Five weeks into the job, Casey chief executive Glenn Patterson emailed an “acquaintance” developer he was “moving on dead wood” at the council – including two senior managers criticised by John Woodman associate Megan Schutz.
His email on 20 October 2018, tabled in an IBAC hearing, was to Andrew Wyatt, a consultant for developer Blueways who was acting as a conduit for Ms Schutz.
“Making changes on many fronts. Part of that is moving on dead wood.
“Megan (Schutz) will be pleased to know that two senior officer names that came up in our meeting a few weeks ago have been addressed, among quite a few others.”
In that meeting, Ms Schutz had told the new Casey CEO she was “not happy” with the two officers’ performances, Mr Patterson recalled at IBAC on 5 March.
She named “six-to-10 staff” who were “problematic or difficult”. About “two-to-three” of them subsequently left their jobs, Mr Patterson told IBAC.
In the email to Mr Wyatt, Mr Patterson also announced another officer – who had been praised by Ms Schutz – was moving into a newly created role.
The officer was “universally” regarded as a “high performer”, the Casey CEO told IBAC. He denied the officer and Ms Schutz were friends.
When asked why he’d emailed the personnel news to Mr Wyatt, he said that he engaged in “these sorts of conversations with a whole range of people”.
It was a “signal that we’re working on improving the business”.
He believed the two staff departures were “public knowledge” at the time.
In a tapped phone call to Mr Woodman on 8 October 2018, Ms Schutz said Mr Patterson had told them the same two officers were “already” on the “way out”.
Mr Patterson told the hearing that one of the departed officers “concluded employment with us” within about four or five weeks of Mr Patterson’s hiring.
“I took that decision quite quickly for a whole range of reasons.”
The other staff member’s departure had been forecast much earlier, Mr Patterson said. The manager left in January 2019.
In another secret phone-tap on 11 November 2018, then-councillor Geoff Ablett tells Mr Woodman that Mr Patterson was going to “put a couple of his own people in as head of Planning and they will report back to him within three months who the people are that need to go“.
Upon hearing the call played back at IBAC, Mr Patterson said: “That didn’t happen“.
Two of Casey’s four directors were ultimately replaced by two staff from Yarra Ranges in an “extensive” nationally-advertised recruitment process.
One of them was Planning director Peter Fitchett, who retired in 2019. His position was taken by James Collins, who’d worked with Mr Patterson in the Shire of Yarra Ranges.
Earlier in the hearing, Mr Patterson said the two recruitments were carried out by the council’s HR staff without an external consultant. Eight people were interviewed for each role.
“And presumably they were both the preferred candidate?” IBAC principal lawyer Amber Harris said.
“Correct, yes,” Mr Patterson replied.
