Councillors Amanda Findley and Andrew Guile made the claims after a sometimes explosive council meeting on Tuesday night, when council voted against a buy back option on the 1400 hectare Comberton Grange property.

Crs Findley and Guile both voted against the motion not to renew a deed of agreement over the property, for which the sale was finally settled with the Shaolin Foundation in late February.

In a meeting where emotions ran high, Cr Gash at one stage even left the mayoral desk during confidential session and spoke from the floor of council about councillors’ behaviour.

“My work place is unpleasant and toxic,” Cr Findley said.

“The constant bickering between Gash and Guile is completely unbearable, with Gash constantly telling Guile to grow up.

“This is not a democracy but a dictatorship.”

She claims Team Gash stages not so secret, secret meetings, and “are openly caucusing in council offices despite the Code of Conduct frowning on this”.

“The evidence is there every week, when I turn up at 3pm and all the councillors’ cars are there and I can hear them in the mayor’s office behind closed doors.”

She said the fact that there was a unanimous vote in the Property Steering Committee which had been completely overturned in the space of a week also pointed to caucusing.  

“Any idea that other non-team councillors are welcome is completely ludicrous. Any shred of respect I had for the mayor and her team has gone.”

The usually soft-spoken Cr Findley in frustration even dropped the F bomb during debate, which she said “wasn’t acceptable” and she “took full responsibility and apologised for”.

At times tearful, Cr Findley flagged her intention to refer the matter to the Office of Local Government.

“I don’t think I have a choice but to make a complaint,” she said.

Cr Guile claimed, “Shoalhaven City Council is now a haven for bullying and intimidation for anyone who attempts to call the mayor to account in the public interest or even just holds a different point of view.”

“After all, she controls the votes,” Cr Guile said.

“While council has released the decision publicly, all the discussions were held in the confidential session restricting our ability to canvass the options and the details.

“The public also missed a vitriolic performance by Mayor Gash with yet another ham-fisted failed attempt to throw me out of the chamber among a barrage of puerile insults.

“As for any organisation, the tone is set at the top.”

Cr Gash said Cr Findley was entitled to her opinion.

“I can only do what I do as mayor,” she said.

“I will run the chamber as it should be run, with respectfulness for everyone.

“I don’t believe in intimidation or bullying and won’t allow that to happen in the chamber.

“We are there to do the work for the community; we are not there for political reasons.

“It is not the Bear Pit. It is not state or federal government.

“We have been elected by local people to work for the community.

“And that’s what I intend to do.

“I intend to be mayor for the next 18 months and councillors need to realise, as I said at the beginning, I expected to be respected and respect given to other people in the chamber.

“You may not get on with or like the other people but you will respect them while they are in the chamber.

“And that includes the position of mayor.”

The mayor fired back at Cr Guile, saying: “He should know about intimidation and bullying as he does a good job of it.

“It is time to call him into account every time he does it. I will not allow any councillor to do that.

“He [Cr Guile] thinks it’s a game, it’s not at all.

“Everyone is entitled to have their say and will continue to have their say.”

SHOALHAVEN City Council employees have backed up claims from Councillors Amanda Findley and Andrew Guile of a toxic, unpleasant workplace and a haven for bullying and intimidation. 

The Register has spoken to and been contacted by a number of employees who have backed up the claims, saying morale was at an all-time low.

“Cr Findley described her working conditions as ‘unpleasant and toxic’, it’s worse, it’s an absolute cesspool,” one employee, who did not want to be identified, said.

“Staff morale has never been so low. Everyone, including office staff, is disgruntled.

“I personally feel like we are treated like undisciplined children, who should be seen but not heard.”

The employee said the question of staff morale was put to Cr Gash in a staff meeting and it was like a “powder keg”.

“She would not wear it for one second and accused the staff member of spreading ‘unsustained rumours’.”

They talk of a work environment where employees are “constantly looking over their shoulders” concerned they may “be the next to face the chop” under council’s Transformation Task Force restructure.

The employee said they had been “sickened to their bones” by the way council has operated since Cr Gash came to power.

“I have worked for council for more than 10 years and since Gash has come to office, I have seen things that have really sickened me,” the employee said.

The employee told of staff meetings with the mayor and general manager Russ Pigg to inform staff of the progress of the transformation group and when a question was asked or an opinion shared that the mayor had not agreed with, the staff member had been shouted down and belittled. 

“These guys are in fear of their livelihood and quite a few have lost their jobs since,” the employee said.

Staff raised concerns including perceived “big brother” actions by council, installing GPS systems to all council vehicles so they could be tracked every second of the day.

“We were originally told these were for operational use only but like the ‘operational’ onsite surveillance cameras, they are used to spy on staff, create time and motion studies and discipline staff for minor occurrences,” the employee said.

Staff spoke about how cutbacks saw the canteen/catering staff “laid off” over Christmas, some of whom had worked for the organisation for 25 years.

“Loyalty means zip,” the employee said.

Others said council had become so frugal it didn’t even provide tea and coffee for staff, or visitors who attend council for meetings anymore.

“Everyone even brings their own milk in now and the fridges are full of labelled milk bottles. At one stage there were about 16 bottles in one fridge,” one said.

“Things are getting so bad we fear we will have to bring in our own toilet paper next.”

Another long serving staff member agreed morale was the worst they had ever seen.

“It’s not a nice place to work at the moment,” the employee said. 

SHOALHAVEN Council general manager Russ Pigg says he doesn’t believe morale in the organisation is a problem.

“I don’t think it is a problem throughout the whole organisation,” he said.

“The organisation has been going through substantial change in the last 18 months to two years through the restructure and some people would feel threatened throughout that.

“You always get hot spots or pockets within an organisation who are feeling threatened or uncertain of their futures and until those issues are resolved and we move forward attitude might be down a bit.

“We are no different to many state government agencies, who over the same two-year period have also gone through these sorts of restructures and downsizing in the number of public servants.

“It is all part of a natural cycle, is how I describe it.

“Staff may be down and being impacted but hopefully we have got the right strategies in place and things will settle again and morale will come back up as people feel more secure in their jobs and more stable.

“Most of the restructuring is now in place.

“We have over 800 staff in the organisation and you are always going to have somebody aggrieved somewhere down the track. 

“We are trying to keep all the staff focused on why we are here, to deliver the services the community really wants from council.”

Mr Pigg said he was not in a position to comment on Cr Amanda Findley’s comment that her workplace was “toxic and unpleasant”.

“I think you have to take Cr Findley’s comments in context,” he said.

“I think she was commenting on her perception of working within the elected council and not the council as an organisation,” he said.