By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Casey’s former CEO Mike Tyler called out a “corrupt“ land deal involving developer John Woodman as early as a “hostile” 2013 meeting between the pair and council officers, an IBAC inquiry has heard.
Mr Tyler rejected Mr Woodman’s overtures for the rezoning of a 200-hectare parcel of Cranbourne West industrial land to residential, former mayor Amanda Stapledon told the hearing on 17 March.
“He actually walked into the meeting quite hostile and I’ve never seen Mr Tyler like that before, and that meeting was cut very short.”
Later that night, Mr Tyler told Ms Stapledon that the proposal “looked corrupt”.
“I disagreed with that because I was actually holding that meeting with council officers and himself,“ Ms Stapledon said.
“I failed to see how that would be looking corrupt.
“I did reply and say that I didn’t think that that was a fair statement and I think that was what ended the conversation soon after.”
Ms Stapledon said it was “likely” that Mr Tyler and Mr Woodman clashed on other planning issues as well as what became known as Amendment C219.
“Mr Tyler definitely disliked Mr Woodman because of the issues that were involved.”
Mr Tyler and Casey planning officers didn’t treat Mr Woodman, his developer son Heath and certain other developers “fairly at times”, she said.
Mr Woodman had never discussed getting rid of Mr Tyler to her but “he probably would have said he was happy about it, I would imagine”.
There was “Bad blood” between Mr Tyler and councillors for two years up until his departure in early 2018, Ms Stapledon told the hearing.
Though once a “great supporter” of Mr Tyler, she backed Mr Tyler’s departure due to “significant” and “unresolvable” matters.
She cited Mr Tyler’s “antagonistic” behaviour, him no longer listening to councillors and a “great divide” between officers and councillors.
“As sad as I was about it, I felt that we were just – it was a battleground in the end.”
Ms Stapledon also heard that there was efforts to protect officers from councillors bullying on planning matters.
In a phone tap in December 2018, she and then-councillor Sam Aziz spoke of “working behind the scenes” for Mr Tyler’s departure.
Mr Aziz tells of how former mayor Geoff Ablett had acted like “he orchestrated the greatest coup in history when in reality, he would not have been able to do any it without our help”.
“There were so many of us working behind the scenes to support him,” Ms Stapledon tells Mr Aziz.
She was “no longer hurting” at Mr Ablett’s characterisation of the episode, but “at one stage, I was devastated”.
“No it’s not worth it,” Mr Aziz says. “You got the prize you wanted and that was … the sweetest victory of all.”
At the hearing, Ms Stapledon said the prize was the mayoralty – a contest against in which Mr Woodman intervened 2018.
“Mr Aziz was … saying, ‘Move on. You are mayor now. You can put that behind you.’
“There’s absolutely no connection between Mr Tyler leaving and me becoming mayor.”
She said she had been “hurt” by Mr Ablett’s lobbying pitch for mayor.
“I wasn’t looking for credit, just to be clear.
“When it came time for Mr Ablett to lobby for his next term as mayor, which would have been his fourth term, one of the things that he was promoting was the work that he single handedly did to get rid of Mr Tyler.
“I wouldn’t like to say we got rid of him, because I still regret that we did not have an opportunity to give him the farewell that he truly deserved.”
Last year, the IBAC inquiry had heard phone taps of former mayor Geoff Ablett bragging to Mr Woodman of “nailing” Mr Tyler.
At the hearing, Mr Ablett denied that Mr Woodman instigated Mr Tyler’s departure though “when he went he was happy about that”.
Mr Ablett admitted having discussions with Mr Woodman about the issue.
“He did ask me about Mr Tyler and I did say, ‘We’re having talks to see if we can iron out some differences with Mr Tyler.’”
Mr Woodman had earlier told IBAC that he’d asked Mr Ablett to consider whether Mr Tyler’s “time was up”.
Crs Ablett and Aziz are being accused by IBAC of taking collectively $1.2 million from Mr Woodman in exchange for their support on planning decisions.
Mr Woodman had also donated to Ms Stapledon’s state and local election campaigns.
