Carol Altmann – The Terrier

The crisis around Lyndoch Living continues to deepen.

The following is a statement from the former Chair of Plenty Valley Community Health, Marcia O’Neill, where the CEO of Lyndoch Living Doreen Power worked briefly before being employed by Lyndoch.

Ms O’Neill has called upon the Lyndoch board to resign, and for an administrator to be appointed urgently.

Ms O’Neill is an experienced director and board chair, and a Fellow Certified Practicing Accountant, (FCPA) which recognises global experts in the field of accounting and business. When people the calibre of Ms O’Neill say the Lyndoch board must go, it must go:

“I respect and thank Percy Eccles for his courage in speaking up and I certainly understand his fear from past experiences in dealing with Ms Power when I was Chair of Plenty Valley Community Health (PVCH).

I see history repeating at Lyndoch Living, it’s not the first time, however in this frightful case the damage has been prolonged and action by the Board seriously lacking.

Fortunately, there has been tenacious reporting – which was courageous in the face of threats of litigation – providing some transparency by a local journalist which has documented the issues, decline and terrible harm being perpetrated at Lyndoch Living.

This reporting incurred threats of litigation personally against The Terrier and it remains to be seen if this was financed by Lyndoch Living.

Further, I believe Percy Eccles’ comments about the Boards’ relationship with the CEO, the comments ring very true, and if so, there is a breach of Directors’ Duty. They should resign.

Ms Power’s time at PVCH was very short lived.

PVCH Board consisted of experienced professionals united by courage and integrity with a sound understanding of Directors’ Duties and Corporate Law, and expertise in Corporate Governance.

To my certain knowledge, the true events at PVCH were omitted from Ms Power’s application (to Lyndoch Living) and in the reference checks submitted by the recruitment agent. This too needs to be investigated.

The same search agent was involved when PVCH recruited Ms Power from Seymour.

This was before I became chair of the PVCH, but to my certain knowledge the true events of what happened at Seymour were also not presented to the selection panel.

Members hold board members accountable and Lyndoch’s exclusion of general members means there is no recourse or method of accountability unless the regulator steps in and appoints an administrator.

In this case, it’s urgent.

Companies Limited By Guarantee take millions in Federal and State funding and must be held to account.

Sadly, I understand from experience that there will likely be quite protracted and expensive proceedings ensuing, and my thoughts are with the present and past staff and the residents and families of Lyndoch Living and the people of Warrnambool.”

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.​

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

A week ago, hundreds of people gathered in the cold to stand up for Lyndoch Living and call upon the board to tell us what’s going on.

That call has fallen on deaf ears.

The only public comments from Lyndoch chair Sue Cassidy –  as reported by The Standard last Monday – completely side-stepped the string of concerns raised at the rally by local MPs, ex-staff and concerned members of the community.

Statements from Hon Roma Britnell, Hon Bev McArthur, Hon Dan Tehan, former Lyndoch CEO Rhys Boyle, Dr Michael McCluskey, Diane Riordon, Sandy Hockley, and one little terrier, all asked the board for one thing:

Full transparency.

The board, in response, has shrugged its shoulders and shown no sign of changing a thing.

This lack of transparency flies in the face of Lyndoch being a community asset for more than 70 years. 

And it flies in the face of Lyndoch being a registered charity that each year receives tens of millions of dollars from residents and taxpayers.

As one woman in the crowd said last week, “people sell their houses to go into Lyndoch”.

This lack of public accountability means we – the public – are being left in the dark by the board that is appointed to represent us.

So our questions remain: Why are so many Lyndoch staff leaving and going to work elsewhere in aged care?

Why are there so many shocking stories about declining residential care?

Why has Lyndoch cut off community memberships?

Is the $22 million (or whatever the cost is now) medical clinic financially sound?

Based on the report in The Standard, the only comment Ms Cassidy could offer was that the board are volunteers – which is irrelevant – and are community members – which is obvious.

The fact is that Lyndoch is now run like a private company and nobody outside of the tight, Lyndoch circle gets a look in.

The social contract between the board and the community has been completely broken.

As was made clear last Sunday, the community is agitated and people are worried.

People hold genuine concerns about Lyndoch’s financial future, its staffing, its management style, and, first and foremost, the daily care of our elderly citizens.

These concerns are based on fact: both Lyndoch Living nursing home and May Noonan Hostel in Terang are under threat of sanctions. We have no idea how these failings are being addressed and if Lyndoch is on track to be re-accredited in August.

The CEO, again in comments to The Standard, blamed the failings on tougher standards. If this is the case, why is Lyndoch the only aged care home in Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Camperdown, Mortlake and beyond to be failing?

And, as it stands, the $22 million new medical clinic is nowhere near being ready to open by next month, as planned.

This means delays, and most likely cost blowouts, but we have been told nothing.

The Lyndoch board can only ignore the community for so long.

From my standpoint, it’s now on notice.

It’s on notice from our MPs, who gave a public commitment to stand with us, and we are relying on Roma Britnell, Bev McArthur and Dan Tehan to follow through, strongly.

And it’s on notice from a groundswell of people from right across the community who are now speaking up and standing up to fight for Lyndoch, both up front and behind the scenes.

If we care about Lyndoch, we have to see this through and demand full transparency and a board that either connects with the community, or steps aside.

The future of our Lyndoch depends on it.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Well, well, well…. it turns out former Warrnambool Racing Club chief Peter Downs resigned from the Lyndoch board months ago, but, oddly, officials weren’t told until the very day after The Terrier post on Facebook.

Mr Downs resigned on 18 December 2019 and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) is supposed to be told of such changes within 28 days.

