Dickson mum on
CEO declines to divulge dealings with Tate group while Mayor
COUNCIL boss Dale Dickson has declined to disclose whether he had conversations with Tom Tate and his consortium partners about buying ratepayer land during the time the Mayor was solely responsible for negotiating the CEO’s contract.
As part of two probes into the Gold Coast City Council, the Crime and Corruption Commission is investigating whether the Mayor misused his authority in nominating himself to negotiate a new contract with Mr Dickson, aware that the CEO had been delegated to oversee sale of council land at the Surfers Paradise bowls club site.
Cr Tate and the consortium own other parcels of land at the bowls club site and wanted to buy the land at 72 Remembrance Dr so they could build the 56-storey Waterglow highrise.
In a statement to the Bulletin,
Mr Dickson said: “The matters currently in the public domain are also the subject of legal action brought on by the Save Our Surfers entity. Given this, I have no intention of debating these issues via the media”.
Documents obtained by the Bulletin show key events in the lead up to the CEO being delegated to oversee the sale of the council-owned land at Remembrance Dr.
Emails show a lawyer and businessman representing Cr Tate’s consortium met with a council property services officer in May 2016 to discuss the sale of the land.
The officer said the only basis on which the sale could occur was through an “entirely transparent process” like a formal tender. The consortium’s lawyer said his clients were “happy to accept whatever decision
is made by council”.
In August last year, Save Surfers Paradise (SSP) wrote to Mr Dickson about the city’s surplus land assets and asked why the Bruce Bishop car park and Surfers Paradise Transit Centre (SPTC) were not on the list.
Mr Dickson said the “simple explanation” was the SPTC site was not on the original list for the initial funding plan.
“The scope of the cultural precinct development has increased to include a future art gallery and bridge, hence the need for additional funding sources, as reflected in the updated funding plan,” Mr Dickson wrote.
Minutes for a special budget committee meeting listed all the land transactions and recorded “negotiations occurring” on the sale of 72 Remembrance Dr.
SSP wrote again to Mr Dickson asking for further details because approval conditions on the Surfers Paradise bowls club site were given four years ago.
“We would have thought that this transaction would have been completed years ago, or at the very least, shortly after council apparently approved a process for the sale of land by tender last year,” SSP secretary Deborah Kelly wrote.
“Why is the sale still pending? What is the status of those negotiations? What happened with the tender?”