Hobsons Bay City Council: Techno Park questions blocked amid legal action as council paid lobbyist RedBridge $31k
Hobsons Bay council has revealed it paid a PR firm tens of thousands of dollars while blocking questions on its controversial Techno Park mass eviction notice.
West
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A Melbourne council has blocked all questions regarding eviction notices to vulnerable residents as it revealed how much it paid a PR firm headed up by a former Labor strategist.
At Tuesday’s council meeting — chaired by new mayor Matt Tyler — Hobsons Bay announced it would no longer answer questions directly related to Techno Park Dr for legal reasons.
A council director said it would not engage with specific questions given “pending legal action” and could not answer them until court matters were complete.
Hobsons Bay City Council was last month criticised after it sent mass eviction notices to residents of Techno Park Drive — a former migrant housing site that neighbours Mobil’s south crude tank farm at Williamstown — before admitting it was unaware of the extent of residential use.
It comes as the council revealed it paid political consultancy firm RedBridge Group — headed by former Labor strategist Kos Samaras — $31,800 for a range of services in recent months.
Council Watch Victoria president Dean Hurlston said he had asked RedBridge and councils to disclose their relationship.
“In a shocking revelation, Hobsons Bay City Council admitted it used public money to hire PR big guns to help it solve its disaster dealings with the community,” Mr Hurlston said.
“This council clearly can’t do its job and is in total damage control.
“The minister must conduct an urgent investigation into why ... the community has lost all confidence in the management of HBCC.”
At last month’s meeting, Cr Diana Grima declared she had a conflict of interest related to Techno Park Drive and would leave the room ahead of any vote, however, she did not expand on what the conflict was.
When the council was approached regarding the conflict, it said the councillor had complied with her requirements under the Local Government Act.
“She deemed her conflict to be general in nature and advised the CEO accordingly prior to the meeting,” the spokesman said.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, a public question was submitted that asked whether the councillor would explain her conflict.
Mayor Tyler said according to the council’s guidelines the councillor needed to indicate whether the conflict was general or material, the circumstances, and the remedy (for example, whether she would leave the room ahead of a vote).
A member of the public gallery then voiced that she had not declared the circumstances or revealed what the conflict was before the mayor asked the gallery not to interrupt.
According to the council’s governance rule 15.2.2, a councillor must clearly state their connection to the matter when disclosing a conflict.
Just before the meeting closed, Cr Grima rose and apologised to attendees and residents for not providing more detail.
She revealed a family member was recently contracted to undertake maintenance work at Techno Park Dr and claimed she did not mean to mislead anyone and had sought advice to the best of her ability.
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