It’s a case that reeks of corruption designed to financially damage unrepresented parties with a staggering number of solicitors and senior Council personnel documented on leger records increasing costs, showing the lengths an NSW government agency and its financial benefactors will go to for revenge for the public’s exercising its legally enforceable rights to seek administrative review of departmental decisions.

In this case, the matter concerned an application for breach of privacy of NSW Freedom of Information’s Telina Webb and her husband Paul McEwan, who confirmed a public presentation made by Council’s Governance Manager Tony Wickham to the organisation NSW Local Government Professionals, LGP, in July 2018, with the applicants’ names therein.  No other names were on the presentation.  Mr Wickham is documented to be a member of LGP with the title Executive Governance.

In addition to the role of Council Governance Manager, or Corporate Policeman, Mr Wickham also holds the Council positions of Right to Information Officer, Privacy Officer, Complaints Handling Officer, Code of Conduct Coordinator, and Joint Custodian of Secondary Employment.

At one time he also held the role of Executive Officer.  So much power and control is evident by these roles, with the cross-over of duties placing Mr Wickham in a constant position of conflict of interest.

The presentation of July 2018 was located by accident when Ms Webb found information about the presentation on the internet.  She thereafter sought a copy of it through the GIPA Act 2009.

The presentation would show Tony Wickham’s personal attitude to the public’s seeking access to government information, with his satirical cartoon and imagery disclosing it is ‘them’ vs ‘us’; them being the public and us being the government.  He also likened getting access to Council’s records as getting blood out of a stone.

The presentation included reference to the couple presenting a serious risk to public safety, the fundamental reason for Council’s continued withholding of information predominantly categorised as open access and mandated under the legislation for public release.

A highlight of Mr Wickham’s presentation, the caselaw of the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), where Tony Wickham supported by Head of Legal Services Lisa Marshall succeeded in convincing an NCAT tribunal member the couple posed the risk claimed.

But it was all a lie.
The presentation did not disclose the risk claimed had been fabricated.  

Neither did the presentation disclose the Tribunal neglected to test the claims.

The false claim of a risk of harm originated from Mr Wickham when he suggested using it and then entered into an unlawful agreement with a member of the community to conceal and protect the documents on the false basis a risk of harm was present if the documents were released.

It’s a sordid infamous tale of favouritism and corruption, with the unlawful agreement remaining in place since March / April 2012.

Given the presentation contained the personal information of Webb and McEwan, they had sought a Review of Mr Wickham’s conduct under Section 53 of the PPIP Act 1998, with Council determining no action would be taken, resulting in an Application for Administrative Review with the NCAT.  That application was unsuccessful, and so the couple sought an Internal Appeal with NCAT.

Council did not seek costs in the preliminary Administrative Review.  But it did seek costs in the Internal Appeal.   Those legal costs pertained to the engagement of Lindsay Taylor Lawyers, a Sydney based legal firm.

Ms Webb has obtained confirmation from Council itself that it had no legal contract in place, there was no Costs Agreement, no Tendering Process had been undertaken, and the ‘estimates’ for representing Council for the Appeal were initially a neat $20,000.00 via Lindsay Taylor Lawyer’s Jennifer Chenhall.
This amount was approved by the Council in-house solicitor with carriage, Stephanie Eileen Posniak, a former Newcastle City Council Councillor, within ten minutes of receipt.

A second ‘estimate’ was thereafter submitted by Jennifer Chenhall for an additional $12,000.00, which was also approved by Posniak.  There is no documentation supporting any financial consultation was undertaken with a suitably qualified Council finance officer.

With an open budget of $32,000.00, Lindsay Taylor Lawyers quickly racked a bill of $28,000.00.

Costs Assessor Peter James of McNamara James & O’Connor solicitors located in Grafton NSW identified inapplicable costs in excess of $10,000.00 which inflated the costs claim by over 30%.

Doubling up of fees, charging for education, time claimed as unreasonable, work undertaken out of scope, and disallowed charges totalled (88) eighty eight items amounting to $10,902.00 in inapplicable charges, meaning an increase of charges of over 30%.

“It is extraordinary that a long-established high-profile legal firm such as Lindsay Taylor Lawyers would stoop to such dishonest conduct, which I personally categorise as fraud and corruption.  There can be no doubt however that Port Stephens Council paid the fees in full at the cost to the ratepayers, evidenced by the speedy approvals of Stephanie Posniak. 

Lindsay Taylor’s solicitors know far too many of Council’s dirty little secrets to risk getting them offside at this stage of the relationship which commenced in March 2018.

And yes, this matter of breach of privacy is connected to that initial matter, where Port Stephens Council made the false allegations of a risk of harm, and with Lindsay Taylor lawyers knowing at all times the allegations were fabricated and baseless.  But they greedily took the money anyway!” stated Ms Webb.

“The total number of years of legal experience against my husband and I as non-legal professionals is (110) one hundred and ten in this case.  This includes solicitors, a partner, and in-house Council lawyers.  It begs the obvious question “just how many solicitors does it take to screw over the public and ensure maximum profit with collateral financial damage, in a simple case of administrative review in a tribunal?"  We’re not talking about the Supreme Court here.”

The Council solicitors included Stephanie Eileen Posniak and Head of Legal Services Lisa Helene Marshall.

Why just one of these two qualified individuals was insufficient is a question that may remain unanswered, but the reality is an agency is not able to claim legal costs for in-house solicitors.

Yet add Lindsay Taylor Lawyers’ Megan Hawley, Jennifer Chenhall, Lachlan Penninkilampi, and James Nash and you have a stella cast indicative of the malicious intent of those involved to stack the costs as much as possible.

“This matter is claimed to have cost approximately $28,000.00 for one Internal Appeal; one appeal alone.  Compare that to a recent case involving iCARE NSW, represented by the NSW Crown Solicitor which encompassed several hearings and an appeal, summonses, appealing summonses, and a cross over of (2) solicitors at a total less than $10,000.00 and the public will agree something is decidedly wrong with this case and it’s called corruption,” stated Ms Webb.

The matter constitutes gross professional misconduct at minimum and could be why the solicitor with initial oversight Jennifer Chenhall of Lindsay Taylor Lawyers has since bailed ship and relocated to Woollahra Municipal Council.
James Nash has also bailed ship to Maddocks Solicitors in Sydney.
Lachlan Penninkilampi has additionally bailed ship to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
These ‘career changes’ are additional to the firm’s previous partner Carlo Zoppo who is now a private consultant after also being entangled with Port Stephens Council, and being exposed for having knowledge of corrupt conduct but failing in his obligations to report same as a officer of the court.
Contact:	Woollahra Municipal Council, (02) 9391 7000		Media:		communications@woollahra.nsw.gov.au

		Maddocks Solicitors, (02) 9291 6100		Media:		Lisa.mcnamara@maddocks.com.au
		Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water		Media:		media@environment.nsw.gov.au

		Lindsay Taylor Lawyers		Megan.hawley@lindsaytaylorlawyers.com.au

		Stephanie Posniak		Stephanie.posniak@portstephens.nsw.gov.au

		Lisa Marshall		Lisa.marshall@portstephens.nsw.gov.au

		Tony Wickham		Tony.wickham@portstephens.nsw.gov.au