UPDATE TUESDAY MAY 26:
The turmoil at Hurstville Council continues unabated.
Monday night's attempt to rescind last Wednesday's decision to stand down general manager Victor Lampe was lost.
The mayor Con Hindi has shored up his numbers.
And Michelle Stevens has resigned as deputy mayor to be replaced by Vince Badalati.
''I don't want to be part of an unfair and incorrect process,'' she said.
''What happened was a farce.''
It is understood that Hurstville Council had been advised by the Office of Local Government (OLG) to support the rescission motion regarding Mr Lampe.
The original motion - to suspend Mr Lampe on full pay pending an investigation re a staff matter - was to be replaced with ‘‘that the council does not act on this matter’’.
If the original motion was to stand, Mr Lampe could not be reinstated for three months which was considered too long.
But councillors voted seven to five to uphold the suspension.
Cr Jack Jacovou said there was another motion ready to go - to follow due process for a full investigation on the allegations against Mr Lampe - but they were denied an opportunity for proper debate.
''No one wants to stiffle the investigation - we just want it done correctly,'' Cr Jacovou said.
The rift beween two councillor camps continues to deepen.
UPDATE MONDAY:
He said he handed the documents in on Friday but the matter is not yet resolved.
Cr Hindi said he had disposed of asbestos on his building site in the correct mannner and had all the necessary certificates.
Cr Hindi’s backers claim the vote to suspend Mr Lampe was because of allegations of misconduct by Mr Lampe, which were unrelated to the asbestos saga.
‘‘My name has been plastered over every media outlet in Australia and I have been portrayed as having acted illegally,’’ Cr Hindi said.
‘‘I have been cleared of the poison pen emails by KPMG and my employer, as I stated from the start, they had nothing to do with me. I will be cleared by WorkCover as again I have done nothing wrong.
‘‘I will not be intimidated by the forces trying to obstruct justice taking its course, no matter the repercussions politically.’’
The council is due to meet tonight to discuss the rescission motion at an extraordinary council meeting.
UPDATE THURSDAY MAY 21: 5:47pm: Following the meeting held on the 20 May 2015, Minister for Local Government Paul Toole has requested an immediate section 430 investigation into the operations of Hurstville City Council.
A section 430 investigation allows an examination into any aspect of a council or of its work and activities.
Separately to this, the Chief Executive of the Office of Local Government is investigating the alleged misconduct of the Mayor.
HURSTVILLE Council is continuing to limp on amid calls for a sacking of all councillors or at least the removal of the ‘‘developer mayor’’ following Wednesday’s drama where the general manager was stood down.
In an ‘‘urgent’’ closed session Victor Lampe was stood down on full pay pending investigation regarding a staff matter.
But the mayor, Con Hindi, managed to retain his position despite efforts to get him to step aside until the asbestos and unauthorised works matter was resolved.
He has been given until 9am on Monday to provide records to council officers as to how he disposed of asbestos on the site at Crump Street, Mortdale.
Mr Lampe returned to work on Thursday after councillors indicated their intention to try to rescind the decision to stand him down.
He can continue to work until until this is heard.
The rescission motion was due to be heard at an extraordinary council meeting on Monday May 25.
Philip Sansom, a councillor for 24 years, said he had never experienced anything like this before.
‘‘I raised concern about the process (of removing Mr Lampe) — the matter was handled inappropriately,’’ Cr Sansom said.
Some councillors have accused Crs Hindi and Badalati — who called the urgent closed session at the beginning of the meeting — of attempting to take the spotlight off Cr Hindi’s asbestos report which was scheduled to be heard later in the evening.
Others have said that this was ‘‘tit for tat’’ because of the bad blood between Mr Lampe and some councillors including Cr Hindi who wanted to get rid of him.
Even former councillors and members of the public waiting in the foyer for the general meeting to reconvene suspected that Mr Lampe was on the chopping block.
