Complaints lodged with state watchdog over Redland mayor leasing land to the council
UPDATED: A piece of land at Mount Cotton has renewed calls for Redland mayor Karen Williams to explain an item on her register of interest.
Redlands Coast
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Redland mayor Karen Williams has been asked to explain an item on her register of interest which includes leasing 8ha of land to her own council.
Complaints have been lodged with the Office of Independent Assessor about the item listed on Ms William’s register of interest.
The register reveals part of Ms Williams’s residential property, which she jointly owns with her husband Peter, at Mount Cotton, has a peppercorn lease over 8ha easement “with Redland City Council to formalise a pre-existing trail access”.
Ms Williams and her husband own a glamping business at the family’s Mount Cotton wedding venue Rainforest Gardens, a property purchased from the well-known Goleby family.
The Goleby family also sold land on Heinemann Rd to the council for its proposed $15 million sporting complex at Mount Cotton.
The Williams’ Rainforest Gardens property borders the Eastern Escarpment Conservation Area, a 186ha reserve in Mount Cotton.
According to Redland council’s website, the reserve plays an important role in recreational and biological connectivity across Redlands Coast, and its acquisition and maintenance form part of a broader Redland City Council strategy to provide a range of visitor experiences.
Capalaba MP Don Brown renewed calls for Ms Williams and the council to explain the peppercorn lease.
He said in 2020, the state government allocated the council $2.8 million in a Covid-19 grant with the council choosing to spend $2.05 million on the Eastern Escarpment and the rest on upgrading the Cleveland Aquatic Centre as part of its plan for Queensland’s economic recovery from Covid-19.
A council spokesperson said no external grant funding was used to meet the negotiated access agreement for this 150m section of the Summit Trail.
“The trail was in good condition and therefore did not need to be upgraded,” they said.
However, they said the council did provide fencing, at a cost of about $12,500, for the safety and wayfinding of trail users.
Mr Brown lodged a complaint with the Office of Independent Assessor in 2020 and raised the issue in state parliament in June 2020.
Further complaints have been lodged with the watchdog about the lease deal since the initial complaint.
“Her back fence links onto this eastern escarpment project and it will have a direct material, financial benefit for the mayor’s property and business,” Mr Brown told parliament in 2020.
“She has a glamping business and a wedding business on that property, and she will benefit greatly from that.
“I had four councillors ring me up to complain. There was no consultation. There was one notification of an email from council offices, but no formal discussion and no voting on it.
“All four councillors had no idea how the $875,000 project they voted on a year ago (in 2019) had increased to $2.1 million.
“That is nearly a threefold increase but they had no idea of the scope of works. There was no discussion at all.”
Mayor Karen Williams, deputy mayor Julie Talty, CEO Andrew Chesterman and Redland City Council all refused to comment on questions sent last month about the “peppercorn lease”.
The state council watchdog said it had concluded an investigation into Ms Williams despite the renewed call for the explanation about the land lease.
The OIA said misconduct complaints about the mayor were currently with its legal department undergoing a natural justice process before possible referral to the Councillor Conduct Tribunal for a decision.
The outcome of all OIA investigations are required to be reported in a council’s Councillor Conduct Register with a summary of the reasons for the decision.
Under the Local Government Act, the register can only record the name of the councillor, who is the subject of an investigation, if a complaint has been sustained.
Or if the councillor consents to being identified in the register.
The OIA deals with most complaints as separate issues and or investigations.
UPDATE
After the initial publication of this story, a Redland City Council spokesperson said that the trail access agreement signed by the council was “based on a fee of $1 per year payable by the council, if requested, by the landowner”.
“The landowner has not requested payment,” a council spokseperson said.
“The land use access agreement was made to manage against potential trespass and public liability matters for the historical, pre-established trail.”
The spokesman said the council had signed a three-year land use access agreement on 20 August 2021 to use a 0.8 hectare area of private land for the Eastern Escarpment trail network, for the annual fee of $1 if the landowner requested it.
They said the agreement related only to the small section of private land which incorporated about 150m of the network’s Summit Trail that crosses through a corner of this property.
“Negotiations to formalise access to the trail began nearly five years ago with the property’s previous owner, and had been identified as a key link from at least 2012,” they said.
“The surrounding steep terrain and vegetated escarpment made it difficult to locate the trail on the adjoining public road reserve, as requested by the landowner.”
They said the land was also an important trail for fire and weed management.
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