A suggestion to help Kiama council's financial situation by building a five-star beachside hotel was knocked back at this week's meeting.
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Councillor Warren Steel put forward the motion to look for partners to develop the Kendalls on the Beach Holiday Park just south of the CBD into a five-star hotel.
In his motion, Cr Steel said it would provide an ongoing income stream for council and create an international-standard hotel facility for Kiama.
At the Tuesday night meeting, Cr Steel suggested the revenue stream from the hotel could see residents of Blue Haven retirement centre breathe a bit easier.
At present, council is investigating the possible sale of Blue Haven as a way to ease the financial strain of the organisation.
"I put this one forward because I just thought it might take a little bit of pressure of a lot of the old people - and I say that nicely," Cr Steel said.
"They're living at Blue Haven at the moment and worried that they're going to lose their unit.
"What I want to happen with this is for us to throw it out into the open field and just see who's interested in it."
Cr Steel also mentioned online criticism he had already received about his proposal, including claims that he was "a councillor that time has forgotten" and that "this bloke has been a councillor for over 10 years and has learned nothing".
Several councillors defended Cr Steel against this online criticism.
"I think it's just sad that there are those in the community that don't stick their hand up to be on council, yet they're also willing to criticise people such as Cr Steel," Cr Mark Croxford said.
Cr Matt Brown said such comments were "totally unacceptable and the community should have more respect for its community leaders".
Cr Croxford said he was in favour of the idea of adding the Kendalls Beach park to the list of properties already identified for potential sale or lease.
Cr Brown, however, was not in favour of the five-star hotel proposal.
"I'm also concerned about council's financial position but I don't think that this is a solution to that," Cr Brown said.
"We need to really focus on what's fundamentally wrong with our financial position and not look for quick fixes such as this."
Cr Kathy Rice also branded the move as "a quick fix"
"I don't think that we have any community support whatsoever for proposing the sale of Kendalls Beach," she said.
"It's community land and it's no quick fix for our financial position."
The proposal for the five-star hotel was voted down by councillors.
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