THE City of Casey, whether it likes it or not, is facing a conundrum over light poles that Araluen Ward councillor Rob Wilson had manufactured for one of his favourite sports grounds.
Cr Wilson, for whatever reason, clearly placed an order with DBE Floodlighting of his own volition without authority from the council.
He pulled a similar stunt when he ordered more than $10,000 worth of Edwin Flack shirts for the Edwin Flack Games in 2000.
In my view, the council paid for the shirts, mainly to get the monkey off its back and stave off mounting bad publicity and legal action.
The council will, one way or another, pay for the light towers to get another monkey off its back.
Cr Wilson had not responded at the time of going to press, but has said previously that it was a matter for the council.
Casey chief executive Mike Tyler has said the council is not responsible for the debt.
My view is that the council does have an obligation to cover this debt because it was incurred both verbally and by email from one of its councillors.
Maybe there are regulations and rules that say the debt does not belong to the council, but a businessman, who I might add is getting rather restless, has taken the Casey deputy mayor at his word and he should be able to do this without question.
Why should the business be out of pocket by more than $30,000 if the deputy mayor’s word was mistaken or rubbery?
Issue number one in this matter is that the light towers should be paid for, even if that does leave questions to be asked.
The council has agreed to guarantee a loan for the club involved to pay for the towers under certain conditions.
These conditions have not so far been met.
Cr Wilson is at risk of losing his seat on the next council and could be gone.
The council will then be left holding the baby over the light towers.
One way out if Cr Wilson’s club does not accept responsibility for the debt is to transfer the poles to another project where they can be put to good use and legitimately paid for.
This may require a little fiddling with tenders and so forth, but we have a businessman who provided work in good faith being owed $30,000.
The situation is unforgivable.
Perhaps the best way forward is for the council to negotiate with the manufacturer to have the towers put on another field such as Casey Fields, where enormous development is taking place.
But let’s be fair to the person who is $30,000, plus interest, out of pocket.
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