OUTGOING Mildura Mayor Simon Clemence says relentless attacks on his character following the fallout of a “deal” to orchestrate the election of mayors over three terms has left him a broken man.
The deal, constructed three years ago, sought to elect Crs Mark Eckel, Clemence and Jason Modica as mayor in that order before Cr Clemence pulled out of the “deal” last year and was subsequently re-elected for a second term.
Cr Clemence said the initial meeting to form the “deal team” was called by then councillor Ali Cupper — now the State Member for Mildura — and which also included himself as well as Crs Eckel, Modica and Anthony Cirillo.
After Ms Cupper was elected to the Victorian Parliament in November 2018, Cr Helen Healy joined the “deal team”, according to Cr Clemence, but the Member for Mildura continued to have a controlling interest in the election of mayor.
Cr Clemence said he had been “in the Ali Cupper fan club” and “still thought a lot of her”, but believed her involvement in discussions about the approaching mayoral election while State Member for Mildura was “inappropriate”.
“At that point in time I was not inclined to take it any further other than just my own personal concerns about her being there and her attempt of having that level of control,” he said.
Following his mayoral victory last year after breaking away from the pact, Cr Clemence said there had been a concerted attack on him on social and other media.
“Obviously when I ran for mayor a second time and got up, I expected some enmity but I didn’t expect it to go on for, well, never-ending,” Cr Clemence said.
“I didn’t expect it to be blistering and continue for my entire term.
“Had I known that, then perhaps I might have made a different decision.”
Cr Clemence said the attacks came as “a total surprise” and had taken a toll on his life.
“Hugely … absolutely hugely,” he said.
“I’m just wrecked, basically — I’m physically wrecked, I’m emotionally wrecked — all these attacks on me have just destroyed me.
“It was extremely difficult and extremely hurtful and I’m pretty much broken, I’d have to say, at this point in time.”
Cr Clemence said he did not know if entering into a group of councillors to determine who was going to be mayor for the next three years was appropriate or not.
“This little group of councillors that got together — they weren’t block voting, they weren’t making decisions as a group, they all still had their own views and their own arguments and I was in that group for two out of the three years,” he said.
“I didn’t know whether that was a thing that just happened quite often or normally.
“I have heard from other people that it does happen quite often, I felt a bit uncomfortable about it but I didn’t really think there was anything wrong.”
The mayor said he had been sitting on the details for “months”, but had not been pressured to keep silent.
“Quite the opposite actually, from family and friends, they all said ‘do it’,” he said.
“I haven’t done this to get people into trouble, I’ve just done it, firstly, to try to stop these withering attacks on me and to stop people trying to use me as a political football during an election campaign.
“I’m just doing this as a person who has basically been under enormous pressure and I’ve just had a gutful.”
Cr Clemence said his comments should not be seen as a slight on council or councillors.
“I just wanted people to know the truth,” he said.
“Council, itself, is a very good organisation — it is very well run, very professional and they do their jobs very well.
“Even the councillors — some of the very people that I mentioned — do a very good job and have worked very hard for the community.
“People shouldn’t not have confidence in the council or councillors because of this story.”
Cr Clemence said there was “clearly a possibility, if not a probability” that the matter could be taken “much further”, but added: “I don’t care whether it gets investigated or not, I really don’t care.”
“As far as whether anything comes out of it, well, that’s another thing.”
