to use our voices, stand up for Lyndoch and show that Warrnambool will not tolerate bullies, no matter who they are, where they come from, or what they promise.

I have now had contact with 33 people, including past and present Lyndoch workers, about the toxic culture and the warped priorities that have allegedly taken root within its walls. By the end of this weekend, I will have spoken to 36.

We can’t turn away and expect the victims of this culture to fix it; they can’t.

Instead we, as a community of terriers, need to get involved, to step up and hold the Lyndoch board to account for what is unfolding on its watch.

We did this with the Warrnambool City Council credit card scandal and we can do it again.

Some of Lyndoch’s most senior and experienced staff are among the 70 to 80 people who have left in the past two years and the resignations just keep coming, yet the board remains silent.

If this was happening in a primary school, or our hospital, or inside TAFE, it would be front page news.

So would some of the decisions around the use of public funds.

As it stands, Lyndoch Living – as a registered charity – has spent more than $100,000 on gambling via sponsoring a steeplechase and hosting a corporate marquee at the May races, and somehow this passes as core business.

We also know that Lyndoch plans to spend millions of dollars to build and run a new medical centre that nobody has asked for, while at the same time it doesn’t have enough experienced nurses to fill shifts, and basic furniture needs replacing.

Enough.

I am unable to look on while personal power trips are pursued at the expense of Lyndoch staff wellbeing and, ultimately, the care of our elderly.

So this is what we can do:

– contact the board: chair Kerry Nelson (knelson@mpower.org.au) or any of the other board members: Andrew Paton, Cr Sue Cassidy, Ron Page, Percy Eccles, Kane Grant, Peter Downs, Suzanne Coulson and Lorraine Mielnik via a letter to Lyndoch Living, 10 Hopkins Rd, Warrnambool.

– ask the board about staff morale, staff resignations and Lyndoch’s core priorities;

– contact our local MP Roma Britnell (roma.britnell@parliament.vic.gov.au) and ask her to investigate, just as her Liberal colleague Cindy McLeish did in response to the troubles at Seymour Health;

– write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper which, unfortunately, no longer does investigative journalism;

– most importantly, become a member of Lyndoch: it’s free to apply, can be done by filling out a simple form, and means you can have a say on where Lyndoch is heading and who is in charge.

 

At the moment, Lyndoch has very few members, including the nine people on the board, two life members (Ron Patterson, David Atkinson), the CEO Doreen Power, and four senior staff.

It’s a tight little shop.

Under the new rules of Lyndoch (last year it changed from an association to a company limited by guarantee), these members have significant powers, including standing for the board, voting for the board, and being involved in the AGM.

In fact, unless you are a member, Lyndoch has no obligation to even tell you when the AGM will be held.

This is what happened last October when, for the first time, the Lyndoch AGM was not advertised, nor were the board vacancies.

But here’s the rub: the board gets to decide who can become a member of Lyndoch, so even if you apply, you may not be accepted.

It’s open to all sorts of manipulation and perhaps explains why the current board is such a curious mix.

There are no GPs on the board. There is no lawyer.

But there is the former CEO of the Warrnambool Racing Club, Mr Downs, who now lives in Melbourne and works for Moonee Valley: if that’s not a massive conflict of interest between the board and Lyndoch’s support for racing, Barry the Bullshite Detector and I will run three times around the racecourse.

(Actually, Barry, we will need to do four laps, because Ms Power and Mr Downs also have shares in a racehorse.)

The Lyndoch company secretary – a former PA to Ms Power – also has no accounting or legal qualifications, despite now monitoring a multi-million-dollar organisation.

From all the evidence, none of these people in charge are asking the hard questions about Lyndoch’s operations, or none are asking them publicly.

Cr Cassidy, for example, has gone from being a power house to a mouse. The bold woman who stood up and exposed the games behind the council mayoral race has nothing to say about Lyndoch. She won’t return my calls.

Chair Kerry Nelson? Not a word.

They are supposed to be our eyes and ears, yet all we have is silence.

To me, the entire Lyndoch board and senior executive are accountable for the distress of every single Lyndoch person who is suffering or has suffered.

So I am going to keep exposing what I know, and I am going to also apply to become a member of Lyndoch, although I doubt I will be accepted, even though my mother was in Lyndoch for 10 years, and my late Dad, as a bricklayer, helped build some of it.

Warrnambool people started Lyndoch, we still own it, and we all have a stake in caring for its residents, its staff and its future.

What started as an important story for me is now a campaign – unashamedly – to restore a bold community voice inside Lyndoch and to stand up for those who need us to be strong.

On we go.

You can find the Lyndoch membership form here and its new constitution here.

Next: digging into the multi-million-dollar medical clinic.

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