Townsville City Council: Andrew Robinson slams mayor Troy Thompson over adviser role

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the people of Townsville could know the things they know about yourself right now, and would their decision still be the same if that was the case,” a fed-up councillor asked the mayor in a heated meeting. See what went down.

Townsville City Council Meeting, August 28th

Mayor Troy Thompson’s bid for a political adviser who could be paid a $175,000 salary was rejected by every single councillor in the room, with one councillor firing up over the mayor’s proposal to directly appoint the role.

Wednesday’s meeting was lengthier than usual, with four matters in confidential business lasting more than an hour, and motions proposed by the Mayor, his deputy, and a duo of councillors seeing greater involvement in the permanent CEO position.

Even the naming process for parks and reserves became a controversial process.

Here’s what went down.

1: “I do not trust your judgement”

Mayor Troy Thompson’s bid for a $175k political adviser was ultimately rejected, but Division 8 councillor Andrew Robinson supported the motion so that it could be debated, and so he could publicly rebuke it.

“I like to explain to members of the public that this appointment would be a direct appointee by yourself, and would not be going through any recruitment processes,” Mr Robinson said.

“I wish to add that I’ll be quite frank that I do not trust your judgement and it is my opinion that whoever is currently advising you is ill-informed, ill-advised and is creating division within the council here.”

It is speculative as to the influencer in the shadows who Mr Robinson was alluding to, and Mr Thompson would not identify his external advisers to the Townsville Bulletin after the meeting.

Cr Andrew Robinson. Picture: Evan Morgan

Deputy Mayor Paul Jacob is prepared to support the Mayor’s bid for an adviser, but would wait until budget discussions held next year, although Mr Thompson is prepared to reintroduce the matter before then.

Mr Thompson estimated the salary to be $175,000 based off the salary of the former chief of staff role, and that these funds could be found in the operations budget.

He said the advisory role would include speech writing duties, which were currently outsourced by a third party which was charged at an hourly rate.

The Mayor conceded that before the election he had been critical of the then-incumbent Mayor Jenny Hill’s three political advisers, where he said in a since-deleted video “the mayor doesn’t need three consultants and advisers to tell her how to do her job … if she does, she’s never been good at her job.”

“It’s great to have hindsight, but until you’re in the role you don’t know what to expect so what I’ll say is I think we would’ve gone better, further, with an adviser, from the initial outset,” Mr Thompson said on Wednesday.

Mr Robinson hit back further by saying that hindsight would be beneficial to everyone, including voters in the local government elections.

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the people of Townsville could know the things they know about yourself right now, and would their decision still be the same if that was the case,” he said.

The council was given an update on budgetary figures and that it was currently about $37m “in the red”, and that an additional high-paid salary unaccounted for would put further pressure on that.

Interim CEO Joe McCabe said the advisory position itself would not be an issue, but only where the funding could be sourced from, which would require further discussions at a later date if the motion had been passed.

Later in the meeting councillors formerly reinstated Mr Thompson’s portfolios which were stripped away while he took health leave in June, including his role in the Regional Council of Mayors committee, and the Audit and Risk Committee.

2. “This is not your motion to be moving”

Mr Thompson tried to hijack a motion proposed by Liam Mooney and Ann-Maree Greaney, who sought to create a full council committee who would be more actively engaged with the permanent CEO role.

The devil was in the details, and the other parts to their motion would enable the committee to monitor the CEO’s performance, whoever that might be in future, and that any evaluation given had to first be approved together.

The original proposal also would have given the CEO authority to prepare draft documents of his or her evaluation, KPIs, and remuneration levels, but after heated negotiation about perceived conflict of interest, this authority was given to the legal services officer instead.

Townsville City Council Meeting, August 28th

Mr Thompson interjected before both councillors were ready to announce their motion formally, claiming it was unlawful and that it aimed to “undermine my authority” to engage with the CEO, and offered his own counter-proposal and objections.

Mr Mooney criticised the mayor and said, “this is not your motion to be moving, I ask you allow those that brought the motion to present it” to which Ms Greaney brought it forward.

Ms Greaney said she had received advice from the Department of Local Government on Tuesday afternoon and was satisfied with its legality.

Councillor Brodie Phillips sought to determine the source of Mr Thompson’s objections on several occasions after Mr Thompson said it was written for him.

