Watch: ‘Embarrassing’ Town Hall tensions caught on livestream
Last night’s four-hour committee meeting had it all: A gallery full of traders, a censure, suspension threats for two councillors and hecklers. And the Lord Mayor was not impressed.
Last night’s Adelaide City Council committee meetings drew criticism from across the room, with the Lord Mayor calling the behaviour “a slippery slope into absolute mayhem”.
After moving to censure Councillor Henry Davis, who chose to leave the meeting on his own accord before a vote could take place to kick him out, Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith had this to say to round out the over four-hour-long evening:
“We had multiple interruptions, we had elements of conversation across the room,” she said.
“The councillor [Davis] shouted over other people, he intimidated you [Deputy Lord Mayor Philip Martin] and tried to suggest at the beginning of the meeting that you were unfit to be a chair.
“It’s been a thoroughly fractious and unpleasant evening that has gone far too long and has been undignified in front of people in the gallery.
“I think he [Davis] has been disorderly, and he needs to be censored, because there were multiple warnings. He got second chances, he got third chances, and he still persisted.
“And I think it would be good if the council knew it was unacceptable behaviour.
“There is a point at which we’re going to get some new councillors in, and this is not the behaviour I expect to be modelled in front of the new councillors, because if they see this and think this is normal, then it is a slippery slope into absolute mayhem.”
New councillors are due in after the Central Ward by-election this month, and one candidate, Raymond Khabbaz, was present at last night’s meeting and was asked to leave – more on that later.
Councillor Mary Couros was the only councillor present who voted against censuring Davis and said there was a “long history” behind the behaviour and accused the Lord Mayor, Deputy Lord Mayor Phillip Martin and councillors Keiran Snape and Janet Giles of factional ties.
“The theatrics of tonight has been embarrassing, and I am appalled at some of the behaviours of everyone tonight,” Mary Couros said.
“I’m not saying it’s your fault, but I’m saying that there needs to be a new tact amongst your faction in regards to how to handle other people’s behaviour.”
So how did they get here?
The night started with the council’s City Finance and Governance Committee meeting, and councillor Mark Siebentritt, who usually chairs the meeting, was unable to attend.
The councillors spent about 20 minutes in a procedural debate about who should chair the meeting in Siebentritt’s absence, which delayed presentations from Adelaide Central Market Authority Chair Theo Maras and Adelaide Economic Development Agency General Manager Greg Ratsch.
That’s where tensions began between Martin and Davis, as both were nominated to chair the meeting, and Martin won with a majority secret ballot vote.
Early on, Councillor Keiran Snape called a point of order under the Local Government Act’s meeting procedures regulation 29, a clause that is supposed to rein in councillor behaviour.
Regulation 29 comes up at least three times in the meeting. It states: “a member of a council or council committee must not, while at a meeting— (a) behave in an improper or disorderly manner; or (b) cause an interruption or interrupt another member who is speaking”.
You might like
“It’s now 20 minutes past the time that we were supposed to start the committee meeting and I think, from the public’s perspective, they expect some leadership, and what we’ve seen here tonight is anything but that,” Councillor Arman Abrahimzadeh said before the vote on whether Davis should be reprimanded under regulation 29.
The vote is lost, and Davis was allowed to remain in the room.
Hutt Street item draws a crowd
The first meeting of the night wrapped up 15 minutes overtime, and then it was time for the Infrastructure and Public Works Committee, which discussed the item of the night; a Hutt Street upgrade workshop.
Adelaide’s business community has been vocal about their opposition to cutting car parks on Hutt Street, despite a council survey revealing a majority of respondents were in favour of an option that includes bike lanes and cuts 132 street parking spaces down to 72.
In the almost two years this reporter has been covering the Adelaide City Council, she’s never seen such a large crowd assemble for a workshop – a non-decision-making item.
The council’s committee meetings are held in Town Hall’s Colonel Light Room, a smaller room than the council chambers.
All three rows of gallery seats were full, with extra chairs wheeled in for the occasion and community members standing in the doorway to listen to the debate.
Four Hutt Street representatives asked to speak at the meeting, which was declined by the council because they were not deciding on anything, and it is not typical for the community to speak at a workshop.
Cue 18 more minutes of procedural debate about whether Hutt Street representatives should or should not be able to speak, with claims from councillor Davis that it was a “gag”.
Only councillors Davis, Couros and Abrahimzadeh voted to dissent from the decision, and let Hutt Street traders speak, a decision that was lost.
