Parramatta ICAC target breaks down, lashes out at ‘public shaming’

A senior City of Parramatta staffer who admitted to making a charade of recruitment processes to hire her friends at the council spent the final minutes of her evidence in tears, blaming the ICAC for “public shaming”.

Roxanne Thornton – who, along with executive Angela Jones-Blayney and former chief executive Gail Connolly, is being investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption – had maintained a steady and at times combative approach to being grilled over four days by Counsel Assisting Joanna Davidson, SC, about her conduct at the council.

But in the final 30 minutes of her evidence, Thornton broke down into tears when Arthur Moses, SC, cross-examined her on behalf of the council.

“Ms Thornton, counsel assisting was very polite with you, but let me be very blunt with you,” he said, before putting it to her that she had lied to the ICAC about whether she knew Connolly had forged her signature as a witness on Connolly’s employment contract.

He put it to her that she was engaging in corrupt conduct when she subverted recruitment practices. “I knew it to be misconduct, but I do not believe that it was corruption,” she told Moses.

Thornton, who is on paid leave as group manager, Office of the Lord Mayor and CEO, bit her lip when Moses began asking about previous evidence she had given that she has trouble trusting anyone because of her personal circumstances.

“Your personal difficulty trusting people is not an excuse for you breaching your obligations to the council, correct? Do you accept that?”

After a pause, she said: “Yes”, before starting to cry.

“I’ve played the game, you know, I’ve, I’ve admitted to everything, but this public shaming … I mean, you should all be f---ing ashamed of yourselves, you know? You just keep kicking me,” she said.

“I know I’m gonna lose my job. I’ve done the wrong thing. There’s people watching that are going to get heaps of joy out of this. F---ing good times. I’ve admitted to everything.”

Chief commissioner John Hatzistergos asked if she wanted to take a lunch break.

“No, I don’t want to have a lunch break. You’ve had me here for four days.” She alleged, without providing evidence, that the council’s acting chief executive, George Bounassif, had been recruited “because of his relationship with people as well”. He is not accused of any wrongdoing.

“Alright,” Hatzistergos responded. “Are you finished?”

“I wish I was,” she responded, before Moses continued his questioning.

Moses put it to Thornton that she was attempting to surround herself with “cronies” who would be loyal to her and Connolly. She did not dispute the allegation but said she wanted to add “the City of Parramatta” to the list of loyalties.

“The entire architecture of staffing in the Office of the Lord Mayor and CEO was built around her preferences and your loyalty to her,” Moses said.

“That’s not inaccurate, but it’s not a complete representation,” Thornton said.

Earlier in the day, Thornton had been asked by Davidson about text messages she had sent regarding attempts by Justin Mulder, the council’s former chief of staff, to run for the council.

“What a c---,” she texted a council colleague who had received an election flyer from him in the mail.

Davidson asked if that reflected her view of Mulder at the time.

“Yeah, like a cheeky c---,” Thornton replied.

“Sorry, what was that?” Hatzistergos asked.

“Like a cheeky little c---, yes,” she said. “You’ve already discovered that I’ve got a potty mouth … I refer to some of my best friends as c---s.”

In the afternoon, the commission heard evidence from Heidi Wenham, a business support co-ordinator employed by the council. Wenham was previously a personal assistant to Thornton at Canterbury-Bankstown Council.

Wenham confirmed Thornton had provided her with copies of the questions she would be asked at her interview for her position at the City of Parramatta.

Despite the list of questions she was provided being the same as those asked at her interview, according to documents the ICAC saw, Wenham said she did not think she was given a special advantage in her recruitment process. She repeated four times that she was “a bundle of nerves” during the process and did not recall what happened.

Counsel Assisting the ICAC Claire Palmer SC asked Wenham: “Are you asking that the chief commissioner believe that, having received those six practice questions, you went into the interview, were asked precisely the same six questions, and you didn’t realise that you’d been asked the same six questions?”

Wenham answered: “I didn’t go in there knowing that they were the questions that Roxanne had provided me.”

Wenham cried as she left the hearing.