The City of South Perth council has declared they would have fired their former chief executive if she hadn’t quit earlier this week.
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she → declare → executive
In a statement sent out by Mayor Greg Milner on Wednesday, he said the council decided at a special council meeting last night to “summarily terminate” Liz Ledger’s employment with the city, one day after she handed in her resignation.
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she → send → resignation
“It’s no secret that the City of South Perth has been the subject of some controversy over the past 12 months,” he said.
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he → ’ → months
“Council has refrained from making public comment during this time because it was necessary to allow the proper processes to be conducted and for council to ensure procedural fairness.”
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council → refrain → fairness
Milner said in August, the council unanimously decided to suspend Ledger and appoint an external independent workplace investigator to look into multiple allegations of misconduct against her.
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council → say → her
“Council received the outcome of the independent investigation [including Ms Ledger’s responses to the allegations] last week,” he said.
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he → receive → allegations
“On the basis of the findings of misconduct, council unanimously resolved at a special council meeting last night to summarily terminate Ms Ledger’s employment with immediate effect.
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council → resolve → effect
“This supersedes her tendered resignation of 26 October 2026.”
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This → supersede → October
In a letter penned to her LinkedIn account on Tuesday, Ledger said she was appointed a year ago to address the deep-seated, long-standing dysfunction within the chambers, but was continuously prevented from fulfilling her mandate.
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she → pen → mandate
“The City of South Perth has exhibited classic symptoms of dysfunction ... councillor resignations and reported psychosocial injuries,” she wrote.
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she → exhibit → dysfunction
“Unfortunately, when councillors do not understand their statutory roles and responsibilities, the fundamental distinction between the role of CEO and the governing role of councillors becomes distorted.
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distinction → understand → councillors
“As a result, council meetings repeatedly shift away from strategic decision-making and descend into day-to-day operational matters, undermining the organisation’s effectiveness.”
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meetings → shift → effectiveness
Ledger is the second chief executive of a council to leave, or be asked to resign from their position in the last five weeks.
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Ledger → leave → weeks
Michelle Reynolds was formally sacked from the City of Perth on September 22 following a behind-closed-doors council meeting vote.
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Reynolds → sack → vote
Perth Lord Mayor Bruce Reynolds (no relation to Michelle), said the move to sack the chief executive was a “significant decision” made after the results of an investigation into the allegations against her were given to the council.
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results → say → council
Reynolds said the findings of the investigation and allegations against her were “nothing but a witch hunt designed to impinge my reputation and scapegoat me by an otherwise toxic council and likely cost the rate payers handsomely”.
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findings → say → payers
She confirmed she intended to challenge the decision and would take it “all the way”.
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she → confirm → it
Local government minister Hannah Beazley said the latest saga with the City of South Perth was yet another day of “dysfunction” in local government.
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saga → say → government
“I’ve had enough of some of our local governments constantly behaving badly.
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some → have → governments
The chaos has to stop,” she said.
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she → have → ?
“Everyone deserves to have a safe workplace, and communities, residents, ratepayers and stakeholders deserve better than continual poor behaviour and governance problems.”
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communities → deserve → behaviour
She said 139 local governments and 1,111 elected local council members is “too many” in Western Australia.
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governments → say → Australia
“My local government reform Bill before Parliament will remove barriers to voluntary local government amalgamations,” Beazley said.
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Beazley → remove → amalgamations
“It’s time for local governments and the opposition to get on board and support this reform Bill.
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governments → ’ → Bill
“These reforms will allow for the reset that the local government sector desperately needs.”
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sector → allow → that
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