Submission to HI for publication 14th November 2011
The SA Ombudsman's "Investigation into the City of Charles Sturt - Final Report - November 2011" pays close attention to those issues of concern to all of us interested in local government affairs and the St Clair land swap imbroglio. The report can be accessed here:
It contains numerous quotations from the 118 hours of evidence taken from 28 witnesses, who included 16 councilors from the time in question, as well as the Council CEO and (especially interestingly) the local MP.
Hopefully the evidence garnered by the investigation will one day be made public, because it will almost certainly provide historians of the future with a valuable resource.
If I had any quibbles to make with the Ombudsman's work, I would point to the sketchiness of the investigation of the relationship between the various development companies operating in the site, and the Charles Sturt Council. However, while Mr. Bingham has seen fit to examine background material from the ALP sub-branch regarding actions of Council and Councilors, for whatever reason no such evidence has been obtained from the developers of the site.
I find it interesting to note in this respect that the three members of the Council's Development Assessment Panel declared a so called "conflict of interest" by reason of their DAP membership at the formal vote on the land swap proposal taken in full council on the 28th April 2008. This was one month after the purchase of the Sheridan site by the Cheltenham race course developer, Woodvile JV.
Prior to this date the development applications considered by the Charles Sturt DAP for the Sheridan site, had been for remediation and minor works and had been submitted by the previous owner, Stockdale. I find it impossible to conceive what conflict of interest the three Council members actually had – whatever was in their minds, they appear to have received no advice to the contrary from the Council CEO at the meeting and excused themselves one by one when a division on the land swap motion was called.
By resident "D"
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