Doreen Pile says decision on Coffs council building sale should be put off

This letter writer urges current councillors to ‘trust democracy’ and hold off on a potential sale of a valuable asset until after the September elections.

The Coffs Harbour City Council chambers and administration building at Castle Street has been up for sale. The proceeds of the sale will go toward the controversial Cultural and Civic Space project in nearby Gordon St.

With Council one meeting away from entering caretaker mode, a decision on whether to sell off its Castle Street administration building had been left to the last possible moment.

The previous meeting descended into chaos as a last minute mystery bid for the building prompted staff to recommend discussion go behind closed doors, but councillors resolved to postpone a decision until more information could be provided.

This letter writer is urging councillors to go one step further and have the newly elected council make a decision after the local government elections on September 4.

Coffs Harbour City Council building. Photo: Tim Jarrett

Let’s trust democracy

A recommendation to authorise the sale of Council’s current headquarters for its July 22 meeting. This is Council’s last meeting before it goes into caretaker mode, during which no major decisions can be made, until the new Council is elected.

Based on what was said at Council’s last meeting, there will be a strong push to authorise the sale, to a bidder who is unknown to the voters. If this sale proceeds, the Council will no longer own its headquarters and will therefore have to build the new Cultural and Civic Centre. This mystery buyer arriving just before the Council election is an amazing coincidence!

Some Councillors’ performance at recent meetings gives the impression that they and senior staff own the building and can sell it with virtually no information being available to ratepayers. All we know is that various experts are saying that the offer price is too low. 

I believe that ratepayers, who own the building, should be told who wants to buy it and is the offer price reasonable. The lack of public information about this whole deal makes a mockery of Council’s regular claims of transparency.

Council’s next meeting gives the Mayor and her 3 supporters the last opportunity to demonstrate that they have some respect for democracy. Clearly there is strong opposition to the Cultural and Civic Centre, which four Councillors dismiss as a noisy minority.

If the Mayor and her supporters believe that the majority of residents support the Cultural and Civic Centre, they should be confident to let the next Council make the decision to sell its headquarters.

If instead, they use the old strategy of the Mayor’s casting vote to sell this building to a mystery buyer at the last meeting before going into caretaker mode, then all the Councillors supporting this sale can guarantee they won’t be re-elected.

They would also be clearly demonstrating that they couldn’t care less what the voters think.

Doreen Pile

Cunningham Crescent

Sawtell