Northern Beaches Council election: Former councillors Pat Daley, Jose Menano-Pires to form ‘council in exile’
Senior Liberal figures are forming a “council in exile” to keep the new Northern Beaches Council “on its toes”, having lost all but one of the party’s nominees in a nomination forms fiasco.
Manly
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Senior Liberal figures on the northern beaches are forming a “council in exile” to scrutinise the performance of the new local council to be voted in at Saturday’s election.
The group will be comprised of several former councillors and residents, who are unhappy Liberal supporters have been robbed of a “voice” by the party’s local government nominations scandal.
The Liberal Party picked 15 members to run for the Northern Beaches Council this weekend, but only one name made it onto the ballet paper.
As a result, Liberal figures expect a number of Greens, Labor and independent councillors, with ideological interests outside of the council’s primary objectives, will be elected.
The new group will put pressure on the council to stick to “rates, roads and rubbish” and not get sidetracked by issues like climate change, an Indigenous “Voice” to council, and the war in Ukraine.
Pat Daley and Jose Menano-Pires — two figures who have been influential in Liberal politics on the northern beaches for decades — are organising the group to keep the new council “on its toes”.
Mr Daley retired as a Liberal member of the Northern Beaches Council in 2021. A 50-year party member, he also served on its state executive, as a Liberal on Manly Council, and a Liberal-backed independent on Warringah Council.
Mr Menano-Pires, a recently retired independent councillor, was a Liberal on Warringah Council and has held numerous senior local party roles.
Mr Daley said he had been inundated with calls from locals and party members concerned the new council would not properly reflect the whole northern beaches’ community.
“There is a growing feeling in the Liberal Party and the broader community that a structure needs to be urgently established to monitor and respond to council issues,” he said.
“We don’t want the council to be going off on tangents and waste money on non-council business.
“It will finish up like the City of Sydney and its mayor, Clover Moore, and her interest in issues that should be of no concern to the council.”
Mr Daley said that in coming weeks, he and Mr Menano-Pires would develop a “mechanism that can both service and assist ratepayers who feel disenfranchised”.
The group plans to monitor council business papers, attend council meetings to speak at “public forums”, make submissions on contentious development applications and major council projects, and use social media to lobby the new council.
“We will keep the council on its toes,” Mr Daley said.
Mr Menano-Pires said as well as former Liberal councillors, the group wanted to recruit other former councillors and residents with an interest in local government.
“It’s not just a political group. It’s like a council in exile,” he said.
“We will also support some things the council is doing.
“But I’ve been getting calls from people with concerns about how the new council will spend their money.
“The reality is there will be a whole lot of people who will get elected, who didn’t expect to get elected.
“People are asking me ‘who are these guys that are going to run the council for the next four years’?
“We don’t want to see the whole thing go down the tubes.”
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