Debnam Announces Edward Mandla as Liberal Candidate for Sydney

DEBNAM ANNOUNCES EDWARD MANDLA AS LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR SYDNEY

NSW Liberal Leader Peter Debnam today welcomed Edward Mandla as the Liberal Candidate for the electorate Sydney in the March 2007 State election.

“It is with great pleasure I announce Mr Mandla will be the Liberal Candidate for Sydney at the 24 March 2007 Election,” Mr Debnam said.

"After a decade of neglect the people of Sydney are desperate for a change of Government and the only way that will happen is if enough Liberals are voted into Parliament," he said.

“Edward is a long term CBD resident; working, living and bringing up a family in the area has given him an understanding of the environment and challenges in the electorate.

“Edward has his finger on the key issues in the new seat of Sydney: law and order, public transport, roads, education and health.

“Edward is passionate about moving Sydney onto the front foot with well thought out and positive solutions to address the infrastructure crisis gripping the city.

“At the same time Edward realises the need to protect the character of the local community. He played an integral role in the ‘Save Our Working Harbour’ campaign, helping organise a large rally to protest the Iemma Labor Government’s plans to sell off Sydney’s working harbour facilities.

“Edward has over 20 years experience leading organisations and is director of CBD based SMARTFORCE Solutions. This extensive business experience will assist the implementation of Liberal/Nationals policy initiatives such as payroll tax cuts in an effort to kickstart the faltering economy.

“Edward has introduced a Work Life policy to encourage a family friendly environment in his company, which promotes more flexible work hours, options for fully paid parental leave and child care reforms.

“As President and office bearer of the Australian Computer Society for more than a decade, Edward lobbied hard to ensure all school children are computer literate and for all homes to have broadband Internet access.

“His passion for sport has seen Edward referee junior and school basketball games for ten years.

“Edward Mandla will continue to fight for the residents of Sydney, exposing Labor’s neglect of the local area and the decaying state of our hospitals, roads, transport and schools.

“I look forward to Edward Mandla being part of the Liberal team to take the fight up to the Iemma Labor Government over the next ten months,” Mr Debnam said.

ENDS (pictured NSW Liberal Leader Peter Debnam MP and candidate for Sydney Edward Mandla).

eCouncillor comments:

Correcting some mischief going around in Council offices and media circles today before it appears on the back of the SMH. The Liberals have endorsed a candidate for Sydney state seat (see media release). Edward was unopposed and unanimously endorsed by the local branch members as a candidate who relates well to inner city issues and the values of tolerance and compassion held by most inner city people. Contrary to rumour I was not defeated in a preselection. There was no preselection contest. I decided not to run but instead focus on my Council workload and business. Edward enjoys my full support both as the local Liberal Councillor and as the President of the Liberal Party in Sydney state electorate. I hope that clears up any concerns for my political well being that some have been mischievously expressing today.

Weekend visit to Art on The Rocks

Sydney's historic and unique Rocks area is not governed by the City of Sydney Council but rather falls under the control of the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority and ironically the Minister responsible Frank Sartor. I must say I don't think they do a bad job at managing the area and balancing the various interests and needs of the diverse stakeholders from tourism operators to local residents.



On the weekend eCouncilor and partner visited the Rocks to experience the 4th annual 'Art on The Rocks' festival. The weather was excellent for a two day event featuring 65 artist sprinkled around the public spaces of The Rocks each competing for a $35,000 prize purse.


"The Rocks through many different eyes ..transforms into an outdoor artist's studio" is the promise of the promotion and it lived up to that as small crowds gathered around each artist's location to patiently and politely observe the artists go about their magic craft. I was reminded of a few artist known to me that could not tolerate being made produce something in 48 hours especially under the public gaze.


As we walked from First Fleet Park along the Overseas Passenger Terminal we were delighted to see a huge group of cyclists paying a visit to Sydney. Around to Campbells Stores with live Jazz and good food. It was well worth the visit and an event to mark in the diary for next year.

A loud voice for civil liberties falls silent - Vale John Marsden

MEDIA STATEMENT

Vale John Marsden AO

Liberal City of Sydney Councillor Shayne Mallard has paid tribute to his friend and leading civil libertarian John Marsden who died overnight whilst on a trip in Turkey.

"A loud voice for civil liberties and human rights has gone silent today," Shayne Mallard said.

