Votes of no confidence were put forward against the Tenterfield Shire Council general manager Jim Gossage and director of environmental and community services John Hrobelko at last week’s council meeting following their handling of waste management issues.
The Southern Free Times revealed recently that ratepayers might have been forced to pay a quarter of a million dollar fine after the Tenterfield Shire Council failed to comply with directions from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) in relation to the Boonoo Boonoo landfill, which resulted in the council receiving an official caution in May.
Yet councillors claimed this information was not passed on to them.
The Southern Free Times had also obtained correspondence between the council and the OEH, which allegedly claimed Mr Gossage had signed off on a report that had false or misleading information about the Boonoo Boonoo landfill.
This sent tempers flaring in last week’s meeting.
“I feel betrayed by the senior staff of this council as I haven’t been fully told what’s happening, let alone the poor ratepayer,” Cr Phil Yates said in favour of the motions.
“This issue where senior staff have failed to put a report in and have the general manager sign a false and misleading document, I can’t stand for that,” Cr Yates said.
Cr John Macnish agreed, questioning why councillors were not told about this serious issue.
“There are so many failures here,” Cr Macnish said.
Mayor Toby Smith threw his support behind the council’s senior staff.
“Things happen, mistakes are made admittedly, but all we can do is move forward and try to resolve these issues,” Cr Smith said.
He said the council was now working with the OEH to resolve the issues.
Cr Smith declared the motion of a vote of no confidence in Mr Hrobelko was out of order since it was in relation to a staff member under the control of Mr Gossage and not councillors.
However, since the council is responsible for the employment of the general manager, that motion was put to the vote but was lost, since only Councillors Yates, Macnish and Lawrie West voted in favour of it.
Story: Rebecca Brown
