Glenorchy probe pushback

THE Board of Inquiry into Glenorchy City Council has pushed back the date by which suspended aldermen have to respond to its second draft report, after a request by suspended alderman Jenny Branch-Allen’s lawyers.

Late yesterday an email marked “private and confidential” was sent to the suspended aldermen — and obtained by the Mercury — from Board of Inquiry members Barry Easther and Lynn Mason outlining the change in date, from May 11 to June 1.

“The board has ... received a request to extend the time limit for making submissions to it,” it stated.

“The board has considered this request and will allow additional time to make a submission.”

The Mercury understands that the request was made by lawyers for Ms Branch-Allen, citing the vast amount of information contained in the second report.

In the correspondence, Ms Branch-Allen’s lawyers said if the request was not granted by Monday, they would take out an injunction against the board and send it back to the Supreme Court.

Ms Branch-Allen declined to comment, saying it was the process the inquiry was following. Ms Branch-Allen last year took the Board of Inquiry to the Supreme Court, arguing it was engaged in an unfair process and that questioning by Ms Mason and Mr Easther was “aggressive and intimidating”.

Chief Justice Alan Blow ruled there was a risk Ms Branch-Allen would not be afforded procedural fairness in the board’s final report and ordered it to notify her of any allegations of planned findings against her and give her an opportunity to respond.

Ms Branch-Allen’s lawyers then requested that the Board of Inquiry hand over every piece of evidence received.

It instead chose to produce a second draft of its findings into the councils — more than 160 pages with an extended executive summary — and with it provided a 33GB USB stick, which had every piece of evidence received during the investigation — up to 600 files.

It also contained the video interviews of aldermen and senior council staff.

Suspended Glenorchy alderman Matt Stevenson criticised the request to delay the reporting date.

“It’s an absolute disgrace that those scared of the findings of the board report have again sought to delay the process further,” he said.