"John Marsden will be remembered for his fearless advocacy for many human rights and social justice issues. As a gay man I will always be indebted to John for his courageous campaigning over his lifetime to remove the many discriminations against homosexuals."

"John Marsden's legacy as an activist for justice and equity will live on in all he mentored and influenced during his busy life including human rights, law reform, civil liberties and gay rights advocates."

Shayne Mallard who has been a close friend of John's since the mid 1980's has described him as an Oscar Wilde figure in our time.

"John Marsden delighted in confronting people about his sexuality. For those who passed this test they discovered a passionate caring man, strongly religious with a very close and loving family. John had many loyal friends from all walks of life and all sides of politics. He was a larger than life character."

"John never hesitated to let you know his opinions on the issue of the day with his 6am telephone calls legendary."

"For those of us deeply saddened at John's passing we now carry his legacy forward in the never ending struggle for equality and justice in a world where John's ideals and human rights principles are under pressure."

Shayne Mallard said his thoughts were with John's family especially his sister Jane Marsden, brother Jim, his Marsdens law firm colleagues and many friends.


RELEASE ENDS

Read the tribute to John by the Council for Civil Liberties.

'YOU CAN’T FIGHT CITY HALL, CAN YOU?
Council for Civil Liberties, Conferral of life membership on John Marsden

We meet here tonight to honour John Marsden – rather, to acknowledge the honour accorded him by the Council for Civil Liberties.
John Marsden is only the third recipient of life membership of the Council for Civil Liberties. It is a very great honour and by your presence here tonight you mark your endorsement of that honour.
John’s career is a record of contribution to the community, distinguished by a forthright style and brutal honesty. Above all, he has shown great strength in adversity.
As a criminal lawyer working in the brick and bitumen suburbs, he is keenly aware of the structural disadvantages faced by the poor, the homelessness, the marginal and the disadvantaged when they confront the majesty of the law. In his capacity as President of the Law Society, he spoke out publicly on access to justice, legal aid funding and equality before the law.
He has always taken a strong position in support of unpopular minorities, notably homosexuals, aborigines and refugees. Little wonder then that he made enemies. Little wonder that those enemies would eventually seek to destroy him.
Obviously his open homosexuality made him a target of the prejudiced and powerful. Even in a city as open and carefree as Sydney, old prejudices about homosexuality thrive. It is an insult to all gays that many heterosexuals still imagine that homosexuality and paedophilia go together. It is as absurd as the notion that all heterosexuals are paedophiles. But where prejudice has poisoned the mind, facts count for nothing and an allegation of paedophilia is considered more plausible if levelled at a gay than if levelled at a heterosexual.
Channel 7 must have thought John Marsden was an easy mark. I wonder if they ever imagined that he would sue them.
John is a solicitor, and a very experienced one at that. He must have calculated, at least approximately, the risk associated with suing a media giant. Where instinct would dictate smouldering silence, John preferred to take them on. Most people here are better acquainted than I with the details of the gruesome fight which followed.
He won the fight, but at a terrible cost. If this was a win, what does defeat look like? Perhaps the award we celebrate tonight will go some small distance toward healing the wounds inflicted by Channel 7 in its ferocious defence. Read more here

Balancing Planning with the Free Enterprise Spirit - the Jane Jacobs' legacy

Professor Ed Blakely addressed the SGLBA dinner last week on 'Sydney 2020- How we will work, live & play'. In a packed Sol's restaurant overlooking Taylor Square and the newly reminted Oxford Street (both largely deserted) we heard one of the most respected urban planners in the western world explain how Sydney needed more planning and longer term thinking.

Commenting on the emergence of the global city states as opposed to nation states of the past, he warned that Sydney was in danger of losing its global position through lack of long term planning for infrastructure such as rail, ports and traffic management. He made the point that Sydney represented about 25% of the nations GDP yet had no representation at or in the Federal Budget process. 'We have not sprawled but splattered' referring to the urban spread of Sydney and suggesting that Sydney was 'under-developed' and required intelligent urban consolidation.

