Ed,

I was bitterly disappointed to read the comments by Mayor Tiley in the two articles (VIC Sale and AGM Tosses Coin) in your newspaper last week (CVI 9/3/22).

The mayor’s VIC comments to try and lay blame at the feet of the Acting General Manager were an unfair public attempt to discredit her.

The facts remain, the previous Clarence Valley Council had a Resolution on its books for the sale of the Grafton Visitor Information Centre (VIC), which was sold in November.

What Mayor Tiley is trying to do is salvage his political reputation, so he doesn’t have egg on his face because he ran an election campaign with Cr Day and Cr Clancy to reclaim the VIC Centre if they were elected.

What they didn’t do was research the matter and assumed the VIC was still for sale when we went to the polls on the 4th of December.

Even after the election, they didn’t research their issue, now they are trying to wind back the clock after the gate has been shut and the horse has bolted.

Mayor Tiley in the second story “GM Tosses Coin”, has revealed without permission the contents of an email exchange between the Acting General Manager and the elected Council body.

The mayor’s actions to reveal this information absolutely beggars belief.

The Acting General Manager had to choose a councillor for her Performance Review Panel and used the principles of gender equity and could not decide between the two candidates, myself and Cr Whaites.

AGM Laura Black agonised over this decision for a couple of weeks.

Mayor Tiley has banged on the table before and after the election he has 58 years of Local Government experience.

If this is the case then there is simply no excuse for the intent behind the public chastisement of our Acting General Manager, Laura Black.

Cr Debrah Novak, Yamba