Jack Dempsey calls Bundaberg Ratepayers Association ‘illegitimate’

Bundaberg Regional Council has come out swinging after a new Ratepayer Association started to ask questions about council activities and spending. Read what each organisation had to say about the other:

Bundaberg Regional Ratepayers Association president Tim Sayre (left) and Mayor Jack Dempsey. Mr Sayre has refuted claims made by Bundaberg Regional Council that the group is "illegitimate".

Bundaberg Regional Ratepayers Association president Tim Sayre has refuted claims the association is illegitimate amid reports the group has been referred to the Attorney General.

A source alleged Bundaberg Regional Council Mayor Jack Dempsey told councillors on Monday morning he was concerned the new ratepayers association was operating illegally.

They claimed the council had also referred the group to the Attorney General.

In a comment to the NewsMail on Wednesday Mr Dempsey said he had not received contact from the BRRA despite them being active on Facebook and in the media for “several weeks”.

“There is no transparency around their rules of incorporation, membership criteria or the election of office bearers,” he said.

“Unsuccessful 2020 council election candidates like Tim Sayre appear to be leading the group.

“In the interests of openness and transparency, they should come clean on who they are and how they came to elect a president.

“If they’re a legitimate, properly formed association we’ll work constructively with them like we do with other community organisations.

“Until they formally introduce themselves and disclose who they are it’s hard to take them seriously.”

Mr Dempsey did not comment on whether or not the BRRA had been referred to the Attorney General.

Mr Sayre, who ran against John Learmonth for Division 10 of the Bundaberg council in 2020, said the Christmas break had stalled the process for finalisation of the association through Fair Trading.

“It’s been a slower process than we initially thought, but we’re expecting it all to be finalised very shortly,” Mr Sayre said.

“Then we will make the memberships and fees and charges and our constitution available to others.

“We are made up of ratepayers within the community, there’s no mysterious backers behind it.

“(Mr Dempsey says) there’s a couple of people on the committee who are failed councillors and so forth, but that has absolutely nothing to do with what we’re doing.

“This is not about being on council, it’s about making sure council is being held to account.

“It’s very disappointing that our Mayor would refer us on to the Attorney General’s office.”

Mr Sayre said the association formed because of growing concerns by ratepayers struggling to see where and how their money was being spent.

“We have been making comment about the fact that council is looking at spending a hell of a lot of money on fully funded projects, so we’re a bit concerned as to where the money is coming from, which impacts the ratepayers specifically,” he said.

“What we’ve seen so far is that a lot of people are very interested in what the council’s doing and are joining in the conversation with us.

“If Jack thinks that threatening us with investigations by the Attorney General is going to shut us up, then that’s a fair bit of a worry in itself.”

Mr Dempsey’s comments followed a series of posts on the BRRA Facebook page in December 2020, by an account apparently belonging to the Mayor’s chief of staff Michael Gorey.

The posts were made underneath an article about the council-produced Bundaberg Now online news webpage, which has been at the centre of controversy over questions regarding its costs including hiring multiple journalists and content producers specifically working on content for Bundaberg Now and for staff who divide their time between other council communications material and Bundaberg Now.