Surf club renovation sparks questions over mayor’s ‘friendship’

Sometimes friendship is in the eye of the beholder.

This appears to be the case between Sutherland Shire Mayor Carmelo Pesce and prominent hotelier Chris Feros.

An artist’s impression of a redeveloped North Cronulla Life Saving Club.

When Feros purchased a hotel in the Shire suburb of Caringbah from a former schoolmate of Pesce via a family company CNF Holdings in 2016 with plans to renovate, he felt the need to declare a conflict of interest due to his relationship with Pesce.

“In relation to this DA the applicant has made a declaration of an affiliation, being a friend of the Mayor,” the planning assessment report says. “The declared nature of the affiliation is ‘friend’.”

Pesce has spoken warmly of Feros in the years since, according to local media, including at a private function at the opening of the Highfield Caringbah venue after the Feros Group was awarded the Australian Hotel Association’s Hotel of the Year accolade for one of the other pubs in its empire, the Prince in Kirrawee.

Chris Feros

But when Pesce voted in July on an $8 million council plan to take over redevelopment of the North Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club, which is set to include new sections to accommodate a bar and restaurant and kiosk operated by the Feros Group, he decided no declaration of affiliation was required.

When asked whether he remained friends with Feros, and whether he should have declared a conflict of interest in relation to the surf club vote, Pesce indicated he only regarded Feros as an acquaintance.

“I know Mr Feros as an acquaintance who I meet occasionally through my role as councillor, however I have never had any business relationship with him or any of his businesses,” Pesce told the Herald. “I have never met him outside of the Sutherland Shire.”

Pesce has previously declared conflicts of interest when planning matters have come before council relating to North Cronulla because he owns apartments in the area. The Herald does not suggest he did have a conflict of interest in the surf club vote.

“As work on the upgrade of North Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club has no bearing on my private property holdings within the same suburb which are several kilometres away, I had no cause to declare a conflict of interest,” he said.

Sutherland Shire Mayor Carmelo Pesce.Credit: Louise Kennerley

The council’s plan involves taking over the club’s expansion strategy after it ran into financial hurdles.

“To enable the vital work of the club to continue, council should itself complete the redevelopment of the building and surrounds known as the ‘North Cronulla Surf Lifesaving Club’, at an estimated cost of $8,310,098,” the council papers say. The vote was passed unanimously on July 15.

The Feros Group was contacted for comment.

Labor councillor Jen Armstrong and Independent councillor Leanne Farmer declared interests before the vote, with both stating they knew members of the club.

“It’s important to be completely open, transparent and honest in all areas, especially conflicts,” Farmer said when asked about her declaration. “Even though mine is only minor, as I have only met members from NSLSC since becoming a councillor, I still felt it important to declare.”

Pesce, who runs a shop fitting and home renovation business, a series of companies that control rental properties and is the proprietor of a chain of cafes in the Shire, has previously been forced to defend his voting record in relation to developments in the council area.

In June 2020, Pesce declared a pecuniary interest when a Cronulla development proposal from developer Sammut Group came before council, “advising that he and his companies own property within the suburb of Cronulla. He also owns a business in the Cronulla area”, and he knew Allen Sammut in a professional capacity. He left that council meeting and did not vote.

But five months later, those concerns appeared not to pose the same problems. Pesce voted along with a majority of council colleagues to sell Sammut a council-owned car park on the Kingsway, one of Sutherland’s main thoroughfares, to pave the way for a $300 million apartment development.

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