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This is a call to Ron Hoenig Minister of Local Government, Wendy Tuckerman shadow Minister Local Government, and Paul Kelly Ombudsman NSW; to call for a public enquiry into

• the dysfunctional operations of the Lane Cove Council, its mismanagement
• the refusal by councillors to sign-off the council budget due to lack of trust in the integirty of the budgeting process. 
• the alarming deterioration of council assets and a $40M deficit in funding for asset renewal in 10 years,
• possible nepotism in the early extension of the GM contract (expiring in mid 2025) 3 months prior council elections, by 5 councillors of whom only 2 are standing for re-election, of whom one is the mayor who failed to gain pre-selection for his party!
• the events surrounding the approval of the Sports and Recreation facility, and the $6M breach of the $75M funding cap. 
• the awarding of $81M construction on community open space recreation land at 266 Longueville rd.
• and other operation issues.

The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that the Lane Cove Council has the highest rate of complaints to the Ombudsman, that the dysfunctional council General Manager has made a directive that councillors may not corespond directly with staff, and that a clinical psychologist has been engaged to handle issues within the council.

Furthermore, there is clear evidence that mismanagement of council assets has led to deterioration which could expose residents to unacceptable risks. The Infrastructure Backlog Ratio has risen an alarming 3 fold since 2019 (ref: council annual reports). The council has concealed the future expected values of this ratio and other asset performance measures by removing them from the Long Term Financial Plan performance dashboard (ref: LTFP Errors).

It begs the question, how can the council construct and maintain a $75M sports and recreation centre, if it cannot maintain its current assets, particularly when it was approved based on a false and incomplete Long Term Financial Plan (ref: LTFP Errors) 

While there is much deflection and innuendo, what is irrefutable is that there are serious issues such as; mental health of council staff and councillors, lack of consensus and questionable behaviour amongst councillors, the deterioration of public assets, and intentional concealing and misrepresentation of financial position; leading to the loss of public trust in the council and questioning the tenability of its operations.

These matters are exposing residents and council staff to unacceptable harm which cannot be ignored. There is an urgent and compelling need to address these concerns.

This is a submission to call for a public enquiry into the operations of the Lane Cove Council.

the key concerns are:

1. Loss of trust in integrity of council plans that led to several councillors refusing to signoff the budget. (ref: mayoral minute re: Implication of budget rejection in agenda for July 2024) 
2. An asset plan that shows a $40M deficit at the end of the 10year forecast.
3. Irregular early extention of GM contract (due to expire mid 2025), 3 months prior to council elections. Of the 5 who voted for it, only 2 are standing for re-election.
4. Council having the highest rate of complaints per capita to the Ombudsman NSW. (ref: Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) on 31 Dec 2023).
5. A dysfunctional council with a General Manager directive banning councillors speaking directly with staff. (ref: SMH article of 7 Jan 2023)
6. Root causes for Council staff and councillors to need a clinical psychologist engaged (ref: SMH article of 7 Jan 2023)
7. Behavior of Councillors at council meetings. (ref: Daily Telegraph 2 Apr 2014)
8. The deterioration of council assets and ineffective services, exposing the community to unacceptable risk (reflected in alarming 3 fold increase in Infrastructure backlog ratio since 2019). 
   • The golf club has been in threat of closure and has been deteriorating over the last 8 years due to lack of maintenance. The footbridges were closed and took almost a year to repair.
   • The Lucretia bath shark nets have not be maintained.
   • The southern section of Longueville rd has not been resurfaced in 40 years and has an unsafe cycle track which appears and disappears.
   • Uncontrolled rat and noxious weed infestations.
9. Integrity of Lane Cove Council Long Term Financial Plan dated August 2022, which was used to gain approval for the Sports centre. (ref: CPI Manipulation, false Information)
10. The contract award process for Sports and Recreation Centre, where all tenders were above budget, and then the GM was given authority to make a deal without transparency (ref: council minutes 20 July 2023).
11. The use of all developer contributions from new high density living complexes towards the sports centre instead of other needed facilities for these new families.
12. Awarding an $81M construction and ongoing operations of a Seniors Development, without tender process,  to Longueville The Village Pty Ltd (March – May 2022) a newly registered company associated with Pathways, despite it having just failed an Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission audit for improper use of psychotropic medication (ref: page 4 last para of audit), and had subsequently closed down its Ashley house facility. 
13. The removal of height constraints imposed by the Sydney North Planning Panel in March 2020 on the above development at 266 Longueville rd thereby causing devastating impact to surrounding low density residences. 
14. Shutting down the Commissioner Eric Armstrong public hearing process ( Rpt dated 10 March 2014) on rezoning 266 Longueville Rd from community land to operational land (Ref: Minutes of council meeting dated 17 March 2014). 

For details of CPI manipulation, please click here.

For details of false and incomplete Long Term Financial Plan, please click here.

For further information and evidence email [email protected]

Council agendas and minutes refered above, can be found at the council website at https://lanecove.infocouncil.biz/ .