Two residents embroiled in a dispute with Griffith City Council over the location of a study centre have responded angrily to mayor John Dal Broi after he told them to “pull their heads in”.
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Cr Dal Broi’s comments were in response to accusations made by Imran Syed and Matiullah Shirzad, who claim council “cheated” them through a decision made at a council meeting on December 11.
They have since supplied The Area News with emails sent to and from members of council that they believe support their case.
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The emails show how the two men had been working with council to set up a Country Universities Centre at their building on 161 Remembrance Drive.
In the emails council signals their “in-principle” support for the site, as well as plans for rezoning and a lease agreement.
The two men had been working with council and Country Universities Centre to secure government funding for the project, using their proposed site in the funding applications.
But they claim that only after they had done the legwork to secure the funding did council “swoop in” to take the site away from them.
At a council meeting on December 11, council announced the study centre would be set up at the council-owned building on 81 Kooyoo Street instead.
There were no other expressions of interest for the project up until council’s announcement,
and the two men claim they had been blindsided.
They claim they had been led to believe the site was theirs, and that they had been “used” by council and Country Universities Centre.
But Cr Dal Broi said that there had never been anything that amounted to a “promise”, and that he was obligated to choose the best site available for Griffith.
Cr Dal Broi is the chair of the project’s board, and he said the board members had unanimously agreed that the Kooyoo Street site was the better of the two.
He said the new site was better for several reasons, including the proximity to the centre of town, the better accessibility, and the higher security.
Country Universities Centre CEO Duncan Taylor denied any wrongdoing on behalf of the board, rejecting claims that they hadn’t been transparent.
"They’ve always given us proper processes and has been, in our view, transparent and we have a very good relationship with the local working group," Mr Taylor said.
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Kenji Sato
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
