Lake Macquarie council will hold an extraordinary meeting, after it was discovered a councillor moved a motion about a football club without declaring its president was running on her ticket in the upcoming local government elections.
The councillors will consider whether to overturn a motion by independent councillor Katie Warner, which requested the council investigate moving forward the stadium upgrade of Lake Macquarie City Football Club.
The motion was agreed to, but Liberal and Labor councillors have called for a debate about whether to rescind the decision after discovering LMCFC president Steve Graham is running on Cr Warner's ticket in the council elections on September 14.
Cr Warner declared she had a "non pecuniary less than significant interest" conflict of interest and knew Mr Graham in a professional capacity through volunteering.
Council has committed $950,000 to upgrading LMCFC's aging Macquarie Field stadium and facilities at Speers Point over the next two financial years, while the club also secured a $500,000 grant to improve playing surface, which must be used within the next 12 months.
The current timeline would leave the club homeless for two seasons, including the club's debut season in the region's top female competition, the Women's Premier League.
Cr Warner's motion, which urged council staff to minimise the construction impact to just one season, was unanimously passed.
But after discovering Mr Graham was on Cr Warner's Lake Macquarie Independents ticket, several councillors raised concerns about being misled.
The recission motion and call for an extraordinary meeting was signed by Liberal councillors Jason Pauling and Jack Antcliff, and Labor councillor Keara Conroy.
Cr Warner defended her actions, and said she was just trying to get an outcome for the community.
Cr Pauling admitted he was "uncomfortable with how the motion played out on the night".
After asking several questions and a failed attempt to amend the motion, Cr Pauling voted in favour of the proposal.
"Had I known then what I know now, I would not have supported it," Cr Pauling said.
"I am conscious of the time of year, but that's not the issue and this won't change a single vote. This is a matter of maintaining integrity and governance standards in our decision making."
'Political games being played'
Cr Warner said there were "political games being played", and the whole affair demonstrated why she chose to avoid the major parties and to run as an independent.
"As councillors, we get contacted by members of the community in lots of different capacities," Cr Warner said.
"Other councillors are well aware of this, so I can only conclude there are political games being played, for what reasons, I don't understand.
"I think it has less to do with that and more about not wanting an independent to have a notice of motion succeed."
Should the rescission motion get up, Cr Warner said "the only people that would miss out are the community", and in particular the region's female athletes.
"My motion was only for the best interests of the community, there is no benefit to me in this matter," she said.
"It's a real shame to see games being played when the real focus should be on the community. This is not how [Lake Macquarie councillors] operate, it's not how we've operated for the whole term."
The Herald asked Cr Warner if she had sought advice about her declaring her conflict of interest.
"Whenever councillors are working out their disclosures, they need to make a decision about how they determine what is significant and that is up to their own discretion," she said.
Cr Warner reiterated that no code of conduct complaint had been raised about her conflict of interest declaration.
'No chance of being elected'
Mr Graham is sitting third on Cr Warner's ticket. He told the Newcastle Herald there was "not even the possibility of getting elected" and he'd "never had any aspirations" to serve as a councillor.
"I have a lot of respect for Katie, so I said I was happy to help out when she asked [to run on her ticket], but there's no chance of being elected into government," he said.
Mr Graham said the pair got to know each other while volunteering for their kids' school and had been discussing issues at the football club well before deciding to support her in the upcoming election.
"The unfortunate nature of this is I have a lot to do with several of the councillors, and I could have asked any one of them the same question," Mr Graham said.
"I chose to ring Katie with this issue, because she is someone known to me and that's just what you do."
Mr Graham was "genuinely disappointed" to see the drama unfold over "a common sense idea".
"It's not a big deal, we're trying to do things that help a heap of kids, yet politics got involved," he said.
"It's unfortunate timing - it's election time so people take the opportunity to throw mud at each other."
Cr Pauling said there were also other issues about the motion that had to be examined, including the timing commitment of the grants, why council initially spread the upgrades over two years in the first instance and if bringing forward the works would impact other projects.
Lake Macquarie City Council confirmed it would hold an extraordinary meeting within the next 10 days to debate the rescission motion.
