Wyndham residents have lashed out at the council for wasting ratepayers’ money and questioned if management and councillors are acting in the best interests of the community.
Long-time community campaigner Lori McLean supported the Australian Services Union’s calls for CEO Kerry Thompson to be sacked, saying the council had been involved in too many dramas recently.
“Every time I read the paper something else has gone wrong. I really feel the management is the problem,” she said.
Ms McLean said Wyndham council had a history of wasting money, spending more than $700,000 last year to landscape the civic centre and wiping off $106,000 last month after mothballing plans for a sculpture at the city’s western entrance.
Ms McLean said money spent hiring a private investigator and fighting unfair dismissal claims would have been better spent on improving roads or installing CCTV cameras on Watton Street to improve safety.
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Point Cook resident and former Sunshine mayor Bernard Reilly also questioned why the council couldn’t keep track of its own staff. “What are the managers doing? The whole council needs to look at [itself] and make sure it is acting in the interest of residents,’’ he said.
“The council is not accountable with [its] spending.”
However, Mr Reilly said calls for Ms Thompson to be sacked were unfair.
A spokesman for Local Government Minister Jeanette Powell said she would not become involved.
He said the handling of the Fair Work Commission hearing, the sacking of five workers and the hiring of a private investigator were all matters for the council to deal with.
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