Four Newcastle councillors have lodged a rescission motion to reverse a decision to delegate powers to the CEO about the management of Newcastle's five inland pools.
Newcastle Greens councillors Charlotte McCabe and John Mackenzie and Liberal councillors Jenny Barrie and Katrina Wark submitted the request on May 26 after the council meeting on May 23, where Labor councillors declared conflicts of interest in a confidential item to award a management contract for the city's five inland pools.
The Labor councillors recused themselves after lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said an un-named politician and former councillor had instructed her how to vote and created a conflict of interest in the matter.
The move meant the four non-Labor councillors who remained could not form a quorum, and the Labor majority voted to instead delegate responsibility to the council CEO Jeremy Bath.
Cr McCabe said the Labor councillors should "seriously consider" withdrawing their conflict declarations in order for a quorum of seven to make the decision instead of the CEO.
She also called on the lord mayor to share legal advice she said she received that led her to declare a conflict of interest in the matter and remove herself from the discussion.
"I was given advice during the meeting on Tuesday night that it would not be possible for any of the councillors who declared a significant non-pecuniary interest to ever reverse that declaration, meaning that we would never be able to form quorum to decide on the pools management tender as elected councillors," she said.
"I have since received advice that it is in fact possible to withdraw that declaration if circumstances allow.
"On that basis, I have submitted a rescission motion and will be seeking support from all councillors to allow the inland pools management tender to be brought back to the elected councillors where I strongly believe it belongs."
The lord mayor referred the Herald to the City of Newcastle for a response to Cr McCabe's statement. A spokesman said the seven councillors' declarations were "comprehensive and contained all the relevant information".
"A significant conflict of interest is not something that a councillor can pretend doesn't exist," he said.
"There are former NSW politicians currently serving jail time because they deliberately failed to declare their significant conflict of interest, and so it's extremely concerning that a councillor would now be lobbied to withdraw their conflict declaration.
"It's also worth noting the pools matter is not a policy decision or a development application, which sometimes attract fierce advocacy from a variety of people and councillors.
"We appreciate that our councillors feel strongly about our pools. However, in upholding open and transparent governance standards, it's absolutely critical that councillors are not asked to pretend that their significant conflicts of interest don't exist."
Cr McCabe said she believed councillors were "allowed to have public political positions on things like privatisation and employment standards which do not preclude us from making informed decisions as councillors".
"As elected councillors we are all lobbied frequently. Individuals and groups tell us how they would like us to vote on different issues, that doesn't mean that the community would expect us to follow their demands (see Clauses 5.2 & 5.3 of the Code of Conduct).
"I have strong public views about privatisation and while our inland pools are not being put up for sale, contracting out their management for up to 21 years, in my view, is privatisation by stealth."
The third Newcastle Liberal councillor Callum Pull described the decision to delegate responsibility to the CEO as a "sad day for democracy".
"A decision this important and with this much public interest should be decided by the elected council," he said.
"I voted against delegating this decision for precisely that reason - councillors should be the ones to make this decision."
Cr Barrie said she thought the move "demonstrated the dangers of handing one party a majority on the council".
"We've seen here all seven Labor councillors needing to declare a conflict on the item, which has meant council cannot make a democratic decision on a very important issue," she said.
Cr Barrie and Cr Pull said they were not reflecting on the Labor councillors' decision to declare a conflict, however their statement referenced the Councillors' Code of Conduct which says:
"The personal or political views of a council official do not constitute a private interest."
"Political views are expressly excluded from the criteria of a non-pecuniary interest," Cr Pull said.
"We are simply commenting on the detrimental effect this has had on council's ability to be the decision-maker on this issue.
"Declaring a conflict and managing it is an essential part of the transparency of council."
"Neither Cr Barrie nor myself endorse any comments criticising any councillor for choosing to declare a conflict."
Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery put out a statement on May 25 in response to the pools debate, saying she "will not be pressured" to advocate less for her community.
"The lord mayor and elected councillors are trying to imply that any advocacy they receive is an instruction on how to vote," she said. "This is false and misleading."
Cr Pull defended Ms Hornery after Cr Nelmes alleged she was subjected to "relentless bullying tactics" over the pools.
"I have never seen anything that could be described as bullying behaviour by Sonia Hornery," Cr Pull said.
"As a person from the opposite side of politics and her rival in the recent state election I have always found her to be forthright in advocating for for our community, but always polite and a pleasure to deal with."
Cr Wark said after the meeting that "the ratepayers of Newcastle deserve better than this dysfunction exacerbated over petty internal political disputes as opposed to working together.
"It's a shame that this is all playing out to the detriment of all Newcastle ratepayers and pool users," she said.
Mr Bath said he expected the finalisation of pools matter would take months.
"I have already written to my six councillors who do not have a conflict of interest on the matter, as well as the relevant union, and other key stakeholders, offering the opportunity to meet, and present any information that they believe will assist me in my decision making," he said.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Join the discussion in the comment section below.
Find out how to register or become a subscriber here.
