REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Saturday, February 21, 2004

ANGER towards the Gold Coast City Council was mounting, with fury from developers white hot.

Major developers declared they were so incensed by the council’s “inability” to make decisions that some believed the city’s leaders should be sacked and replaced by an administrator.

The anger was fuelled after

more than $14,000 was added to the cost of homes in a secret council tax increasing headworks costs for new developments.

Some developers, frustrated by various decisions, demanded that the Beattie government dismiss the 14 divisional councillors and instead retain mayor Gary Baildon as an administrator overseeing the city.

Councillors met a day earlier but did not discuss a business forum in which business leaders headed by Sunland boss Soheil

Abedian demanded council borrow $24 million to fix the city’s traffic nightmare in Surfers Paradise.

This came a day after the Bulletin revealed there were moves to establish a “powerful voting bloc” to seize control of the council at the 2004 poll.

Long-time councillor David Power denied being one of the “movers and shakers” behind the ticket which the Bulletin understood would deliver him the position of deputy mayor if successful.