Controversial Hurstville councillor Con Hindi has been reprimanded and suspended from office for misconduct.
The Office of Local Government (OLG) has suspended Cr Hindi for two months for the manner in which he dealt with the council's former general manager Victor Lampe.
Last year Fairfax Media revealed Cr Hindi repeatedly failed to comply with orders from his own council staff to remediate his asbestos-contaminated development site in Crump Street, Mortdale.
In a highly charged council meeting in May, Cr Hindi, the then-mayor, used his casting vote to suspend the Mr Lampe who was about to brief the council on possible fines or prosecution of Cr Hindi over his unauthorised building works and failure to remediate his development site.
In his report, Tim Hurst, the acting chief executive of the OLG, has found that Cr Hindi was "motivated by personal reasons" to raise allegations against the general manager. Mr Hurst also accused Cr Hindi of lacking in "contrition and insight" and found he had shown "reckless disregard" over the way he raised allegations about Mr Lampe, who was suspended on full pay for nine months.
Cr Hindi's actions were prompted by self-interest, the report found. Firstly, "he wanted people to know about the allegation [against the general manager] to protect himself" and secondly, "he had the benefit of having this matter raised on the night when a report potentially adverse to his interest was being dealt with by the council".
Earlier this year a state government report cleared Mr Lampe of any wrongdoing with regard to the sexual harassment claims raised by Cr Hindi. The council was ordered to reinstatement Mr Lampe immediately. A week later the general manager resigned.
Cr Hindi's suspension will commence on May 10.
Comment is being sought from Cr Hindi.