On a separate but similar matter of an O’Connell Street bikeway being removed from upgrade plans, Anthony Greven from Bakery on O’Connell Street spoke to the council.
The committee voted to move forward with an O’Connell Street upgrade plan that doesn’t include a bikeway, but this has to be voted on again in next week’s council meeting before it actually goes ahead.
Business owner blow-up
At the 3-hour and 26-minute mark, Khabbaz – the candidate mentioned earlier – calls out to Snape, asking if he owns a business on Hutt Street, sparking an exchange that ends with him being escorted out.
MARTIN: If there is any more interference from the public gallery, we will have another 15-minute break.
KHABBAZ (from the gallery): You can take 15, I’m not going to go anywhere until we finish. But I’m sorry about that, but does he have a business in the precinct?
MARTIN: I have warned–
BERNARD BOOTH (from the public gallery): Exactly! Business is thriving in Hutt Street but it won’t be when this is done. Thank you and good night.
MARTIN: Mr Booth, I’m sorry. Please, leave the meeting.
BOOTH: I’m leaving, don’t worry!
MARTIN: Please leave.
BOOTH: You call this a meeting? Good god.
Applause from the gallery.
MARTIN: Anyone who would like to leave the meeting is welcome to do so. If there are any further interruptions, then I will stop the meeting, we will have a break.
KHABBAZ: Well, don’t threaten to bring the police when I spoke to you.
MARTIN: (sigh) OK
KHABBAZ: What sort of council is this?
DAVIS: Not a good one.
Stay informed, daily
MARTIN: The legislation allows for a presiding member to let a member of the public know that their actions are causing an interruption to the meeting.
KHABBAZ: We are free to speak wherever we please.
MARTIN: You are causing an interruption. I will ask you to leave. We have security on site.
KHABBAZ: I know, I spoke to them.
MARTIN: Will you please leave the meeting, sir?
KHABBAZ: No.
MARTIN: Then I will ask security to ask you to leave. We will have a break for 10 minutes, 10 minutes adjourned.
Security was present and Khabbaz was escorted out of the room. The livestream was muted.
Councillor ‘loses cool’
About 20 minutes later, Couros pointed out Snape was not a business owner, drawing him to claim she was not a resident, resulting in this heated exchange that you can watch from 3:40:30 onwards on YouTube.
COUROS: You don’t have that kind of business, so you have no right to comment on what’s best for a business.
SNAPE: On that basis, you have no right to comment on being a resident in the city.
COUROS: I’m a resident of the city–
SNAPE: (inaudible, multiple speakers) You only move in when it’s election time.
COUROS: I am– I am a resident of the city.
DAVIS: Under regulation 29, I’d like to eject Councillor Snape from the meeting.
Davis did not have a seconder to eject Snape.
MARTIN: Councillor Snape you can still make a personal explanation.
COUROS: Excuse me, he attacked me. Why would he make a personal explanation?
DAVIS: So he can explain his bad behaviour.
MARTIN: No, councillor Snape, councillor Davis has moved a regulation 29, I believe he is saying that you’re in breach of 29 insofar as you have interrupted, is that the allegation, he has interrupted the meeting?
DAVIS: He was extremely aggressive towards councillor Couros.
MARTIN: Um, look I can’t accept that he was aggressive, I didn’t witness that. If your complaint is that it was an interruption, or that he was being disorderly within the terms of regulation 29 I will accept that, but unless you’re arguing that there is no regulation 29.
Davis continued and left it in Martin’s hands to make a decision, and Martin said he could not make a decision. A procedural debate ensued.
Martin moves on, Snape remains in the room, there is no vote to kick him out.
Snape later in the night said “I even lost my cool tonight, for which I actually do apologise to the room”.
‘You were able to speak uninterrupted. Why is it no one else can?’
About 10 minutes later, when Martin is giving his position, Davis calls a point of order that Martin made a “misleading” claim. Couros agrees.
“Councillors, please, it is now 20 past nine, we are going to be here for a very long time. I am entitled to my point of view. You were able to speak uninterrupted. Why is it nobody else can?” Martin said.
In a debate with Davis, Martin said the phrase ‘fair go’, which is also the name of the new political party Davis is running for in the next election, was started by former One Nation legislative councillor Sarah Game.
The Lord Mayor calls for a regulation 29 against Davis for disorderly behaviour and interrupting.
Davis begins to collect his things and leaves.
The full 4-hour and 20-minute-long meetings were streamed on the Adelaide City Council’s YouTube channel. The council meeting, where decisions are made, takes place next Tuesday. Watch the full video:
