Doyle in heated row with councillor
Miki Perkins
Jackie Watts with Robert Doyle Photo: Teagan Glenane
ACCUSATIONS of bullying have surfaced at Melbourne City Council in a series of fiery letters between lord mayor Robert Doyle and a councillor.
Cr Jackie Watts, who joined the council last July, says Cr Doyle may be engaging in ”harassment and bullying” against her and accuses him of failing to understand ”the basic principles of natural justice”
The spat was triggered by a letter from Cr Doyle’s office to Cr Watts this month, telling her he had investigated a complaint about her by the council’s chief executive, Kathy Alexander.
In his letter, Cr Doyle said he had decided not to proceed with a formal investigation. But he noted the concerns were serious enough that Cr Watts could be reported to either the Ombudsman or WorkSafe – ”possibly citing harassment or bullying”.
”The principal reason I have decided not to take a formal investigation path is that the CEO has informed me that since her original complaint to me, your behaviour has changed radically and diametrically,” Cr Doyle wrote. He said he was ”loathe” to take the matter to a conduct panel or investigation by the chief municipal officer. ”Such public processes can do no good to the reputation of anyone involved, especially yourself.
”I recognise that given your previous patterns of behaviour, you will most likely respond to this (final) email with a further series of accusations, interpretations and justifications … I will ignore it,” the lord mayor wrote.
Cr Watts responded this week, sending a copy of Cr Doyle’s letter and her response to councillors, saying she was doing so in the interests of ”transparency and disclosure” and pointing out the lord mayor and CEO had decided not to pursue the matter.
In her response to Cr Doyle, she said his letter and earlier correspondence may ”constitute a course of harassment and bullying conducted by you against me … Having had the opportunity … to consider your actions and demeanour towards me it has become very clear to me that you have no understanding or appreciation of even the basic principles of natural justice,” Cr Watts wrote.
”It is evident from the tenor and content of your correspondence that you pre-judged the issues, to what purpose I do not know.”
A Carlton resident, Labor Party member and former community activist, Cr Watts has been vocal on accountability issues, moving unsuccessful motions about the use of confidential items on the council agenda and overhauling electoral policies.
Last night Cr Doyle said he believed the matter should have been dealt with through internal council processes. ”It is not my job to be judge or jury or arbitrator or mediator … It is my job to try to resolve it in the first instance,” Cr Doyle said.
Cr Watts told The Age: ”It’s a sad situation where a councillor attempting to conduct inquiries in response to constituent concerns encounters such efforts to suppress them.” Ms Alexander was not available for comment.
Glen Eira Debates 
May 17, 2012 at 11:11 AM
Bullying is flavour of the month and when there’s a Labour councillor in a Liberal run council who also happens to be an old “community activist” as the paper says then there’s trouble afoot for sure. Penhalluriack isn’t labour but the other traits are identical I think. You just can’t have a councillor questioning anything that the big boys do.
May 17, 2012 at 12:19 PM
Just for your information Frank is a card carrying member of the Liberal Party. Most of this Councilis connected to the Libs . Your hypothisis is wrong.
May 17, 2012 at 1:00 PM
You have real problems in reading what’s in front of you. I said that Penhalluriack isn’t labour but the other traits are identical. By that I meant that like Watts he seems to give a damn about all the secrecy that goes on in Glen Eira and he tries to work for residents. That’s what’s got him into Newton’s bad books because he just doesn’t blindly accept all the stuff that’s put in front of him but actually wants answers to important questions. The gang doesn’t like this one little bit.
May 17, 2012 at 3:46 PM
Most of Monash Council are connected to the ALP. So what. Both Caulfield and Bentleigh are Liberal held State seats. It would be unusual to have an ALP dominated council.
May 17, 2012 at 9:16 PM
At least the City of Melbourne did not have a rate rise like in Glen Eira. Time for the subsidy to stop for the MRC. What’s the worse the MRC can do? They don’t even bother to listen to this current Council anyway. Yawn.
May 18, 2012 at 5:23 AM
MRC should be very well off now, thank goodness! They now have over 700 poker machines and the threat of gambling legislation is fading, so the profits for this body which only pays 25% g tax as they are a non profit sports’ organisation, and they spend the other *% on “commiunity benefits”.
Before purchaseing the new chain of twelve hotels the gross profit from Caulfield/Sandown machines and other smaller items was enormous but it was written down to about only $250,000.
What will it be when the hotels and Mornington Racecourse Tabaret figures spin in?
Aboout 3-4 years ago MRC was only paying rates of $150,000 per annum for near exclucive use of 150 hectares. Does anyone out there think this is a fair deal when we were payiny about $800.00 per house block?
May 18, 2012 at 11:02 AM
yes but you forget all the benefits they add to the community I forget what they are. Maybe the circus or the helicopters monitoring our backyards during race season or the beer bottles on our naturestrip. I have actually wondered if we would be better off with housing on the racecourse actaully collecting rates rather than nothing from a commercial business. MRC is similar to the mining companies who get to plunder Australia’s resources from free use of the land.
May 18, 2012 at 12:06 PM
Cr Doyle has some funny attitudes. On the one hand he believes his job was to resolve a dispute, and on the other he deliberately sets about inflaming a situation and abused his power. Cr Watts quite rightly points out the denial of natural justice. Not that I’m really surprised, but Cr Doyle is very lucky not to have been investigated for his role in last October’s Occupy Melbourne incident, since there were multiple breaches of Local Government Act, MCC’s Local Law, and Summary Offences Act by the Mayor. His reference to the Ombudsman is amusing, since we have been witness to the “quality” of the work done by that Office. He’s right in one thing though—such processes “do no good to the reputation of anyone involved”.