At the December 17 council meeting last year, 2008 documents came under the microscope pertaining to Mr Rowe’s actions in handling the asbestos at Hume Park and Allan Park. 

Councillor Jasmin Jones read out a letter dated May 3, 2012 to the Head of Operations Unit, Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) stating that ‘Council received an allegation of asbestos burial at Hume Park in 2009. Subsequent site inspections by staff failed to provide evidence of the alleged burial of asbestos.’ 

Councillor Garry Ware questioned why the response came so late and asked for an immediate response.  

General Manager David Rowe told the council that he would reply to all questions when he reviewed all the documentation for the following council meeting. 

Mr Rowe has since said that on becoming aware of the information circulated to Councillors containing allegations of improper activities, he forwarded documentation to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

“In relation to Hume Park recent investigations by council staff indicate the asbestos dumping which originally came to our attention in 2008 has not been fully resolved.  More recent work has put into place an appropriate strategy for further investigations and measures to remediate the problem.  

“We believe the extent of asbestos at the site to be largely covered by earth and does not present a health risk. We are hopeful of completing the investigations shortly and reporting back to council. This report will be fully available to the public.”

Mayor Rowena Abbey said that when there are accusations of corruption it is important to take it to the appropriate authorities, such as ICAC. 

“Misbehavior is one thing but corruption is another. It would be inappropriate for me to look into it,” Abbey said.

“David was unaware of whether information had been provided so he did so himself. He is happy for it to be looked into, there are accusations, so he reported it to ICAC, as an independent body." 

She believes that Mr Rowe has taken the appropriate action.

“I have confidence in the process of review of Hume Park and Allan Park, any appropriate actions that can be taken are being taken as quickly as possible,” Abbey said.

Cr Jones said at the next council meeting she'd ask for examples of timeliness and cleanup orders from other instances so a comparison can be made against how other similar instances had been handled on private land.

"To eliminate any appearance of favour by council to itself as the landlord of the crown land which is then leased out." Cr Jones said.

“It is my duty as a councilor to question the transparency and question the discrepancy. If there is a perfectly logical answer I will be interested to hear what Mr Rowe has to say at the February council meeting.” 

“I’m very much of the opinion that councillors as individuals have a collective need to review the systems to decide how this could have occurred when there has been system failure after system failure. 

“Whether these failures are with the council or leadership action, that information isn't being shared. The fact that there has been a second cleanup order put out, points us towards leadership downfall.”

Councillor Cecil Burgess said that he has every confidence that the council is very competent.

“I think the people have been barking up the wrong tree here, it's all administration, we shouldn’t be interfering with the council staff, we are here to make policies and work with the community,” he said. 

“I’m not concerned with anything that is happening within the council and doing a good job rectifying the problems that they have recently been faced with.”  

Councillor Geoff Frost said that he understands where David is coming from by taking time to respond to allegations, as the issue is quite detailed. 

“I can understand him needing time to think about it. Like everyone else I will be interested in a response,” Cr Frost said. 

“It’s a worrying situation at Hume Park but there has been some great progress. To get a result is by far the most important [thing]."