ICAC hears councillor was put ‘under pressure’ to help John Sidoti

A Sydney council’s chief planner claims a councillor was “coming under pressure in the Liberal Party” to help NSW MP John Sidoti take advantage of a Five Dock redevelopment.

A Sydney council’s chief planner claimed a councillor was “coming under pressure in the Liberal Party” to help NSW MP John Sidoti take advantage of the redevelopment of Five Dock, the corruption watchdog has heard.

City of Canada Bay planning and environment director Tony McNamara told the Independent Commission Against Corruption yesterday that a Liberal councillor told him she was “uncomfortable” with the pressure from the party.

ICAC is investigating allegations former NSW sports minister Sidoti, whose family owned ­numerous properties in the suburb, leant on council staff using “threats or otherwise” to ensure his family benefited from urban ­redesign plans.

John Sidoti arrives at the ICAC hearing. Picture: John Grainger

Sidoti denies all allegations and fronted up to the corruption hearings in person this week.

He left the Liberal Party earlier this month after ICAC announced it would investigate claims against him.

Mr McNamara said Liberal councillor Helen McCaffrey ­pushed for the planning team to re-examine three sites which were not going to be rezoned to increase building heights at a meeting in late 2015.

Council had repeatedly turned down the requests.

The chief planner said he understood the real interest was just one of those three locations, a Waterview St site linked to Sidoti’s family.

“I’m getting pressure in the (Liberal) Party to put forward this submission,” Mr McNamara claims Ms McCaffrey told him.

Mr McNamara said the councillor didn’t name names, as far as he recalled, but he remembers the councillor making it clear she was uncomfortable.

Liberal MP John Sidoti. Picture: John Grainger

“I had the impression she was talking about John Sidoti,” Mr McNamara said. “I couldn’t ­imagine the Liberal Party had any other interest other than John.”

Mr McNamara said he raised his concerns with other council ­executives later that week.

“My concern was that our professional work was being undermined and discredited for basically personal motives,” he said.

About a year later, he claimed, planning companies engaged on behalf of Sidoti renewed the push for changes to include the Waterview St site and it was raised by then-acting Mayor McCaffrey.

Mr McNamara said he felt it was going to be “more of the same” as he’d dealt with before.

Counsel Assisting the Commission, Rob Ran­ken, asked Mr McNam­ara if he had spoken with other councillors from any party about the Sidoti property interests.

Liberal MP John Sidoti (centre with black stripy tie) and his legal team arriving at his ICAC hearing earlier int he week. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

The planner said he could not remember any such conversations.

Mr McNamara said he could not recall hearing that Sidoti ­considered “a conspiracy” to be afoot relating to the zoning of his family property.