A REMINDER. Mayor Tony Herbert was on ABC radio yesterday (8/10/19) and pondered why the WCC whistleblowers didn’t just wander in and talk to CEO Peter Schneider about their concerns.
Let me answer that question by starting with this text message (pictured).
This message was sent to all Warrnambool City Council staff when former tourism chief David McMahon resigned in mid July.
It was sent by CEO Peter Schneider: the new guy, the one who brought great hopes of a clean slate, a fresh start, a new way of doing things.
In it, the CEO praises Mr McMahon, thanks him for his efforts and wishes him well.
Mr McMahon quit because his gross misuse of ratepayers’ money had been exposed publicly here.
Mr McMahon was also a foul-mouthed bully and his behaviour, for which he was never called to account by his superiors, broke a lot of people.
There were people within council who knew about both of these things.
Yet, until July 16, Mr McMahon kept his job; unscathed and intact.
And when he did quit, he was praised by the new man in charge – the boss.
For many council staff, this was gutting.
Perhaps Mr Schneider now regrets this message, but wait, there is more, there always is.
From the minute I published my stories about the credit card abuse, the council has been trying to uncover my sources. They want to flush out and punish anyone who told the truth.
This is happening under Mr Schneider’s watch.
And still the Mayor and CEO wonder why nobody is coming to them with their allegations, concerns and fears.
I can sum it up in a word: trust.
And, right now, there is none.
Restoring trust, as Ratepayers Victoria has made clear, is the challenge.
The next few months will be telling.
Boom! Whistleblowers drop a bomb on the WCC
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Holy moly, I step away from Warrnambool for three weeks and return to find the place is on fire, with whistleblowers dropping an A-bomb right onto the Warrnambool City Council.
A string of red-hot allegations has been sent to Ratepayers Victoria after its president, Dean Hurlston, urged council staff to “whistle loudly” if they knew anything about the misuse of public money following the WCC credit card scandal.
Mr Hurlston has listed the allegations in a letter sent yesterday to WCC Mayor Tony Herbert and CEO Peter Schneider, and paints a damning picture of what was allegedly going on behind closed doors.
The allegations include cover-ups, mismanagement, fraudulent behaviour and a lack of action in response to staff concerns that stretched to the very top.
We even, allegedly, paid for private parties dressed up as “events”.
Here is the list:
Attempts over time to raise significant concerns of fraudulent spending and cover up of same;
Systematic abuse of internal controls of authorisation of spending by management;
Coercion and direction by senior management to subvert said controls and “help hide” spending;
Direction to suppliers to “alter” the contents of invoices to hide the true nature of expenditure;
The use of WCC resources for personal or family benefit;
The use of WCC assets for personal gain;
Inadequate reporting of expenditure (thousands of dollars’ worth of transactions reported as “supplies”);
“Parties” and “events” openly abusing the use of council funds (ratepayers’ monies); and
WCC not investigating or attempting to recover falsely procured items.
You might want to read that list twice, as I did, to digest it.
It sums up all of the issues that have been swirling around the WCC “credit card scandal” which, as I have said so many times, is just the tip of the iceberg.
Mr Hurlston has urged the whistleblowers to contact IBAC and the Local Government Inspectorate immediately and seek confidential and protected disclosure. (I am going to add to that and say they should also contact the Victorian Ombudsman straight away, where an inquiry is already underway. The number is 9613 6222.)
He has also urged the council to appoint an external investigator so all staff with any information about misconduct are able to speak freely and openly.
To be clear, at this stage these are allegations only, but the fact the whistleblowers have gone to RV in the first place speaks volumes.
Whistleblowers take an enormous risk and nobody throws themselves into that line of fire without weighing up the potential cost of being exposed and punished.
It comes as no surprise to me that RV says in its letter that some staff claim they have been intimidated and bullied “for trying to expose the truth”.
Yep, I know all about those tactics, and I can only imagine how dis-spiriting and terrifying it must be for those who depend on the council for their livelihood.
The WCC is still doing all it can to shut people up, including me, but it won’t work.
Why?
Because too many people want the truth.
You want the truth. The whistleblowers want the truth. Ratepayers Victoria want the truth. I want the truth.
So the council may continue to spend hours of energy trying to shut this all down, to limit the damage, to flush out the leakers, and to punish or discredit those who speak up, but it won’t work.
And our sole newspaper may prefer to write stories about desperate people stealing twiggy sticks or passion pop, but uncovering corporate crime and mismanagement is a slow, complicated and often boring process. Twiggy sticks get more clicks.