Professor Blakely's major thrust was his often repeated calls for single state based planning authority and American style planning commissions to take the responsibility for strategic planning and the approval processes from smaller local elected Councils. "When a Mayor can be changed every 12 months and Councils every three years there is no certainty in the planning process or outcomes," adding that this is one of the main reasons behind the mistrust of urban planning by the general community. He claimed that in the US where unelected planning commissions are common they are overwhelmingly supported by their community because the processes are tranparent and black and white. Commissioners are appointed by Mayor's and Councils for term of up to ten years and take a long term strategic perspective. If they don't perform or are out of step with the elected leadership the commissioners can be removed by the Mayor and Council. He claimed that Sydney was being let down by multiple layers of planning authorities with often competing agendas, decentralized processes and disjointed planning and delivery on infrastructure such as tunnels, railways and major roads.

Having worked with Rudolph Gulianni to rebuild New York after 9/11, I asked Professor Blakely to comment on Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore's performance now two years into her term. His response was scathing saying 'firstly she needs to hold one seat and focus on one job only'. A reference to her being a state member of parliament as well as Lord Mayor. His view explained that she needs to be fully focused on the complex and demanding task of Lord Mayor and not be distracted by parliamentary issues. He then went on to say the Council needs to focus on the airport corridor and Green Square urban renewal zone where much of Sydney's wealth is located. He also cristicised the city's lack of engagement with the airport development proposals or the East Darling Harbour redevelopment.

One insightful question from the audience challenged Blakely's advocacy of more planning and more controls on our city. "How do you balance proscriptive urban planning and at the same time do not stiffle the free market spirit that drives and generates our great cities?" His response was to say that he did not intend to interfere in the micro planning of 'peoples kitchen extensions' but that he was an infrastructure planner.

Which gives a neat link to an article in the Wall Street Journal about the legacy of urban planning activist Jane Jacobs who died in late April. The on line article reprinted below argues that urban planners have misrepresented the central message of Jacobs to suit their proscriptive planning policies and centralisation of power. Planning cities that are livable, according to Jacobs requires a framework of public policy that allows a "great range of unofficial plans, ideas and opportunities to flourish". I couldn't agree more.

At last night's Council meeting Councillor Robyn Kemmis moved a late night motion about the Jacob's legacy; "Council notes with deep regret the passing of the distinguished social theorist, activist and writer Jane Jacobs and acknowledges her significant contribution to our understanding of the importance of community, social capital and strong and vibrant neighbourhoods to urban life."

This was of course effusively seconded by Clover Moore who I suspect subscribes to the 'plan everything' school of thought and is on the record calling for regional government and the abolition of one layer of our three tiered system. In response to the motion I talked about the Wall Street Journal article (below) and warned that over-planning was responsible for as many urban problems as was no planning at all and that what Jacobs was extolling is a broad planning framework that allowed the free markets of a city economy and society to flourish. I think my point was lost on Clover Moore.

What Jane Jacobs Really SawToday's urban planners falsely claim her legacy.

BY LEONARD GILROYTuesday, May 2

Legendary author and urban theorist Jane Jacobs passed away last week at the age of 89. Her classic 1961 book, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," delivered a damning indictment of postwar city planning and urban renewal efforts, revolutionizing the way we think about and plan our cities.

A working mother with no formal education in urban planning, Jacobs became an icon in the 1960s when she mobilized citizens to fight the redevelopment and highway-construction plans of New York City planning czar Robert Moses, who wielded almost unchecked power over the city's urban development during the mid-20th century. She famously led the effort that defeated Moses' plan to build an expressway through Manhattan's Washington Square Park and West Village, which would have displaced nearly 10,000 residents and workers and destroyed thousands of historic buildings.

Given urban planners' almost universal reverence for Jacobs, it is ironic that many have largely ignored or misinterpreted the central lesson of "Death and Life"--that cities are vibrant living systems, not the product of grand, utopian schemes concocted by overzealous planners.
Modern planners have contorted Jacobs's beliefs in hopes of imposing their static, end-state vision of a city. They use a set of highly prescriptive policy tools--like urban growth boundaries, smart growth, and high-density development built around light-rail transit systems--to design the city they envision. They try to "create" livable cities from the ground up and micromanage urban form through regulation. We've seen these tools at work in Portland, Ore., for more than three decades. But the results have been dismal and dramatic. The city's "smart growth" policies effectively created a land shortage, constricting the housing supply and artificially inflating prices. By 1999, Portland had become one of the 10 least affordable housing markets in the nation, and its homeownership rate lagged behind the national average. It has also seen one of the nation's largest increases in traffic congestion and boasts a costly, heavily subsidized light-rail system that accounts for just 1% of the city's total travel. Not exactly how they planned it.
That's because these planning trends run completely counter to Jacobs's vision of cities as dynamic economic engines that thrive on private initiative, trial and error, incremental change, and human and economic diversity. Jacobs believed the most organic and healthy communities are diverse, messy and arise out of spontaneous order, not from a scheme that tries to dictate how people should live and how neighborhoods should look.

