2022-12-19: A Misguided Double Down

I usually go into these meetings with some sort of main event in mind, a drawcard, something I think will be the most interesting. Last meeting that was the Council Prayer motion,¹ the meeting before the end of the election I was eyeing up the Little Howrah Beach item, and so on. This doesn’t always pan out. Tonight’s big item descends into mundanity and what should be simple becomes complex. Roll tape.

Ah, here’s what David Beard was here about at the last meeting. Unfortunately, it seems Beard’s concerns will be going unallayed: His question inquired about marine standards used in assessing the application, but such matters are really the realm of MAST², ruling them out from consideration at the planning stage.

Councillor James has some issues with setbacks from the proposed building and a lack of forecourt, but Councillor Walker notes there has been no alternative floated, and the idea doesn’t seem to have legs under the scheme anyway. We avoid last meeting’s mess by a good margin, though there is a somewhat bizarre vote against from Councillor Mulder, who’d seconded the recommendation.³

Mayor Blomeley continues to have some issues with correctly providing right of reply speeches to movers of motions, though there are extenuating circumstances in parts. A quick jaunt through the Quarterly Report⁴ takes us up to:

Where we find the unexpected excitement I was talking about. All positions⁵ filled by nomination, no elections required, should be very simple, and yet… Councillor Mulder gets up to object to the nominations for the CEO Review Committee (set as the Mayor and two other members, in this case Councillors Ritchie and Goyne for 2 and 1 years respectively) but his objection is based on completely incorrect information.

Now I also have a problem with this selection in that I don’t think both the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor should be on this specific committee, reviewing as it does the third member of the Executive, but we take what nominations we get. No, no, Mulder’s objection relates to the Better Clarence Team that Blomeley and Ritchie led at the elections in October. Mulder complains that all three nominees for the committee are members of that team, which might be reasonable… If Goyne had actually been one.

Councillor Goyne was not a member of the Better Clarence Team, indeed, she was not a member of any ticket that went to the election, operating a completely independent campaign. The Mayor goes to correct Mulder, who doubles down??? Blomeley is⁶ correct to call the behaviour poor and, yes, tawdry.⁷

The back and forth, which ends up dragging in Councillor James, and results in no meaningful apologies from anyone involved, so confuses matters as to cause the Mayor to attempt to call the motion before everyone has had the opportunity to weigh in. Fortunately, some people are on the ball and we do get to hear the remaining speeches in a far less combative manner. Indeed, it seems an extensive process has brought things to where they stand, and the vote shows how much simpler this all could’ve been:

In comparison, though it does take a little under an hour of speeches to get there, this item is an absolute cakewalk. The meeting opened with deputations from two Chambroad representatives urging councillors not to take up the officers’ recommendation to deny COIA’s request for a yet further extension to achieve substantial commencement… And also completely change the fundamental nature of the project from a hotel and hospitality school to not only just a hotel but a completely differently designed one at that.

Those designs, by the way, only went public at 7pm on the night of the meeting, i.e. the start of the meeting. Apparently both it and a draft Development Agreement could’ve been available sooner, but Chambroad baulked on the former and refused on the latter, despite Council’s requirements. Call that transparency, because I don’t.

There is almost unanimous support for the officers’ advice, backed as it is by well-considered legal advice telling councillors the time was not yet ripe to activate the much-discussed buyback clause, but I had made a bold prediction to my family in the leadup: The vote would come to 11-1, with Councillor James as the only holdout because he didn’t think the recommendation went far enough. Lo and behold, in the middle of a series of speeches ranging from eagerness to put this chapter behind us to notes that the community had had less than an hour to look at the design and hey maybe this new idea will be good, Councillor James is the only one to indicate he’ll be voting against because, against the legal advice, he would rather call the buyback immediately, considering the recommendation a dragging out of proceedings.

This is all well and good, and I’m sure he’ll find plenty in the community who agree with him, but as someone who lives in Clarence, I’d rather Clarence wasn’t spending money on otherwise unnecessary legal battles. And besides, there’s always the next meeting. No, seriously, at time of going to press, we’ve received the agenda for tonight’s⁸ meeting, which includes no less than four items related to the Kangaroo Bay project.

There is little good news in this decision for COIA, despite their best(?) efforts. I don’t subscribe to the idea that foreign investment is by default a bad thing, though I am wary of projects that appear to have state backing. Despite this philosophy, it is difficult for me to see a way forward for Chambroad in Clarence. The site remains as it was half a decade ago, a slightly larger gravel pit than there was before, where a project that couldn’t find the backers it wanted never really got off the ground. Whether anything ever will is anyone’s guess.

Tonight’s keywords: Pipe Clay Esplanade,⁹ AFL Tasmania and the Clarence Zebras¹¹, Olympia FC Warriors¹², planning staff¹³, voting fine waivers¹⁴, Mount Rumney¹⁵, derelict property¹⁶

Which finally brings me to the end of the meeting. Sorry again for taking so long, hopefully I can do better in future. Next post should be the next meeting, and that election expenditure wrapup is still on the way, just as soon as I get my inspection in.

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