TOO many of council’s important decisions are made behind closed doors, says Councillor Bert Tudori.
Mr Tudori has written to Local Government Minister Paul Omodei asking for the ‘secret’ briefing meetings to be stopped.
The secret sessions have been a fixture of the Perth City Council since it was reformed in 1995. They are usually held on the Tuesday between the regular council meetings.
Mr Tudori claims most items to come before council are considered and voted on then. However, the meetings are not open to the public and no record is kept of what happened.
Mr Tudori claims gross abuses of legislation requiring councillors to declare pecuniary interests have occurred in these ‘secret’ meetings.
He said the decision to appoint Peter Hunt as the supervising architect for the $23 million refurbishment of Council House was made at a briefing meeting.
“These are prime examples of what the Boddington and Wanneroo Royal Commissions warned against,” Mr Tudori said.
In his letter, Mr Tudori claimed he and fellow councillor Laurance Good-man had been subject to racism of the worst kind in the briefing meetings.
“...Cr Goodman called a little Jew boy and myself a ‘ding’,” he wrote.
Mr Tudori has been censured four times by council during his time as an elected member, mostly for disrupting briefing meetings.
Lord Mayor Peter Nattrass dismissed Mr Tudori’s claims.
“We are now so accustomed to wild and untrue allegations from Cr Tudori that they are no longer worthy of comment or denial,” Dr Nattrass said.
