Serious concerns of misleading, deceptive and possible misconduct

In addition the above matters, there is information and evidence which suggests that relevant Council staff and/or Councillors may have been involved in false, misleading or deceptive conduct possibly constituting misconduct in contravention of section 6.1(g) of the prescribed Model Code of Conduct for Local Councils in NSW, Schedule 6A(6) of the Local Government Act (NSW) 1993, and possibly the purposes of section 9 of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act (NSW) 1988.

1.      In the 24 March 2009 General Manager (GM)’s report to the Council, which was the basis of the Council’s decision to adopt the Bankstown City Centre Car Parking Strategy, the GM reported that having exhibited the draft policy for public consultation and having written to and having informed over 1,100 businesses and organisations, it only received four submissions - none of which objected to the proposal. However, the GM’s report failed to clarify that:

·         the only information relating to the proposal to reduce commuter parking was a statement in the exhibited document which referred only to a proposal to establish a “Parking Management Plan which revises time-limits for parking located on commercial streets, to promote higher turnover of parking for users of the CBD”;

·         only CBD carpark users such as businesses, landowners and community groups in the city centre, were directly written to and notified of the proposal;

·         given that among the objectives of the proposal was to ensure “higher utilisation of parking supply for the CBD users”, it was convenient that the released draft document did not disclose information which may have been objectionable to other users of the city carparks such as commuter users; and

·         without proper disclosure of how proposed car parking strategy would ultimately adversely affect them, commuter users of the carparks had little reason and no real opportunity to object to the underlying agenda.

2.      On the basis of the biased and misleading GM report, the Council ultimately approved the Car Parking Strategy which would empower them to remove commuter parking amenities from public without proper public disclosure. Having thus paved the way, in the 28 July 2009 GM report to the Council, the GM recommended, among other things, that the time limit of the open-air ground floor of the Marion Street carpark, previously used by commuters for all-day parking, be reduced to a 4 hour time limit.

3.      The stated objective of the GM recommendation of 28 July 2009 to convert the open-air ground floor commuter park at the Marion Street carpark to 4-hour restricted parking was to “increase the demand for more use of the rooftop area of the Marion Street structure for all day parking.” This was clearly misleading and deceptive given that, according to the Carpark Occupancy Survey table in Attachment C to the report, the occupancy rate of parked vehicles on the level 3 rooftop of the Marion Street carpark was already at 100% full capacity during business hours and therefore could not possibly cater for additional vehicles. At the same time, the survey revealed that the ground floor open-air commuter carpark area was beyond full capacity at 106% utilisation during business hours.

4.      It is important to reiterate that at the time of the GM’s recommendation to substantially reduce the number of commuter parking spaces at the Marion Street carpark, there was abundant information and evidence which undermined the merit, justifiability, and reasonableness of the proposal which relevant Council staff should have, but failed to, whether purposely or otherwise, bring to the Council’s attention including:

·       the Carpark Occupancy Survey report which showed that utilisation of the commuter parking facilities at the Marion Street carpark was already in excess of 100% capacity;

·       anecdotal evidence from commuters of the carpark’s  full capacity;

·       statistical evidence from the 2006 Census of the 1,504 Bankstown residents who commute to work by train representing 16.7% of the local working population; and

·       revenue data from parking infringements of commuters parking outside of marked parking spaces on the rooftop of the Marion Street carpark due to shortages of commuter parking spaces even before the proposed further reductions.

5.      On 26 August 2009, as part of the “Mayor’s Weekly Message”, the Mayor announced that the Council had recently adopted changes to time limits in a number of public car parks within the Bankstown City Centre which would come into effect on Monday 07 September 2009 and that the Council would, among other things, “re-locate... commuter car parking to more suitable locations within the existing facilities. ... Public notices detailing the changes will be located in the affected car parks, as well as details on Council’s website”

6.      Unfortunately, no notices were placed neither at the main stairway leading to the rooftop, nor on the rooftop carpark of the Marion street carpark, to inform commuters of changes to effectively move all outdoor ground-floor commuters to the rooftop to jockey with rooftop commuters for parking space even though the rooftop parking area was already at 100% capacity. This left roof-top parking commuters ill-prepared for the pending influx of users and paid the price for it with parking infringements.

7.      The Council misrepresented to residents in stating that it would move “commuter car parking to more suitable locations within the existing facilities” since after removing all day parking from the outdoor ground-floor, no additional commuter car parking spaces were created.

Without the benefit of further information and internal Council documents which would be available under an FOI request and/or by way of a ministerial inquiry, outstanding questions remain regarding the possible motives, purposes and objectives of the above conduct and the extent to which they constitute serious misconduct for the purposes of paragraph 6.1(g) of the prescribed Model Code of Conduct for Local Councils in NSW, Schedule 6A(6) of the Local Government Act (NSW) 1993, and section 9 of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act (NSW) 1988.