Did you hear the one about the Ku-ring-gai Council Extraordinary Meeting that was a complete waste of time?

After triggering a seemingly absurd and pointless “Extraordinary Meeting”, held at lunchtime last Wednesday, Ku-ring-gai councillor Jeff Pettett has not responded to multiple interview requests seeking an explanation.

How did it come to this?  

Rewind: In May, Ku-ring-gai Council reached a fork in the road on the wretched Norman Griffiths Oval (NGO) saga, which has dogged it since 2021. 

Its options were to pause the project before synthetic turf or lawn was laid and seek state government help, or plough on and get the fake turf bedded down.

The Lorikeet has reported on the doomed $12.4 million project, which has seen cost blowouts, community outrage and legal battles with a construction company.

At the May 19 meeting the vote was tight: five councillors voted for the NGO project to be put on hold while the state government tried to work a solution, and five voted against. 

The mayor Christine Kay used her casting vote to send the matter to the state government with a “please help” attached.

Backpedalling: The closeness of the vote gave those who lost a glimmer of hope. Council votes can be undone within three months via a rescission motion. All the five needed to do was convince one councillor to flip, and the state government would be pushed aside and the laying of the synthetic turf would proceed.

Shortly after the May meeting, a gathering was planned between Pettett, fellow councillor Martin Smith - who had voted for the synthetic turf to be laid - and David Taylor, CEO of the Northern Suburbs Football Association (NSFA). 

The NSFA, along with Smith, have long advocated for synthetic turf at the West Pymble oval. 

Smith told the Lorikeet the meeting never occurred.

Despite this, somewhere between May 19 and mid-July, Pettett appeared to have changed his mind about passing the debacle onto the state. He now wanted the fake turf to be laid. 

Along with two pro-synthetic turf councillors - Smith and Sam Ngai - Pettett called for an Extraordinary Meeting to be held. The trio had prepared a rescission motion that, if successful, would block the matter from going to the state government.

Extraordinary Meetings are rare and are only called when urgent decisions need to be made.

Ahead of the meeting, Ku-ring-gai Council staff had to organise a public forum. This was held at Ku-ring-gai Council chambers last Tuesday at 6pm. Twenty-two members of the public showed up to speak. All 10 councillors attended, as did a similar number of council staff.

Most speakers were in favour of council sending the issue to the state for independent review. There were also 51 written submissions, with the majority wanting the synthetic turf to be laid.

The following day councillors met again for the Extraordinary Meeting. The rescission motion was debated for about 80 minutes.

At this meeting, something extraordinary actually occurred: Pettett, who held the key to NGO’s immediate future, and had called for the meeting to be held, decided to vote against his own rescission motion, thus rendering the whole exercise a complete waste of time.

The Lorikeet has attempted to contact Pettett numerous times via phone and email to ask about why he put his name on the request for an Extraordinary Meeting.

Councillor Smith told the Lorikeet that when he, Ngai and Pettett called for the Extraordinary Meeting, he believed Pettett was on his side. “It was a surprise,” he said of Pettett’s about-face.

Councillor Indu Balachandran said the feeling in the chamber was one of “bewilderment” when Pettett revealed he would not change his vote. 

“It was an extraordinary use of staff resources,” she told the Lorikeet. “[Council staff] had to prepare, the public forum had to be called, organised … it's not a small venture.” 

Councillor Sam Ngai told the Lorikeet that in the months leading up to the annual mayoral election - generally held in September - “councillors start acting crazy”. He couldn’t explain Pettett’s decision to call a meeting so he could change his vote, only to choose not to change his vote. 

The Lorikeet has attempted to contact David Taylor via the NSFA and will update the story as required.