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Council general manager Alan Eldridge was fired late on Monday night.
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A marathon closed session of an extraordinary council meeting, which went for close to three-and-a-half hours, ended with a clinical review for an empty public gallery shortly before 9.30pm.
“Council has resolved to terminate immediately the general manager’s contract of employment,” mayor Greg Conkey said.
Mr Eldridge’s contract was terminated in accordance with the recommendation of a confidential legal report to councillors, but council would not provide any further details on Monday night.
Robert Knight will continue as acting general manager until a replacement for Mr Eldridge is found.
Mayor Greg Conkey would not make any comment on the matter, but he will hold a media briefing at 11am on Tuesday morning.
More than three months have passed since Mr Eldridge stood aside from his role, amid claims he failed to declare his son’s involvement in a property development while he was in charge of the planning department.
Mr Eldridge maintained he was not aware his son was a director of Inglewood Estate Pty Ltd, a property company that lodged an application to rezone 228 hectares of farmland at Gumly Gumly for residential development.
The matter was debated in council chambers three times between February and May 2016 and council records show Mr Eldridge signed off on every planning and development matter that went before councillors at monthly strategy meetings between February and April – except the one his son was involved in, which was approved by strategic planning manager Liz Rankin instead.
An independent investigation “found there could be a failure by the general manager to disclose other pecuniary interests” and the matter was picked up by the Office of Local Government (OLG), which then referred Mr Eldridge to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).
The referral to ICAC is believed to have related specifically to Mr Eldridge’s failure to disclose his son’s financial stake in the proposed development.
However, both the OLG and ICAC have been highly secretive about anything to do with Mr Eldridge and would not make public comment.
Mr Eldridge’s last few months in the city’s top job also saw him at the centre of a bullying scandal after he reportedly stood over recently-retired councillor Julian McLaren and berated him for publicly criticising council’s handling of its relationship with Regional Express (Rex).
At the time, Cr Conkey launched an investigation into the incident, which led to a press conference where Mr Eldridge said he had “let the community down”, but had not apologised to Mr McLaren.
It is believed Mr Eldridge has been on special leave with full pay since he stood aside, but council has never confirmed specific details.
Mr Eldridge is the latest in a string of council bosses to leave the role in acrimonious circumstances. Three of the four previous general managers – Graeme Faulkner, Lyn Russell and Phil Pinyon – resigned prematurely while Phil Perram was dismissed.