Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne corrected his annual disclosure of interests for a second time at a Council meeting last week.
He has now added a $5000 debt to Sydney Water and a residential lease, both of which he failed to disclose in his annual return signed in August 2022.
Every councillor and senior member of staff is required to complete an Annual Disclosure which is then published on the Council website. This is a key accountability measure designed to encourage transparency.
The legal guidelines are set out in the NSW Local Government code of conduct. Councillors are required to “fulfil their statutory duty “to act honestly and exercise a reasonable degree of care and diligence” in completing their declarations to enhance “public confidence in local government”. Any Councillor or senior staff member who lodges a return that they know or should reasonably know is false may be investigated by the Council itself, the Office of Local government or the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. This only happens if there are complaints.
Some people regard gaps in annual returns as trivial, not worthy of media attention. But Byrne’s performance in this area raise questions about his understanding of accountability, especially when you consider that in 2021, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found he had committed three counts of misconduct in relation to declarations of conflict-of-interest and suspended his allowance for three months. Despite that finding, City Hub understands that he never apologised to either Councillor Pauline Lockie or retired Greens Councillor Col Hesse, both of whom were impacted by his actions.
Shadow over freedom of communication at Council
The disclosure guidelines are succinct and not hard to follow.
Councillors usually get it right the first time. So you would expect that the Mayor’s gaps in his returns in 2022 and other years and his explanations would be a matter for discussion at Council. But this is difficult at the Inner West Council where the Mayor exercises his power as Chair to control debate.
The High Court of Australia has found that although we do not have an explicit Bill of Rights such as in the United States, we do enjoy an implied right to freedom of political communication which is regarded as an essential part of representative democracy.
Byrne’s response to questioning both in Council meetings and from the media casts a shadow over the atmosphere at the Council and raises questions about whether Councillors have sufficient room to debate issues in the public interest. This is troubling when one considers that the Inner West Council is supposed to be one of NSW’s most progressive councils with 8 Labor, 5 Greens and two Independent progressive Councillors.
Independent Councillor John Stamolis and five Greens councillors have previously expressed their concerns about the lack of accountability and transparency raised by the Mayor’s reporting of his handling of his interests.
Mayor’s explanation for gaps in disclosure
Last week’s meeting provides an example of how communication is controlled at Council.
Annual disclosures and any later additions must be approved by Council and then published on the Council website. Byrne’s fresh declaration was signed on February 6, this year and included in the agenda for last week’s Council meeting.
At the beginning of every meeting, a Councillor moves for items that are routine or uncontroversial to be passed without debate in bulk or ‘in globo’. Last week, a Labor councillor initially suggested that Byrne’s fresh declaration be included in the bulk items. Independent Councillor John Stamolis flagged the item as one that should be considered by the meeting as an individual item.
Byrne became aware of debt when reading City Hub story
In his explanatory note attached to his new disclosure, Byrne stated that he became aware of the $5000 debt to Sydney Water when he read a City Hub story that included information about the debt. We published a screen shot of the bill that was sent to us by more than one anonymous source. We also reported that Byrne had refused to acknowledge or answer any questions for this and some other stories. The same story reported that Byrne had finally declared his $15,000 rates debt to the Council after failing to do so in previous years.
Given Byrne’s explanation, it seems reasonable to assume that this information would not have become public if City Hub had not reported it. The model code of conduct for Councillors states that if you become aware of a matter that should be declared, you should correct the disclosure within three months. Byrne took three weeks longer than that.
As previously, Byrne’s fresh disclosure was accompanied by a written explanation. Byrne’s blames his solicitors and his own lack of understanding of the rules for these failures. He became the owner of a property in Balmain in September 2018 but he claims not to have known that because his solicitor didn’t tell him. Council received a notice that Byrne was liable for the rates as far back as 2020. Again Byrne claims not to have known this or that he was liable for the rates.
This explanation is odd because Byrne’s own declarations show that he acknowledged an 100% interest in the property as early as 2018/2019. Byrne has never explained who he thought would be liable for the rates and water bills between 2018 and 2022 if it was not him.
Ever since the issue was raised by the media in March 2022, Byrne has sought to explain his failure with references to difficulties in getting hold of title deeds for the property. This is confusing because it’s a long time since physical deeds were used to confirm ownership. Cheap electronic searches have long been publicly available.
Byrne also states that he didn’t see any rates notice until the current General Manager Peter Gainsford sent it to him in March 2022. but why didn’t he ask to see the rates bill after he discussed it with the previous General Manager Brian Barrett who warned him of potential proceedings to recover the debt in March 2021 He knew about the debt then even if he did not see it.
Questioner accused of ‘act of disorder’
Bryne has stated that he paid all outstanding bills after the Balmain property was sold last October. This should end the matter at least as far as Council meetings are concerned but last week’s discussion about the disclosure sounded a sour note.
When the agenda item was reached, Councillors Mark Drury and Phillips Scott moved acceptance of the fresh declaration. Drury made his displeasure clear: “I think this is a very unremarkable circumstance where an amendment of a disclosure has been brought forward. I am somewhat surprised that there is a need to have a discussion in relation to this …I will listen very carefully to the debate on this.”
