Local Government

HE SAID WHAT? Casey CEO Mike Tyler threatens safety of EPA officials

The Ombudsman’s office has reported on their investigation into the Casey Council landfill that threatened the lives and homes of thousands of people in the Brooklands Green estate with deadly poison gases.

The report reveals serious professional misconduct and possibly an unlawful threat evidenced in emails sent by the CEO of Casey Council Mike Tyler. He appears to have threatened the safety of law enforcement officials from the Environmental Protection Authority. According to the Ombudsman, Tyler repudiated a suggestion from the Authority that they locate a senior EPA official in the council premises and wrote he:

could not guarantee the safety of an EPA Officer based at Council at the moment.

It’s an extraordinary threat from the most senior council officer at Casey and the man has run the municipality since 1994. The report reveals he presided over the disastrous decision-making that led to the crisis.

COUNCIL WOULDN’T COMPLY
The report explains that the Environmental Protection Agency had serious problems getting the council to comply with the Act it enforces with the council CEO blocking the EPA at every turn in its efforts to keep residents safe. It turns out they were right to be gravely concerned.

An expert brought to Australia by the EPA reviewed the situation at the estate and despite thirty-five years of experience in the field was left shocked and in a state of distress about the grave situation Tyler had allowed to occur.

There is a current risk to the houses on the Brookland Greens estate due to gas migrating into houses through service ducts. There is a risk to the residents from explosion and asphyxiation. In 35 years of experience with problem sites, this is the worst I have observed… The houses are in jeopardy… In England, the houses would be valueless and the council could be potentially charged with manslaughter, if there was a fatality.

When I first arrived at the site I was totally shaken about what was going on… I was really worried about the health and safety of people in the estate. I have never ever seen a site as bad as that in all my experience.

The shocked overseas expert told the Ombudsman that he was gravely worried about the lives of those the Council landfill had put in danger:

I keep mentioning about asphyxiation to them and the effect of the levels of gas on them [sic] people. Also landfill gas contains – we have detected over 500 trace gases in landfill gas.

Mr Shaughnessy also stated that in his view it was ‘sheer good luck’ that there had not been any deaths or injuries caused by a methane-related explosion, or any health issues at the estate.

A NIGHTMARE THAT WON’T END
An appalling situation. That apparently still continues in the area as people have been unable to sell their properties, obtain bank finance on them and get on with their lives.

It’s a mess. And it’s clearly Mike Tyler’s council that is responsible.

The council’s composition substantially changed at the last election. And that gave many hope that it would improve.

And yet within hours of the report being released, the mayor and council allowed a media release to go out that rejected the Ombudsman’s report and made it clear they had learned very little. No apologies. No recognition of error. Not even a comment on threat to the safety of the EPA official.

Mike Tyler’s ongoing tenure ought no longer be a subject of discussion. His clear threat to the personal safety of EPA officers makes it clear he is unfit to serve in any senior capacity let alone running a very large municipality with hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue.

The council’s unwillingness to act to remove Tyler, its unwillingness to learn from the mistakes it has made and the damage it has done to thousands of people makes it clear that they ought to be sacked too. They have failed to even pay anything towards seriously compensating the people whose homes they poisoned with potentially lethal methane gas. They are still in limbo.

VEXNEWS has been of the view that Tyler has been asleep at the wheel of the Casey municipality for some time. Our sources – on the council staff and throughout the community – have told repeated horror stories that we have reported. He’s been asleep at the wheel, and now he’s crashed into an exposed brick-wall of astonishing threats designed to keep law enforcement officials from doing their job.

BOTH TYLER AND CASEY COUNCIL ARE UNFIT FOR THE OFFICES THEY HOLD
It’s time Mike Tyler and the Casey councillors found another job themselves. The time for decisive Victorian government action to protect the poisoned residents of the Brooklands Green estate is long overdue. There are probably some good councillors and excellent council staff in Casey but – for whatever reason – they have failed to clean up this mess. It’s time they all moved on.

It’s quite amazing the Brimbank council was sacked for what boiled down to poisonous politics. The Casey council and its out-of-control CEO has poisoned an entire community and it wants to continue on as if nothing happened. There certainly is something wrong in Victoria if that situation is allowed to continue.

The Ombudsman’s report is available from here [pdf].

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