Endemic bullying, harassment, sexism, casual racism, and aggressive behaviours were among a list of complaints outlined in an independent review of workplace culture at Western Australia's City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
The report was commissioned by council in late April last year.
Earlier that month, then-CEO John Walker was suspended due to allegations of workplace misconduct.
Mr Walker later left the council and has now been appointed as the interim general manager of the Lismore City Council in northern New South Wales.
In the report, prepared by independent consultants Inspired Developments Solutions, the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder culture score was -56, which the auditor said was "extremely low".
The rating system ranges from -100 and 100, and the benchmark standard for local government is 47.
The report concluded the culture was "toxic" and found staff were told to "leave if they didn't like the culture", and many did so.
It said those who raised claims relating to discrimination and harassment had their matters settled with legal agreements "to make the issue go away".
Because of that, it claimed "nothing had been done to change the behaviours in the organisation".
The most common comments made on the anonymous survey related to toxic culture and poor leadership, with some saying they couldn't voice concerns due to fear of being fired.
Staff speak out
Cheye Hill was the manager of the Goldfields Oasis Recreation Centre from 2014 to 2019.
Mr Hill said there were many examples of the kind of behaviour described in the report.
The former City employee, who now works with the Town of Port Hedland, said one of those was when he first met the CEO to deliver an operational report.
The former employee said he had also witnessed unprofessional language by the then-CEO towards female staff.
"It was casual of nature, from my point of view, the manner in which the CEO would address women: love, darl," Mr Hill said.
"The manner in which women were addressed was different to what I would expect from a senior leader."
Councillor Suzie Williams said she had also witnessed discrimination, sexism and aggressive behaviour within the workplace.
Ms Williams said it would be inaccurate to suggest the issues were attributable only to Mr Walker.
The report referred to complaints of a "boys' club" within the organisation.
"To put all of the blame for the toxic leadership on one person is unfair, because it's a business environment, so there's a lot of players within this," she told the ABC.
Ms Williams said the loss of staff had compromised the City's ability to maintain basic functions.
When the report was delivered to the council in December, there were 71 job vacancies.
"[Ratepayers] would actually be able to see that the potholes aren't getting fixed as quickly as possible, organising events becomes difficult, organising sporting facilities becomes difficult," she said.
Ms Williams said she was speaking as an individual, and not as a representative of the broader council.
Walker denies misconduct
Former chief executive John Walker said the indications in the report were not representative of the majority of staff.
"What this report seems to be doing is highlighting individual comments and individual views," Mr Walker said.
Mr Walker said he had not read the report, and was being made a "scapegoat" by the council.
He said the council had a positive workplace culture. Mr Walker denied Mr Hill's claims that he swore at staff.
He also denied behaving unprofessionally toward female staff members and said he promoted women into management roles.
Councillor John Matthew referred to the problems highlighted in the report as a matter of "leadership style".
"That leadership style, it doesn't matter who it is or where it is, is going to be perceived by different people in different ways, some positively and some negatively," Mr Matthew said.
Council wants to move forward
Mr Matthew said he was only interested in moving forward with the new chief executive, Andrew Brian, who had been brought in due to his record of improving workplace culture.
Councillor Terrence Winner said it was a relief to have the report finalised.
"It's managed to capture a lot of those messages and a lot of that feedback that was occurring," Mr Winner said.
The council will consider the report's recommendations at its meeting on Monday evening.
Mayor John Bowler declined to comment until after the council had made a decision.
