Suspended City of Perth CEO emailed ‘advice’ before committee meeting

Suspended City of Perth boss Michelle Reynolds emailed councillors just minutes before a scheduled committee meeting, offering “late advice” on a live compliance issue.

The email , tabled at an Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee meeting on August 10, was sent from Reynolds’ work account at 3.49pm, just 11 minutes before the meeting was due to begin.

Council voted to suspend Reynolds from her duties as chief executive officer in May, and enact an acting chief executive, after a confidential meeting was held by Local Government Inspector Tony Brown.

Reynolds’ email before the meeting took issue with a report dealing with a compliance failure for 2025. It was sent to acting chief executive Maria Cooke and independent committee members Colin Murphy and Jonathan Seth. Other recipients have been blacked out on the copy released by the city.

Cooke tabled Reynolds’ email when the committee reached the compliance item, according to the meeting minutes.

Deputy Lord Mayor David Goncalves issued a comment in the minutes, which stated Reynolds’ emailed “some, but not all, of (the committee) members, from her City of Perth email account ... offering advice, comments and suggested actions on that item”.

The compliance failure Reynolds had emailed about was the only failure of 97 requirements assessed, as part of the city’s annual compliance audit return.

It required her as chief executive to submit a report she completed to the committee – which she did on May 12, 2025 – and also to council, which was not done, leading to the compliance failure.

The minutes stated the reason it was not submitted to council was “not clear”, but Reynolds suggested in her email that the failure should be explained as an administrative error.

“Sorry about the late advice but I have just read the ARIC papers for tonights (sic) meeting,” she wrote in the email.

“...this appears to be an administrative oversight issue and should be explained as such.”

In the email, Reynolds said the paper appeared to be “missing facts” and suggested a question could be put to the governance team.

“If we can ensure the full explanation is available to members this would be greatly appreciated,” she wrote.

This masthead asked the City of Perth what restrictions applied to Reynolds’ communications, whether she was authorised to give advice on agenda items, and whether the email was a breach of her suspension.