Cr Jennings issued an unsolicited statement to the Western Advocate yesterday afternoon saying Bathurst had gone backwards by 10 years following the election of Cr Rush.

He accused Cr Rush and his “three supporters” [councillors Warren Aubin, Greg Westman and Michael Coote] of joining forces with Councillor Bobby Bourke to destabilise council during the 12-month reign of mayor Monica Morse.

Speaking to the Western Advocate later, Cr Jennings said Cr Rush lacked Cr Morse’s vital links to the community and tourism sectors that would be particularly important in the lead-up to bicentennial celebrations in 2015.

“If we didn’t have such a big event coming up it might not have been so imperative, but we had a real opportunity to bring the tourism sector together over the 12 months and the years after that, which has been lost now,” he said.

Cr Jennings’ outburst provided an explosive end to a week that saw Cr Rush elected as mayor by a single vote.

Cr Bourke cast the deciding vote on Wednesday night and Cr Jennings suggested he could have been misled about Cr Rush’s business credentials.

In his statement, Cr Jennings said there was “a shroud of mystery” over Cr Rush’s professional career after Cr Coote, speaking on Radio 2BS, “said that Gary was such a great businessman that he used to be the CEO of Lend Lease and Semens [sic] Australia”.

“These are pretty big job claims and if they are true should be verified, and if they are false it should be clear that Cr Coote has misled Bathurst by falsely ‘talking up’ Gary prior to the mayoral vote,” he said in the statement.

Later he added: “Someone like Bobby could hear that and quite happily say Gary has all the credentials in the world to become mayor.”

When told about Cr Jennings’ spray, a clearly frustrated Cr Rush resisted the urge to return fire. He acknowledged he had heard Cr Coote’s claims on radio and said he later contacted him to set him straight.

“As the Western Advocate correctly reported this morning, I was a business development manager and project manager with Lend Lease but I was never CEO. I wish I was,” he said.

“I was also the NSW state manager of Siemens Australia.”

Cr Rush said he was disapp-ointed Cr Jennings had launched the attack, saying he planned to sit down with his colleague to work through their differences.

“I think we, as a council, have an opportunity to put the interests of Bathurst first and, when it’s all said and done, we’re all Bathurstians first and foremost,” Cr Rush said.

“I can only assume Cr Jennings is playing the political card ... I would be very appreciative if he would recognise that being a councillor is all about being part of a team.”

Cr Coote said if he had been wrong about Cr Rush’s business past it was not a result of trying to mislead the general public.

“I don’t know why he has gone down this path,” Cr Coote said. “It really looks like he’s going into some sort of spiral that’s it’s going to be difficult to get out of over the next three years – unless he decides to leave council.”