AS well as quashing $3.7 million in backdated rates notices last night, Councillors also supported a matter arising from Cr Kenrick Winchester to reimburse Cr Jamie Cregan the $13,200 he spent on independent legal advice.
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It was the last matter to be dealt with at an at-times heated meeting, and councillors supported it unanimously.
Cr Winchester told The Queanbeyan Age that commissioning the advice had proven a “game changer” during the lengthy rates saga.
“The simple fact is, if Cr Cregan had not arranged independent legal advice, which he also paid for out of his own pocket, we would not have resolved the rates issue,” he said.
Cr Cregan first tabled the independent advice- which pointed to the potential invalidity of the notices under the Local Government Act - at a Council meeting in September and it was referred on to a senior counsel (SC) by then acting general manager Kerry McMurray.
The SC John Robson found the invoices had been invalidly levied, allowing councillors to vote to withdraw them last night.
Cr Cregan spoke to media today and said he’d felt the need to commission the advice from Boettcher Law due to what he saw as a narrow range of options before Council.
“I wasn’t happy with what I was being told,” Cr Cregan said.
“In a number of the workshops and closed session meetings I questioned whether we had been creative with our thinking, and I was told that, yes, they’d been as creative as possible.
“But I looked at the [Local Government] Act, and I thought there were more options, so I commissioned the legal advice. And it’s since been proven right and validated,” he said.
