Wollongong City Council has cleared itself of any wrongdoing after it controversially handed the contract for Crown Street Mall’s Friday markets over to new operators.
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A public furore erupted late last month when the council announced the long-running markets would change hands after 14 years, with friends and business partners Jenny Briscoe-Hough and Lara Seresin losing their bid to continue running the popular venture.
Instead, the businesswoman behind Foragers and Eat Street markets, Kirrily Sinclair, was given a two-year licence to run the Friday operation after a public call for quotations.
In early October, council launched an investigation into whether its procurement code was breached after receiving a complaint about its public licensing process.
On Monday, the council said the internal review found the complaint was dealt with “in accordance with its Professional Conduct Investigation Policy”.
“The [Professional Conduct Coordinator] has found that the formal quotation process for the Friday markets was conducted fairly, appropriately and in accordance with council policy and process,” a media release from the council stated.
General manager David Farmer said the investigator – a council employee – had been satisfied that there had been no error or omission in the assessment of four applications which were received during the quotation process.
He also said the procurement process was “standard operating procedure for councils” but conceded that “the history of the markets and the level of community feeling regarding the previous operators” made the Friday market procurement process unique.
The markets were started by Ms Briscoe-Hough and Ms Seresin in 2002, when the mall was managed by City Centre Ltd.
Wollongong City Council took back responsibility for mall operations in late 2011, and says the operators of the markets “did not have an existing agreement in place with City Centre Ltd” at this time.
“[The] council formalised a three-year agreement with the markets operator [in 2011],” the council said in a media release.
[It was indicated that at the end of this period a formal review would be entered into and that the licence would need to go on the open market in accordance with [the] council’s procurement policy.”
“At the end of the three-year agreement, [the] council issued a further 12-month lease as a gesture of goodwill while confirming that the matter would go on the open market at the end of that period.”