Wingecarribee Council: Garry Turland threatens to take council to Supreme Court

A councillor has taken the extraordinary step of threatening to take a Southern Highlands council to court demanding it unveil costs for two key developments worth millions of dollars.

A NSW councillor has threatened to take Wingecarribee Council to the Supreme Court if documents aren’t released regarding two key development projects worth millions of dollars.

Councillor Garry Turland has threatened to start legal action over the lack of detail released for the costs of two key major works in the Southern Highlands.

In an online financial meeting on Wednesday morning, Cr Turland requested a full breakdown of the costs of the ongoing Civic Centre redevelopment and the controversial Station St project.

The resulting chaos when he asked the question led to all of the councillors being muted while Mayor Duncan Gair called for order.

Councillor Garry Turland is demanding detailed costs of two key projects. Picture: Facebook/Wingecarribee Shire Council

On Friday, Cr Turland sent an email to the acting general manager Barry Paull and chief finance officer Richard Mooney threatening to escalate the issue.

“I, as a councillor, request a full and detailed cost breakdown for the Civic Centre and the Station Street projects,” the email said.

“If this information is not provided to all councillors and the community, I will be lodging an application to the Supreme Court to instruct council to release this information.”

Finance meeting documents show the Civic Centre project has a budget of $9.26 million but is expected to cost only $6.07 million by the completion date in May 2021.

Cr Turland questioned the difference between the expected budget and the tender accepted, as well as the expenditures recorded.

The cost blowouts of Station St have been widely publicised, as the budget has increased from $9.5 million in 2017 to a whopping $32 million this year, despite the fact the project hasn’t yet made it to tender.

Cr Turland said these costs were vague, and demanded the detailed budgets, contract amounts, and variations associated with both projects.

“I require all costs that are associated with the projects, not just the budget as shown in the agenda,” the email read.

He argued the smaller costs such as landscaping, furniture, and consultant fees have not been factored into the total cost and will add up to a substantial increase.

“What we have is an out-of-control council spending money without providing any information to councillors,” Cr Turland said.

Cr Gair said the release of the documents detailing the costs wasn’t necessary for the function of the council and he was baffled by the demand from Cr Turland.

“The documents haven’t been made public to the council because they don’t have to be,” he said.

“Council has no reason to hide costings.

“I really am at a loss to understand what Cr Turland is trying to achieve.”

Hundreds of people rallied against the Station St development.

Cr Turland said he strongly disagreed with the mayor and said the council staff were unable to be trusted on financial matters after the Berrima Bypass debacle, where council had to return millions of dollars of federal funds for an uncompleted project.

“The council staff are untrustworthy because they have lost my trust on controlling any major projects,” he said.

However, in the financial meeting acting general manager Mr Paull made it clear council staff can only act within the budget set out by the council.

“The acting general manager can’t alter the budget, only the council can,” he said.

He later emphasised his invitations to Cr Turland to visit the office and discuss budgetary concerns and questions.

When contacted by The Bowral News, a council spokesman said the council would not respond to threats from the councillor.

In his email, Cr Turland said he was investigating several options to have the documents released including writing to the Office of Local Government, Minister for Local Government Shelley Hancock, the NSW Ombudsman, the Administrative Tribunal, and the Supreme Court.

“Supreme Court is the quickest path to solve this.

The council is currently awaiting a report from the office of Minister Hancock on the Performance Improvement Order sought by both the community and government last year.

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