Carol Altmann – The Terrier

More on the Ombudsman’s incredible report:

If ever there was an example of how loose the goose was running down at 25 Liebig St, it is this one – the “spend local” idea during the Liebig St upgrade.

A large swathe of the spending on credit cards held by managers other than David McMahon – including City Growth Manager Andrew Paton and former Economic Growth Manager Shaun Miller – is explained away by the council through its “spend local” idea.

According to the Ombudsman’s report, the council had set aside a budget of $170,000 a year for “support local” activities during the Liebig St upgrade.

Under this, “council officers were encouraged to hold work-related meetings at local cafés and restaurants, and to use their Council credit cards to pay for food and coffees”.

A noble cause, perhaps, but this is a remarkably generous eat-and-drink plan that I don’t recall ratepayers ever being told about.

More importantly, as the Ombudsman points out: “No guidance was issued by Council to assist Council officers decide what was an acceptable purchase using Council funds and what was not, other than the directives in the Procurement Policy and the Credit Card Policy.”

No guidance and a $170,000 a year budget: that’s a winning formula.

Mr Paton told the Ombudsman he was mindful of community perceptions and told his team that the “rules” were the meeting had to be business related, and involve another council officer or stakeholder.

(Call me naive, but that sounds like a recipe for pretty much anything goes.)

Here is Mr Paton’s response to the Ombudsman: “… it’s easy to look at a spreadsheet and say, ‘You spent $600 on coffees. How do you justify that?’ with no context of why that meeting occurred and why that expenditure occurred. And that’s a hard one to explain sometimes even to the people who are involved in it …

“I can see how that would look. But in terms of the context of the space we were in and the battle we were in, I’ll use that language … it was a bit of a battle to try and keep the wheels spinning because it was a day-today thing.”

I am not sure how this accounts for the after-hours work drinks on a Friday night at places like the Hairy Goat or the Warrnambool Hotel.

I am also curious as to why the “spend local” was confined to pretty much the same places: Fishtales, The Hairy Goat, Seanchai, Whaler’s, Warrnambool Hotel….

Nobody ever opted for Mack’s Snacks.

As the Ombudsman says, while this “shop local” idea may have been well-intentioned, the approach was “fundamentally unwise” and the public perception could rightly be council staff eating and drinking on the public purse, as opposed to doing “business”.

Again, this report not only reveals what was clearly misuse of a credit card by one person, but what was permissible use of a credit card by others who were simply following the “rules”.

Thankfully those rules have now changed.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

More on the Ombudsman’s report: The Myrtle Bar & Kitchen.

Readers will recall the story on The Terrier about the almost $700 dinner held at the Myrtle Bar & Kitchen and attended by City Growth Manager Andrew Paton, David McMahon, Cr Sue Cassidy and the head of the Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism authority.

This dinner was paid for on Mr Paton’s credit card and included five bottles of shiraz.

Here is what Mr Paton has told the Ombudsman by way of explanation:

“When the evening finished and we settled the bill, I looked at the bill and I was shocked by it. My initial thought was to query it, and then split the bill; and I didn’t do that, and, and I regret it.

“So I can see what that looks like, it’s about, oh we’re building a relationship with GORRT (Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism) by wining and dining them, and I get that, totally get that perception.

“But the picture for me and how I rationalised it, was the outcomes that I got from that discussion, that on balance I had good outcomes, but it didn’t meet my personal standards.

“That dinner with Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism delivered some good things, but there are some things that could have been done better that I regret.”

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I wonder what the “outcomes” and “good things” from this dinner were – wouldn’t it be great to see a public report!

The Ombudsman records that Cr Sue Cassidy last October voluntarily repaid $200 toward this bill after she regarded it as “excessive”. I guess that’s something.

On a similar note, the $1476 dinner held at Pippies By the Bay Restaurant in May 2018 – reported as part of this same story – has led to greater restraint on Sister City functions.

In 2018, it was “free reign in ordering”, so of course everyone went for the lobster and abalone.

As the Ombudsman reports: “(this) did not meet community expectations and it (the council) has taken steps to allocate a moderate per head allowance to these meals”.

All of which reminds me of the line I wrote in that original story:

“…this is not about catching people breaking the law…but exposing the steaming pile of inappropriate and unjustifiable spending that gives so little return to the ratepayer.

It’s this unjustifiable spending – via poor governance – that people want independently audited, cleaned up and cleaned out.”

I have to say I am feeling a little emotional as I write all this, knowing that this has now all been exposed after a true team effort, and change has come as a result.

It has been a long road.

More soon.