Pictured: Savills Project Management's John Dawson and Adam Thomas with Shellharbour Mayor Marianne Saliba, at the site of the proposed City Hub. Credit: DAVE TEASE
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How much is a mayoral casting vote worth?
At Tuesday night's marathon Shellharbour City Council meeting, Marianne Saliba's second vote was worth almost $1.2 million as it was used to break a 3-3 deadlock and appoint architects to the council's contentious $57 million city hub project.
With fellow Labor councillor John Murray absent from the meeting creating the deadlock, Cr Saliba said it would be "very remiss" of her to abstain or not use her casting vote to progress the city hub to the next stage given Cr Murray's ongoing support for the project.
The council will now enter into a contract with Designinc Ltd for the sum of $1,188,025 excluding GST.
The architect will be responsible for the design of the building and its interiors. The city hub project comprises a new council administration building, a city library, museum, civic auditorium and council chambers.
Speaking against the recommendation, Cr Kellie Marsh "congratulated" the architects not appointed to the "city dud" project.
"We keep talking about this being the heart of the city ... I don't see how a concrete structure on a goat track will bring any more heart to the city," Cr Marsh said.
Also voting against the motion was Deputy Mayor Paul Rankin, who argued it would be wiser to see how much money the council would get from the sale of assets to fund the hub before money was spent on architects.
Cr David Boyle said at first he too was sceptical, but he now believed the hub would create jobs, bring money to the region and encourage development of the Shellharbour City area.
Cr Boyle said eventually ratepayers' money would go into the hub if it proceeded, but the alternative was for ratepayers' funds to be spent on council's existing home at Lamerton House, which was ageing and no longer suitable.
Awarding the architectural contract is considered a key milestone for the project, however, it is "Milestone No 4", awarding the construction contract in August 2014, that has been identified as key to the hub's future.
Independent councillor Helen Stewart, whose vote has been key to the hub's progress, said an enormous amount of work and consultation had taken place in what had been "an open and transparent process".
However, she was mindful of milestone four, which she described as the "point of no return".
