Case Study - Liverpool City Council

Friday, October 30, 2009 Posted by Kate McIlwain at 5:23 PM 0 comments

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One of the key questions to be asked about democracy in Wollongong, is what are the future directions for this city in terms of local government. Who will run for Council when the time comes, and who will the public vote for?

Politics expert Anthony Ashbolt noted that Wollongong is an area with ironed on Labor voters, and this carries the risk of the same kind of candidates being elected.

“It’s highly likely in Wollongong that you’ll get some of the same sort of people elected, and there’ll be the same sort of risks, he said.

“I hope however, that the highlighting of corruption will mean that those some that are elected are well outnumbered by people who are in fact elected by the community at large on a ticket of responsibility and accountability.”

When asked if he’d run again, sacked Councillor David Brown conceded that even if he did want to run for Council, support levels for members of the former council in the community would be low.

However, 80km north of Wollongong another working-class Labor stronghold - Liverpool – provides an interesting case study that raises questions about whether or not four years of administration can really cleanse a Council.

Liverpool Council was sacked in 2004 after ICAC found corruption in regard to the Oasis project. Oasis was an $850 million project that would build a basketball arena, stadium and sporting complex, in conjunction with Macquarie Bank and the Bulldogs Leagues Club.

Read more about the Oasis scandal

After sacking the council, the State Government appointed Gabrielle Kibble – now one of Wollongong’s three administrators – to administrate Liverpool Council for four years.

In 2008, when Liverpool voted in a new Council, one of the key Mayoral candidates was Wendy Waller – former deputy mayor in the sacked Council. The Liverpool Champion reported at the time that some residents and council candidates said Ms Waller shouldn’t stand for mayor, due to her connections to the Oasis issue.

Read the Liverpool Champion article

However, Ms Waller proclaimed her innocence and went on to win the election.

Liverpool Council Mayors page

Ms Waller may be the best woman for the job, and was perhaps voted in as Mayor because she is the person who best represents her constituents in Liverpool. But the fact that the city defaulted back to the same Council candidates so quickly after a period of corruption and administration certainly raises questions about the future of democracy in Wollongong.

What will happen in 2012 when Wollongong once again gets to vote in a local government?

Business leader Mark McDonald said the solution for Wollongong is a strong independent Council, so that elected representatives have to work for and earn the respect of the electorate.

But as a traditionally Labor-voting region, will Wollongong follow in the footsteps of Liverpool and re-elect members of the sacked Council? And what does this say about democracy in Wollongong?

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Read more articles about Liverpool City Council

Dismissal not a barrier

The Liverpool City Champion: Former Liverpool councillor Wendy Waller believes people do not have a negative view of her because she sat on the council that was sacked in 2004.

Liverpool Council's promising performance

The Liverpool City Champion: Some people are probably disappointed our newly elected councillors haven't set the world on fire in the month or so they've been in office. The truth is everyone will need to be patient; we have got to give our democratically elected representatives time to hit their stride.

New mayor Wendy Waller no stranger to controversy

The Daily Telegraph: She will be Liverpool's first mayor in over four years, but Wendy Waller is no stranger to the people of the southwest - she was sacked in 2004 over an $800 million development scandal. Ms Waller was deputy mayor on the Labor-dominated council thrown out over the failed Oasis joint venture with the Bulldogs Leagues Club. But Ms Waller makes no apologies for her time on the council as deputy and chair of the finance committee.

The Sacked Councillor : David Brown

Thursday, October 29, 2009 Posted by Kate McIlwain at 6:42 PM 0 comments

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David Brown was a Labor Councillor for Ward 3 (Wollongong City) when Wollongong City Council was sacked. He was not implicated in the corruption or named by ICAC during the public inquiry.

Mr Brown believes, like many of the other Councillors who were sacked, that the whole Council shouldn’t have been sacked because of the actions of a few people.

It came like a bolt of lightning from the blue. And a lot of people at the time thought it was pretty unjust. There were a number of city Councillors who were adversely named, a small number of staff and business people and the government then took the action to dismiss the entire council, he said.

Mr Brown said he thinks appointing Administrators was the wrong choice for democracy in Wollongong.

“I think you either support democracy or you don’t,” he said.

