Templeman letter 16 February & response 23 February

Date February 23, 2015

Mr. David Templeman MLA
Shadow Minister for Local Government & Communities
Electorate Office
4 Sutton Street
MANDURAH,  WA 6201
(08) 9581 3944
david.templeman@wa.gov.au 


Your Ref:                           RURAL COUNCIL-FORCED AMALGAMATION

It is gratifying to see that at least one member of the Western Australian Parliament may be listening
to the voice of the ratepayer. A potentially very powerful voice I might add.

The Department of Local Government & Communities is currently an authoritarian, disingenuous, dangerous ambiguity. Its attitudes, concepts, evaluations and decisions regarding what is acceptable to any and all Local Government Areas does not consider, accept or reflect the will of the people. It reflects the wants of a particular Premier and some of his Government, not the needs of hundreds- of- thousands of West Australian local council electors.

You may have been contacted by just a small number of constituents with grievances regarding this matter, but let me assure you that there have been over 62,000 hits on the ShireofYork6302 Blog site with all comments patently critical of the Minister and his Department.

With due respect, The Department and its Minister made its pre-emptive decision regarding the Shire’s response to its Show Cause Notice by arbitrarily suspending York Council on January 6, 2015. That process was marred by political interference, disparaging comments, abuse of authority and the use of deliberately misleading information, bordering on malicious falsehood, by the Minister and his Department.

So please do not think you will be in breach of any parliamentary protocol, or anything like a democratic due process if you raise this imbroglio in Parliament now! Premier Colin Barnett will probably thank you for placing the’ Question Time’ spotlight on the WA Corruption and Crime Commission and its alleged war against local government corruption.

I am sure that there are many who will wish that you now hold the Minister to account regarding his continuing treatment of the Shire of York and Councillor Reid. You are the Shadow Minister for Local Government & Communities- so it is actually your day job.

There have been those who have contacted their Local Member, Ms. Mia Davies. It would appear she considers York to be a Leper Colony.

I am sure that there are numerous members of the Labor Party with a legal background, including Mr. John Quigley, the Shadow Attorney General, who have major concerns regarding the current fiduciary compliance regime within the Local Government sector. (Premier Barnett appears to.) Therefore  I would suggest that you obtain their opinions on what constitutes ‘Misappropriation of Funds’ with particular reference  to the use of municipal funds by public servants.

Misappropriation, in this context, should mean the intentional illegal, improper, wrongful, unwarranted and inappropriate use of municipal property or funds by a public official, either for personal benefit or for any unauthorized purpose. It should also be considered to be when the public official is in breach of a canonical ‘Fiduciary Duty of Care’.

‘Misappropriation’ is- and should be considered in these circumstances- a ‘Criminal Act’.

The criminality judgement should extend to those in authority (being Elected Members of Local government Councils) who duly authorize the intentional illegal, improper, wrongful, unwarranted and inappropriate use of municipal property or funds by a public official for any reason and purpose.
It is reasonable to assume that an Elected Member of Council would or should know that there is
an applicable, canonical ‘Fiduciary Duty of Care’ attached to any authority granted to them.

The Fitz Gerald Report, in the main, focuses on the actions and activities of the former Shire of York

Chief Executive Officer Mr. Ray Hooper. It bears some striking similarities to the Smillie Report, requested by the Shire Council of Chittering in 1999 with regard to the actions and activities of its Chief Executive Officer Mr. Ray Hooper.

The current Director of the Department of Local Government & Communities, Ms. Jennifer Matthews, who has been in this position since 2008, should be well aware of the numerous justifiable complaints raised against Mr. Ray Hooper revealed in both the Smillie and Fitz Gerald Reports, but has chosen to ignore them. 

Between April 2008 and October 2013, Mr. Hooper, attended 38 Local Government Conferences and Seminars throughout Australia at a minimum cost to York ratepayers of $117,880 and was absent from the Shire of York offices for a total of 195 days.  

From February to October 2012, Mr. Hooper attended seven conferences at an overall cost of 

$25, 259.81. Representing just 1,819 ratepayers, Mr. Hooper attended the ALGA Conference in Canberra and the LGMA Future of Local Government, in Melbourne, for a period of 15 days at a cost of $8,652.03.The question should be raised is what direct, or even indirect, quantifiable benefit would his attendance at these meetings bring to the Shire of York and its ratepayers.

Statistically, in this six year period, Mr Hooper attended a conference every two months at an average cost of $3,101.11 per excursion. In combination with his annual leave Mr. Hooper would have spent only five years, on duty and attendant at the Shire of York Offices out of those six years. These are spectacularly unflattering and disturbing facts.

Documented evidence shows that Mr. Hooper attended each of these conferences for an extremely limited time only and, on numerous occasions, the rest of his time was spent touring with his wife. All spousal and tour expenses appear to have been debited to, and paid for, by the Shire of York.

TWO PARAGRAPHS REMOVED FOR LEGAL REASONS.

In a recent attack on the independent state agency, Healthway, Premier Colin Barnett uses the term “a misuse of public funds” and describes this misuse in being “used for private benefit, is simply unacceptable”. This outburst, according to media reports, has put the future of this agency “in serious doubt”.

The analogy between the misuse of public funds and the misappropriation of public funds may well be legal semantics with regard to the interpretation of the meaning of illegal. It should be noted that the definition of Illegal contains reference to such synonyms as ‘unauthorized’ and ‘unwarranted’. The end result is that public funds are misspent to the detriment of the taxpayer and ratepayer and this is entirely unacceptable.

Having been born and bred in Northam you would be aware of the social fabric which bonds rural communities together. You would be aware that senior local government public servants and elected members of Council are often well known in their community and the impact of the decisions they make have serious consequences within their Local Government Area. Any negative effect can be far greater than in the Metropolitan Area with the end result of misuse or misappropriation of municipal property and funds, devastating.

I am sure the York community and the ratepayers of WA welcome your stated interest in some of its affairs and look forward to seeing the positive results provided by your future intervention in your capacity as Shadow Minister for Local Government & Communities.

Your sincerely

David Taylor

York Ratepayer.