A COMMISSION of Inquiry has been released on the City of Whittlesea’s performance in the months leading up to former Mayor Aidan McLindon’s suspension, which ended on Friday, and has resulted in council requring a new Municipal Monitor.
From the Commission of Inquiry’s recommendation, Steven Kingshott has been appointed as the new Municipal Monitor to the Council for the next 14 months, taking over on October 15, running until December 31, 2026, where he will support council in addressing the inquiry’s findings and recommendations.
Twenty-five witnesses, including all Councillors who were elected in October 2024, as well as the City of Whittlesea CEO Craig Lloyd, Council officers and members of the public were interviewed, with 2000 documents collected.
The Commission of Inquiry found Mr McLindon ‘failed in several essential respects to perform the role of a Mayor consistently with the Local Government Act 2020 or in a way that would support the needs of the Council or the community’.
“As Mayor, Mr McLindon was required to lead the decision-making processes of the Council, including chairing Council meetings. He did not perform this role particularly effectively. He did not commit the time and effort needed. He also failed to represent the Council to the community and left Council without an effective voice,” the report said.
“In the role of Mayor, Mr McLindon was required to promote good conduct by the Councillors. In fact, he personally demonstrated extremely poor conduct.
“Many of the comments on social media by Mr McLindon show, at the very least, a disregard for how they affect other people, especially members of the LGBTQIA+ and First Peoples communities.
“In making unsubstantiated and sometimes bizarre accusations against the Council, the Council Administration and the Victorian Government, Mr McLindon generated misinformation and brought the Council into disrepute.
“Overall Mr McLindon demonstrated a disregard for how his actions reflected on the Council and how they affected other Councillors, Council staff and the community.”
The findings from the Commission of Inquiry found that while there were concerns with the Council’s performance, Council was not dismissed due to no evidence that the Council was unable to deliver good governance.
The report read that while the Commission had ‘serious concerns’ about Mr McLindon’s conduct whilst Mayor, it also acknowledged that the performance of the Councillors, CEO, administration and the Deputy Mayor also contributed.
“While the Commission has serious concerns about the conduct of Mr McLindon when he was Mayor, there were also shortcomings in the performances of the Councillors, the CEO and Administration, and the Deputy Mayor that contributed to the problems at the Whittlesea City Council,” it read.
“When issues arose in respect of Mr McLindon’s conduct, more should have been done by Councillors to try and resolve those issues internally and to hold Mr McLindon to account for his behaviour.
“Overall, the Commission found that the Councillors have sought to act responsibly since the election of Mr McLindon as Mayor.
“Circumstances where the councillors appear to have fallen short appear to be attributable to inexperience, a lack of support and limitations of the legislative framework.
“The Commission did not hear any evidence which suggested that the Council is unable to deliver good governance, and it is not of the view that the Council should be dismissed.”
The report also found that while Mr Lloyd sought to respond to Mr McLindon’s performance, a quick escalation of breaches was seen to perhaps increase, rather than calm tensions between himself and Mr McLindon.
“Initially, the CEO’s response to Mr McLindon’s poor performance of his roles as Councillor and Mayor was professional, upholding the demarcation of their roles. However, we also found that the CEO was very quick to escalate what he considered were breaches of the Local Government Act 2020 or Model Councillor Code of Conduct to integrity agencies rather than try to resolve them internally and this may have exacerbated rather than calmed internal tensions,” the report read.
“The relationship between the CEO and Mr McLindon was beset by tension, conflict and a lack of mutual trust from the outset which impacted the health and wellbeing of both parties.
“They both may have benefited from the engagement of an independent mediator or support person to address their emerging relationship breakdown.
“The Commission is conscious of the difficulties that are likely to arise in the relationship between the CEO and Mr McLindon when Mr McLindon returns from suspension and that this will require particular attention.”
Minister for Local Government Nick Staikos said the City of Whittlesea needed to fix issues which had emerged across the first six months of Council’s term.
“The events at Whittlesea City Council are serious and culminated in a unanimous vote of no confidence in the Mayor by Whittlesea’s ten other councillors. It is clear that a municipal monitor is needed to assist the council’s administration,” he said.
“I expect the City of Whittlesea will use this opportunity to rectify the issues raised in the report – to reset and build a good governance framework that better serves ratepayers.”