Onkaparinga councillors asked to show support for Mayor Lorraine Rosenberg — but not enough show up

A MEETING called to show support for embroiled Onkaparinga Mayor Lorraine Rosenberg was called off because not enough councillors turned up.

Lorraine Rosenberg at her Willunga Hill farm. Picture MATT TURNER.

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A MEETING called to show support for embroiled Onkaparinga Mayor Lorraine Rosenberg was called off because not enough of her elected members showed up to back her.

Only eight of the council’s 19 members attended the special meeting, which was called earlier on Thursday to publicly show confidence in Ms Rosenberg and chief executive Mark Dowd.

Along with councillors Heidi Greaves, John Gunn and Deputy Mayor Gary Hennessy, who all pushed for the meeting to go ahead, Gail Kilby, Lara Nicholls, Greg Olbrich, Darryl Parslow and Heather Merritt were in attendance.

However, at least 10 councillors were required for a quorum.

Mr Hennessy, who chaired the meeting, waited 30 minutes before adjourning and rescheduling the meeting until Tuesday, June 5, at 6pm — just half an hour before a motion of no confidence in the mayor is expected to go ahead.

Ms Rosenberg was not in attendance at the meeting, which came less than 24 hours after it was revealed she faced a vote of no confidence.

That vote was pushed by Cr Robyn Holtham, with support from Bill Jamieson, Jonathan Deakin and Peter Schulze.

Cr Greaves said there was a “false perception” that the entire council was unhappy with Ms Rosenberg and Mr Dowd’s performance, which is why she wanted a vote of confidence to go ahead.

“This is blatantly wrong and we need to set this record straight,” Cr Greaves said.

“There is no crisis of confidence, there is a handful of councillors who might like to think so, but rather than working with the organisation and other councillors to make things better, they are deliberately undermining the council, mayor and administration.”

Both Ms Rosenberg and Mr Dowd have come under fire from councillors and residents in the past year following a number of controversial issues, which started with the council paying Mr Dowd’s $6818 fee to join Kooyonga Golf Club.

The State Ombudsman is also investigating the council’s credit card spending.

The meeting on Thursday night included a push for elected members who have publicly accused and undermined Ms Rosenberg and Mr Dowd to publicly apologise.

“The calls for (Mr Dowd’s) resignation by certain elected members is inappropriate to say the least,” Cr Greaves said.

“We need to deal with issues internally, not call for his resignation publicly.”

Cr Holtham, who is running for mayor at the council’s November election, told the Southern Times Messenger she was disappointed tonight’s meeting was called.

A council spokesman said both meetings would be like “any other meeting of council”.

“Should a resolution be passed by the elected body then any action arising from that resolution will be enacted if required,” the spokesman said.

A vote of no confidence would not force Ms Rosenberg to stand down.