She felt it was foolish to focus on how cities look rather than how they function as economic laboratories. "The main responsibility of city planning and design should be to develop--insofar as public policy and action can do so--cities that are congenial places for [a] great range of unofficial plans, ideas and opportunities to flourish," Jacobs wrote.

Sadly, many in the Smart Growth and New Urbanism movements cite Jacobs as the inspiration for their efforts to combat so-called "urban sprawl" and make over suburbia with dense, walkable downtowns, mixed-use development, and varied building styles. While Jacobs identified these as organic elements of successful cities, planners have eagerly tried to impose them on cities in formulaic fashion, regardless of their contextual appropriateness and compatibility with the underlying economic order. In short, they've taken Jacobs's observations of what makes cities work and tried to formalize them into an authoritarian recipe for policy intervention.

As Jacobs opined in a 2001 Reason magazine interview, "the New Urbanists want to have lively centers in the places that they develop. . . . And yet, from what I've seen of their plans and the places they have built, they don't seem to have a sense of the anatomy of these hearts, these centers. They've placed them as if they were shopping centers. They don't connect."
Jacobs's ideas came from the heart. Her foray into urban theory was partly inspired by the failed urban renewal efforts of the post-World War II era that displaced tens of thousands of poor and minority residents and resulted in the isolation or destruction of previously vibrant neighborhoods in New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh and elsewhere.

Fundamentally, there is little difference behind the social engineering mentality of those who wrought the disaster of postwar urban renewal and the mindset of today's planners trying to regulate away suburbia in hopes of master-planned urban living for everyone.
More and more, these planners are calling for the centralization of land-use control under state and regional governments, usurping the American tradition of local control over development. In the view of many planners, this command-and-control bureaucracy is needed because municipal planning is too "uncoordinated" to achieve "societally beneficial" goals like open-space preservation, mass transit and urban densification.

But if they go back and reread "Death and Life," they'll find Jacobs rightly asking, "How is bigger administration, with labyrinths nobody can comprehend or navigate, an improvement over crazy-quilt township and suburban governments?"
She went on to ridicule the idea of regionalism as "escapism from intellectual helplessness" predicated on the delusion that the problems planners are unable to solve at the local level will somehow be more easily addressed on a larger-scale, concluding that "no other expertise can substitute for locality knowledge in planning."

Politicians and planners would do well to commemorate Jacobs by revisiting her work. Despite the best efforts of well-intentioned planners, you can't "create" a vibrant city or neighborhood. The best cities and neighborhoods just happen, and the best thing we can do is to step out of the way of innovators and entrepreneurs.

Mr. Gilroy is a certified planner and policy analyst at the Reason Foundation.

Sartor's smart pole legacy not just pretty banners.

It's not amusing to wake up and read on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald that the Council has just lost a major court case with potential exposure to millions in damages. This story is not about Clover Moore or this Council but a legal mess inherited by the new Council (and ratepayers) from Frank Sartor's regime.

A robust meeting belatedly called yesterday with the Lord Mayor, Councillors and legal advisors explored the background to this dispute and Council's options. Plenty of questions remain unanswered for Councillors such as why didn't we even know this was in the Federal Court or that we had an uninsured and unbudgeted exposure of potentially millions. In my view Council needs to be hands off in this matter and have an external investigation. I think Piers Akerman has a good point in today's Tele. When Piers Akerman of the Tele and Kate McClymont of the SMH merge on one issue you have to pay attention.

