A Mosman Councillor, who last week admitted that he illegally used a local Rowers Club database, has now been accused of using the official Mosman Council database to solicit support for a run at becoming Mayor of Mosman.It’s also been revealed that Councillor Simon Menzies is also facing a police investigation after a complaint to the NSW Electoral Commission into how he ran his election campaign was referred to the NSW Crown Solicitors Office who is set to call in the Police to investigate the complaint.
Last week we revealed how several members of the Mosman Rowers Club were up in arms after they were cut off from their local club database after they got a Menzies for Mayor Spam email.
It’s also been revealed that Mosman Council recently carried out an investigation into claims that the organisers of the Menzies for Mayor Campaign used the Mosman Council databases to solicit support for Menzies.
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| Mosman Councillor Simon Menzies |
Mosman Council General Manager Viv May has confirmed that Mosman Council did receive a complaint claiming that the local Council database had been used by supporters for the Menzies for Mayor Campaign.
Greg Summers a local Mosman resident lodged the complaint with the Council after he received an unsolicited email from Simon Menzies during the recent elections.
Summers told Mosman Council executives that prior to the election he created a unique email address for a development application that went before Mosman Council.
Sometime later he received on that same unique email address unsolicited material to support Simon Menzies in the local elections.
Summers claims that the only way that this email could have been used was if someone had access to it via Mosman Council.
“Both my wife and I got unsolicited emails from Simon Menzies, we are not members of the Mosman rowers nor have we given our names or email addresses for use in local election campaigns. What was odd is that one of the emails came through on an email address we set up for a DA application to Mosman Council. I have complained to the Council and they have responded to me claiming that the local Council databases are secure.”
Meanwhile, NSW Crown Solicitor staff is set to call in the police to investigate a complaint that Menzies ran an illegal promotion among Mosman shop owners in an effort to get his political posters displayed in Mosman shops. Retailers were offered entry into a promotion if they displayed the posters.
Shoppers in the stores were also offered a financial incentive to enter a Menzies for Mayor Promotion.
Michael Nevin of the NSW Electoral commission said “We received a complaint relating to Simon Menzies; the matter was investigated and referred to our legal officers who after their own investigation referred the matter to the Crown Solicitors Office. They now have the option of calling in the Police to investigate the matter.
In September Mike Sprange, a former IT partner at Price Waterhouse Coopers lodged a series of complaints about the actions of Simon Menzies.
He claims that the “illegal” use of the Mosman Rowers Club database by organisers acting for mayoral candidate Simon Menzies, has resulted in club members now being cut off from their regular newsletter after they treated the communication as spam.
Sprange, who is retired, has lodged a complaint with the Federal Privacy Commission claiming the Mosman Rowers, whose Treasurer is listed as Simon Menzies, had no right allowing their databases to be used for “political purposes”.
Investigations by Sprange reveal the Mosman Rowers databases are housed on the servers of US Company, mynewsletterbuilder.com.
Simon Menzies has told board members at the Rowers that he was not aware that it was “illegal” to use the clubs database for political purposes and that he is “sorry”.
Michael Sprange said “Menzies is a Councillor who would have known that it is illegal to use a stolen database for political purposes”.
A former Mosman Councillor said “He is a key decision maker on Mosman Council and has been on the council for several years. He would have known that it is illegal to use a database without authority”.
