What Townsville City Councillors decided when they overturned paid parking
Councillors voted to keep parking in the CBD, stop plans for meters at The Strand, and chose a permanent CEO as the mayor gave an update on his deadline to respond to a 12-month suspension notice.
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Townsville City Council unanimously voted to hit pause on the controversial rollout of paid parking in The Strand, Palmer St and The Pimlico Precinct in a special meeting held on Wednesday.
But Mayor Troy Thompson believes the decision to pause it risks it being reintroduced from the new year, when council executives are desperate to raise more revenue.
Councillors had three options on the table relating to the new parking meters, but after lengthy decision they voted unanimously to support the most conservative option to stop the rollout “until there was evidence” it was needed or wanted by the community.
Other factors at play in the special meeting was the appointment of the permanent CEO, who is yet to be identified.
State government-appointed adviser John Oberhardt was not present in the meeting despite reportedly beginning his role on Monday, and the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, nor council spokespeople observed his presence in procedure before the council meeting was held.
Meanwhile, interim CEO Joe McCabe looked defeated, at times showing he was struggling to be alert to the councillors’ debates.
Here were the significant moments:
MAYOR’S CBD PROPOSAL SLAMMED
Mr Thompson told the meeting that on occasion he had been covering parking fees for council workers, who he said had struggled to meet the increased charges, which had risen from $30 to $50 per week.
He referred to his supposed financial support during his bid to strip parking meters from the CBD, which have been in effect for 23 years.
All the councillors voted against Mr Thompson’s bid, although this was to be expected.
Six of the councillors until recently had pushed for a parking meter rollout in The Strand, South Townsville and the Pimlico medical precinct to reduce the pressure on ratepayers while the council felt pressured to keep up with its services.
Mr Thompson’s bid to remove existing parking meter revenue for the remainder of council’s four-year term was too far for these councillors, who scrutinised where the additional funding would come from, or whether he intended to increase the budget deficit.
The mayor said the solution should be to work with state and federal politicians to increase the amount of funding for the city, and he slammed the council’s past decision to use $79m in ratepayer funds to help pay for the overinflated Haughton Pipeline Stage 2.
If that money had not been spent “robbing the piggy bank” on these big projects then the council could have put less pressure on the community by seeking additional revenue.
When asked for evidence and studies to support his position, Mr Thompson took a jab at Andrew Robinson, who in a private meeting between councillors and business representatives had used a Texas study to validate his pro-parking meter views.
But Division 3 councillor Ann-Maree Greaney said she could not see a connection between the significant water infrastructure projects and paid parking meters, and believed removing them entirely from the city would be unique for a city such as Townsville.
Even Kurt Rehbein, who has pushed to remove a paid parking expansion, said he found it difficult to support the mayor’s bid as it stood.
PARKING EXPANSION CANNED
Councillors were more conflicted between either banning the paid parking expansion indefinitely until 2028, or stopping it until there was a need or want from the community to roll it out.
But they all voted to stop the expansion for the time being, leaving the possibility that the subject could be revisited at an undisclosed time after three months.
And a challenge that was being confronted was whether paid parking at The Strand, South Townsville and the Pimlico medical precinct should have been lumped in together under one budgetary decision.
Former Olympian Suzy Batkovic, who has increasingly become an umpire within the chamber calling for order and for councillors to focus on the relevant issue, also wanted to address that paid parking meters had not been paid for within the previous council term.
And she became frustrated at councillors, especially deputy mayor Paul Jacob, for returning to issues with parking that she believed were already covered.
The first bid by Mr Rehbein to ban a paid parking expansion until the next council term was defeated six-five, which was a repeat of a previous vote conducted almost three months ago.
Brady Ellis’s suggestion was to stop the paid parking until the council was provided “with sufficient evidence that there is a need and/or want from the community for this to proceed.”
But there was a question of what “sufficient evidence” would involve.
Mr Ellis said it was important to see the three different parking areas as “three different beasts” and that the needs of each needed to be examined.
He did not feel comfortable “kicking the can down the road” by passing on parking meter decisions to the next council, when it might be prudent to keep the issue open within the next three years.
Ms Greaney said she considered the needs of South Townsville and The Strand to be aligned, with the Pimlico Medical Precinct having its own merits to endorse paid parking.
But Mr Rehbein said “there’s no closure or clarity for the community here”.
Mr Robinson provided a lengthy speech believing there was no new information or expert opinion to change his mind about supporting the expansion, as he used another United States study to back his position.
While the mayor showed signs of impatience, Mr Robinson conceded the lack of consultation had transformed the expansion into a “toxic subject”, he supported suspending paid parking under further research was completed.
LOOMING CEO ANNOUNCEMENT
The mayor left the chamber so the council could announce it had appointed its permanent chief executive, due to a personal conflict of interest.
This was a change of his position a week ago as he fought to remain in the room and have a say with the CEO appointment.
Only councillor Vera Dirou voted against the appointment of the preferred candidate for a four-year term, who would soon be announced by the deputy mayor.
But first the meeting entered into confidential discussions as executives including interim CEO Joe McCabe, who is short-listed and favoured to take on the permanent role, left the room.
After the meeting, Mr Jacob told the Bulletin he did not know when the CEO appointment would be announced, but suggested it would be imminent.
“After it’s actually been authorised, signed off in other words by me … as soon as that’s signed off, Peter (Cannizzaro) will put a press release, and I’ll be announcing it as well, but it all has to be properly authorised,” he said.
Mr Jacob said he was “absolutely relieved” the permanent CEO position had been concluded.
“There’s a big difference between an interim and permanent,” he said.
“In so far as the confidence of the councillors and the council going forward … so that’s one of the things we’ll all be looking forward to, and I’m assuming the council will as well.”
Meanwhile Mr Jacob said he had not felt the procedural difference with a state-appointed adviser stepping into the council to mediate between the mayor and the other councillors, but he had just returned from six days of leave.
Mr Thompson said the adviser would have an influence in workshops, including the one held after the special council meeting.
He objected to Mr McCabe as the permanent candidate but conceded he had a “personal conflict of interest” given he complained against the interim CEO to the Queensland Human Rights Commission, on grounds of discrimination against epilepsy.
Mr Thompson said that being an interim CEO did not automatically qualify someone for the permanent role, and that Mr McCabe had been in his position seven months.
“That concerns me even greatly because a $1bn budget, $8bn worth of assets is not something I want to hand over to a seven month old CEO,” Mr Thompson said.
“But if that’s what the councillors deem going forward and that’s what they want, then I’m one vote in 11.”
‘ELECTION STUNT’
Mr Thompson said the State Government’s efforts to push him out of the role was a “three week election stunt.”
His legal representation was working hard in the background to respond to a show cause notice from Local Government Minister Meaghan Scanlon, which was aiming to force him out of the role in two more weeks.
As Mr Thompson waited outside the chamber as councillors discussed the permanent CEO role, he told media he would challenge the government’s position as hard as he could, threatening to take it to the High Court if need be.
“We refuse all the claims that the Minister’s put forward to me, and she hasn’t provided the evidence that she says she has,” Mr Thompson said.
“So it’s very hard to defend something that you don’t know what there is, so in any judicial process, and any court of law, there’s two sides of the story and two lots of evidence, and until you see it all, you can’t defend yourself.
“I think the Townsville Bulletin has done a great job of dropping my reputation but I continue to work for the community, I do 40 to 50 community obligation events every month … I never have people come up and criticise me.”
Mr Thompson repeated claims that reports that he had misrepresented his education and military credentials on national television were taken out of context.
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Originally published as What Townsville City Councillors decided when they overturned paid parking
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