Townsville City Council meeting: Key moments within the chamber

Councillors debated policies that could affect the city’s parking developments for years, media permission and powers the mayor claims strips him of influence. Here’s five things you need to know from this week’s council meeting.

Townsville City Council’s interim CEO Joe McCabe and Mayor Troy Thompson at the council meeting. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Councillors almost made it through the ordinary council meeting with little controversy, until Kristian Price called for an apology from the mayor.

But there were meatier subjects the council tackled, including the controversy in cutting back developers’ parking obligations, appointing a permanent chief executive and examining the murky waters of council meeting policies.

The meeting started with the novelty of a musical performance from Year 11 Pimlico High School student Jorja Pilkington, who is preparing for a 10 day program in Seattle in November.

Councillor Andrew Robinson introduced her, saying “perhaps we can have some tranquillity and calm before the storm, shall we say, and also to advocate for some of the arts that we have here in Townsville and some of our rising stars.”

Councillors smiled and enjoyed Jorja’s performance, praising it afterwards.

But the mood did become more sombre and businesslike.

These were the significant moments within the council chamber:

1. Apology denied

Townsville councillor Kristian Price demanded the mayor apologise for accusations he accepted expensive gifts from a CEO candidate, after the Office of the Independent Assessor dismissed complaints.

Mr Price read a prepared speech in what was the first council meeting since Mayor Troy Thompson accused three unnamed councillors of misconduct, and at times struggled with his words as he said residents openly had questioned his integrity and character.

Mayor Troy Thompson’s expression as he listens to Councillor Kristian Price raise concerns about the mayor’s accusations made against him. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Mr Thompson at times looked downwards at his phone as Mr Price gave his speech, during which he said the mayor had not made efforts to correct his allegations which were cleared by the OIA and the council’s legal officer David Sewell.

After Mr Price sat down, the councillor sitting next to him, Vera Dirou, could be seen checking in and showing support for his stance.

Councillor Vera Dirou checks on Kristian Price’s wellbeing after he makes a stand in the council meeting over claims made against him. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Mr Thompson did not take the opportunity to apologise to any councillors.

“I have been contacted by the OIA and I’ve asked for it to be reopened and reinvestigated with other items, so I can’t comment any further on that but thank you for bringing that to the attention of the meeting,” Mr Thompson said.

2. ‘Catastrophic’: Batkovic’s fear of parking threat

Councillor Suzy Batkovic was worried about an amendment to parking development requirements within the 128 page City Plan Package, which was brought before the council by city planning co-ordinator Thomas Askern.

She said carparking expectations for developments would be cut in half under the package to one space for dwelling, and she was “not comfortable” with this, believing it to be problematic for residents that had more than one car per household.

Councillor Suzy Batkovic. Townsville City Council general meeting. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Townsville City Council’s city planning co-ordinator Thomas Askern. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Ms Batkovic believed such a policy would be problematic for the city’s future and would put pressure on the residents that needed several cars for their households.

The document is detailed but within proposed that major centre zones and medium density residential zones such as the North Ward and The Strand precincts should only have one space per dwelling and 0.2 spaces for visitors within the major centre zone.

“I think that’s catastrophic particularly in the CBD, the Strand, Palmer St, those areas,” she said.

Mr Thompson had similar concerns and said reducing developers’ parking space obligations in the city would place strain on businesses in the city, especially considering parking fees had doubled to $2 an hour.

The package would be sent to the relevant state minister, but the councillors unanimously agreed some “minor changes” could be made before it was passed on.

Ms Batkovic preferred “we get it right” because there would be no chance to correct it once sent to the minister.

3 ‘A CEO could fall under a bus’

Chief legal officer David Sewell brought before the council two significant documents regarding future chief executives, their performance measures, and the process of their recruitment.

Councillor Andrew Robinson was a vocal part of the Townsville City Council meeting, particularly in pointing out grey areas within policy documents. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Councillors had concerns but unanimously passed the documents, with room for some amendments to be discussed in their private workshops.

Mr Sewell compared the documents to a process similar to Logan City Council’s, such as appointing or replacing chief executives or acting ones, and he encouraged councillors not to make processes “overcumbersome”.

Mr Robinson had some concerns of ambiguity of appointing an acting CEO if the current one was absent.

“It must be noted that anything could happen … a CEO could fall under a bus, and you need to get into place an acting CEO,” Mr Sewell said.

“Fall under, or pushed?” Mr Robinson’s dry yet dark sense of humour echoed though the chamber yet again, which interim CEO Joe McCabe found hilarious.

Acting CEO Joe McCabe laughed at a dark joke about his position being made vacant if he so happened to be in an accident. Picture: Shae Beplate.

A policy includes the onboarding of the new CEO, which includes an order that the Mayor should give background information and all relevant documents, while directors also should be asked to give a briefing of “hot issues” to the newly appointed.

The acting CEO may help the mayor with these arrangements.

4. Banter with media

Even a policy review of the code of meeting practice is controversial for this council.

Mr Thompson believes what it does is waters down his mayoral authority after he sought advice from the firm Mills Oakley.

It was the reason he refused to attend a workshop two weeks ago about the issue, which Liam Mooney vocally drew attention to.

Mr Thompson has not specifically said what are the concerning amendments, which he voted against, but the focus of the discussion seemed to be the process of who would chair the council if he was absent, and if he could not appoint anyone in his stead.

Councillor Kurt Rehbein. Townsville City Council general meeting. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Councillor Paul Jacob wishes the North Queensland Cowboys luck in their semi final this Friday night, showing off his tie in support. Picture: Shae Beplate.

The mayor would also need to give at least one business day’s notice before dropping in a mayoral minute.

In past meetings mayoral minutes have taken priority and his bombshells have caught councillors off guard, or have hijacked issues for discussion.

Passed amendments also soften words of the mayor’s, or chairman’s, duties, referring to them as ‘roles’ rather than under his ‘authority’, and refer to councillors’ duties as ‘roles’ rather than ‘obligations’.

Mr Robinson said there needed to be more detail to ensure the media was authorised to record audio or videos of the meetings, given that it was technically an offence anyone, including anyone in the public gallery, to broadcast it without the written permission of the mayor.

This needed to be clarified but later in a workshop.

“As much as we’d like to see them locked up at times … I’m looking at you, Chris,” Mr Robinson joked, turning around to stare directly at a specific person in the press box.

5. Closed business

Mr Thompson and the interim CEO, along with their executives, left during the confidential meeting about 20 minutes into closed business discussions.

Three items for discussion were an inundation hazards community engagement, the North Rail Yards, and a human resources matter.

Mayor Troy Thompson. Townsville City Council general meeting. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Councillor Kurt Rehbein had to deliberate with lawyers as to if he had a conflict of interest with the North Rail Yards because of an “association” he had, but councillors determined that he could remain in the room.

Mr McCabe and directors left because of the human resources matter, which took about 40 minutes to discuss.

While directors have had to leave the room for human resources matters in the past, which has involved the recruitment or appointment of a CEO in the past, it’s the first time that Mr Thompson has withdrawn.

After the meeting was open to the public, and councillors voted on their confidential decisions, the mayor was sent out the room yet again while they did so.

Originally published as Townsville City Council meeting: Key moments within the chamber