It was anticipated to be a mammoth meeting with a 900-page agenda and more than 30 items listed, but Tuesday’s council meeting lasted a mere five minutes before councillors Geoff Dingle and Peter Kafer walked out – depriving the mayor of a quorum.
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Cr Dingle, who on Tuesday announced he would run for mayor in the upcoming election, immediately moved a notice of motion to deal with the mayoral minutes, notices of motion, information papers and confidential items listed in the agenda.
He moved to transfer all other business items to the new council following the election in September.
“The council papers are the largest I have seen in 13-and-a-half years on this council,” Cr Dingle said.
“It contains many items that have financial, precedence and policy implications. It is entirely unfair that a new council will be charged with dealing with the consequences of these decisions.”
The motion was seconded by Cr Kafer, who echoed Cr Dingle’s sentiments saying the business papers due to be dealt with on Tuesday night were the largest he had seen after 13 years on council.
He said it was a “bloody joke” that councillors could be expected to wade through the items on the agenda and threatened to walk out of the meeting if Cr Dingle’s notice was not passed. Cr Kafer took aim at Mayor Bruce MacKenzie for comments he made on radio earlier on Tuesday.
“I heard you on ABC radio saying you read the papers in two hours,” Cr Kafer said. “Do you get a picture book to read? Because there is no way you could get through business papers this size in two hours.”
The motion was defeated five votes to two. Cr Kafer followed through with his threat and left the meeting at 5.35pm. Cr Dingle followed one minute later.
With councillors Steve Tucker, Ken Jordan and Chris Doohan absent from the meeting – which was meant to be the last before September’s election – there was not enough councillors for a quorum.
“Dingle and Kafer are grandstanding,” Cr MacKenzie said during the waiting period before he could call off the meeting. “Dingle announced he’s running for mayor and he’s putting on a show. We’re here to run a council. This doesn’t concern me. We’ll just have a meeting next week. I can guarantee we’ll have a quorum.”
On Cr Kafer’s comments about the time frame he takes to read the business papers, Cr MacKenzie said he had enough experience to understand the matters and can talk with “a fair amount of authority and knowledge on every item”.