By NOEL MURPHY
A BITTER legal brawl is unfolding between Darryn Lyons and former mayor Brian Fowler over advertisements during last year’s mayoral election campaign.
Mayor Lyons has lodged defamation action in the Supreme Court, claiming Mr Fowler authorised advertisements that “gravely injured” his feelings.
Prominent businessmen including Frank Coasta paid for the advertisements, which argued Cr Lyons was an inferior candidate to Ken Jarvis. Mr Jarvis has maintained he was unaware of the ads before they appeared.
Mr Fowler’s defence countered this week, accusing Cr Lyons of “belligerent and intolerant” behaviour and referring to celebrities’ various legal actions against his former company, Big Pictures.
Cr Lyons lashed out at reports on the Fowler defence.
“There are factions from the top end of town who want to see the mayor brought down,” he told the Independent.
“I’m doing a top job. I’m working incredibly hard for Geelong but there are some vested interests that don’t want change, that don’t like Geelong being progressive and they’re trying to bring down the mayor.”
The legal stoush follows an Australian Services Union (ASU) bid to solicit complaints against Cr Lyons with a free-call hotline.
ASU assistant secretary Richard Duffy said the union was “forced to set up” after being “inundated with calls from members, non-members and residents” with “serious concerns” about Cr Lyons’ leadership.
A recorded message on the hotline fails to mention Cr Lyons, instead calling for complaints about the “poor behaviour and practices of senior management and councillors”.
“With your help we can clean up Geelong city council. Thank you,” the message says.
Cr Lyons issued a terse statement about the hotline, describing it as a stunt and suggesting the union would be “better off contributing positively to Geelong rather than trying to tear it down”.
