Council exec created job filled by unqualified former colleague, ICAC hears

A senior City of Parramatta executive directly appointed a former colleague to a position she created in unusual circumstances despite a council recruitment panel finding she was not qualified, the ICAC has heard.

On its second day of hearings into the City of Parramatta council, the Independent Commission Against Corruption heard from Sheree Gover, a former group manager at the council responsible for events and festivals, who left the council in April 2024 without a deed of release and a payout.

Gover told the inquiry she submitted a bullying complaint against Angela Jones-Blayney, an executive director and one of the three “Pink Ladies” the commission has named in its investigation, after attending a seminar about bullying and recognising similar patterns of behaviour. Jones-Blayney put in a bullying complaint about her too. Chief executive officer Gail Connolly called Gover into her office and told her she had only had time to investigate Jones-Blayney’s complaint against her.

In Operation Navarra, the ICAC is investigating multiple allegations against Connolly, including that she spied on staff and a councillor, and used confidential information for improper purposes, including rewarding allies and removing critics or perceived opponents. It is also investigating whether two colleagues, Roxanne Thornton and Jones-Blayney, intentionally subverted recruitment practices to benefit friends and associates.

Jones-Blayney became Gover’s boss in 2023. The pair’s first meeting was “not what I expected”, Gover told the inquiry. “It was very cold, I was almost accused from the outset of poor management … She’d been briefed.” Jones-Blayney was “very adversarial” and removed significant parts of Gover’s authority, she said.

Gover and a colleague had discovered Jones-Blayney was planning to create a new manager-level position that would directly affect their roles. After they asked her about it via email, Gover wrote in contemporaneous notes tendered to the commission that Jones-Blayney “came to my desk … was visibly angry (shaking with an angry expression), [and] yelled at me”.

Gover’s notes recorded that Jones-Blayney said in a raised voice: “Never in 30 years have I seen anything like this place” and “This is meant to be confidential”. After they moved into a meeting room, Jones-Blayney is said to have repeated “what the hell” and “I can’t trust anyone in this place”.

Gover told the inquiry she and a colleague later found out the role was to be filled by Michelle Carter, a former colleague of Jones-Blayney’s at the City of Ryde. They found out when City of Ryde staff visited Parramatta Lanes, the council’s largest event of the year, and told staff.

“Were you surprised to hear this?” Claire Palmer of counsel asked Gover.

“Very.”

“And were you aware of any recruitment process that had occurred in relation to Ms Carter?”

“No.”

The inquiry heard Gover and others were on a recruitment panel for a different managerial role in the same team, which Carter had also applied for. The panel found Carter was not suitably qualified for a manager role, but would be suited to a team leader position one rank below.

“Ms Carter had come from the City of Ryde, and she had four direct reports at the time. Our team was over 20 and delivering multimillion-dollar projects,” Gover said of the panel’s decision.

CEO’s representatives question witness credibility

Earlier in the day, Chief Commissioner John Hatzistergos informed the inquiry that Connolly’s legal representatives had asked the commission for “an indication of the witnesses [and] the order in which they’ll be called”. He rejected the request, saying the names of witnesses for the following week had already been posted online.

Hatzistergos also clashed with her legal representative, Ryan Coffey of Martin Place Chambers, over a cross-examination of Bernadette Cavanagh, who gave evidence on Monday. In a 30-minute cross-examination, Coffey put it to Cavanagh that she had breached the terms of her deed of release by speaking about it at the ICAC inquiry.

“How is that relevant?” Hatzistergos asked.

“Whether or not she breached the deed by disclosing its contents go to some issue the commission is investigating,” Coffey said. He asked whether Cavanagh had spoken to independent councillor Kellie Darley about her time at the council, which she said she had. Hatzistergos asked him to bring the questioning back to the matter identified in the request for cross-examination.

Connolly and Jones-Blayney are yet to appear before the inquiry. The hearing continues.

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