Sacking Council Not Sole Solution

Illawarra Mercury

Monday March 3, 2008

By MICHELE TYDD

A WOLLONGONG ethicist said sacking Wollongong City Council had merit but that alone would not be a long-term solution.

"If you have a case involving a lot of people in which you can't identify who is and who isn't involved in alleged systemic corruption, then sacking the whole council is a reasonable response," Professor Sue Dodds said.

If community confidence was to be restored it needed to be combined with further action related to checks and balances, which Prof Dodds said she would leave for ICAC commissioner Jerrold Cripps to decide.

Commissioner Cripps gave notice on Friday he had the power to sack the council and would be considering that option.

Prof Dodds said the Wollongong scandal had the nation debating the rights and wrongs of behaviour involving sexual favours and gifts between developers, council officers and elected members.

"Some people may question whether gifts in themselves constitute a wrongdoing. The ethical reason it is frowned upon is that council officers and elected representatives have a duty to the ratepayer to judge development proposals on merit alone.

"Gifts or sexual favours distorts judgment and creates a perception that those who are prepared to give will have an undue influence on the outcome of a review process ..."

She said those in the community who rely on merit alone had a right to feel aggrieved.

Asked about thoughts that an ICAC inquiry should not be public at this stage, destroying in some cases reputations and relationships of people not charged with any offence, Ms Dodds said it came down to a fine balance.

"These things have to be weighted ... it seems unfortunate that details of extramarital sex has to be aired because that in itself is not illegal.

"However it is a reality that when you have this level of public interest in wanting the full picture, we don't always wait until it is clear-cut that there is a case to be answered.

"It is important, however, that this kind of publicity (sexual) is not blown out of proportion or used to unfairly prejudice people's future opportunities.

"We shouldn't dwell on the private relationships unless it has bearing on areas of public interest in terms of people meeting legal and professional responsibilities.

"But sometimes you can't completely separate the sexual activities from the effect of it ... ie did it have influence on the way decisions were made".

Prof Dodds said the scandal raised the wider question of whether corruption was part and parcel of governance in a large organisation. "It is not inevitable but the risk is inevitable and there are ways to minimise that risk with adequate checks and balances."

She said the scandal as outlined so far was not intriguing from an academic's viewpoint.

"On one hand it is straightforward case study on what appears to be going wrong with governance and accountability where there are strong pressures from developers.

"But it is not a sophisticated model. When you have people uncomfortable, some even feeling their jobs were compromised, then it was not as entrenched as some may think."

Ms Dodds said many lessons would be learned.

"We've learned already we shouldn't assume planning departments or councils or senior executives within councils will inevitably act in the public's interest," she said.

"I think we've been reminded that pressure, particularly economic pressure on development has or can have a distorting effect on planning processes."

© 2008 Illawarra Mercury

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