Rumours are circulating that Councillor Marcelle Hoff is mounting a rebellion against Clover Moore and is preparing to run against her in the next Lord Mayoral elections.
According to sources close to the council, Cr Hoff is unhappy with the way she was deposed as Deputy Mayor and with Cr Moore’s autocratic administering of the council, and is putting together a splinter group to unseat the Mayor.
Last year Cr Hoff stood down from the position of Deputy Mayor after she claimed a fellow member of the Clover Moore Independent Team, Cr Phillip Black, threatened to quit the party if she remained in the position.
Cr Hoff denied she was planning to run against Cr Moore. “No, I’m not doing that. That is absolutely and utterly untrue,” Cr Hoff said.
Asked whether she would rule out running as Lord Mayor she said: “I certainly would not ever run against Clover Moore.”
“I have no idea [where this is coming from] but it’s so mischievous and it’s totally untrue.”
She also denied saying the council was being run in an autocratic manner. “I certainly make my voice heard and that I don’t ever feel gagged, and I certainly have my say and have my voice heard,” Cr Hoff said.
“I think Clover’s a very determined woman and I think that she’s doing a great job. She is committed to what she is doing and I think the City is benefiting from her visionary effort.”
Greens Councillor Chris Harris said that although he had not heard of the rumours surrounding Cr Hoff, he was not surprised by the news. “I know that Cr Hoff is pretty unhappy, for example, with the way she was deposed as Deputy Lord Mayor. She got a phone call the Sunday night before the Monday meeting to say that Clover wasn’t going to support her as the Deputy Lord Mayor,” he said.
He criticised Cr Moore for not being inclusive in administering Council affairs. “There’s no doubt [that the administration of the council] is autocratic … and it’s always been,” he said.
“If you look at the structure of Council, all the committees are dominated by Clover and her team. Anybody else is excluded. The whole council is really run by Clover. And her Independents are not independent – they do what they are told, what Clover wants them to do.”
“It’s not inclusive. For example, when I was Deputy Lord Mayor I never did anything, I was never invited to do anything that was positive about Council. Like they’d get me to do things like put a wreath on the Cenotaph, which is an important thing to do, and I’m not downplaying that, but that was about the most significant thing I ever did.”
Labor Cr Meredith Burgmann echoed Cr Harris in his assessment of the Lord Mayor’s leadership style. “The Lord Mayor needs to be more consultative with her own Councillors,” Cr Burgmann said.
She had also not heard of the rumours, but said Cr Hoff would find it difficult to win against Clover Moore. “Even if one of her own team does run against her, they’re unlikely to win because of the Lord Mayor’s present control of the media machine.”
Greens Cr Irene Doutney agreed that it would be very difficult for anyone to unseat Cr Moore. “I don’t think anybody’s got much chance against Clover, really,” Cr Doutney said.
“I think she’s pulled back on the media thing a little bit, but before I [sic] into Council, I mean you wouldn’t have known there was a council. Everything had like 20 million pictures of Clover on it – you never saw any photos of the other councillors – it was like the council didn’t exist. So yes, when people think of the City of Sydney, all they think of is Clover.”
Cr Doutney added although she had not heard of Cr Hoff’s decision to run against the Mayor, it did not surprise her. “I would understand the feelings, especially with the fairly shabby treatment she got over the Deputy Lord Mayor position,” she said.
“Also I think there was Orphan School Creek and then the Water Police site. So there are a few issues she’s now in contention with the Lord Mayor, so it wouldn’t surprise me.”
by Ehssan Veiszadeh
