On top of the lawsuit he’s facing from the two women who say he ran them over in his Ferrari, and the other lawsuit he’s facing from some pissed-off finance brokers, Auburn Deputy Mayor Salim Mehajer now has a straight-up fucking mutiny on his hands, as members of his own council are calling for his resignation.
Should’ve just stayed in bed today, m8.
ABC News report that four of Mehajer’s colleagues on the Auburn City Council – Irene Simms, George Campbell, Semra Batik-Dundar and Tony Oldfield – have called a meeting for tonight, and the first order of business is to ask him to step down.
The four are concerned over a perceived conflict of interest arising from Mehajer’s dual roles as property developer who also serves on council. “We can’t make him leave, but we are asking him to leave and giving basically a vote of no confidence in the council,” Simms said.
Last month, the NSW Office of Local Government brought action against Mehajer, saying that on several occasions, he voted on rezoning plans for apartment developments without sufficiently disclosing his own interests.
His fellow councillors have raised similar concerns, saying that he took advantage of now-repealed State Government laws allowing councillors to vote on amendments to development applications, even those relevant to their own properties.
Simms said:
“Under those 2012 changes, a councillor was able to vote on a Local Environment Plan (LEP) even when they had a pecuniary interest. The LEP is what determines how high a building can be – so say a councillor was a developer who proposed a three-storey unit block, they could vote to make that ten storeys. They couldn’t vote on the actual development applications when they came before council, but they’ve been able to manoeuvre changes that are certainly favourable for them in the future.”
Mehajer, predictably, is standing firm – he has called the move against him a “vile tactic,” adding “I will not be resigning and I will not allow anyone into forcing me resign unjustly.”
“It is evident that my performance is not in question,” he continued. “The call appears to be a hidden agenda to acquire my position. All the properties I have purchased in my local government area were purchased years before I was appointed a councillor for Auburn.”
We’ll see how all this Shakespearian shit shakes out tonight.
via ABC News
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