“And democracy is sometimes a bit messy and sometimes it isn’t all that efficient, but I certainly know in the year or so after the dismissal of Council resident were still asking me for advice about planning matters… and there was certainly a concern that the Administrators weren’t from the area.”

“I think you can rely on the good sense of the voters to sort these things out. If we’d gone to the election a few months after the dismissal, I think you can rely on the voters to get it right.”

Mr Brown now works as a Media Officer for the South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service, and said he couldn’t give a concrete answer on whether he would stand for re-election as a Councillor in 2012.

“It’s still a long way away, the next elections, it’s not something I’ve made my mind up about. I think it will be very hard for anybody in the last Council to nominate and run again,” he said.
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What happended to democracy in Wollongong in 2008?

What is the future of democracy in Wollongong?

Extended interview

The General Manager : David Farmer

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 Posted by Kate McIlwain at 5:07 PM 0 comments

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David Farmer has been the General Manager of Wollongong City Council since June 2007.

This appointment represented a return to his hometown – he graduated from the University of Wollongong in 1987.

Before serving Wollongong Council, he was Mudgee Shire Council’s General Manager between 1998 and 2000, and CEO Cairns City Council from 2000 and 2007.

At the time of the ICAC enquiry, Mr Farmer told ICAC he was "astonished and appalled by the revelations of this public inquiry."

“We knew there was an investigation going on into corrupt activities, and we’d been working with, or providing information to, the ICAC and so with that we were able to put together some sort of an idea about what issues were going to be raised,” Mr Farmer said.

“And on the information that we’d been providing we felt it was going to be a reasonable contained issue about misbehaviour of one or two people.”

Moving forward from the events of 2008, Mr Farmer said he believed Administrators were an important way to cleanse the Council of a corrupt culture.

“What you get with administration is highly experiences public officials guiding you and driving you forward – getting a lot of things done,” he said.

“The shock treatment of the removal of the Council gives a real opportunity for a healthy rebirth of democracy.”
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Administrators vs. elected council - the General Manager's perspective

What is the future of democracy in Wollongong?

Extended interview

The Community Group : Neighbourhood Forum 5

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 Posted by Kate McIlwain at 9:10 PM 0 comments

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Wollongong Council Administrators established eight different Neighbourhood Forums in 2009.

Each forum meets once a month and is open for anyone in the local community to attend. An elected convener coordinates the forum, and a Council worker attends each forum to report back on issues raised within the forums.

Neighbourhood Forum 5 covers the Wollongong City area, and also includes Gwynneville, Keiraville and Mangerton. Felix Bronneberg is the convener of the forum, which meets at Wollongong City Library on the first Wednesday of each month.

“The neighbourhood has an opportunity to voice their opinions on, if you like, the Council’s agenda and they can also raise their neighbourhood issues,” he said.

“This is an attempt to establish some linkage with the community, and whether you call it democracy, or something else… It’s commendable in that at least they’re making some effort.”

In this interview Mr Bronneberg talks about the way the Neighbourhood Forum works.
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Felix Bronneberg - Neighbourhood Forum 5 convener

September NF5 - Keith Tognetti on Civic Plaza

At Neighbourhood Forum 5, community members have the chance to raise issues that are important to them. Keith Tognetti is passionate about the environment, and in September he raised his concerns about the way Wollongong City Plaza is being developed without Illawarra rainforest plants. This was put forward as a motion to the Administrators.

By the time the October meeting came around, Keith was in talks with Council planners about the types of plants being placed in the new plaza.

The Public : Vox Pops

Monday, October 19, 2009 Posted by Kate McIlwain at 3:03 AM 0 comments

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The public is perhaps the most important player in the debate about democracy in Wollongong – they are the ones missing out (for better or worse) on an elected local government, and are who will make democracy in the Illawarra work when the time comes to vote.

During these interviews most people had a good background in what happened with ICAC, and many had strong views about what should happen in the town.

These interviews took place at North Wollongong Beach and inside the Administration Building at the University of Wollongong. Each person was given a brief background (if they needed it) and then asked: what do you think – are the Administrators to right choice for Wollongong now, or should we have an elected local government?”

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North Wollongong Beach