Glen Tabak and Wollongong City Council are two names you might not have expected to read in the same sentence ever again after the city's infamous 2008 sex-for-development scandal.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But the developer - whose affair with town planner Beth Morgan took centre stage before the council was sacked - has now got his company's sign hanging proudly on the front of a major council building.
Tabak Concrete Rendering Pty Ltd, of which Mr Tabak is one of two directors, is working as a subcontractor on the council's Corrimal surf lifesaving club renovations project, which is costing Wollongong ratepayers about half a million dollars.
His company sign has raised eyebrows around Corrimal in recent days, given his history with the organisation.
Mr Tabak was one of only three individuals to be found guilty following the explosive Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) report.
The watchdog found he had engaged in corrupt conduct with Ms Morgan, who approved his $31 million Victoria Square development, and he was later found guilty of misleading ICAC investigators about the affair.
He received a two-year good-behaviour bond and was fined $2500 plus court costs, with a later appeal rejected by the court.
When asked about his work on a council project on Tuesday, Mr Tabak said it was "simply another job" for his company, which had been operating in the city for 30 years.
He also said this was not the first time he had worked on council funded works since 2008, noting he had been subcontracted through Lahey's for the North Beach Bathers Pavilion. "What's there to say, this is what I do for a living," he said.
He said the ICAC inquiry was "all over".
"It's like anything, if your price is right, you always will work and there's nothing more and nothing less," he said.
"We tendered the project for the builder and we've done other works for the builder, it's just another job."
Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery also said he did not see a problem with Tabak Cement Rendering working on a council project. Cr Bradbery noted that Mr Tabak received a non-custodial sentence following the inquiry, but said this did not "detract from his ability to deliver a service or product".
"That doesn't preclude him from running a business, by law," Cr Bradbery said.
"He's not the principal contractor, and it's the contractor's responsibility to sub-out as they see fit. The tendering process was with the principal contractor who won the contract."
"When we do the contracting process, it's at arm's length, and done through an evidence-based tender process, and - as far as I'm concerned anyway - it was done with good governance and correct probity."
There was a hiccup in the surf club's tendering process in recent months, when the original contractor Piruse Constructions pulled out of completing the $381,000 works.
The cost jumped by 25 per cent, to $472,000, when it was subsequently awarded to Project Coordination (Australia) Pty Ltd, through delegated authority under General Manager David Farmer. Project Coordination was ranked second in the original tender process.
A council's spokesman said the council had no contractual relationship with subcontractors.
"[The] council requires all principal contractors to abide by our code of conduct and code of business ethics which requires a contractor to act ethically, fairly and honestly in all dealings with [the] council," he said,
"Work on the Corrimal surf lifesaving club is progressing well."
