Tennis drama continues at Town Hall
The drama continued at Town Hall on Monday night as Lord Mayor Clover Moore again faced a public gallery packed with people who rallied in support of Rory Miles, operator of the Rushcutters Bay tennis courts and café.
It was an “extraordinary” meeting called with only one item on the agenda after Cr Moore, facing an onslaught from the gallery and opposition councillors, had used her casting vote on the previous Monday to defer a decision.
During the week Cr Moore had suffered stinging articles in the Fairfax press, critical of her support of a staff decision to award the running of all the City’s tennis courts to another operator, thus evicting Mr Miles from the job he has done for 26 years and his home, a caretakers cottage next to the courts.
Clover Moore’s team produced essentially the same arguments they had used previously: That tendering was required by law, tenders had been assessed independently and the best had won, therefore Council should back the winner.
But this week, the opposition councillors had practised their serves. Meredith Burgmann (Labor) moved that the winning tenderer be rejected for inappropriately emailing councillors during the Tender process. She said emails had suddenly begun to arrive last September, with several inviting her to various functions including a program for Indigenous people at The Block in Redfern.
Another tender had been rejected because of one email to councillors, “so what’s the difference?” she asked, to loud applause from the crowd.
Chris Harris (Greens) produced a legal opinion from QC Francis Douglas that the exclusion of one tenderer but not the other on the same grounds was “a breach of tendering guidelines”.
This sent Cr Moore into a confab with the umpire, CEO Monica Barone, who called an adjournment for Council’s Probity Auditor to inspect the said emails. After a few minutes they returned to announce a further adjournment, this time with tea and coffee provided for the gallery audience, many of whom were crowded into limited standing room because the sides of the Chamber had for the first time been fenced off and guarded, for “safety reasons” according to Cr Moore. Even the press was herded into a small corral, forced to scribble in notebooks while standing. At least the volume of the PA had been raised so this week the councillors were clearly audible.
Upon her return Cr Moore moved that the matter again be deferred while all emails and phone contacts with Councillors were investigated. The opposition voiced loud disapproval, but Ms Moore’s casting vote again carried the day. To be continued.
by Michael Gormly