Time to Shine ICAC

May 09, 2006
THE Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has a lacklustre reputation at best. At worst, it's just a joke.
Federal court judge Roger Gyles AO last week provided the crimebusters with an opportunity to show whether it has the guts to investigate allegations of top-level corruption or not.
In a case known as the Goldspar affair, Judge Gyles has found the light pole manufacturer is entitled to damages from Sydney City Council, with which it had a contract to supply light poles for the 2000 Olympics.
His judgment makes interesting reading, not only for its scathing assessment of the SCC, but for the involvement of the family of NSW ALP Right's Upper House operator Eddie Obeid, through his sons Paul and Moses, and the fact the then lord mayor was Frank Sartor, now Planning Minister.
Briefly, Goldspar, operated by Mona Vale engineer and designer Doug Rawson-Harris, won a tender in May 1998 to supply between 300 and 900 of his company's Smartpoles.
Judge Gyles said almost immediately, Sydney City Council shifted ground.
A key figure in the project was Adel Khreich, who, the judge said, the SCC "purported to appoint" as the representative of the person responsible for supervising the site.
The superintendents employed in the city's project department were successively Wayne Burns, followed by Shane Henn, though the judge said "it rather appears that the day to day administration was left to Khreich, who took his instructions from (Terry)Daly".
Goldspar's representative was initially Tony Barnes, who Rawson-Harris replaced as the council began to force them out.
Judge Gyles found Burns' evidence "was generally unimpressive. His claimed recollection of events was very poor, much worse than might have been expected, even if (as I find) his true role was more limited than his title of council's representative might have implied.
"My impression when he gave his evidence was that he was not genuinely giving the best of his recollection. His express denials of the evidence in question of Barnes were in marked contrast to most of his evidence and did not ring true at the time."
He also noted that Paul and Moses Obeid had tried to buy the council contract from Goldspar as early as May 15, 1998, and though the offer was rejected, their company Streetscape sought to obtain the council's pole business from then on.
Judge Gyles also referred to evidence given by Rawson-Harris of allegations he made "of collusion between Mr Obeid (by then a NSW Govt minister) and the City of Sydney to the disadvantage of Goldspar".
In that evidence, Rawson-Harris said Goldspar had designed some items for the poles and "the council came to see the last design and then a week later the OBedes (sic) supplied those parts to the council without asking us to supply."
In addition, he said "we also received a translation of an El Telegraph article (owned by Mr Obeid) which was an interview with Mr OBede (sic) and it stated that the council wanted to get rid of us in that article".
Further, he testified "Streetscapes was formed about two or three months after they (the Obeids) had the meeting with us because we didn't want to deal with them. They had offered the pole contract for the Olympics. They said, if we did a deal with them they could guarantee the pole contract for the Olympics, the flagpole contract, that is".
Judge Gyles noted "whilst much of this evidence is hearsay, it was prescient insofar as Goldspar's fate was concerned".
The objective facts, he said, were "once Streetscape came into the picture, Goldspar only received an order for seven more poles in total instead of at least another 600 and was cut out from some of the accessories in relation to the then current period in favour of Streetscape."
"It was hardly evidence of paranoia on the part of Rawson-Harris that he should feel that Streetscape had the inside running with the council and that Goldspar was being excluded accordingly," Judge Gyles said.
The judge said he was "particularly troubled" by the role of Khreich at a meeting on September 29, 1999, saying "if he knew what was coming, then he participated in a dishonest and cynical piece of play acting.
"If he did not, then he must have been shocked by the instruction he received via (the council's Steven) Newman" which effectively reduced Goldspar's order.
"Nonetheless, he (Khreich) executed the instruction, defended it and then placed two subsequent orders which were no more reasonable and proceeded to defend them, both at the time and in evidence. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I am inclined to think that his participation in the meeting of September 29, 1999, was an endeavour to get the supply of poles from Goldspar moving but that objective was quickly and firmly countermanded by council officers."
Judge Gyles repeatedly accused Khreich of being "disingenuous" in regard to the council's actions, including one order that "was obviously issued in order to trap Goldspar into a situation of default with termination to follow".
The judge said, "that I was not impressed by Khreich's attempts in evidence to justify the various positions taken by him, particularly after September 29, 1999. ICAC, which is wondering how to begin an investigation could do no worse than read Judge Gyles' summation and interview Khreich.
If this matter goes no further, the toothless watchdog should be put down.
akermanp@dailytelegraph.com.au

