David Penberthy: The real problem with Adelaide City Council ... childish squabbling and a chronic fear of big ideas

There’s one big reason why big ideas for the heart of Adelaide rarely seem to come to fruition, writes David Penberthy.

There was an intriguing item by friend and colleague Colin James in last Saturday’s Advertiser, every word of which rang true, even though none of its actual contents have been made public.

The report, in the Off The Record column, stated that Adelaide City Council was sitting on what James called a bombshell report about its toxic culture.

The report apparently shows how personality politics and factional fiefdoms are rendering our peak civic governing body a dysfunctional mess.

The report into the adverse impact that poor behaviour by some councillors was having on administration staff was ordered by members of the so-called Team Adelaide faction, the majority grouping on the council, James wrote.

“They are constantly having political fights with veteran councillor Anne Moran and her ally, retired media boss Phillip Martin,” James wrote.

“Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor has been considering calling a special council meeting to make the report public.

“Another option being examined is dispatching the report to ICAC Commissioner Ann Vanstone, who has the powers to conduct an evaluation of the council’s practices, policies and procedures.”

Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor and veteran councillor Anne Moran. Picture: AAP Image/Russell Millard

There is nothing even remotely surprising that a report would have made such findings.

Indeed, one of the most recent news stories about a council meeting documented how it had collapsed into a protracted bout of name-calling, after Moran claimed criticism of her showed it was a misogynist organisation.

The sad thing about this council is despite the good efforts of many people – such as Verschoor and her predecessors, Martin Haese and Stephen Yarwood – you get the sense the lord mayors themselves are almost powerless to impose authority or restore order when the wheels fall off, as they so often do.

The prospect of getting the ICAC to look at the ACC is an interesting one, but it appears to be beyond the anti-corruption commission’s remit.

The problem with the council does not appear to involve corruption.

Rather, just years of sustained provincial mediocrity, where big ideas are baulked at and squabbling often triumphs over reasonable debate aimed at securing results through compromise.

It is a sad state of affairs that one of the biggest decisions involving one of the most popular organisations in the state is being caught up in all of this nonsense.

I have quoted him before, but the words of former defence minister and Stadium Management Authority chief Ian McLachlan again ring in the ears – his statement that his one non-negotiable for pursuing the Adelaide Oval upgrade was that the ACC had to be completely frozen out of the process.

Had it not, we would probably still be meeting every Tuesday to discuss how many lumens the lights should have, whether the paint on the handrails should be a subdued heritage green, or maybe just not discussing anything at all, but simply calling each other names on the basis of rival councillors’ factions.

Adelaide Adelaide City Council owned Adelaide Aquatic Centre. Picture: Colin James

It looks like Adelaide Football Club might fast be approaching a similar decision about its renewed attempt to establish a city base.

Last year, the ACC allowed that process to be derailed and, again, the usual minority of old Adelaide whingers are steeling themselves to fire up at fresh suggestions of a parklands location for the Crows’ headquarters.

There has been speculation about Hackney to the east and speculation about the land opposite the Ice Arena to the west.

But the option of Thebarton Oval keeps re-emerging as a Plan B.

What has long been the club’s least-preferred option now looks, from the outside, that it will become the likely option as, yet again, a combination of council trepidation and organised, if unrepresentative, agitation again threatens to derail any other proposals.

In a management sense, the truly bizarre thing about last year’s failure by the ACC to grab the Adelaide Aquatic Centre project with both hands is that it is itself sitting on a report explaining how financially exposed the council is to this dilapidated centre.

The same people who opposed the project – even though it involved the construction of a brand new and smaller building, with guaranteed public access, and would have saved the council millions – now sit around at meetings fretting about what dire financial straits the council is in.

Hmmm, if only there had been a solution to this problem, especially at the height of a pandemic, with revenues collapsing as the city came to resemble a ghost town.

The foolishness of it all is that, this week, the council was even discussing cutting Anzac Day and Christmas funding, so strapped is it for cash.

The council’s cultural problems mean we risk becoming a city where Plan B will always be the most likely option, because smart people will no longer want to waste the effort or energy in dealing with the council and the old Adelaide stuffed shirts who exert such influence over it.

The bigger problem is that no state government is ever going to tackle the council for fear of inflaming those inner-city activists who are regarded by both sides of politics as potentially problematic in the state seat of Adelaide.

It’s the key reason the then-opposition leader Steven Marshall abandoned his support for a modest number of apartments at the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site, capitulating to the nonsense assertion that the land – which was home to more than 50 buildings, and where construction started in the 1840s – was somehow sacrosanct green space which needed to be preserved forever more.

Hopefully, Colin James is right.

Perhaps ICAC will have a look at things, although my assessment is that, regrettably, simply being hopeless isn’t against the law.