Just nine weeks after being appointed the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria’s (ECCV) Executive Officer, Fotis Kapetopoulos has quit, claiming that the organisation’s Chair made his tenure “impossible”.
In Kapetopoulos’ three page resignation letter sent anonymously to the Herald Sun and obtained by Neos Kosmos, Mr Kapetopoulos accuses Cr Pavlidis, who is also the Mayor of Whittlesea Council, of “intimidation, bullying and harassment” and calls on the state government to remove her from her post at the ECCV.
Speaking to Neos Kosmos, Mr Kapetopoulos claimed it was not his intention for the letter to be leaked to the media.
“I deeply care for the staff of the ECCV and I thought many of the board members were excellent,” he said.
“I had a fairly arduous relationship with the Chair, I mean I felt pretty undermined by her consistently and her impact on me wasn’t very positive at all.”
Mr Kapetopoulos described his relationship with Cr Pavlidis as “problematic”, and claims that his loyalty was called into question, something he had never experienced before.
“I tried very hard to make it work; I felt I had a very strong vision for the place and where it would go. I just felt that my position was untenable and I couldn’t cope with the undermining and the consistent pressure that I was under.”
Asked whether he had raised his concerns directly with Cr Pavlidis or others at the ECCV prior to his resignation, Mr Kapetopoulos replied: “Look I’d rather not talk about that. I did bring it up to others, but I didn’t expect it to go that way. I was railroaded into all sorts of Kafkaesque situations. I wish it didn’t come to that, but I was expecting different outcomes and it was affecting me very deeply, my health and my family, and I made that radical decision after I realised that my position wasn’t going to be heard or listened to and that the Chair had no intention of making things better in any way.”
Quoted in the Herald Sun on Monday, Cr Pavlidis denied the allegations made against her by Mr Kapetopoulos.
“Absolutely I’m denying those claims. I haven’t been presented with evidence of that case to what he is alleging,” she said.
“He decided to quit the role as EO in the midst of an industrial relations matter involved a ECCV staff member.
“We are shocked and disappointed.”
Asked what he hopes the outcome will be following his resignation as EO, Mr Kapetopoulos said he would like to see the ECCV prosper under different leadership.
Neos Kosmos contacted Cr Pavlidis who declined to comment on the allegations.