Contract with Obeid link puts council in hot water

By Kate McClymontMay 4, 2006
SYDNEY City Council faces a multimillion-dollar damages claim after losing a court battle in which allegations were raised that it gave the inside running on a contract to a company run by the sons of Eddie Obeid, the ALP powerbroker and former minister.
In March 2000 the council terminated a contract it had with Goldspar for the supply of Smartpoles - multi-function street poles that can be seen throughout Sydney's CBD. Streetscape, the company run by Mr Obeid's sons, Paul and Moses, was awarded the contract.
The then lord mayor, Frank Sartor - now a state Labor minister - was reported in the Herald at the time as saying orders had been placed with Goldspar for 300 poles but these had not been delivered.
But in a written judgement handed down yesterday, Federal Court Justice Roger Gyles said he was satisfied "Goldspar was ready, willing and able to carry out the contract as at March 2000" and there was "powerful evidence of subjective bad faith on the part of the relevant council officers". The council's behaviour was "extraordinary" and "menacing".
The judge said evidence given by Goldspar's owner, Doug Rawson-Harris, suggested "collusion between Mr Obeid (by then a minister in the NSW Government) and the City of Sydney to the disadvantage of Goldspar".
Mr Rawson-Harris's evidence was that in 1998 Mr Obeid's sons offered to buy Goldspar's contract with the council or do a joint deal. "If we did a deal with them they could guarantee the [flag]pole contract for the Olympics," Mr Rawson-Harris told the court.
Mr Rawson-Harris said he had been given an article from Mr Obeid's newspaper, El Telegraph, in which Mr Obeid was reported saying the council wanted to get rid of Goldspar.
"While much of this evidence is hearsay," noted Justice Gyles, "it was prescient insofar as Goldspar's fate was concerned."
Justice Gyles noted Mr Rawson-Harris was not being paranoid in his suspicion that "Streetscape had the inside running with the council and that Goldspar was being excluded accordingly."
Once Streetscape came into the picture, Goldspar received an order for only seven more poles instead of at least another 600, Justice Gyles said.
He criticised the council's project manager on the Smartpoles, Adel Khreich. "A person of his experience and knowledge could hardly have failed to suspect what was afoot," Justice Gyles said.
Mr Sartor, now the state Minister for Planning, is honeymooning overseas and was not available for comment yesterday.
Mr Obeid has previously denied in Parliament he knew anything about commercial discussions between his sons and Goldspar.

A contract to supply the city with flagpoles has left many questions unanswered, write Kate McClymont and Anne Davies. May 6, 2006

THE City of Sydney can be justly proud of its flagpoles. The sleek multifunctional aluminium poles which carry colourful banners, lighting and even closed circuit television cameras are being sold around the world.
But the Smartpole has had troubled history, which now could cost the City of Sydney millions. More here.

A Satirical look at the City's Administration

HM Queen Clover 1st

Queen Clover loved to walk her dogs. She would spend many an hour walking fast through the city parks and grounds. Her love for this terrified her loyal Councillors, who feared that she would seriously injure, or even kill herself, from such activity. Queen Clover would tire out her Councillors by walking hard, and early in her reign, Peter Seamer, her Chief Executive Officer, had to bring over some new dogs from the Queen's Macquarie Street palace, as Clover's own dogs were not fast or strong enough for her. Queen Clover and Peter S would walk and talk together often. He was probably the most accomplished dog walker in the realm, and could match Clover's speed and vigour. In the summer of 2006, Clover and Peter S walked together almost everyday, while some of her minions bewailed that Clover was neglecting matters of the city state. Until finally Queen Clover accused Peter of treachery and then forced him to fall on his sword in order to save her flagging reputation.


(With apology to Queen Elizabeth 1 & Lord Dudley - http://www.elizabethi.org/uk/pastimes/)

and after repeated requests - the new Lord Mayoral portrait. At least we are not portraying the Lord mayor as a dog per Alan Moir. Back to more serious writings soon.

'Labor' Councillor reports - exaggerated!!

Whilst some of my opponents suggest that small 'l' Liberals are in the wrong party it seems The Australian today is keen to assist them.

Mayor's act 'like a queen'
D. D. McNicoll

May 02, 2006
SYDNEY Lord Mayor Clover Moore had behaved "like a monarch" in accepting the resignation of former City of Sydney chief executive Peter Seamer without reference to the council, one of the councillors claimed last night.

As Ms Moore banned the public and media from an extraordinary council meeting last night to discuss the reasons behind the surprise resignation, Labor councillor Tony Pooley told the Mayor she had acted "like a monarch" rather than a member of a 10-strong council.

