Stone sacked: Council terminates CEO ‘effective immediately’

Former director of infrastructure Mark Dalzell has been appointed acting general manager, less than a week after he tendered his resignation to council to take up a position with Berrigan Council.

On Tuesday, soon after the start of its meeting, Edward River Council went into confidential committee to discuss an “urgent staff matter” at the request of Cr Shirlee Burge.

All staff, including Mr Stone, were asked to leave the room.

Mayor Peta Betts declared a conflict of interest and was also absent.

The meeting was then chaired by Deputy Mayor Marc Petersen.

When the public meeting resumed nearly two hours later, Cr Petersen read a statement advising of council’s decision, with Mr Dalzell sitting alongside Cr Betts at the head of the council table.

Mr Stone was absent.

Cr Burge later stated: “This morning after significant and careful consideration I moved a resolution which was seconded by Cr Pat Fogarty, to immediately terminate the contract of the CEO of Edward River Council.

“This motion was unanimously supported by my fellow councillors.

“Mayor Peta Betts declared a conflict and absented herself from the decision-making process.

“Mayor Betts has subsequently supported the decision made by council.

“Our job now is to stabilize our operations, ensure the welfare and support of ERC staff and get on with the business of council.”

Earlier, at 11.28am while the council was still in confidential committee, the ERC staff were sent a memo from Mr Dalzell, which said:

“I wish to advise that at today’s council meeting, council resolved to terminate the contract of Phil Stone effective immediately.

“Council has also resolved for me to be acting CEO until such time as another CEO is appointed.

“An all staff meeting will be organised for this afternoon to further discuss this matter. Please keep an eye out for an invite and attend if you are able to.”

The Pastoral Times believes Mr Dalzell’s resignation last week was the catalyst for councillor discussions, which were the forerunner over the weekend for the decision to sack Mr Stone.

Mr Dalzell has many years of experience in local government including the former Deniliquin Council where he started in 2011, then with ERC.

Councillors rallied behind Mr Dalzell after a staff memo from Mr Stone advising that: “It is with mixed feelings that I announce that Mark Dalzell has resigned from council to take up the position as director infrastructure at Berrigan Council. A big congratulations to Mark for taking the next step in his career, but I will be sorry to see him go as I am sure you will. Mark’s last day will be the second week of April.”

Mr Stone started as general manager of ERC in August 2020, with his title later changing to chief executive officer.

In an interview with ABC Riverina on Wednesday, Mr Stone said his termination “certainly wasn’t due to my performance”.

When asked specifically by the journalist if he was being performance managed by the mayor before his dismissal, he replied ‘no’.

He then referred to a six monthly check in February at which he said he was given the indication things were on track.

While later stating, “I'm not saying that's the reason for the dismissal”, Mr Stone then volunteered that he has had some recent disagreements with Cr Betts.

“Did the mayor and I disagree on certain things? Absolutely,” Mr Stone said in response to the ABC’s prompt.

“That's usually the indication of a healthy relationship and I've certainly enjoyed my time under her mayorship.

“We did disagree on certain things, and toward the end there was a number of things we didn’t agree on, but that shouldn’t be a reason, in my view, that this should have taken place.

“Mind you, it is a democratic process. There is allowance in the contract for councils to terminate the contract of their chief executive officers or GM, some without any reason.”

Mr Stone also expressed that while he found Edward River a “wonderful” place to live and work, there “were some difficult political relationships amongst the councillors that caused it to be quite difficult”.

“It has been a difficult political process over the last three and a half years,” he said.

“I'm very proud of the team that I have managed to put together and the things we've achieved together.

“I really wish my former team at Edward River Council, and particularly the community, all the very best.”

ERC has lost a number of key staff members in the past 18 months, and various concerns were raised in a staff survey in 2022, with less than 50 per cent of staff believing the organisation had a positive future.

Mr Stone’s tenure at Edward River Council has seen numerous controversies.

Until now he always appeared to have the unwavering support of Cr Betts and her majority bloc of councillors, but other elected representatives including Crs Burge and Fogarty, who moved the resolution to terminate Mr Stone’s contract, have publicly expressed concern about the council’s direction and some of its decisions.

This has escalated since the Pastoral Times revealed in January that ERC’s payroll had surged to nearly $12 million.

At the time of the merger between Deniliquin Council and Conargo Shire Council the combined payroll was $7.4 million, with predicted savings from merging the two entities.

There have also been issues with the Edward River Village seniors living precinct, with council having difficulty selling the completed units.

In a report to Tuesday’s meeting, the chair of council’s Audit Risk and Improvement Committee, local accountant Peter Rae, stated that while, “I fully support the concept and the location is perfect … I would be more comfortable as to the viability of the project once the accommodation units are sold and residents have moved in”.

He acknowledged, “it is early days and a long term project”.

Whether it is viable under the current financing structure has been questioned, and is generally considered the key reason why units are not selling as well as predicted.

There have also been questions around the ERC growth strategy, predicting a population of nearly 20,000 by 2050 which is considered by many to be unachievable and should be reviewed.

During Mr Stone’s tenure as CEO he took issue at various articles published in the Pastoral Times, and for the past year has refused to meet with any of our staff.

This, and criticism of the Pastoral Times from Cr Betts, who has refused at times to answer questions relating to council issues, labelled as “fake news” our reports on concerns with the growth strategy, and was critical of our coverage of last year’s state election where she was soundly defeated by Independent Helen Dalton, have contributed to the most strained relationship between the local newspaper and council in many decades.

The current council has only six months to run, with local government elections to be held in September.

The Pastoral Times has also learned that Mr Stone was removed as a member of the Deniliquin RSL board Friday last week. He was its chairman.

The club says it is not able to release any details relating to the decision at this time.