Minutes of the meeting, publicly released last Friday, indicated general manager Vince Paparo was immediately sacked without notice from his position under clause 9.1.6 of his employment contract after six councillors voted in favour of the motion.

With councillor June Atkins granted leave of absence and councillor Michael Ivanov also excused after declaring an interest in the general manager’s performance review, the motion was carried six to four.

Mayor Peter Brooks, immediate past mayor Michael Mont-gomery and councillors Allan Boardman and Myrna Harris all had their names recorded against the motion which was moved by councillor John Tramby, seconded by councillor Meryl Dillion and supported by councillors Fred Barlow, Rodney Brazel, Tony Dennison and Col Pring.

The open meeting, which resumed last Monday morning after adjourning the previous Thursday at about 7pm, went into committee of the whole after councillors raised five matters which required clarification by either Mr Paparo or a member of his staff.

Included in the list was confirmation on whether or not two or more staff members had resigned from the council since its meeting adjourned on Thursday.

According to the minutes, the councillors asked if any of those staff, after tendering their resignations, had proceeded to delete records from the council’s computer systems.

The councillors also sought to establish why, if that was the case, the staff were allowed to continued and their access codes were not removed.

Councillors also asked whether the staff members were made aware of council’s resolution on Thursday not to offer any voluntary redundancies.

The minutes also indicated that after the meeting was again adjourned to allow Mr Paparo time to table the requested information, a resolution was passed that council “immediately seek legal advice into the legalities to do with the redundancies”.

The resolution resulting in the immediate sacking of the general manager was then passed.

Mayor Peter Brooks was unable to be contacted for comment.