WHITTLESEA: CEO’s bombshell letter lists allegations against Mayor
Craig Lloyd (pictured), $400,000-a-year Chief Executive Officer of Whittlesea City Council, has gone to war with the elected Mayor, Cr Aidan McLindon.
In a bombshell 'confidential' letter, published to day by The Local Paper in the public interest, Mr Lloyd has accused Cr McLindon of:
- ‘intimidating behaviour’,
- ‘unduly aggressive questioning’,
- ‘aggressive behaviour’,
- having made allegations of corrupt behaviour against the Council as an organisation,
- having made allegations of corrupt behaviour against Council colleagues,
- having made allegations of corrupt behaviour against Mr Lloyd,
- intimidating Councillors during phone calls, “threatening them with with integrity agency investigations”,
- “possible serious misconduct”
- “leaking confidential and personal information” including Mr Lloyd’s home address.
Mr Lloyd has accused Cr McLindon of endangering “the safety and wellbeing of some Councillors”.
Has Cr McLindon been given a presumption of innocence? Mr Lloyd wrote that Cr McLindon had claimed “without evidence, the political party of which they are members are ‘targeting".
Mr Lloyd has not presented any evidence to the public that Cr McLindon has no such evidence. Indeed, Mr Lloyd has not commented to the public at all about the bans that he has placed on Cr McLindon.
The Local Paper is not suggesting any wrongdoing on the part of Mr Lloyd or Cr McLindon, only that each party is at odds with the other’s viewpoints.
Mr Lloyd, a former London policeman, says that comments by Cr McLindon have “had the effect of impacting my personal wellbeing”.
Cr McLindon has previously published on social media that he has taken a number of issues to Victoria Police, and made a report to the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission.
Cr McLindon (The Local Paper, Mar. 5) claimed that he had received a death threat.
Mr Lloyd said Cr McLindon’s linking of the ‘targeting’ with Councillors belonging to a political party placed them in danger.
Cr McLindon is a primary school teacher, with additional experience over the past decade in secondary schools. He specialises in Student Wellbeing.
Mr Lloyd has made written claims that he is in “genuine fear”of meeting Cr McLindon in person.
Mr Lloyd is deemed to have published his ‘confidential’ letter, having sent copies to Municipal Monitors, Jude Munro and Peita Duncan.
Legal sources have questioned the ‘confidential’ status of Mr Lloyd’s letter, given that it is a subject of undoubted public interest.
Mr Lloyd has claimed ‘confidential’ status over his letter, quoting from the Local Government Act.
One legal source said that such correspondence can only be deemed to have ‘confidential’ status if all parties involved agree to that pre-condition.
Mr Lloyd’s letter continued with further allegations against the Mayor: “You have endangered the safety and wellbeing of your colleagues by alleging, on social media, that the response from ‘one’ of 10 Councillors was unacceptable and inconsistent with the Model Councillor Code of Conduct when sharing the hardship suffered by your family some time ago.
“Stipulating ‘one’ unnamed Councillor puts all 10 Councillors at risk, and may increase speculation on which of your colleagues is neing referenced,” Mr Lloyd said.
Mr Lloyd accused the Mayor of “intentionallly or recklessly” misquoting information during the February 4 Council briefing.
Mr Lloyd accused Cr McLindon of “undermining me in a public forum, and risking my own health and wellbeing.”
Lloyd's multiple bans against Mayor
Whittlesea Council CEO Craig Lloyd has:
• BANNED the Mayor, Cr McLindon, from attending, in person, any Council meeting, briefing or induction/training session, or Committee meeting.
• PROHIBITED the Mayor from personally attending external Committees as the representative of the Council.
• FORBIDDEN the Mayor from contacting other Councillors other than via email from his official Council email address. The prohibition includes phone calls, text messages “or any other form of communication”.
• DISALLOWED the Mayor from contacting any Council officer in person, except in the case of My Teams/Zoom meetings.
• BLOCKED any contact between the Mayor to Mr Lloyd, except by emails using official email addresses.
• STOPPED the Mayor from contacting from contacting Council’s Executive Manager Officer of CEO and Council, Jacinta Stevens, except by email for specific purposes.
• INSTRUCTED the Mayor that he may not refer, directly or implied, to the name of any Councillor or officer, “in any online social media posts or media comment or statement”.
• OUTLAWED the Mayor from sharing Mr Lloyd’s February 24 letter to Cr McLindon.
Mr Lloyd seemingly made himself the judge and jury regarding the matters: “The above measures will be in place until March 24, 2025, and will then be reviewed,” he wrote.
“Hopefully - depending on your conduct between now and then - the measures can then be relaxed or removed altogether.”
Mr Lloyd’s letter did not appear to offer Cr McLindon any options for alternative steps if he disagreed with the CEO’s determinations or methods.
Health, wellbeing at risk, says CEO
In his letter to Mayor Cr Aidan McLindon, City of Whittlesea CEO Craig Lloyd makes multiple references to Mr Loyd’s health and wellbeing being affected by their differences.
Mr Lloyd said Cr McLindon undermined Mr Lloyd at a public forum on February 18.
“This trend to intentionally or recklessly misquote me continued in our meeting on February 17, as well as emails sent to me more recently.
“This continued and sustained misrepresentation, some is public settings, is persistent and constitutes bullying,” Mr Lloyd said.
Mr Lloyd continued his attack on Cr McLindon: “You have released confidential security information ion multiple-community group forums onloine (for example, the number of security officers I arrange for Council meetings when meetings are assessed as ‘high’ risk), which you knew, or should have reasonably known, was confidential … placing … the public … at risk”.