Despite this, and despite Lyndoch having held at least one board meeting since then, ASIC wasn’t formally notified until 17 February – the day after the Facebook post on The Terrier.

Mr Downs’ profile was also suddenly whipped down from the Lyndoch website.

Funny, that.

As it stands, there has been no public statement by Lyndoch about Mr Downs’ departure after three years on the board, and just three months after he was re-elected for a second term.

While I am sure we’re all happy to help Lyndoch to keep up with its governance free of charge (!), the bigger picture here is cause for concern.

Who replaces Mr Downs?

As we now know, while Mr Downs’ seat at the table sat empty, the Lyndoch board was rejecting membership applications left, right and centre.

You have to be a member of Lyndoch to become a board member.

No new members = nobody can nominate for the board.

Memberships were discarded instantly because the applicants happened to know me, however closely or distantly, or have ‘liked’ a post from The Terrier.

Wow, to think that passes as acceptable.

Board vacancies no longer have to be advertised, as they were under the old rules of Lyndoch that were changed without any of us noticing.

Now, when a vacancy arises, the board members and CEO just hunt around for their preferred applicants.

If any other public body worked this way – imagine the WCC councillors and CEO deciding who could be on the council – there would be rioting in the streets.

For the wider community to have no chance to nominate for the Lyndoch board is an outrage.

In any other world, this would be called branch stacking, or insider trading, or a closed shop, or a cabal, yet we are supposed to accept it as normal.

I keep saying it, Lyndoch is owned by the community and run by the board on our behalf.

That board will hold its monthly meeting on Tuesday.

There it will decide who will replace Mr Downs. The names are in.

It will also decide which membership applications, including that of Vicki Jellie AM, will be accepted or tossed in the bin.

It’s going to be a very interesting test.

There are troubles at Lyndoch. I am going to keep saying it, despite the attempts to silence those who say the Emperor is naked.

Does the current board feel happy with how things are being run? Do they agree with this shutting out of the community? Are they monitoring the numbers of staff on sick leave? Are they happy to sit back and watch and then say they knew nothing and did nothing?

There is a lot to be learnt from what is now unfolding at the Warrnambool City Council about speaking up and standing up.

I, for one, am waiting to see who from the Lyndoch board emerges as a Bernadette Northeast – on the front foot – or as a Cr Michael Neoh – far too little, far too late.

If you would like to help The Terrier keep digging, please visit the Tip Jar here.

The Tip Jar

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Former Warrnambool Racing Club chief Peter Downs has quit the board of Lyndoch Living, having been reappointed for another three years just last October.

I don’t know exactly when Mr Downs* – who moved to Melbourne in September – resigned, but his board profile was on the Lyndoch website yesterday morning and gone by the end of the day.

This is awkward.

Lyndoch now has to fill his spot.

Mr Downs was one of nine board members, and Lyndoch must have at least nine board members under its constitution.

And here’s the catch: to become a board member, you must be first a general member.

Uh oh.

As we know, Lyndoch has only 15 14 members in total, all present and accounted for, including the board, the executive including the CEO, and two life members in Ron Patterson and David Atkinson who have already done their time.

There is nobody else, because, as we also know, nobody has been allowed to join.

No new members = no new board members.

Just yesterday there was a brilliant Letter to the Editor to the Warrnambool Standard by retired lawyer Lynn Hudson, a super-qualified person who applied to become a member of Lyndoch and was flatly rejected.

Her well-credentialled husband was also rejected. (You can read the letter here).

Lynn’s letter pulled back the veil on the farce that has seen a string of smart, caring, well-credentialled people who have applied for Lyndoch membership and been rejected with no explanation.

What an absolute joke. 

Except the joke, if it only were funny, is that the Lyndoch board now has to find a new board member.

It has four choices, only two of which will pass muster. 

One is to hand pick someone that passes the strict criteria for being a Lyndoch board member, which appears to be sit down, don’t ask tricky questions and be bedazzled by the plans to transform our aged care home into LyndochLand™.

Another is to advertise for a board member, which used to happen back in the days of equity, openness and gratitude for a community that loved Lyndoch.

A third is to do both of the above: advertise and then pick the person who has been worded up to apply.

Or…..

Or, the board just happens to have a membership application on its desk right now from one of the most qualified, most decent, most ethical, respected and upfront people in Warrnambool: Vicki Jellie, AM.

What a stroke of luck for Lyndoch Living!

Vicki, as we all know, was the driving force behind Peter’s Project, which saw a multi-million-dollar cancer treatment centre built in Warrnambool.

The AM after her name was awarded in the national Australia Day awards in 2017 as Australia’s Local Hero – a winner chosen out of the whole nation!

And yet here is Vicki, applying along with the rest of us, to see if she is good enough to be accepted as a member of Lyndoch Living where she used to work and where, first hand, she saw the changes that are now the subject of long-overdue scrutiny.

Mind you, I doubt Vicki would want to join the Lyndoch board as it stands. 

There are mounting questions about the direction of Lyndoch, and around staff morale, resignations and sick leave, which rolls on, believe me, except I am unable to speculate publicly as to why.

Mr Downs’ resignation has forced the hand of the board to reveal its true intentions and the next board meeting on 25 February will be very revealing.

We will know whether the board intends to once again be open and honest with the community that built and sustained Lyndoch for more than 60 years, or to remain a place of secrets and, I hope, growing unease.

One thing is certain, the game is up.

*I have left messages with Mr Downs late this afternoon for comment.
If you would like to apply to become a member of Lyndoch Living, here is the form.

If you would like to help keep the Terrier typing, please contribute below. 

The Tip Jar