A council-commissioned independent investigation into the City of Newcastle CEO's links to a long-term Herald letter writer has found "no evidence that the CEO incentivised the author to write the articles".
An investigation was launched into council CEO Jeremy Bath's connections with Newcastle Herald letter writer Scott Neylon, who lives in Japan, after a motion by Labor councillor Carol Duncan at the July Newcastle council meeting.
The Newcastle Herald was not contacted during the investigation, nor were copies of the letters requested.
The investigation came after Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig publicly said he planned to contact lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes requesting the matter be examined.
The motion to the December 12 Newcastle council meeting said the investigation report was issued on December 7. It was brought to the meeting as a late item, meaning it was not on the agenda for the evening, which was published on the council website on December 8.
When asked why the item was not included on the agenda, a City of Newcastle spokesperson said the council's Code of Meeting Practice required a three-day notice period for listing an item on the agenda.
"CN staff administering the investigation process required time to review the report and seek clarification and confirmation from the investigator on the appropriate steps to report the outcome of the investigation to the elected Council," the spokesperson said.
"This meant that when the council agenda was made available to the general public on CN's website on Friday 8 December, CN staff were not in a position to determine that report could proceed to the ordinary council meeting on 12 December.
"The only remaining option for the matter to be considered at the December Council meeting was for it to be presented as a late item of business, in accordance with CN's Code of Meeting Practice."
The supported motion noted "the conduct reviewer issued the investigation report and noted there is no evidence that the CEO incentivised the author to write the articles nor did he reveal to the author confidential information contained in the letters to the Newcastle Herald".
"There is no evidence that the CEO directly contributed to the letters," the motion continued.
"Having considered the available evidence the investigation found insufficient evidence to support the allegations.
"Accordingly both allegations were not substantiated."
In a statement, Mr Bath welcomed the findings and said the independent investigation cited evidence provided by Scott Neylon, showing that he had authored the letters.
However, the investigation report will remain confidential and councillors were not provided with a copy of the report.
In light of the investigation outcome, Mr Bath demanded a public apology from Wallsend MP Sonia Horney, who used parliamentary privilege to accuse Mr Bath of authoring the letters.
The July motion raised by Cr Duncan said the scope of the investigation should also examine "how confidential electoral roll details about council staff and their friends and family came into the possession of journalists".
The investigation found that "the procedure does not provide for the conduct reviewer to take action or make a referral in relation to the code of conduct for members of the Legislative Assembly" and those allegations would be "referred to appropriate external agencies to determine next steps".
The Newcastle Herald has not accessed the electoral roll at any MP office for the purposes of this investigation.
Councillors resolved to "proactively consider and seek advice" on whether the outcome letter and investigation report can be released publicly in accordance with the Government Information Public Access Act (GIPA) 2009.
The council motion said the matter was now considered finalised.