Yet the truth always rises to the top.
I call it a slow burn.
Even when a bombshell drops like today, it can take months or even years to peg out all the facts, but it will happen and it will be well worth it because that, dear terriers, is what accountability is all about.
It’s good to be back.
If you would like to support the work of The Terrier, please consider throwing something in the tip jar.
DOWN TIME: The Terrier is taking a bit of a breather, to recharge and refuel.
Foxy, however, has been unable to squeeze two or three timely facts into her doggy bag, so she is leaving them behind.
Here is the first: Moonee Valley Council has 906 full-time equivalent staff. W’bool City Council has 390. MVC has 32 corporate credit cards. WCC has 81.
MVC has a collective limit on these cards of $269,000. WCC won’t reveal its collective limit, but one card alone chewed up $40,000 in 18 months.
Here is the second: Warracknabeal Council has 104 full time equivalent staff and one credit card. The annual spend is $9000.
(Thanks to Ratepayers Victoria for passing on these two facts – RV is asking all councils how many cards they have, and their annual spend.)
And here is a final fact: the $1476 dinner at Pippie’s was a Sister-City function for Miura, Japan, says Cr Mike Neoh, who was part of that event. Cr Neoh says he paid $83 toward the final bill that more than covered his share. (Cr Neoh doesn’t drink alcohol).
Even though it was an official council function, Cr Neoh said he decided to pay something. (“Why? Good question. Might be a cultural thing,” he said via email.)
An even better question is why, when asked, didn’t the council just say it was a Sister City function?
Why all the secrecy and side-stepping?
No wonder Barry needs a break. The Terrier will be back on deck shortly after 5 October, all revved up and ready to roll.
See you then!
Credit card rort: Foxy the fact checker goes digging
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Foxy the fact checker has barged into the office, panting and sweating, with some freshly baked facts about the credit card spending of former W’bool City Council tourism head David McMahon.
Righto, Foxy, do your thing:
Fact: Mr McMahon repaid a total of $5666.85 to the WCC last year, not around $4000 as I thought from adding up the “missing” receipts released through Freedom of Information.
Fact: This is what has been repaid, not what should have been repaid. That figure is still being worked out.
Fact: This $5666.85 was repaid on Monday 5 November 2018, just six days after I lodged my FOI application with the council.
These two facts, which were released via Freedom of Information, took 5.5 weeks and $54 in fees to find out.
The one-page document from the WCC general ledger showing Mr McMahon’s repayment of $5666.84 on 5 November 2018.
What other facts do you have Foxy? Cut loose!
Fact: Mr McMahon repaid the $5666.85 just a few days after a meeting with then-CEO Bruce Anson.
Fact: The Audit and Risk Committee met in November last year, the month of the repayment, but was told nothing.
Fact: Audit and Risk Committee meetings are attended by the council CEO (at that time Bruce Anson), the Director of Corporate Strategies, Peter Utri, the Manager of Financial Services, David Harrington, the Manager of Governance and Risk, Anne-Maree Neal, and an internal auditor.
Fact: On 20 November last year, after the $5666.85 repayment, the council published a six-month report into strategic risks, the chance of them happening, the impact and how to stop them. The $5666.85 didn’t rate a mention.
Fact: The credit card abuse was not reported to IBAC (Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission) under mandatory reporting.
Fact: Mr McMahon kept his job…and his corporate credit card.
What Foxy can’t reveal is exactly what the $5666.84 was spent on, because if you are of a certain mind, it’s easy to hide such spending, especially if you know that nobody is looking too closely.
Dinner receipts are easy to disguise, like that for a 10-course tasting menu at a local restaurant under the guise of Fun4Kids. Generic image.
Fact: Unauthorised spending was inserted into invoices, wrapped up into “room hire”, covered up in “catering”, or buried under those two little words, “council business”.
Fact: One of the missing receipts is for a 10-course, tasting menu with matching wines that lasted four hours in a local restaurant that Mr McMahon enjoyed with a Fun4Kids supplier.
Fact: Foxy found another little receipt for $78 worth of car parking in Melbourne on Friday 12 October 2018.
This receipt coincided with the 125th birthday celebrations of St Patrick’s College Ballarat, held at the MCG, which Mr McMahon attended as (now former) secretary of the St Pat’s old boys.
Did we pay for the parking? Probably.
Is that it Foxy? You must be truly fact after uncovering all of those facts.
No? One more? Okay, spit it out:
Fact: there was a third council person at the almost $700 dinner and booze up at the Myrtle Bar and Kitchen on 18 July last year, that included five bottles of shiraz.
