Mayor: do we have a bully? | Fraser Coast News | Local News in Fraser Coast

Fraser Coast mayor Mick Kruger.

EIGHTEEN months down the amalgamation track and still the rumblings of discontent continue to simmer through council corridors.

“I thought we were at the end of it,” Mayor Mick Kruger said yesterday when he faced media to address claims of serious bullying involving senior officers at the Fraser Coast Regional Council.

Mr Kruger has hired a Brisbane-based consultant to investigate after the Crime and Misconduct Commission referred the allegations back to the mayor.

It is understood that the allegations were made against at least two high-ranking officers.

Fourteen people, including present and former staff of the Fraser Coast council, have been nominated in the claim which was lodged by a former council employee who is believed to have resigned within the last six months.

Mr Kruger consulted with the LGAQ before bringing in the outside consultants.

“I thought it was prudent to engage an external investigator,” he said.

“I owed it to the officers if these allegations are not true that they get a fair hearing.

“I'm elected to be diligent and if I didn't investigate this I wouldn't be doing my job.

“If I was carrying out the investigation of my own officers, I believe the community would ask Is he going to do the right thing?

“I believe this is the best way to investigate.”

Mr Kruger said it was not unusual for a CMC document to be referred to the mayor and suggested it had not been sent to chief executive officer Andrew Brien because it involved internal officers.

He said the complaint, lodged about six weeks ago, was possibly sent back to the council because the CMC would not have had the resources to investigate a complaint that it did not rank as being very serious.

He dismissed any suggestion of a culture of bullying at the council, pointing to fall-out from the 2008 amalgamation of Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Tiaro and Woocoo shire councils as a possible underlying reason for unrest.

“It's a culture inherited by the process of amalgamation and the tough decisions that had to be made.

“There are different cultures of different councils where some people believe one of the former councils is dominant, like a takeover, and it's something they don't get over.

“I thought we were at the end of it. Councillors and officers from different areas seemed to be getting on with each other and getting on with it. Then you find a person who used to work here was unhappy.

“With the restructure of 700 staff, some officers might have been put out and could have been disappointed.”

Mr Kruger said no staff members had been stood down as a result of the complaint and would not be drawn on whether anyone could be sacked if bullying was proved.

“It could be a severe reprimand.”

He indicated that the result of the investigation, expected within three weeks, would be kept confidential as was the case with all CMC cases.

Mr Kruger said he had never bullied anyone. “I'm a lover,” he smiled.