By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Weeks after being installed Casey mayor, Amanda Stapledon was involved in negotiations over the H3 intersection despite a declared conflict of interest with developer John Woodman, an IBAC inquiry heard.
Ms Stapledon was voted in mayor after an October 2018 meeting with Mr Woodman, who intervened on her behalf.
She denied that at the meeting, she offered to support his application for the Hall Road project but only to help end a “turf war” between developers Wolfdene and Dacland.
Wolfdene, run by Mr Woodman’s son Heath, had provided more than $1 million support in seed funding and funding services for a Blairlogie Living and Learning accommodation project with links to Ms Stapledon.
Ms Stapledon’s son attends the Blairlogie service but didn’t benefit from the project for adult accommodation units. Ms Stapledon is a Blairlogie committee member.
She had also received election campaign donations from Mr Woodman in 2014 and 2016.
As newly-elected mayor, she sought “reconciliation” between the “turf war“ developers and council officers, though conceded she only met with Mr Woodman’s side.
She was secretly photographed meeting with Mr Woodman’s consultant Megan Schutz, Wolfdene’s lobbyist Lorraine Wreford and Save Cranbourne West Residents Action Group (SCRWAG) leader Ray Walker, who was a paid Woodman lobbyist on the H3 issue, on 14 November 2018.
The meeting at the Sandhurst Club was “another meeting perhaps I shouldn’t have attended” due to her conflict of interest, she told IBAC.
“I was trying to ascertain if there was a willingness to come around the table with the other developer, Dacland, and to try to put an end to this turf war.”
To that end, she sought council officers to jointly meet with Dacland and Wolfdene but there was no resolution.
Ms Stapledon denied lobbying councillors on the H3 issue, which would have been “improper”.
“To the best of my ability I would have stayed off those matters.”
She was then challenged with a recorded phone call between her and Mr Aziz, who had been receiving allegedly corrupt payments from Mr Woodman.
Four days after Ms Stapledon’s Sandhurst Club meeting, Mr Aziz tells her “I have a solution for Hall Road”.
“I heard this was all in the wings, so that’s good,” Ms Stapledon replies.
Mr Aziz tells her to “drive it with” Casey CEO Glenn Patterson for a council officer’s report and recommendation, that they need to get Cr Damien Rosario “on board” and to get Cr Wayne Smith to get Cr Tim Jackson “on board”.
“It’s a solution that is clever and will take the heat out of everything,” Mr Aziz says.
“It may not be entirely cost-neutral to council. There may be, like, a couple of hundred thousand dollars in it but at least it will actually negate the safety issue, keep Dacland happy and keep the other guys happy as well.”
Ms Stapledon replies: “Love it, love it, love it. Happy to do all that.”
At the hearing, IBAC principal lawyer Amber Harris said to Ms Stapledon: “That’s not you staying out of it, is it?”
“I think it was at that point I should have pushed back on Mr Aziz,” Ms Stapledon said.
On the same call, Mr Aziz tells Ms Stapledon that the solution came from the “Blood Donor” – his nick-name for Mr Woodman.
“Those two ideas have come from him so we’ve got to work on getting them developed,” Mr Aziz says.
“Magic, love it, yep. Whatever you need, Sam. Told you that,” Ms Stapledon replies.
“So we’ll sit together once I get all the details and we’ll design the strategy. And then go for it,” Mr Aziz says.
“Sounds good to me,” Ms Stapledon says.
Under questioning from IBAC, Ms Stapleon says: “From my point of view it would be about getting an outcome that was suitable for the community.”
Commissioner Redlich responded: “You can sit in the witness box until the cows come home saying, ‘I only do what’s in the best interests of the community,’ but if you’ve received benefits from Mr Woodman, no one will ever know for sure what the reason is for why you are supporting his ideas.
“That’s the problem, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is,” Ms Stapledon says.
At the hearing, she expanded on her phrase “Whatever you need, Sam”.
She said it’s usually followed by “as long as it’s legal and moral”.
