WORKPLACE ‘INCIDENT’ SWEPT UNDER CARPET
by Carmelo Amalfi and Michael Southwell
EXCLUSIVE: Gingin shire’s obsession with reputational risk has turned obscene.
StreetWise can report that CEO Scott Wildgoose resigned on May 22 in response to a secret report that confirmed he had been involved in ‘sexual misconduct’ at work in February this year.
Councillors and staff were briefed but never given a copy of the findings of a three-month investigation into the workplace incident involving Mr Wildgoose and a 19 year-old female employee StreetWise understands no longer works at the shire.
The investigation was conducted by workplace consultants Green Shoots while Mr Wildgoose remained on paid leave until his resignation.
StreetWise was told the woman reported the incident to shire president Linda Balcolmbe, after which lawyer Brendan Taylor from McWilliams Davis was engaged and a special meeting of council called to consider Mr Wildgoose’s future at the shire. The woman did not contact police.
StreetWise also understands Mr Wildgoose and the woman knew each other before they joined the shire. Mr Wildgoose joined Gingin last year and disclosed having known the woman when she was interviewed for the job.
Mr Wildgoose moved with his family from Morawa where he was CEO. His wife and two children moved out of their Gingin home over the Christmas holiday break. While CEO at Gingin, Mr Wildgoose also was president of Local Government lobby group LG Pro but has since left this role.
Ratepayers and residents have been kept in the dark since February, the shire having placed two vague public statements on its website, the first saying Mr Wildgoose was taking leave while a ‘workplace matter’ was investigated, the second announcing his resignation in May.
Several shire employees and councillors are concerned about how the matter was handled and are concerned they were not shown the Green Shoots report before being asked to vote on Mr Wildgoose’s tenure. The report findings also could form the basis of any compensation claim by the woman. The confidential Green Shoots report cost nearly $20,000, recorded in the list of paid accounts for June.
StreetWise also was told the findings were made available to Mr Wildgoose and the woman and a HR consultant before having briefed the council meeting with Mr Taylor.
Elected members were first informed about an investigation by Cr Balcolmbe at a special meeting of council on February 26, a week after the incident. By this time, Cr Balcolmbe had reportedly met the parties involved and as a result Mr Wildgoose was suspended pending an investigation.
A statement posted to the shire website: “The investigation will be conducted in accordance with the shire’s governance obligations and relevant legislative requirements. The commencement of this process does not represent a finding of wrongdoing, and no conclusions have been reached. To protect the integrity of the investigation and ensure procedural fairness, no further detail will be provided at this time.”
The second special council meeting on May 21 agreed to allow Mr Wildgoose to resign and keep the workplace inquiry report secret. The decision was not unanimous.
Minutes of the two meetings have been published but in both cases these say only that council decided to adopt the recommendations of a confidential memo.
This is in contravention of the Local Government Act which states that all decisions of council must be recorded on the public record, even if the deliberations are held behind closed doors.
“All we got was that there were allegations by a staff member of impropriety, that the complainant used words such as sexual misuse of power, but no details,” one of the shire meeting attendees who did not want to be named told StreetWise.
“We haven’t seen a single piece of correspondence from Green Shoots and were told there would be no finished report because there was no need for it.”
The shire has refused to comment further about the incident. Neither Mr Wildgoose nor the woman could be reached for comment.
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