Stamolis who has previously voiced his concerns about Byrne’s approach to accountability indicated that he would not speak but would vote against acceptance of the contents of the disclosure.
Greens Councillor Liz Atkins then said: I don’t wish to speak against it (the motion) because I appreciate that we are just noting your amended annual disclosure. I would like to note that it is second or third time that you have done this. That has been brought about because of questions rightly asked by an independent news outlet. I understand that in voting ….
Before she could go any further, Drury jumped in with: “Point of order’ – I think there is insinuation in relation to your [Byrne’s] motivation for bringing this forward which is not in accordance with the code of meeting practice – yeah 15.11”
The Mayor then said he would seek advice from the Council governance officer on Drury’s point of order. “Councillor Atkins has asserted that there has been a lack of transparency and that public interest journalism has had to force the disclosure of this information. Councillor Drury says this goes to an insinuation about a member of an elected body.”
Rather than rule on the point of order, the governance officer deferred to the Mayor. Rather than ruling on the point, he said to Councillor Atkins, “Out of magnanimity, please continue.” In this way, Byrne cast himself as the generous one prepared to overlook a ‘naughty’ act.
We were mystified. Could Atkins’ statement that questions were ‘rightly’ asked of Byrne possibly be an act of disorder? Byrne had already acknowledged in his own statement that it was City Hub’s publication that triggered his fresh declaration.
So we looked up the Inner West Code of meeting practice and found Section 15.11d which deals with ‘acts of disorder’ that “insult, or make unfavourable personal remarks about, or impute improper motives to any other Council official, or alleges a breach o the Council’s code of conduct.”
City Hub understands why it is undesirable for councillors to recklessly defame each other or make false statements during meetings but Atkins had certainly not done that. Is this why the point of order was not ruled on? But even so this sort of interjection puts speakers on their guard.
Councillors are understandably keen to avoid ‘acts of disorder’ or code of conduct complaints because they are time consuming and stressful to defend. No one wants them on their record as a Councillor. This why the usual course adopted when a speaker is warned of a potential breach is to withdraw which is what Atkins did. She asked a question in a different way without referring to the role of the media. “Given that you are now disclosing information not previously disclosed… can you assure us that you have disclosed all relevant interests at council meetings, in access to information and in your role as Mayor?”
Bryne assured her he had done so.
Byrne surprised that leases are a type of property interest
Byrne then added more because Atkins had sought to “debate” his disclosure. He spoke about his failure to declare a lease which he had not explained in his written explanation. “I was unaware that as a renter that you were required to declare your interests.” He then said that other Inner West Councillors would also be surprised and hundreds of others Councillors around NSW as well.
After 12 years as a Councillor, Byrne did not know leases are a type of property interest. If in doubt, a Councillor can quickly look up how property interests are defined by doing a quick google search to find Part H of the Guidelines that list leases in the category of property interests.
Byrne also underestimates his fellow Councillors. He is one of three Councillors living in rental properties but the other two, Greens Councillor Dylan Griffith and Chloe Smith have both declared tenancies.
Drury says Mayor has been clear to best of ability and understanding
Bryne told the meeting that the Water NSW had sent the bill to the wrong address. This is because he did not inform Water NSW of an address where he could receive the bills for an empty house he has owned for four years.
He focused on City Hub’s publication of a screenshot of the bill and said that he had contacted Water NSW who told him that it would not have provided the bill to any other person and that the only way that the bill could have fallen into other hands is by ‘mail theft’. As reported above, the bill was sent by anonymous sources. It does occur to us however that if you don’t clear you mail box for a long time, letters can end up on the street.
Bryne ended with: “I sincerely hope that the discussion of my dead parents home can desist. “ Byrne seeks to personalise the issue to engender sympathy. No one has focussed on his parents.
Councillor Drury had the last word: “I too hope that this matter ends.This has not edifying in one iota. Mayor has sought to be clear to best of his ability and and best of his understanding about his interests. He has ..made amendments. They should be accepted and I urge all Councillors to vote in favour.”
The new declaration was accepted 13 votes to two with Councillors Stamolis and Langford voting against the motion.
Council confirms decision to cut City Hub advertising
City Hub is a small long standing publication with very limited resources. If is the only local news outlet in the Inner West aside from very occasional new stories on News Corporation website Inner West Courier which is part of the Daily Telegraph website.
If these stories were not published by City Hub, it is unlikely they would be published at all.
We have already reported on Council’s decision to cut short its advertising contract with City Hub.
Councillor Kobi Shetty and Atkins moved a motion to rescind that decision arguing that in the interests of democracy, Council should support local media.
Greens Councillor Liz Atkins with Councillor Kobi Shetty who is standing for Balmain in the 2023 State election
Councillor Drury argued that although he is in favour of local media, City Hub does not cover the entire LGA including his own ward of Ashfield so the advertising cannot be justified.
The recision motion was defeated 8 votes to 7.
Wendy Bacon was previously the Professor of Journalism at UTS and is a member of the MEAA. She is supporting the Greens in the NSW Election, including because she supports their policies on Local government, Democracy and a strong independent local media. She was a voluntary consultant in the development of Greens media policies.
