Wollondilly Shire councillors will meet tonight to discuss the future of assistant general manager John Gilbert, who has been found to have engaged in corrupt conduct when a manager at Wollongong City Council.
The meeting is not a formal council meeting so Mr Gilbert's fate will not be decided tonight, but the general manager will present councillors with advice about Mr Gilbert's contract in light of last week's Independent Commission Against Corruption report.
At a budget estimates meeting due to be held tomorrow, Greens MLC and planning and local government spokesperson Sylvia Hale will also question Local Government Minister Barbara Perry about Mr Gilbert's current role.
The ICAC report into Wollongong City Council said Mr Gilbert was aware of town planner Beth Morgan's relationship with developer Frank Vellar and was friends with them. Despite being Ms Morgan's supervisor, and knowing of serious complaints about the affair, he failed to record the complaints or act on them.
He was also found to have ignored criticism of Mr Vellar's Quattro development application (DA), concealed Ms Morgan's role in approving the DA and allowed the DA to be approved without undertaking any genuine assessment of it, knowing that it could not be lawfully approved.
Mr Gilbert is now assistant general manager at Wollondilly Shire Council. When contacted by the Mercury yesterday, he declined to comment.
Ms Hale said she was going to ask Ms Perry what she intended to do about Mr Gilbert's position at the council.
"I find it extraordinary he should continue in a position of authority when there have been findings of fact by ICAC against him on the grounds of corruption," she said.
"I think there are a number of questions that have to be answered. When he applied for the job of assistant general manager of Wollondilly, did he tell them that he was being investigated by ICAC for his activities at Wollongong?
"From Wollondilly's point of view, if they knew or they subsequently became aware (of the investigations and its findings), we've got to ask what is the council going to do?"
Ms Hale said it was extraordinary that former Wollongong council general manager Rod Oxley and Mr Gilbert got away "unscathed" by the report - which did not recommend criminal charges against either of the men.
"I believe Mr Oxley is ultimately the person responsible for corruption flourishing at the council and he should bear the greatest penalty," she said.
Ms Perry released a statement yesterday saying: "Under section 440D of the Local Government Act 1993, a general manager can temporarily suspend a member of staff if the ICAC recommends it. The ICAC does not appear to have made such a recommendation in relation to Mr Gilbert ..."