Liverpool mayor addresses news of potential council suspension 08:45

Ned Manoon, he's the Mayor of Liverpool City Council. He's on the line for us. Mayor, thanks for your time. Thank you, Chris. Now, I'll read you some of the questions, some of the allegations from this report. A frequent and repetitive pattern of employment of staff in various council directorates that have external links with senior council staff based on political affiliations. Do you know anything about that?

I don't know what they're going on about, but last I checked is that if you're qualified for the role, then you should get the job regardless of what your political affiliations are. We don't discriminate against people. And can I say those decisions were done by the CEO. Counselors do not have a role in hiring or firing staff except the CEO. The CEO is the one who hires people through his delegations. He hires the managers and he hires the staff. And that's how it works.

And the CEO in this instance is the former president of the upper house and senior member of the liberal party, John O'Jarka, correct? Correct. And, you know, this goes back, when you look at it, some of this stuff goes back to even before my time on council. You know, I've got directors here who are being pointed out for doing stuff and they had no right of reply, but this stuff happens. You know, one of them was about hiring a family member and that was like three years ago and they're bringing it up now. It's extremely one-sided with a lot of unfounded allegations. Okay.

Okay, well, what about some of these allegations? Let's go through them. So the council failed to comply with its own internal recruitment and selection policies. What does that mean?

Well, I think what they're saying is people were hired for jobs and, you know, they didn't go through all the particular paperwork. Now, look, that could have happened. But for myself and the councillors, we don't have any oversight of that. The minister has not given councillors or the mayor any power to look at those day-to-day operational things. And that's why for him to go out there and say, oh, we're going to sack the councillors and the mayor, well, on what basis? What did we do? If he wants to change something, then give councillors and the mayor the power to do stuff about it. He used to be a mayor.

Sure. What about the payouts? The payouts to staff under deeds of release totaling over $700,000 since April 2021. Those are termination payouts, the best part of three quarters of a million dollars, terminations that you sanctioned.

Well, no, firstly, no, I have zero involvement, nor were we ever notified about payouts going to council staff, former council staff. It's purely a decision made by the CEO. It has nothing to do with councillors. This now, if they're worried about $700,000, this delay to the election is going to cost us at least $700,000 because we've already engaged the people to do the election. So there's going to be challenges with that. Plus, this inquiry is going to cost money. We welcome the inquiry.

I've got no issue with the inquiry because it's an opportunity for us to get the truth out there. But, yeah, I've got to put that in perspective. We should never be wasting ratepayers' money, and that's why we've turned the budget around from when I got elected. We had an $11 million deficit.

We just passed a budget the other day, $2 million surplus. And that's what councils do. That's our role. We have $100 million a year wage budget. So there's a lot of big numbers in here. But once again, that $700 grand, Chris, councils don't know about it. It's never been reported to us. What about the nepotism? Significant number of positions have been employed based on factors other than merit, including family members, close associates and politically affiliated persons, including Shane Mallard, a former Liberal member in the Upper House.

Yeah, so look, I'll need a little bit of time if I can be as quick as I can, Chris. So I've spoken to some of the staff that I mentioned in this report. Firstly, they're distraught because never once were they interviewed, never once were they had an opportunity to clarify any of the things that were raised, the allegations raised against them. Just speaking to one today, there was a person whose wife was hired to work in childcare.

And he works in a completely different part of the organization, had no involvement in it, went through a proper recruitment process, but the investigators did no due diligence and have made an allegation that he had something to do with it. It's ridiculous. We have a manager who was out here, and she's accusing this report of hiring someone who was hired before she even started working at council. Like, it is just pure, pure wrong. Hmm.

Do you know the investigators? Did you sit down and have a discussion with the investigators, Brad Wade and Roger North and Martin Bass? Yes, I was given an opportunity. It was optional. And I said, no, 100%, I would like to speak to the investigators. And we had a good, I reckon we spoke for a good couple of hours. And did you feel like all of these allegations put to you during that process? No, none of this was.

None of this stuff about a staff member doing something because the investigators know that councillors have no role in this. And just to point out, and I thank you for reading the whole report, Chris, nothing in that report says that the election should be suspended or council should be suspended. It doesn't talk about that sort of stuff. So...

Yeah, by doing this, it's showing that it's purely political. I'll speak to the minister in a second, Ron Honig, to get to the bottom of that. But let's just go through the allegations. So you had a pretty nasty falling out with the CEO, John O'Jarka, and you used your casting vote to terminate his almost $400,000 role before the final report of investigation was received. This report says that that was a conflict of interest, given you were having a blue with him.

Yeah, firstly, he was on $550,000, so I should clarify that. And we did not pay him out anything. His contract was... Yeah, forget that. You terminated the contract with your casting vote while you were having your blue with him, and the Office of Local Government says that was a conflict of interest.

Yeah, look, the reason why we did that, there were numerous things that happened, not just particular. That was one element that happened. And the reasons that were brought to council were much more than that. And I believe that we dealt with them. Ultimately, when you look at it, there is a big issue between the United Services Union and the Labor Party. Yeah, but forget all that. Using your casting vote was a conflict of interest, given you were having a fight with the CEO, the bloke you were sacking.

Look, that sounds like it's purely from the Labor Council saying that because that's what they said. No, that's the Office of Local Government who said that.

Yeah, and I'm happy. If they don't think I should use my casting vote, then so be it. Then remove those powers. We acted legally. We acted appropriately. And I think the standard that we set from the top is very important. What about the allegations that you intervened in compliance actions that were initiated by Liverpool Council against the owners of two properties on which illegal earthworks has commenced? Why did you intervene?

Well, firstly, I don't know what they're talking about because no one has ever raised that with me. If people think I've ever overstepped the mark, then by all means, please report it through appropriate channels. I have no issue about whatsoever. But we're constantly intervening with people with numerous different issues. And when we say intervene, we're asking the questions. We're trying to avoid going to court. We're trying to save ratepayers money. We're trying to make sure that things get done properly. So I can't comment about the specifics because no one has ever raised that with me as an issue. I will say, in your defence...

Yeah.

I probably do that at least three to four times a week. My role under the Act is to facilitate communication between the community and council. It's in legislation. So we do that all the time. I was on Ben Fordham, if you want to go back to, I think it was last year, and there were DAs that were being held up with council, and we had people calling my office constantly

when I first got elected, crying because they're just trying to build a house and it's taking council staff so long. We've gone from 1,100 DAs down to 250 DAs at the moment. And we've done that by us as councillors giving the CEO more resources. And we do that all the time. There's not a mayor or councillor who does that. So that's constituents coming to you saying, hey, what's happening with my DA? See if you can ask. And you, as the elected mayor, going to council staff saying, hey, what's happening with so-and-so's DA? Is this what this is about?

Correct. And I'm talking about whether I'm at Woolies on a Sunday night doing my shopping, I get asked about it, no matter where I am, this is what happens. Because that's what they... What do you expect your elected officials to do? Represent you. And that's what we do. Mayor, I appreciate you coming on. As I said, this feels like I have a kill, but thanks so much for your time. Good on you. Thank you, Chris. That's Ned Mnoon, the Mayor of Liverpool.