By Ruza Zivkusic
ROBERTSON Ward councillor Margaret Giudice is disappointed she was not invited to last week’s Kings Rd duplication announcement.
Cr Giudice, whose ward includes Kings Rd, said she was first informed about the event when Star contacted her last Friday, one hour before the announcement.
“I believe when there is a major achievement in the municipality that the invitations should be extended to all the councillors to share in that achievement,” Cr Giudice said.
Cr Ian Douglas said mayor Natalie Suleyman asked him to attend in her absence, as she had other commitments.
Cr Douglas said he had no idea why Cr Giudice was not informed about the announcement.
“I thought the ward councillor would have been invited,” he said.
Cr Troy Atanasovski said he attended because he heard “whispers going around” about the event.
“I heard from people, politicians, talking about it,” Cr Atanasovski said.
He said he did not receive an invitation from the council and only heard about the event two days earlier.
Delahey Action Group member David Anderson also attended the announcement because he “kept his ears to the ground”.
Mr Anderson would not say who told him about the event.
“I saw things were happening there and when you see that there are people gathering at George Seitz’s office, you know there’s something on.
“If they’re going to make a public announcement in a public place, then they’ve got to expect that there’s going to be some public there.”
Mr Seitz was also in attendance and said he heard about the announcement from VicRoads, two days earlier.
“The announcement wasn’t run in Margaret’s ward.
“It was then up to the mayor to inform those who wanted to be there,” Mr Seitz said.
“I asked VicRoads if they invited David Anderson and they did not.
“So, as far as council is concerned, if the mayor doesn’t let the rest of the councillors know then that’s her problem.”
Cr Suleyman said she was invited in her capacity as mayor only, not as a councillor.
“I am one of the prominent ward councillors for Kings Road – I didn’t receive an invitation,” Cr Suleyman said.
“The mayor’s office received an invitation late last week.
“I myself could not make it as the mayor and I delegated that to the deputy (Cr Douglas).
“The mayor was invited through VicRoads, full stop.”
Cr Suleyman said she did not know why others such as Cr Atanasovski were in attendance.
VicRoads project communications manager Liz Evans said, “The MP is responsible for the invitation for the event last week, so that’s really not a VicRoads call.
“We take advice from him.”
Ms Evans described the guest list as “concise”.
“It wasn’t a big event as such – there were only a handful of people there,” she said.
Transport Minister Peter Batchelor was not available for comment.
