Darcy Byrne’s rates debt remains publicly undisclosed

By WENDY BACON and ERIN MODARO

Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne has failed to declare a rate debt owed to the Inner West Council in his most recent annual return setting out his financial and non-financial interests. A register of the 2019 to 2021 interests is published on the Inner West Council website.

As reported by City Hub in June, Cr Byrne has acknowledged that he owes approximately $15,000 of rates on a property he inherited in Balmain. The house has stood vacant and in a state of poor repair for about five years.

On his 2021 disclosures of interest form, under the heading ‘Debt’, Byrne wrote ‘nil’. According to Local Government Model Code of Conduct guidelines, all debts must be disclosed.

Disclosures of interest as modes of transparency for councils

These guidelines are part of NSW’s access to information framework that aims to facilitate “openness, transparency and accountability” in local government. They help councillors manage conflicts of interest and perceived conflicts of interest that arise in decision making.

In adopting the code, councils apply a public interest test in which the onus is in favour of disclosure. Privacy considerations are a public interest concern that can justify non-disclosure. However in these cases, the information should be included on the original form and redacted in the public version.

The code of conduct provides residential addresses and signatures as examples of information that can be redacted.

The name and address of each person to whom a Councillor is liable to pay a debt during the previous 12 months should be disclosed. There are exemptions for debts below $500, debts for supply of goods and services ( e.g. an unpaid dentist bill) and loans from banks and other financial institutions.

The Mayor said to CityHub that he has entered a payment plan to pay down the rate debt, and that this is ‘normal practice’ of Council.

City Hub’s questions to Cr Byrne about this normal practice, and how it is applied, have not been answered.

City Hub asked both the Inner West Council acting General Manager and Cr Byrne personally for an explanation about the disclosure of debt. We received no answer explaining the circumstances of the non-disclosure of the debt from the Mayor or the acting General Manager.

Declaring property interests

When declaring interests in properties, they must be separately declared, including ownership, part-ownership leases and mortgages. Residential addresses are redacted for privacy reasons.

City Hub reviewed a number of declarations across councils. The model code is interpreted differently by different councils and it is not unusual to redact the addresses of investment properties.

However, a comparison can be found on the Northern Beaches Council where the Mayor Michael Regan owns a residential property, which is redacted, and two investment apartments for which he lists the addresses.

According to the format of the published 2020 to 2021 declaration, Cr Byrne only has one property declared, in which the address is redacted for privacy.

The empty house in Balmain is not his residence. It may however be that the “residential address entry” is his Balmain house, and that Cr Byrne neither leased or owned a residential home between July 1, 2020 and June 30 2021.

On his 2019/2020 return, Byrne did disclose both his residential home (with the address redacted), and the Balmain home for which he did provide the address.

In response to questions about the property, The Inner West Council has stated that the Council has complied with all its obligations for Councillors and senior staff to declare interests. The Mayor may have explanations, but so far, he has not provided them.

The Local Government Model Code of Conduct states that you must not lodge a return that you know or ought reasonably to know is false or misleading in a material particular. Complaints about breaches of these requirements are to be referred to the Office of Local Government, and may result in disciplinary action by the council, the Chief Executive of the Office of Local Government or the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

A spokesperson from the Office of Local Government said to CityHub that investigations are initiated by complaints.

Inner West Council sudden publication of annual returns

The disclosures of interest forms are legally required to be public information under the requirements of the NSW Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009, so councils must have them available online.

When City Hub was searching for the disclosures of interest forms in late June, they could not be found on the Inner West council website.

In relation to this matter, the council stated, “There was a short period where a clerical error was detected in relation to 2021 disclosures which resulted in unredacted information being uploaded to the website. The information was unavailable online for a short period of time while the error was corrected.”

 It is not clear how long the error occurred for or whether Councillors were told about this mistake.

Cr Byrne has previously been under investigation for matters relating to conflict of interests in council. In 2021, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found three counts of misconduct in relation to declarations of conflict-of-interest, and he was suspended for three months.

He was re-elected as a Councillor in the Baludarri (Balmain) ward of the Inner West Council in 2021.

Labor narrowly gained majority control of the Council, and Labor again chose Cr Bryne as their Mayoral candidate. He won with the support of 8 Labor Councillors against 7 Greens and Independents who supported Greens Mayoral candidate Kobi Shetty.

Cr Byrne will serve as Inner West Mayor until September 2023.