Cr O’Malley had made a series of comments that were critical of businessmen who fought the potential loss of carparks in the Albany St Connection project and this led to questions about whether he could consider consultation feedback with an open mind.
The council asked law firm Anderson Lloyd for its advice after property owner Greg Paterson took issue with Cr O’Malley’s involvement in the hearing.
The councillor accepted the law firm’s recommendation he recuse himself and Cr O’Malley then went further and quit altogether as hearings committee chairman.
Anderson Lloyd said if Cr O’Malley had chosen to stay involved on the Albany St matter, this would have created a moderate level of legal risk a challenge to the High Court about the council’s process would have been successful.
"This means such a claim should be expected to succeed, resulting in council's decision-making process being found to be invalid."
The Albany St project has been a stop-start affair, which has been hampered by funding uncertainty and criticism about inadequate consultation.
In the end, nine carparks were added back in and an additional round of consultation was run about limited aspects of the project.
Yesterday’s hearing went ahead but with Cr O’Malley not taking part there was little decision-making headway, as the two other panel members, deputy mayor Cherry Lucas and Cr Mandy Mayhem, were split about what to recommend to the council.
Anderson Lloyd’s assessment was Cr O’Malley had made repeated public statements indicating he was frustrated with where the process had landed.
His comments "strongly indicate that he is unlikely to alter the view he formed when making his first decision on the project and gives the clear impression he is not prepared to fairly consider feedback from consultation from those who seek further carparks on Albany St".