It was Mr McMahon.
His name, unlike Cr Sue Cassidy’s, was missing from the receipt submitted to council by City Growth manager Andrew Paton.
Well fancy that, Foxy, fancy that.
Barry the Boolshite Detector has just passed me a note:
“Bring on the Ombudsman’s inquiry, signed Barry.”
[Note: the $1476 dinner at Pippie’s was a Sister-City function for people from Miura, Japan. Money well spent? I don’t know. Cr Mike Neoh was part of that event, but says he paid $83 toward the final bill that more than covered his share. He doesn’t drink. Cr Neoh bypassed the usual slog and outlined all of this in an email, two hours after I asked him the questions last Thursday. If only every other question to council was answered as quickly and directly.]
Foxy the Fact Checker has joined Barry the Bullshite detector in The Terrier kennel.
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
I want you to meet Foxy. I will tell you more about her at the end of this piece, but we need Foxy, because speaking up is now a crime.
If you raise your voice and shout at a Warrnambool City Council meeting, you face an $825 fine, or, to put it into council currency, one Pickled Pig dinner, six bottles of shiraz and two creme brûlées.
This is a local law that was designed to protect councillors and staff from aggression or violence toward each other, or from the public. It is now being used to shut people up.
Not all people, mind you, just the Neanderthals, as Cr Michael Neoh likes to call them.
These “Neanderthals” include the everyday people of Warrnambool who don’t wear suits and who have callouses on their hands from physical work, or tired faces from holding down two jobs while raising three kids.
According to Cr Neoh and Cr Kylie Gaston and our CEO Peter Schneider, these people now need to be shut down for shouting, like they did at last Monday night’s fiery meeting.
If police need to be called, Cr Gaston is happy to use speed dial.
And yet no police have been called by the WCC for the almost $4000 in ratepayers’ funds that were mis-spent by a former senior manager.
This man was an actual Neanderthal, but he wore a suit and was regarded as a “good bloke” by our Mayor and others while he ripped off ratepayers and bullied a string of council staff mercilessly.
Not a word was raised last Monday night about that Neanderthal’s bullying behaviour.
Instead, within hours, the finger was pointed back on the people who have had a gut full of years of waste and not being heard.
The main agitator, ratepayer Ben Blain, who was facing a fine, was loud, no doubt about it, but he was not abusive, or threatening. In fact he was pleading.
Here’s a theatrical but accurate transcript of the full exchange. Warning: contains foul language like “sack ’em” and “cheat” and “you have not got your house in order”.
——-
Lights up. Agenda Item 5.4: Council decides to increase its carbon footprint by flying 31,000km to and from Mariestad, Sweden, to learn how to reduce its carbon footprint.
Ratepayer Ben leaves his seat, walks to the front of the public gallery, his pants trembling with nerves:
(Cue loud voice….aaaaaaand action!):
“Peter Schneider was the council aware of anyone’s involvement? We have sat here and listened to the council try and hide every single cover up that has happened in this place and we are not going to take it anymore.
We are the ratepayers, we are the ones that have voted you in, and you think it is alright to sit here and lie, cheat and steal. Listen to the ratepayers.
What we want is transparency. That is what we want.
How do you think we are going to put up with this?
(Mayor Herbert: Ben, Ben, I have asked you to leave.)
How do you think we are going to put up with this?
It is absolutely disgusting. We can’t afford to run the city with the rates we’ve got and then you want more to go to Sweden.
You have not got your house in order. How do you think the ratepayers….
(Mayor Herbert: I have asked you to leave.)
(Ratepayer chorus: Nooooo! Nooooo! Noooooo!)
(Mayor Herbert: Right, councillors, we will adjourn the meeting please.)
(Ratepayer chorus: Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh.)
Meeting adjourned for 10 minutes while CEO Schneider spoke quietly with ratepayer who had returned to his seat.
Councillors re-emerge.
Meeting resumes and picks up again at item 5.4.
Meeting rolls on for almost another hour with a few jeers and moans and groans.
Subdued crowd reignited fully by Cr Gaston’s speech about The Terrier (aka Fox Terrier News), during which Cr Gaston reveals her preference for media that behaves like a toothless tiger, rather than a blog that bites.
Lights down. We all go home.
This is democracy in action and I am determined to keep fighting for it.
As part of that, and because Cr Gaston said she would like my fact checking to be public, I have hired Foxy the Fact Checker. She works 7.6 hours a week alongside Barry the Bullshite detector and she will have her first outing shortly.
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
