Perth Lord Mayor’s two-day penalty hearing over but penalty outcome could take 90 days

AT the end of her two-day State Administrative Tribunal penalty hearing, Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi went back to work.

Ms Scaffidi will now wait up to 90 days to find out her penalty for several breaches of the Local Government Act.

The tribunal last year found she had breached the Act on 45 occasions, but the Court of Appeal overturned 26 of them.

Solicitor Carolyn Thatcher today introduced the City of Perth gift and travel registry to demonstrate Ms Scaffidi did not include the addresses of gift and travel donors 34 times.

Ms Thatcher said Ms Scaffidi didn’t seek any support on declarations or complete any WALGA or Local Government Department training on the topic.

She said Ms Scaffidi relied on the City of Perth chief executive to guide her and was passing the blame.

“The respondent endeavours to deflect blame,” she said.

“We would say the addresses were significant for two reasons: it does not comply with legislation and it highlights how bad she is at learning lessons.”

Ms Scaffidi’s lawyer Steven Penglis said Ms Scaffidi admitted she was careless and her story had not changed.

When the hearing was over about 4pm, Ms Scaffidi told media there was not much more to say other than what had already been said.

“I am going back to work,” she said.

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