“Would you be so kind to divulge to the councillors who drafted this document for you?” Mr Phillips said.

“It was my legal practitioner,” Mr Thompson said.

Mr Phillips later asked if the practitioner was qualified to practice law in Queensland, but Mr Thompson said he was “not prepared” to divulge that information.

3: Staff locked out with the public

While Mr Thompson recently said the council aimed to lift the lid on closed discussions, this has not yet shown visible effect considering it discussed four items behind closed doors.

The doors were closed to the public for about 50 minutes, and at almost the halfway point all the staff left the room, which was likely due a “human resource matter” relating to the appointment, dismissal or discipline of the CEO.

Mr McCabe waited outside along with everyone else, with the exception of councillors, and when asked if he considered applying for the permanent role, he said it was not something he had yet considered.

Townsville City Council Meeting, August 28th: Acting CEO Joe McCabe and Mayor Troy Thompson.

Other items discussed involved the 9 Flinders St East Precinct, which was confidential because it involved a commercial matter in which “public discussion would be likely to prejudice the interest of the local government.”

It also discussed whether or not to sell a heavy vehicle trailer to the Palm Island Aboriginal Shire for $70,000 without going to public tender or auction.

The third item was a quarterly update on the council’s major projects, which included the Haughton Stage 2 pipeline.

Other major projects included the Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct, the Eastern Outfall Pressure Main, Nelly Bay Dredging, the PAC Dosing Facility, Riverway Drive decommissioning, Project Connect, and the Recycled Water Project.

4: Paid parking and other petitions

Five e-petitions were tabled in the parliament, but two of them protested the parking meter rollout with an emphasis of health.

A petition to stop paid parking at the Pimlico Medical Precinct raised more than 200 e-signatures, while James Cook University general practitioner Ruth Eagles led a petition of 60 signatures expressing concern that paid parking at The Strand would negatively impact physical and mental health, with many signatures being made up of other health professionals.

Mr Jacob urged for a report to come back to the council regarding concerns outlined in the “very important petition” of health professionals, but Mr Robinson was critical.

He said there were numerous parks including Queens Park and Riverway where residents could visit for free for recreation and exercise, which was not mentioned in the petition.

Mr Robinson said while the parking meter policy had been unpopular, his decision to support the rollout had not changed.

Mr Mooney tabled the petition involving the Pimlico Medical Precinct, but he said that residents around the Mater Private Hospital were impacted by the build-up of cars parked on their streets and driveways.

But he recommended a report be brought back to the council for further consideration.

There were three other petitions, which were a protest from Wellington St residents about increasing heavy vehicle use at a nearby council depot, the request for a kayak rack on Magnetic Island, and a petition protesting the removal of Lakeside Drive fencing in Idalia which had the backing of Mundingburra MP Les Walker.

Division 10 councillor Brady Ellis said the petition involving Lakeside Drive fencing involved residents being surprised by its removal.

“We’re actively working with residents at the moment to come up with a really good solution,” he said.

“They (petitioners) all live in the streets affected, no one from other parts of town or Perth or Brisbane … watch this space, we are working on this one.”

5. How to name a park

The council’s infrastructure and operations department seeks to expand its policy on naming the more than 300 parks that it maintains.

It already had a policy not to name its parks and gardens after living people except “in exceptional circumstances”, but specified further that names should have long-term benefits to the community with people contributing in a voluntary capacity “that outweigh any private or corporate interests”.

If developers want to name a new park as part of their project the name needed to be part of its development application, while unnamed new parks handed over would likely be named after nearby street names, or special features such as a beach.

Renaming a place would only be considered in special situations, such as significant cultural value which could contribute to reconciliation.

Deputy Mayor Paul Jacob.

Mr Jacob was concerned such policy would leave councillors out of the loop, while Kurt Rehbein had concerns with “voluntary capacity” because it could prevent the community from honouring their favourite sportspeople who made “a bucket load of money” in their capacity.

But it was noted alternative names such as a historical or cultural name would be considered, as would naming competitions, and that these methods would have to be approved in a council meeting.

Infrastructure and Operations director Matt Richardson said the policy was about preventing “a clamour of, (or) we end up like a Julian Assange Park or something like that.

“The intent is not for council staff in a back room naming everything, we want to involve the community and the councillors.”

Originally published as Townsville City Council: Andrew Robinson slams mayor Troy Thompson over adviser role