North Sydney councillors at $6K Melbourne gabfest on future of local government as sacking looms
THE sacking of 42 NSW councils has not stopped a group of North Sydney councillors from taking a ratepayer-funded trip to Melbourne.
North Shore
Don't miss out on the headlines from North Shore. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Anti-merger spend a ‘self-serving waste’
- Lawyers won’t save North Sydney: Mayor
- Council to start $100K legal battle against mergers
- Fears for Mosman’s $5m art collection
A GROUP of North Sydney councillors jetted to Melbourne this week at ratepayers expense for a conference on the future of local government.
The council is facing its final days as the State Government prepares another wave of mass sackings in its drive for bigger councils across NSW.
And it is also under the close watch of the Local Government Minister Paul Toole ahead of a public inquiry into its behaviour.
“We are waiting to see if the axe is about to fall on our heads and they are going to a jolly down in Melbourne,” mayor Jilly Gibson said.
The councillors confirmed to attend the conference were Zoe Baker, MaryAnn Beregi and Michel Reymond. The acting general manager Ross McCreanor attended in place of former general manager Warwick Winn, who recently resigned.
The group flew to Melbourne directly after Monday night’s council meeting.
Mosman Council is believed to have sent some staff but no councillors.
The 2016 Future of Local Government National Summit is being at Rydges Melbourne Hotel over two days. Individual tickets cost $583.
North Sydney ratepayers are forking out about $6000 to cover the trip.
“The approximate cost including travel, accommodation and registration fees is $1500 per person,” a spokeswoman for council said.
North Sydney Council’s policy states that it covers travel, accommodation, registration fees and meals to approved conferences.
Cr Beregi told the Mosman Daily that councillors needed to stay well-informed.
“North Sydney Council (like most of our neighbouring councils) has not been merged,” she said.
“Conferences like this one ensure that councillors and staff remain well-informed on the issues in local government, both nationally and internationally, and we will, no doubt, bring back strategies to implement and improve council’s practice.”
Cr Gibson believes the journey should have been cancelled in light of the council’s current situation.
“We are in the middle of a public inquiry and merger proposal and they are flying interstate to discuss the future of local government. It’s absolutely ludicrous,” Cr Gibson said.
She pointed out several councillors are also due to go to another local government conference in Canberra next month.
She has cancelled her attendance for the event in protest at the “sheer waste” of ratepayers’ money on interstate conferences.
The three councillors and Mr McCreanor are set to be joined by colleagues Tony Carr, Veronique Marchandeau and Jeff Morris at the Canberra event.
Meanwhile, the council’s D-Day is fast approaching.
On May 30 the government-appointed public inquiry into the council will begin.
And the council is also due in court to start its legal fight to stay independent.
The council commenced proceedings at the start of the month and is listed for hearing on the week commencing May 30.
Last week both Mosman and North Sydney were spared from the State Government’s chopping block as other councils across NSW were sacked to make way for bigger merged councils.
The two lower north shore councils were not included in the announcement because both have launched legal action against the merger.
But the reprieve may be temporary, with Local Government Minister Paul Toole giving “in principle” support to a lower north shore super council of Mosman, North Sydney and Willoughby.
North Sydney has $250,000 in the bank for its legal challenge against the State Government, while Mosman has $100,000 for its legal action.
North Sydney will be under the microscope at the inquiry and its dirty laundry is expected to be aired in public.
Local Government Minister Paul Toole announced the independent investigation earlier this year.
It will look into allegations of conflict and dysfunction at the troubled council.
In recent years North Sydney has been threatened with suspension and remained one of the most complained about councils in NSW.
Over two years from 2012-14 a total of 74 complaints were lodged, costing more than $230,000 to investigate.
Thomas Howard SC has been appointed as commissioner to conduct the public inquiry.
It will trace back to events at the council since December 2013.
The inquiry is taking place at the NSW Bar Dispute Resolution Centre on Philip St.
Meanwhile, the elder statesman of North Sydney politics is in “two minds” about the planned end of the council.
Ted Mack believes that troubled North Sydney Council should have been sacked for its behaviour — but he doesn’t want to see it being dissolved.
“The council should have been sacked two to three years ago,” he said.
“But I’m bitterly opposed to amalgamation.”
Mr Mack served as an independent North Sydney mayor throughout the 1980s and was also an independent state and federal MP.
He is nostalgic about the end of the council, especially when he thinks of all the work put in by people over the years.
Mr Mack doesn’t believe that the council’s legal challenge against the merger will succeed in court and reckons that local government in NSW has disappeared.
“One hundred and fifty years of local government has just been wiped out with no real benefit except for the development industry,” he said. “Local democracy is as dead as a dodo.”
Dramatic arrest when car crashes after alleged police chase
A man has been hit with a string of charges after allegedly taking police on a chase in a stolen Mercedes before it was involved in a crash on the northern beaches.
Inquest call 50 years after mystery disappearance of Sydney woman
A tormented family is calling for an inquest into the mystery disappearance of a young Sydney woman 50 years ago — they believe she may have been murdered.