Marquart resigns from council

Gosford West Ward representative Cr Troy Marquart resigned from Central Coast Council on Monday, October 26.

Cr Marquart was one of four Councillors listed as authors of a notice of motion for the October 12 council meeting entitled "Collapse of Confidence in Council's Internal Controls and Financial Management".

That notice of motion exposed that Council was suffering from significant cash flow issues and triggered intervention by the NSW Office of Local Government and Local Government Minister Ms Shelley Hancock.

Ms Hancock subsequently gave councillors seven days to justify why they should not be suspended for failing to prevent, detect and address the internal financial problems, including substantial expenditure of restricted funds,

Following his resignation, Cr Marquart spoke publicly about his reasons for resigning.

Commenting on a commercial radio breakfast show on Tuesday, October 27, Mr Marquart said: " To be brutally honest I resigned to make a statement.

"I've walked away because it is untenable...a powerful and significant statement that we have lost all confidence in the Council and the Labor-Green minded independent councillor voting bloc that is within it.

"They cannot solve this problem.

"Every day they are in there, it is going to get worse," he said.

"This is a disaster of the Council's own making and it cannot be fixed by the people who are in there now."

Cr Marquart said that he and three other councillors had written to the Office of Local Government in September because they could see that there was something wrong and that the numbers did not add up.

Fellow Liberal, Cr Rebecca Gale also resigned.

Commenting on the resignations, Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast Mr Adam Crouch said: "Rebecca and Troy have witnessed some appalling decisions made by the Labor-Independent bloc of councillors... and have fought every step of the way.

"These include the Labor-Independent bloc giving themselves a six per cent pay rise at the height of Covid-19, and also throwing away a $4.6 million grant for infrastructure at Winney Bay.

"I respect Rebecca and Troy's decision and thank them for their community service."

SOURCE:

Transcript, 27 Oct 2020

Troy Marquart, Triple M Radio

Media statement, 27 Oct 2020

Adam Crouch, Central Coast Parliamentary Secretary

Reporter: Jackie Pearson