Grant District Mayor Richard Sage has come under fire from his elected colleagues after being found to have committed misconduct in public administration.
The State Ombudsman Wayne Lines has informed Mayor Sage that he committed misconduct in public administration and appeared to act contrary to law by failing to declare and appropriately deal with a conflict of interest in relation to an agenda item in October 2019 and refused to follow the council’s Charter of Agreed Behaviours.
The Ombudsman instructed Mayor Sage to make a public apology, undertake conflict of interest training, and warned that he could be reprimanded by council if he did not follow the charter in the future.
The matter was discussed at council’s meeting on Monday night, with councillors lining up to take aim at Mayor Sage. Councillor Shirley Little alleged that, because of Mayor Sage’s actions, “council has lost very knowledgeable and valuable staff, over many years of service leading up to the Ombudsman’s report.”
Cr Little said “there are many lessons to be learnt” from the situation and apologised to staff after their positions “were made untenable”. Cr Megan Dukalskis went one further and said she was “fed up with the damage caused by the fallout of Mayor Sage’s actions his actions have tarnished our council”.
“The human costs are immeasurable as well as the financial costs borne by ratepayers,” she said, before adding any further conflict of interest training should be paid for by Mayor Sage, not ratepayers.
Her comments came after Councillor Barry Kuhl earlier moved that, as Mayor Sage already attended conflict of interest training on April 30, in the form of one-on-one training, he has already met the Ombudsman’s requirements for conflict of interest training.
The motion, at the time, was seconded by Cr Brad Mann. However, Cr Dukalskis put forward an addendum to this motion that Mayor Sage be made to pay for any cost of further training and not ratepayers, as ratepayers already paid for previous conflict of interest training, to which Cr Kuhl agreed.
The addendum was seconded by Cr Little, with councillors voting in favour of the addendum. Council did not vote to amend any of the Ombudsman’s other recommendations for action.
Cr Clayfield, who sat as Deputy Mayor while Mayor Sage was absent, acknowledged former staff in the council’s chambers during Monday night’s proceedings, including former deputy chief executive Jane Fetherstonhaugh and former community development coordinator Jayne Miller.
Before the councillors having their say, Mayor Sage was allowed to read a prepared statement to the meeting, before leaving the room. “Darryl, Grant District Council has come a long way since you were appointed as the CEO of council in October 2019,” Mayor Sage said.
“You have ensured Elected Members have been involved in meeting procedures training and other legislation through Norman Waterhouse Lawyers. “Have held two cultural engagement workshops for Elected Members and council staff simultaneously.
“Council and staff are still working on the Charter of Expected Behaviours framework and are also about to revisit the communications framework. “Some 18 months forward, we are all starting to move on in a positive way for the council and our community.
“I have indicated on the Elected Members training sheet my willingness to attend conflict of interest training.” Mayor Sage offered a brief explanation for not declaring a conflict of interest. “In hindsight I allowed my emotions to rule my actions with regard to not declaring a conflict of interest and not dealing with the matter appropriately,” he said.
“This special meeting was called by three Elected Members with four hours’ notice and the agenda and resolutions pre-empted an outcome thus being determined before the meeting. “I felt the resolutions listed were pre-determined.
“The Ombudsman was quite clear in his determination that in trying to defend myself gave rise to me not complying with the Local Government Act with regard to the conflict of interest.”
Mayor Sage said he had been found non-compliant in refusing to agree to council’s Charter of Expected Behaviours. “As mentioned above this continues to be something the whole council is strongly trying to adhere to,” he said.
“I know I publicly stated that I would not sign up to the Charter as I have had difficulty with the expectations of access to my diary that contained my work roster for various reasons including confidentiality.
“For this the Ombudsman has not ruled in my favour with the evidence supplied saying that I refused to follow to sign up to the complete Charter was also a mistake in reflection. “I have attempted to meet these expectations to the best of my ability and as the Charter is a work in progress, we all need to continue working on being compliant with it.
“I would like to take this opportunity to formally apologise to Council (Elected Members and staff) that I failed to declare and appropriately deal with a ‘conflict of interest’ in relation to Agenda Item 5.1.1 at the meeting held on the 1st October 2019 and refusing to commit to the Council’s Charter of Agreed Behaviours.”
The council’s response to the findings of the Ombudsman’s report into Mayor Sage’s actions, and its decisions for disciplinary action, will be sent back to the Ombudsman.
Story by Lechelle Earl & Christian Fleetwood
