By Cam Lucadou-Wells
I Cook Foods director Ian Cook says it’s “highly unlikely” that his lawsuit against Greater Dandenong Council will be resolved by the council CEO’s departure on 30 November.
City of Greater Dandenong chief executive John Bennie nominated the long-running ICF dispute’s “unfinished business” as one of the factors in seeking a four-month contract extension.
Mr Cook however said the Supreme Court case was in “limbo”, with no set end date.
“Does John Bennie know something that we don’t know?
“It seems he’s running the legal strategy for the benefit of John Bennie, not for the ratepayers of Greater Dandenong.
For the past three months, the civil action has been on hold, awaiting a judicial registrar to rule on ICF’s amended statement of claim.
“As long as it’s on hold, there’s no court date nor mediation date. Everything is in limbo,” Mr Cook said.
Mr Cook is sueing the council and the state’s Department of Health, accusing them of wrongly shutting down and destroying his business as part of a fatal food-poisoning investigation in early 2019.
Greater Dandenong laid 96 food-safety charges against ICF and Mr Cook after the closure. All charges were later withdrawn.
Ahead of the vote to reappoint the council CEO, Mr Cook wrote to councillors imploring them to make an “informed” decision.
Among a series of points, Mr Cook noted that Mr Bennie was a person-of-interest in Victoria Police detective Ash Penry’s briefing note on the ICF closure.
The ‘slug gate’ affair has been examined by two Parliamentary inquiries and several Victoria Police investigations, with no charges laid against public officials.
Mr Cook told Star Journal he had “very little trust in Dandenong Council” after most councillors voted to reappoint Mr Bennie.
In a 7-3 split decision on 23 May, mayor Jim Memeti and fellow Labor councillors Eden Foster, Richard Lim, Angela Long, Sean O’Reilly, Sophie Tan and Loi Truong voted in favour of Mr Bennie’s contract extension.
Liberal councillors Tim Dark and Bob Milkovic and Greens councillor Rhonda Garad voted against.
Despite declared opposition, the councillors voted without any comment or debate during the public meeting.
Cr Memeti said any discussion about the staff contractual matter would have had to go “in camera”.
“We thought it would be better to just vote on it.
“There was an opportunity for councillors to chat before the meeting, and we had made up their mind.
“We have a very good reputation that we rarely go in-camera at council meetings.”
Mr Cook said “the same councillors will be choosing the next council CEO”.
“It would be nice to think a new set of eyes will be looking at this.
“We would want to brief him or her on all of the evidence and then they can make their mind up on whether to continue this defence of this litigation.
“The thing that I find extraordinary is to think that the people of Greater Dandenong and the councillors don’t know everything that’s happened but only what’s been told to them.”
