He also said that the summary dismissal this week of Mr Lampe as well as other "serious issues" have raised concerns about the functioning of Hurstville council.

Mr Toole said on Friday that an ongoing investigation into Hurstville Council "has identified what appear to be numerous failures of the required standard of governance and legal compliance".

Cr Hindi, a Liberal, was facing fines in excess of $7000 for repeated failures to comply with orders from his own council staff to remediate an asbestos-riddled development site in Crump Street, Mortdale.

In May Cr Hindi, who was the mayor at the time, used his casting vote to suspend the general manager who was due to give evidence about Cr Hindi's problems over the asbestos later in the meeting.



Cr Hindi's backers, who include the current mayor, Labor's Vince Badalati, claimed that the vote to suspend Mr Lampe was because of allegations of misconduct on Mr Lampe's part which they claimed were unrelated to the asbestos saga.



After the general manager's removal from the meeting, Cr Hindi's backers were then able to vote to postpone any decision by council staff on whether to prosecute or fine Cr Hindi.

Mr Lampe has been suspended on full pay since May.



Earlier this month, Cr Hindi was found guilty of inappropriate conduct after he used his position to threaten a neighbour who had complained that Cr Hindi's excavations on the Crump Street site had caused subsidence on his block.

On April 23, using his mayoral title, Cr Hindi sent an email to his neighbour in which he not only blamed his neighbour for the subsidence but told him it was his responsibility to build a retaining wall to fix the problem.



"I am putting you in notice that if your storm water pipe ... channels illegally thorough [sic] the property my family will take the matter further," wrote Cr Hindi.



According to the council's code of conduct: "You must not take advantage [or seek to take advantage] of your status or position . . . in order to obtain a private benefit for yourself."



Cr Hindi claimed he never meant to intimidate his neighbour and that the mayoral signature is "automatically inserted when an email is sent".

However, an investigation by the Office of Local Government found that Cr Hindi "acted in a manner that: was improper; was an abuse of power or otherwise amounted to misconduct; caused intimidation of another person; caused a reasonable person [his neighbour] unwarranted offence or embarrassment."