Golden turd battle goes badly for council in Supreme Court

And it did not go the council's way.

Instead, the Midcoast Council was told the Code of Conduct report it commissioned into Councillor Peter Epov was invalid, due to a 'reasonable apprehension of bias'.

The reviewer's bias centres on a previous investigation of sorts, also commissioned by the council against Cr Epov, which did not follow protocol.

The saga started with a question from Cr Epov to the general manager Adrian Panuccio in January about the 'Golden Turd Award'.

Was the council aware it had recently been awarded, for the second year in a row, the Development and Environmental Professionals' Association (DEPA) 'Golden Turd Award' for "the worst HR (Human Resources) in local government", he asked.

Cr Epov also asked Mr Panuccio if DEPA's claims - that the council lost 300 members of staff in just 12 months, were correct.

The question was sent on January 25, Cr Epov says, ahead of a meeting scheduled to take place on February 7, 2024.

The general manager acknowledged receipt on January 30, Cr Epov says, so he went ahead and shared the questions with "interested members of the public".

It was not until February 2 that he became aware the issue had been deemed confidential, to be discussed behind closed doors and relegated to the confidential section of the council's meeting agenda. Cr Epov says.

The council is understood to have disputed that timeline, and sought a review of his conduct to determine if he had breached confidentiality.

Cr Epov counter-argued that the information was already publicly available, via articles published by DEPA online and distributed to members, subscribers and supporters throughout NSW.

"Further these are circumstances that all residents should be concerned about where their council has a poor reputation on industrial relations," Cr Epov said in a statement.

"Moreover, the overall record of Council in industrial relations is a legitimate issue for councillors to debate publicly as members of the governing body, after all we are responsible for all the Council's decisions and actions. In no way should this issue be hidden from the public."

He was obligated to question the council on significant issues including a high turnover of staff which reached 430 out of 1000 staff in three years, Cr Epov said.

"The overall replacement cost of just one staff member has been calculated to be more than $20,000 in both direct costs and loss of productivity," he said.

"A staff turnover rate of that degree cannot be explained away as natural attrition or the current employment situation. It needs to be debated."

In a statement issued on Wednesday (July 7) the council said that at the time Cr Epov started the court proceedings, it had not decided whether or not to act on the Code of Conduct report in question.

"Council had not made any decisions in respect of the reviewer's May report, and undertook not to do so once the proceedings were started," the statement said.

"Although no evidence or submissions were prepared for the purpose of the proceedings, given the early stage at which they were resolved, Council agreed to making a concession in the orders that the reviewer's May Report was affected by a 'reasonable apprehension of bias', due to a procedural matter, being that the conduct reviewer had determined a separate complaint about Cr Epov previously without notifying Cr Epov."

The council said the figures relied on by DEPA and Cr Epov were incorrect.

During 2022, a total of 221 staff left council, a number which included "resignations, retirements, terminations, etc", and during 2023 the number was 185, council's statement said.

Cr Epov attracted support from members of the community who donated to the cause via a GoFundMe campaign to help him fight what was thought would be a long-running Court battle.

Cr Epov said he was relieved the matter had been settled, because he had been prepared to "go all the way".

The entire matter had been a strain on him, as well as his family, Cr Epov said, but he had taken it on as a matter of principle.

"I believe that I am entitled to a public apology from the elected Council and the Administration, but I do not hold out too much hope for this," he said.