Public Forum at the Extraordinary General Meeting of Council - January 24, 2025
Highlights from the Public Forum - By Chris Chan
The Snowy Monaro Regional Council’s extraordinary general meeting on 24 January, 2025, opened with Deputy Mayor Trish Hopkins in the chair. The meeting, marked by heated debate and public frustration, tackled long-standing issues surrounding the failed Snowy No. 1 water reservoir and council governance (or its lack). There was enormous support from the public present, but notably none of the thunderous applause at certain points was discernible in the webcast.
Attendance and Apologies
Councillors Rooney and Williamson attended via audio-visual means due to travel and work commitments, respectively, while Mayor Hanna's absence was noted due to a declared conflict of interest. Details surrounding the precise reasons behind the conflict of interest are scant, but it is known that he assisted particular resident/s in obtaining compensation for damages after the tank collapse.
Public Concerns Over Tank Collapse
The public forum opened with Snowy Monaro local, Charles Kolano addressing item 6.1 regarding the replacement of the collapsed tank. Kolano pressed the council on its funding efforts, stating, "It is also a state government issue. Council should write to the state government—as many letters as required—to obtain funding."
Kolano further highlighted discrepancies in funding allocations, pointing out that "$900K+ funds allocated to the tank in Dec 2019 weren't recorded as spent or reallocated."
He questioned the council's handling of compensation claims, noting that some residents had been ignored for five years and calling for transparency in property decontamination.
Unresolved Claims and Asbestos Concerns
Peter Anderson, representing one of the affected residents with an unresolved claim, and the Snowy Monaro Community Advocates, delivered a passionate plea. "5 minutes for 5 years—it hardly seems fair," he stated, describing one resident’s struggle to get meaningful response from the council. Despite ~ 150 attempts, her asbestos-contaminated property remains unassessed. "She has had to resort to legal action because council failed to act," Anderson said.
Tensions in the gallery escalated when one Labor supporter hurled profanities at one of the Independent Councillors. Councillor Thaler requested the removal of the attendee for inappropriate behavior, however the person was not removed.
Anderson provided crucial insights into the timeline of the tank’s failure, alleging that "the governing body approved funds to repair the tank, but no authority was given to fill it."
He also pointed out that the affected resident he was representing received no direct communication from the council and was instead told to liaise with Sedgwick, the insurer’s loss adjuster, only to have her claim rejected.*
During the time of questions from councillors, Mr Anderson stated that 157 letters from the community were sent to the then Mayor Narelle Davis (as the matter dragged on and came under the governance of the subsequent council) but these were filed without a response.
Mr Anderson also stated that he had been issued with a UCC (Unreasonable Complainant Conduct notice) due to his communications with the council regarding the tank failure and its aftermath. It seemed that the notice was nothing to do with unreasonable conduct but rather an attempt to prevent his interaction with council. Mr Anderson said:
“I sought to raise the issues with the Mayor under her duty to ensure that policies of council are effected appropriately and the UCC was issued to me without notice. It was issued with the then Mayor’s knowledge, and it was issued when I received a phone call from a member of staff who alerted me to council making payments unauthorised in regard to the damage from the tank. I had offered to meet with the Mayor to discuss that and the next day I was issued a UCC.”
According to Mr Anderson, this UCC restricting his contact and communication with council has remained in place until today without any appropriate review.
Mr Anderson further pointed out that from information that he had obtained under freedom of information requests, council had paid out more than $500,000 in claims for damages due to the tank failure, and this had been paid out apparently without any corresponding resolution of council.
Push for Transparency and Investigation
A community member, from Spec Ops Safety, a Work Health & Safety Consultant, with credentials including a BA in Policing and certifications in investigations and emergency management, spoke to item 6.6 calling for a comprehensive investigation, emphasizing that the council’s timeline report was inadequate. "This report is not an investigation report. Without proper inquiry, no lessons will be learned, and no safeguards put in place." He argued that an incident investigation was required:
To provide transparent and accurate information about the tank failure and dispel inaccurate information. To uphold risk management and minimise potential damage in reputational risk and ensure regulatory compliance;
That an ICAM (Incident Cause Analysis Method) investigation looking at root cause should be carried out. This would provide outcomes, recommendations, and lessons learned for continuous improvement. (ICAM is an industry investigation standard and conforms to international standards for occupational health and safety management systems);
To contribute to the prevention, preparation, response and recovery in future emergencies.
Council has done none of these things but rather seems to have buried its head in the sand.
He cited engineering reports that indicated "structural integrity" issues and a failure to act on professional advice. Councillor Rose supported the speaker’s call for accountability, stating, "This isn’t just about a tank collapse—this is about governance failures and public trust."
The guest speaker highlighted discrepancies in the council's statements, noting that SafeWork NSW's report conflicted with council's own claims. "The ALS report identified 14 critical structural defects, yet council insists they did not relate to the structural integrity of the tank."
His finishing statement was on point “If there is no investigation report, there can be no recommendations, there can be no lessons learnt”.
One notable feature of the Public Forum was Councillor Davis’ questions to each of the three presenters, to which many in the gallery considered rude, aggressive and irrelevant: “Do you live in Cooma North? Are you a member of the emergency services?”
Many people in the public gallery believed that Councillor Davis attempted to deflect the issue away from the tank failure and tried to make it about the bushfires. Ironically however, the decision by council to fill the decommissioned and structurally flawed tank critically increased the risk to Cooma during the bushfires. At the time of increased fire risk, the council’s decision to fill the tank resulted in the loss of not only more than 4.5 million litres of water from the collapsed tank (as it leaked substantially for 2 days prior to the collapse), but also the loss of half of the water reserve from the tank that fed it due to the connecting valve not being turned off for a substantial period after the collapse leaving Cooma with a critically low available water reserve.
Conclusions:
The public forum highlighted deep frustrations over transparency, governance, and the lingering impacts of the reservoir failure. The community remains vigilant, demanding answers and accountability from their elected representatives.
The public presentations demonstrated the deep knowledge and understanding of many of the issues that seem to have been covered up by the council. The presentation by the community member from Specs Ops Safety highlighted misinformation by the Interim CEO in relation to factual material about the engineering report on the water tank failure.
Getting to the root cause of the water tank collapse is a bit like trying to swim in molasses, with council blocking every move for transparency and accountability. It demonstrates something is rotten in the systems, protocols and processes of council which has apparently no commitment to best practice, continuous improvement and the welfare of the community it serves.
Stay tuned to Monaro Zone for ongoing coverage of this critical local issue. Keep liking and sharing this content, and together we can bring the truth to light.
* Her claim was apparently lost/ignored by the insurer - not rejected.
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