"We believe you exceeded your authority in accepting Mr Seamer's resignation," Mr Pooley said. "We have a legal opinion that you exceeded your powers."
Mr Pooley also claimed Ms Moore had misled councillors over the circumstances of Mr Seamer's resignation.

"These are things that need to be talked about in open debate," he said.
Other Labor members, led by former federal minister Michael Lee and the Deputy Lord Mayor Verity Firth, also sought to have the matter heard in public, but after an hour of robust discussion Ms Moore used her numbers to stifle further debate.

Labor councillor Shayne Mallard said he would argue that the council should refer the whole matter to the NSW Ombudsman.

"We are concerned by the lack of transparency," he said, "The resources of the council are being squandered to protect your position. You are hiding behind expensive lawyers."

Mr Seamer resigned on April4, 14 months into a five-year contract.
Council sources said Mr Seamer's desire to ease the planning backlog before the council had caused friction with the Lord Mayor.

Speaking in defence of her decision to close last night's meeting, Ms Moore said she had accepted Mr Seamer's resignation under her authority to deal with employment matters relating to the chief executive.

Mr Seamer, who was on a salary of $360,000, left the council with a $180,000 payout.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18996613-2702,00.html

and my letter to the Australian

Dear Editor

DD McNicoll's description of me as a 'Labor' councillor is grossly exaggerated.

yours sincerely


Shayne Mallard
Liberal Councillor

City of Sydney

Call for Ombudsman to Investigate Sydney CEO Sacking

MEDIA RELEASE Lord Mayor gags debate on calls for review by Ombudsman

Liberal Councillor Shayne Mallard has called on the City of Sydney Council to refer the circumstances surrounding the departure of the former CEO Mr Peter Seamer to the NSW Ombudsman for further independent investigations.

In a firey debate at tonight's Extra-ordinary Council meeting, Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP used her casting vote on every occasion to stymie debate centred on her role in the shock departure of former CEO Mr Peter Seamer.

"Clover Moore lectures about government openness and accountability but refuses to apply her own standards to her administration of the City," Shayne Mallard said.

In tonight's debate Councillor Mallard forshadowed a motion to refer the whole Seamer affair to the NSW Ombudsman for a genuinely independent review.

"The manner in the which the Lord Mayor has handled the resignation of the former CEO should be investigated by an independent external body such as the NSW Ombudsman" , Shayne Mallard said.

"Councillors have been kept in the dark about the Lord Mayor's relationship breakdown with the CEO. Mr Seamer was well respected by most members of the Council, Council staff ,City businesses and respected in the Local Government sector as a professional person" Councillor Mallard said.

"The fact that he has been given a generous payout negotiated by Clover Moore means that his resignation was a deal and he was paid hush money. The Lord Mayor has consistently refused to provide more information about her role in Seamer's departure to Councillors in spite of the requirement to properly consult with the elected Council."

The questionable payout , Lord Mayor's actions and the added costs for finding a third replacement CEO in the less than three years are serious financial issues that ought to be investigated by the independent Ombudsman.

The Lord Mayor's behaviour during the days surrounding Mr Seamer's departure also need further independent scrutiny.

"Ratepayer's money was used to silence Mr Seamer and tie the hands of the Councillors in legal red tape and the ratepayer's should know the facts ", Shayne Mallard added.

Councillor Mallard also called upon Council staff and anyone with relevant information to provide this to the Ombudsman and advises that they should do so without fear of retribution from the Council Administration.

Shayne Mallard's Proposed Motion:

Council notes with concern the circumstances and actions taken by the Lord Mayor surrounding the departure of the former CEO Mr Peter Seamer. Council is not convinced by the explanations offered by the Lord Mayor and is concerned that the Lord MayorÂ’s conduct has been unreasonable, unjust, unethical and potentially illegal. Council therefore resolves to refer all material regarding the circumstances surrounding the departure of Mr Seamer including but not limited to the Lord MayorÂ’s meeting with Mr Seamer on 4 April, consultation with Councillors on 4 April and subsequent public and private actions, to the NSW Ombudsman who has the jurisdiction to independently investigate and adjudicate the actions taken by the Lord Mayor and in doing so restore public confidence in the administration of the City of Sydney. Council calls upon all Council staff and other parties with relevant information to provide this to the Ombudsman without fear of retribution from CouncilÂ’s administration.

RELEASE ENDS 1st May 2006.