Former Wollongong council CEO Rod Oxley says he should have stayed in the job to better defend himself against allegations of corrupt conduct.Mr Oxley said that leaving the position put him at a huge disadvantage as the Independent Commission Against Corruption inquired into council affairs. "After I left I was treated poorly by council," he said. "I got treated like a leper. I expected more."
AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Rod Oxley and the day ICAC raided Full extracts published in the Mercury today and Monday EDITORIAL: Strange view of just what makes a successful cityMr Oxley handed in his resignation in January 2007, a month after the raid, and left at the end of May to pursue a corporate career. He said at the time he had always planned to leave before his 60th birthday.In his book, Named and Shamed, Mr Oxley admits that in hindsight he would have decided differently.Despite ICAC officers searching bins in his office and taking his computer hard drive during the raid, he said he was not aware he would ever be made a target of any inquiry.In March 2007 the ICAC asked for more specific information about his dealings with developer Frank Vellar, but he said the council's legal team had assured him that with the exception of a couple of relatively minor issues it was not a cause for "any alarm bells to ring"."I didn't know how personally affected I would be. Had I had the benefit of that information there's no doubt I would have stayed," he said. "I would have wanted to defend myself and I also would not have wanted to be seen as deserting a sinking ship. My intuition is the ICAC would have treated me differently as a council employee, as opposed to someone who had left." After a dispute, he said the council agreed to pay his legal costs under the terms of its underwriters and in line with the Directors' and Officers' Policy. He added that the day he left, focus was on the ICAC investigation and not on all the good work he had done over his 27-year reign. "Walking out of the organisation didn't leave me with a good feeling," he said. "There's no doubt the general conjecture about an inquiry clouded my departure ... I was walking away from a matter that I should have defended."Mr Oxley refused to reveal council's treatment of him after he left, other than they refused assistance."I didn't have resources available to me to defend myself. I had to rely on my memory and my electronic diary," he said. "I don't want to talk too much about it as that's for another day. I will be taking it further."
