Cr King provided this response to the Issues Arising report to the Mail:
THE author of the Issues Arising report was employed for four weeks in May 2013 as Acting CEO. He also advertises his services as a Licensed Private Investigator.
It is of concern to me that he has little knowledge of the long term situation within the Council or the Shire. If this investigation was necessary, and can be conducted by an Acting CEO, why didn’t Council request the real CEO to conduct them?
Are the Council and the Shire Administration being responsible when they receive, debate and defend the content of this investigative report, without questioning the validity of the procedures used in developing the report or its contents? With goodwill these issues could have been resolved by discussion and communication, not confrontation.
A copy of the report is available on request at the Shire office. To be presented out of the blue with this investigative report, which mentions Cr King over 120 times in a 29 page report, is quite daunting, particularly as the punishment for the alleged offenses may be a $10,000 fine or two years imprisonment.
There was no procedural fairness (the chance to tell your side of the story) offered to Cr King or several others alleged to have made statements in the report. This is a one sided report.
It has taken a year of intense argument, extended discussion with the Freedom of Information commissioner and lobbying to eventually have the Council recognise there is little evidence to support most of the allegations, innuendo, inferences, and what the author describes as hints, that Cr King may have committed an offence. Council now find Cr King was not involved, and he committed no offence.
Cr King’s expenditure of time and money in defending the allegations in this report has been tens of thousands of dollars, including medical consultations throughout the last year which are ongoing. Doubtless the Shire expenditure has also been considerable.
While I respect Council’s right to conduct an investigation when and as it sees fit, there are investigative guidelines for Administrative Investigations which in this case were not followed.
What has the expenditure on this investigation achieved?
Mike King,
Balingup.