His Sister?

'But Anne Lake could be his sister, for all we know?'

It was said more as a joke than a serious suggestion. But my sense of humour can get me into trouble, in this case a light hearted comment intended to do no more than offer a fresh perspective on what has been the talk around town actually sparked something of a flame.

I rambled on a bit, as I do;

'Or his aunt, or school friend, or none of those things.'

All the while I was thinking, does any of this make sense? 

She could just be human resources consultant who has chosen to specialise in working with local government. Of course we all agree on that, and that is most probably absolutely true. It doesn't automatically follow that there is anything mischievous in her behaviour. Nobody is suggesting that there is, nobody I know is defaming Anne Lake, or Gary Evershed, with regards to the consultancy she provides. 

But there is a great divide between accusing people of deliberate wrongdoing and feeling comfortable with what they have done. People are justifiably anxious that there was potential bias in both the choice of consultant and the result she provided.

'That how we felt in Bassendean,' my friend replied.

Blank look from me, were we in the same conversation?

'Bassendean?' I said, not even sure I knew where Bassendean was.

'Gary's previous job.'

'I thought we were talking about Anne Lake, what has Bassendean got to do with Anne Lake?'

'He seemed to be the one who brought her in to decide how his successor would be recruited. Nobody knows for sure, but there were rumours at the time that she had cost over $20K more than the WALGA option that was the first choice of consultant.'

Can you believe it? We sat right down there and then and checked her vague recollection of events, and she was right. It's there in the on-line Bassendean Council Minutes, August 5th and Augusta 19th. Unlike Hansard it doesn't have a transcript, so we don't know who said what, but we do know Gary Evershed was at both meetings.

I admit that I am one of those people who harbour doubts about many things that have gone on at the shire over the past decade or so, but I am not alone. Social media has been especially helpful over the past couple of years. Our Kalamunda connections in particular have proved invaluable, a very fruitful co-operative venture.

MR locals complained about the management of the Surfer's Point project last year, and after denials that there were any problems we heard Gary on the radio explaining that it was someone else's fault. 

Even developers could not agree with the strange case of the booklet published to residents spelling out in clear statements what was going to happen relating to planning, that was then completely overturned with no explanation at all until a few week ago when the term "Random Planning" entered the LG lexicon. 

More recently the Troy Buswell lunch, and the visit to the Armchair Cinema, were issues that rankled at a time when we, the ratepayers, are being told there is no scope for cutting costs. Are we just being confused by the reams of reports from the shire that contain confusing and contradictory figures? How many staff do work for the ratepayers, 140? 160? 200?

The CEO and Council refuse to even acknowledge that there is scope for bias within the events we have observed, refuse to acknowledge that a consultant who may rely on local government CEOs' recommendations for her income could bias outcomes in the CEOs' favour. Such bias can be subconscious, and until all the facts emerge nobody is accused of deliberate manipulation of results. But bias is a well recognised psychological factor that needs consideration whenever we examine human behaviour, and because we understand bias we should never allow the accused to choose, or even influence in any way the choice of the investigator.

If the official channels fail us we have no option but to seek other ways to resolve this crisis of confidence in our local authority. It is never enough for management to do the right thing, they must also be seen to do the right thing, to be acting with fairness and justice. We, as observers on the outside, cannot ever know the full details of a staff dismissal, unless there is a Royal Commission or similar, but we can be given sufficient reassurance so that we are comfortable with our perceptions. To date that reassurance has been lacking.