COUNCILLOR Jess Jennings sought to secure the deputy mayoralty through a deal with Gary Rush just hours before last Wednesday’s contentious mayoral vote.
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Cr Jennings launched an unprecedented attack on the new mayor’s credentials last Friday, saying the election of Cr Rush has put Bathurst back 10 years in terms of community engagement.
He also accused Cr Rush and his key supporters – councillors Warren Aubin, Michael Coote and Greg Westman – of teaming with Cr Bobby Bourke to undermine former mayor Monica Morse during her 12-month term in the top job.
But just 48 hours earlier, Cr Jennings had sought to broker a deal with Cr Rush that would have seen him elected as Cr Rush’s deputy mayor instead of Cr Ian North.
This latest revelation is sure to add to the tensions within a council chamber that had already been split into a number of factions over the past 12 months.
It had been hoped that the leadership team of councillors Rush and North could finally bring the council together, but that still seems some way off now.
Cr Rush said he had been approached by Cr Jennings around 11am last Wednesday with a view to forging a deal.
“On Wednesday morning, I was going to be a good enough mayor that Cr Jennings approached me to support as my deputy. But, in light of the fact that support didn’t come, all of a sudden according to Cr Jennings I have no chance of being a good mayor,” Cr Rush said.
“That kind of says it all, doesn’t it.
“On one hand, he wants me to support him as my deputy and then, on the other, he turns on me like this.”
An unrepentant Cr Jennings yesterday confirmed he had approached Cr Rush last Wednesday.
“I did so for two reasons,” Cr Jennings said.
“One, Gary had previously agreed that he and I would be a pretty good combination; but I also did it to see how certain he was of Bobby’s commitment to him.
“I was quite surprised at how confident he was but he said if I had approached him a week earlier it might have been a different story.
“As it was, they already had Bobby in their back pocket so Gary said no.”
Cr Jennings said he no ill-feeling towards any of his council colleagues and had enjoyed working with the “different personalities and skills” over the past 12 months – but he admitted he was particularly frustrated with Cr Bourke’s actions.
“Bobby is saying there has been instability and division over the past 12 months but he has been the one causing all of it,” Cr Jennings said.
“The other frustration is that Bobby has spent the last 12 months saying that the last thing we need is to have Paul Toole and the Nationals running council again, so to make Gary Rush [a Nationals member and former campaign manager for Mr Toole] mayor is totally antithetical to what he has been saying privately.”
Cr Jennings said he had received overwhelmingly positive feedback since the Weekend Advocate first published details of his outburst on Saturday.
“People have been saying ‘good on you’ and ‘who is Gary Rush?’,” he said.
TOMORROW: We publish the full text of the email that has all of Bathurst talking
