I STOOD on the Team Gash ticket and I voted in favour of council removing the option to buy back the Shaolin land. Not because I was intimidated or told to vote this way but because after being presented all the facts a week earlier, I went away and thought about it and decided that I really don’t want the land back.
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I don’t want to spend the next two decades finding another buyer, I don’t want to part with $5 million plus dollars and I am delighted that the land has now been sold.
I didn’t get the chance to even get one word of my opinion across on Tuesday night because Cr Guile and Cr Findley hijacked the meeting with behaviour that in my opinion does not befit a councillor. It breached the code of conduct in my belief, specifically, general conduct 3.1 e: “…causes, comprises or involves intimidation, harassment or verbal abuse”.
I was astonished to find the next day that the mayor was the one being described as a bully after what I had witnessed.
So readers are aware, the NSW Code of Conduct for Local Government is also very clear on the matter of “Binding caucus votes” and this needs to be explained: “You must not participate in binding caucus votes in relation to matters to be considered at a council or committee meeting. 3.10 For the purposes of clause 3.9, a binding caucus vote is a process whereby a group of councillors are compelled by a threat of disciplinary or other adverse action to comply with a predetermined position on a matter before the council or committee irrespective of the personal views of individual members of the group on the merits of the matter before the council or committee. 3.11 Clause 3.9 does not prohibit councillors from discussing a matter before the council or committee prior to considering the matter in question at a council or committee meeting or from voluntarily holding a shared view with other councillors on the merits of a matter.” It is not illegal to discuss issues nor should it be.
Cr Jemma Tribe