YambaCAN fogged with a feather

TIM HOWARD

A lame duck Clarence Valley Council has plucked a feather with which to fog a tormentor during the fnal meeting of its term.

Meeting in caretaker mode on August 27, councillors voted 5-3 to note a three-months overdue report into the council’s $1.048 million costs of interacting with the Yamba Community Action Network.

In February the council supported a notice of motion from Cr Karen Toms to look into: a) the allocation of resources required to respond to GIPAs submitted by Yamba CAN Inc since January 2022. b) the allocation of resources required to respond to RFI (Request for Information) submitted by Yamba CAN Inc since January 2022. c) the cost implications of delays to delivering the Yamba Community Precinct project since January 2022.

The report originally requested for the May council meeting, found GIPAs, RFIs and related delays to projects, chiefy the Yamba Community Precinct Project, had cost council $1.048 million.

Last Tuesday Mayor Peter Johnstone recognised part C of the motion – the most costly – went beyond the pale and moved to remove it from his ultimately successful foreshadowed motion to note the fndings of the frst two parts of the report.

But the meeting began with a much more sweeping motion from Cr Bill Day to reject the entire thing.

He asked if the report was a genuine investigation or a part of an ongoing vendetta against Yamba CAN and its secretary, Lynne Cairns, who has decided to run for council at this month’s Local Government election.

Cr Debrah Novak brought a point of order at this, saying Cr Day had “no evidence” to support this assertion.

Cr Johnston warned Cr Day of Section 15.11 in the Code of Meeting Practice, Acts of Disorder.

Cr Day continued, pointing out that GIPAs were a “legislated right for all people in NSW”. “It really doesn’t matter what the cost is or how much some councillors don’t like it.

It’s L.A.W. law,” he said.

Cr Day also noted the number of GIPAs and RFIs requested were not high and that if council had handled them better, there might have been fewer of them.

Cr Day said there were other parts of the report that revealed suspect motivations behind it.

He was critical of a section of the report that detailed GIPAs and other actions brought by Craig McNeill, Mr McNeill had been an executive member of YambaCAN, but had resigned and took action against the council privately.

Cr Day questioned general manager Laura Black. why these should appear in a report relating to YambaCAN.

Cr Day did not name Ms Black, but it was clear he was referring to her.

He also questioned the motivation of the author of the report, council

He noted she had been involved in defamation concerns with YambaCAN

“Is it too much to ask that person to declare a confict of interest?” he said.

At this point Cr Johnstone warned Cr Day.

“I will refer again to the acts of disorder, which you will know you’ve sailed beyond the wind there,” he said.

Cr Day concluded his address with an appeal to his fellow councillors.

“This business item is all about spitefulness, revenge, distortions of the truth and discrediting a candidate for election to this council,” he said.

“Surely there are enough councillors here who are smart enough to understand this and who have enough courage to vote it into the rubbish bin where it belongs.” continued page 13

Cr Johnson moved his foreshadowed motion at this point.

The next speaker, deputy Mayor Jeff Smith, described the NOM and subsequent report as a “low point” for council.

He said YambaCAN had not done anything wrong and had followed process in its GIPA requests.

He said they had submitted seven of the 48 GIPAs council had dealt with in the term from January 2022 to February 2024.

Cr Smith praised YambaCAN for its spirit of community involvement.

“Why does YambaCAN do it? Because YambaCAN cares,” he said.