Strathfield Independents Fact Check

The minutes of the 22nd Oct meeting have been posted. Routine council matters but CCS10 could be interesting.
The OLG is trying to change the legislation so that they will actually have some teeth and be able enforce council/councillors code of conduct.
Proposal is on the OLG website and worth reading and even making a submission by 15th November.
Strathfield Independents, Matthew Blackmore declared a conflict of interest and excused himself from the discussion as restricting the activities of real estate agents on council "would impact his livelihood"
The OLG might like to examine the Strathfield Square debacle and probity report to see what can happen without OLG authority to intervene.
Precisely why the rules need to be changed.
When OLG can solve problems within councils there may be less need for the involvement of ICAC in what are often just examples of stupidity and lack of ethics.

The minutes of the last Council meeting have been published.
Interestingly, under Apologies etc, Page 2, Cr Blackmore gets a specific mention.
"No leave of absence or apology was received by Cr Blackmore and he did not attend the meeting"
I think everyone there has had enough of his posturing and histrionics.
Page 5, item 5.4 Cr Maheswaran has a few words to say about being councillor on Strathfield Council. Can only guess who he refers to.
ICAC have issued a general warning to all councillors in NSW. They monitor all councils and no doubt this can cause anxiety to those Councillors who have something to hide.
Perhaps Cr Blackmore should follow Cr Doueihi's example and quit now as he promised to do a few months ago when he became anxious.
Still waiting for policies to be announced by any party/group but Libs may have started a little early!

The last council meeting of this term was held last night.
As expected the Strathfield Independents Party's sole representative did not have the courage to attend or the decency to send an apology.
Cr Blackmore has failed to attend 5 of the last 8 council meetings.
"Anxiety" possibly brought on Cr Maheswaran's detailing of interactions (as mentioned 5.5 last meeting and previous post here) with him and possible exposure of his "conflicts of interest" declarations of the last few years would make hiding in his wardrobe a good option.
It appears that "Flipper" has changed his mind about standing for election. If he has any street meetings he may be willing to answer the embarrassing questions there.

Waiting now for the lies to appear in the Strathfield Independents election material.
Cr Blackmore may be the only one to save the residents from drowning in a high tide caused by climate change,, being struck by an asteroid or burnt by a solar flare or a more creative threat they will come up with.

Liberals have already claimed "rate increases by Labor". The blame for that may go back to "Rate Pe***ng" and the amalgamation debacle promoted by the Baird government but the truth doesn't matter! How many real estate agents do we need on council??

Some Strathfield Town Centre Masterplan (STCMP) working group correspondence.
The fake Chamber has been supported by Mayor Pensebene - check the web page - and of course has worked with Cr Blackmore for years.

From its inception the working group meetings were inundated with “plans” and proposed motions from the Fake Chamber of Commerce. All still on their page if you have good eyes nothing better to do.
Who prepared and funded these detailed plans?

Some excerpts from letters posted on Strathfield Chamber of Commerce page to David MacQuade, Senior Governance Office, Strathfield Council

20th March 2023 - a proposed method of distributing the realised wealth of the Strathfield Town Centre project to benefit who?? Esperia Court Pty Ltd possibly?
3rd April 2023 – proposed motions pressuring the committee to approve the plans
16th July 2023 -- more pressure to approve –
“I draw your attention to a time constraint that might hinder future designs of a new Masterplan for Strathfield Town Centre. Esperia Court Pty Ltd currently has an approved DA which expires in November next year" - (ie 2024)
This was LIE – the DA expired on 11th November 2022 and so was completely irrelevant to any new plans.
This gives a good indication of who is pulling the strings of the fake Chamber of Commerce.

From May 2023, Council started the Probity Report process and the working Group was finally disbanded before too much damage done. Time and Council resources wasted.
This is the type of activity that ICAC might take an interest in but the perpetrators weren’t smart enough to cover their tracks and gain any financial benefit as far as I know.

The Strathfield Festival is on this weekend - might be a bit damp - but I heard the Matthew Blackmore Circus Tent will be there with the Ghost Councillor available to answer any questions residents might have about his pay for no service.

I'll have to check my source - he's sometimes unreliable at cocktail hour on a Friday.