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Newcastle Lord Mayor Jeff McCloy has lashed out at his fellow councillors, labelling them self-serving and petty.
Just two months into the job and the city's new Lord Mayor has already created a stir among council staff and their union, suggesting staff are lazy and saying he would like to see more council jobs put out to tender.
At the same time, he has been criticised for advertising for a $90,000 a year chief-of-staff.
Yesterday, Councillor McCloy released a statement calling on council and councillors to focus on the big picture of bringing the budget back into surplus.
He has criticised the Labor push to trial free entry to the city's swimming pools and says it is clear there are councillors with self-serving and petty political agendas, which will lead to the continued demise of the city.
Meanwhile the United Services Union has taken Newcastle Council to the Industrial Relations Commission regarding several comments made by the Lord Mayor.
Councillor McCloy told a local newspaper when it comes to council workers, "it somehow seems to be acceptable to be seen standing on shovels."
Gordon Brock is representing the Local Government Engineers' Association and the Development and Environmental Professionals' Association.
He told the Commission, he's concerned Councillor McCloy is "developing a toxic campaign against Council employees".
Mr Brock says such comments are likely to inflame prejudice against workers and he wants an assurance that the General Manager will try to counter the claims.
The matter will be back before the I-R-C next week.
Topics: local-government, newcastle-2300
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