The four councillors who voted to cancel the contract of Warrnambool City's CEO say they followed legal advice to the letter of the law when they made the decision.
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Mayor Tony Herbert revealed this week he had referred details of some councillors' actions in the lead up to Peter Schneider's sacking to the Local Government Inspectorate.
He said he had made contact with the inspectorate before Mr Schneider was ousted, and the local government watchdog had now confirmed it was investigating.
The CEO's contract was terminated in July after 18 months in the job.
Cr Sue Cassidy said she hadn't yet heard from the inspectorate.
"It shows how little the mayor knows about leadership and good governance - if you are the mayor or the chair, once a decision is made, they, under good governance, are to support the majority vote and not play games in the media," she said.
"He's not doing any favours to the city as far as I'm concerned by showing bad governance."
Cr Kylie Gaston said she too was yet to hear from the inspectorate.
"I don't see the purpose of what the mayor's trying to achieve," she said.
"This was clearly a very serious matter. Consequently we sought legal advice, it was offered and we followed it to the letter, including not breaching confidentiality."
Cr David Owen said as difficult as the decision was, they followed proper legal processes.
"There's no doubt we followed legal process," he said.
Cr Owen said The Standard's story about the mayor's decision to contact the inspectorate was "more about Tony than the inspectorate".
Cr Mike Neoh said: "Any actions that were taken in relation to any matters is based on sound legal advice now and into the future."
Acting chief municipal inspector Dr John Lynch said the Local Government Inspectorate was investigating matters relating to the recent termination of the CEO's contract.
"The Inspectorate deals with complaints or requests for investigation in strict confidence and does not provide information that may compromise current investigations," he said.
Cr Herbert said the ousting of the CEO would be a significant cost to the city at a time when council budgets were already under great pressure.
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