‘‘This has been a long time coming,’’ one regular council observer said during the hour-long wait for the closed meeting to end.
Former Greens councillor Anne Wagstaff who had long fought for the council to change its operating methods was not surprised.
‘‘The events of the night demonstrated that there is an internecine war going on between councillors and this is now involving staff to the detriment of council operations and services,’’ she said.
‘‘The Minister for Local Government now needs to step in to appoint an administrator before council descends into complete chaos and ratepayers suffer the consequences.’’
Another council regular Brian Shaw also called for an administrator.
‘‘There is no way this can be fixed without total change,’’ he said.
Council staff are believed to be horrified by what happened last night.
A senior staffer at the council told the Leader that council directors down to those working in the depots were ‘‘shattered’’ by the decision to stand down the general manager.
‘‘There are obviously people on that council who are determined to get rid of him for whatever reason but what’s happened is just wrong,’’ he said.
‘‘There’s been a lot going on for awhile and this is not something that just happened last night - it’s having an impact on staff morale.
‘‘Victor is someone who has a great reputation among staff and they’re the ones who are really feeling it.
‘‘The reason staff like him is because he plays everything by the book, he’s a stickler for doing things right, but at the same time he gets the job done and he respects everyone in the organisation.’’
When Cr Hindi’s Crump Street Mortdale matter — asbestos contamination and unauthorised works — came up, he said he did not have a case to answer as he had three certificates proving the site was asbestos free. His wife Miray Hindi and his lawyer spoke on his behalf, often referring to heavy rain hindering the asbestos clean up by their contractor.
Councillors voted not to go with the original recommendation which would have involved legal advice and proceedings to ‘‘address the breaches and ensure the health and safety of the subject site and its immediate surrounds, for public health and safety reasons, including but not limited to appropriate fines and penalties and remedial orders’’.
Instead, they decided to refer the matter to Workcover for a resolution ‘‘to clarify the difference beween the council report and the applicant’s comments’’.
Cr Sansom said the way Cr Hindi’s report was handled by council officers was totally appropriate as otherwise they could have been accused of showing favouritism to the mayor.
Mr Lampe said he absolutely stood by the council report issued on 40 Crump Street.
‘‘My staff and I have gone to great lengths to investigate this matter in a fair and balanced way without regard to the owner’s connections with Council,’’ he said.
Cr Brent Thomas said if there were allegations against Mr Lampe they should be dealt with through proper channels. He urged the Local Government Minister Paul Toole to urgently intervene.
‘‘Because if he doesn't, what he's saying to every single developer in New South Wales is: Don't worry if you have asbestos on your site; Don't worry if it is illegally contaminating your site, and potentially neighbours and waterways; Don't worry about being prosecuted,’’ he said.
‘‘All you have to do is go and become your local Mayor - and you will be treated differently to everyone else.
‘‘And if he doesn't intervene he's also saying to every General Manager of every Council in NSW: whatever you do don't stand up to your Mayor about asbestos or public safety, because your job will be on the line.
‘‘This is an urgent public safety issue. It's an integrity issue.
‘‘The Minister promised he'd be watching this closely - well now he must act.
A spokeswoman for Mr Toole said he needed to see all the facts before a decision could be made.
He had requested all the relevant information from the Office of Local Government.
Email investigation
Councillors also knocked back a motion to rescind a decision from the previous meeting to hire a private investigator to examine all allegations in the defamatory emails which have been hanging around the necks of councillors for the past year or more.
Firstly they paid KPMG $38,000 to find the author of the emails coming from such writers as ‘‘deep throat’’ and ‘‘Elvis Presley’’. Then they refused to release the report, saying there was nothing in it.
Earlier this month councillors switched focus from the authors of the emails to the allegations contained in them and voted to hire a private investigator.
In the meantime it appears the emails are starting again, this time from ''Marilyn Monroe'' and ''Hurstville Cartel''.