Doug Curran and Anne Napoli face off at the mayoral debate. Photos: Oliver Jacques.
The two candidates running for mayor of Griffith have clashed over whether a recent rate increase was needed and whether animals should have been removed from Lake Wyangan. But the pair found consensus over plans for a new art gallery in the town, agreeing the ambitious project needed to be shelved for now.
Sitting Mayor Doug Curran debated councillor and competitor for his job, Anne Napoli, at an event organised by the Griffith Business Chamber at the Griffith Sports Exies club on Thursday (5 September). The one-on-one contest was preceded by a ‘’Meet the Candidates’’ forum, in which 16 candidates running for council answered questions from journalists.
Next Saturday (14 September), Griffith residents will head to the polls to vote for both the mayor and eight additional councillors.
Special rate variation
The most contentious issue that divides Cr Curran and Ms Napoli is the council’s decision to apply for a special rate variation (SRV), which allowed the local government body to raise rates by much more than what the State Government usually allows. Mr Curran backed the decision, while Ms Napoli opposed it.
“In the last three years, 31 councils across NSW have applied for an SRV,” Cr Curran told the forum. “That’s 25 per cent of the councils in NSW. It’s not that Griffith is doing a bad job, it’s that the system is broken. There is $460 of your rates, this is local government NSW figures, that go to pay state and federal government costs. That is wrong.”
Ms Napoli responded by saying she didn’t care what other councils did.
“I’ve been on council for 20 years. This is the first time we’ve had such a huge increase … we need to look at wastage, not keep going back to the community and say we need more of your money to balance our books,” she said. ”Roundabouts have been done over three times, Yambil Street [upgrades] ran over budget, even the sports stadium ran over budget, that’s where our money goes.”
Mayor Curran responded: “I don’t know about any costs overruns in the stadium, it came in under budget. Yes, Yambil Street is going to cost more than it was going to five years ago, but I’m a little bit lost with having to do roundabouts three times, I haven’t seen that.”
A forum to meet all the council candidates preceded the mayoral debate.
Removing animals from Lake Wyangan
The two candidates also vehemently disagreed over the recent Griffith Council decision to remove animals that had been living in a makeshift mini-zoo at Lake Wyangan. Again, the Mayor supported the decision and his opponent voted against it.
“Did we listen to the communities, to some of the children in the chamber who were crying? What happened to those animals? We still don’t know, they said they’d be relocated,” Ms Napoli said.
Cr Curran responded: “The animals weren’t in good condition. I’m not sure why we want to spend $80,000 to house chickens and ducks. The animals have all gone to safe homes; we’ve provided updates to councillors. We have committed to putting animals out there when we can improve the amenities out there. It was not good for the people or the animals … there was a petition of 1000 people [to keep the animals], but 500 weren’t from Griffith.”
Ms Napoli said it should never have come to the point where animals had to be removed.
“The animals should have been looked after,” she said. ”What’s $80,000 when you listen to the needs of the community and the benefit it was bringing to children? The animals have been moved on, probably onto someone’s plate.”
Cr Curran said his opponent had been on the council for 20 years and had never previously brought the subject of improving amenities forward.
New art gallery in town
In 2021, Griffith City Council resolved to build a new art gallery in the town, as it was felt the existing facility was too small.
“I’m not against an art gallery, but I’m against borrowing money or going for a grant to build an art gallery, which we’d have to match dollar for dollar,” Ms Napoli said.
“The easiest part is to build it, but then you have to maintain it. To spend $15 million or $30 million on an art gallery when it’ll be running at a loss, like most council facilities, it’s not the time … we cannot burden the community with another rate rise.”
Cr Curran said he couldn’t argue with that.
“In 2021, we were in a different financial position than we are today … when you look at the Griffith Regional Sports Centre, it was just a thought bubble in 2002,” he said. ”We are a regional city. If we want to bring those people to town, we need to have long-term plans. Can we do it today or next week? No, but we can plan long term.”
The pair also answered questions on factional division within the council, how to convince young people to stay in the town, improving council parks and other topics.