{"id":827669,"date":"2026-05-28T11:26:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/827669\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T11:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:26:22","slug":"local-government-officials-planned-to-secure-parramatta-council-jobs-for-themselves-icac-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/827669\/","title":{"rendered":"Local government officials planned to secure Parramatta council jobs for themselves, ICAC hears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Messages obtained by the NSW corruption watchdog have revealed discussions by a group of long-time Sydney local government officials about plans to secure senior positions for themselves and friends at City of Parramatta Council.<\/p>\n

Angela Jones-Blayney was hired as executive director of city engagement and experience at the council in 2023, a few months after Gail Connolly was hired as CEO.<\/p>\n

Both women along, with Roxanne Thornton, are being investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) for subverting hiring processes to benefit friends and associates.<\/p>\n

Ms Jones-Blayney told the commission she knew Ms Connolly for nearly 30 years, since they both worked at the City of Sydney.<\/p>\n

Outside of work, both women travelled together, attended “Pink Ladies” gatherings and went to netball games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I’m your number one fan’<\/p>\n

Ms Jones-Blayney also relied on Ms Connolly’s help when she was leaving Ryde Council in 2022.<\/p>\n

When asked by counsel assisting Joanna Davidson SC if she viewed this help as an “expression of friendship”, she said it was a “professional support mechanism”.<\/p>\n

Ms Davidson produced messages where Ms Jones-Blayney referred to Ms Connolly as a “beautiful friend”.<\/p>\n

In one message, Ms Connolly invited her to share a bed on a trip to Canberra saying: “You’ll have to share a king bed with me if you wanna come, we’re all sharing a room.”<\/p>\n

\n

Another message sent from Ms Jones-Blayney to Ms Connolly read: “You are a f***ing legend and I’m so proud of you, and I don’t know anyone in our industry that would have had the absolute strength and fortitude to have done what you’ve done. I admire and respect you enormously.”<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly texted her back: “I’m hoping my plans work out and we can work together again sooner rather than later.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When Ms Connolly got the appointment at Parramatta council, a congratulatory message from Ms Jones-Blayney read: “You already know I’m your number one fan and rightly so, I truly admire and respect you and would walk over hot coals for you.”<\/p>\n

After presenting those messages and more to Ms Jones-Blayney, she said she and Ms Connolly were indeed “great friends”.<\/p>\n

‘Those guys are gonna disappear’<\/p>\n

The commission was shown another thread of text messages between Ms Jones-Blayney, Ms Thornton and Ms Connolly, where the three women were already discussing their plans for Parramatta council, well before Ms Jones-Blayney or Ms Thornton were hired.<\/p>\n

On the same day Ms Connolly was offered the top job, Ms Jones-Blayney sent a message saying: “Now Roxy, you and I need to work out who we need to knock off so we can work with the rockstar again.”<\/p>\n

When asked by Ms Davidson what she meant by that, Ms Jones-Blayney said: “I don’t believe that I meant that in a literal sense.”<\/p>\n

In one text message, Ms Connolly said she “can’t wait to meet Bernadette and Bryan”.<\/p>\n

She was referring to then acting CEO Bryan Hynes and Bernadette Cavanagh, who led the people and culture department at the council.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Building<\/p>\n

Three women are being investigated by ICAC for subverting hiring processes to benefit themselves and friends. (ABC News: Warwick Ford)<\/p>\n

Ms Cavanagh had raised concerns about the negotiating of Ms Connolly’s contract, which exceeded the $500,000 per annum salary approved by a council resolution.<\/p>\n

She refused to produce a contract and advised then-Lord Mayor Donna Davis to go back to the council chamber for approval.<\/p>\n

Ms Cavanagh was eventually sidelined and Ms Connolly’s appointment went ahead.<\/p>\n

Ms Jones-Blayney fired back to the group thread: “Bloody idiots.”<\/p>\n

“I actually can’t believe how stupid they are or that they deliriously think they can get away with it,” she texted.<\/p>\n

“Those guys are gonna disappear into a big blackhole never to be seen again.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When asked what she meant by that, Ms Jones-Blayney said: “I can’t specifically recall what I’m thinking of there.”<\/p>\n

She also told the commission she never met Ms Cavanagh or Mr Hynes.<\/p>\n

‘Stack it with our good people!’\"Pictured:<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly (left), heart-reacted Ms Jones-Blayney’s (right) text stating council could be stacked with “our good people”. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

In another message, Ms Jones-Blayney described Ms Cavanagh as “a nightmare” and an “off-the-Richter-scale alpha female who has Bryan wrapped around her little fingers. They’re all shit scared of her”.<\/p>\n

She told the ICAC information was passed on to her by someone she knew who worked at Parramatta council.<\/p>\n

Another message from Ms Jones-Blayney to Ms Connolly said: “If Parramatta is as dysfunctional as the recruiter says, we can wipe their shit out and stack it with our good people.”<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly heart-reacted the message.<\/p>\n

Ms Cavanagh’s employment was terminated on May 26, 2023 \u2014 only eight weeks after Ms Connolly got the top job.<\/p>\n

Mr Hynes left in October that same year.<\/p>\n

Ms Jones-Blayney will continue giving evidence on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Messages obtained by the NSW corruption watchdog have revealed discussions by a group of long-time Sydney local government…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":827670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[339835,128233,4740,339840,339841,339838,339837,108132,25175,18949,339834,59597,17365,337525,339839,339842,50,17364,305286,305287,339832,339836,339833,13048,38808],"class_list":["post-827669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-angela-jones-balyney","tag-anti-corruption","tag-australia","tag-bernadette-cavanagh","tag-bryan-hynes","tag-council-officials","tag-council-workers","tag-councils","tag-evidence","tag-friendship","tag-gail-connolly","tag-icac","tag-inquiry","tag-jobs-for-friends","tag-long-time-friends","tag-lord-mayor-donna-davis","tag-news","tag-nsw","tag-parramatta","tag-parramatta-council","tag-pink-ladies","tag-pre-planned-to-secure-jobs","tag-roxanne-thornton","tag-sydney","tag-text-messages"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116651963594459477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}