As the ’80s documentary Rats in the Ranks showed, local government politics can be as ruthless and cutthroat as any swamp-monster fight in Canberra, London or Washington. They may be political minnows, but councillors in even the smallest borough can be as savage as piranhas.
And as big a chancer as any ‘Big Guy’ Democrat with his hand out for his cut. Except, what do you do when the promised sinecure fails to materialise? That seems to be the problem that’s beset Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds. There she was: all set for a cosy gig at a Climate Cult crony outfit. It looks, though, like they sent back her resume.
So, now she’s trying to take back the resignation she made with such fanfare just a couple of weeks ago.
That could be interesting, if Hobart’s most notorious snack-pilferer decides ‘no backsies’.
Three weeks after Anna Reynolds was set to hand over the Hobart mayoralty, nobody at the Hobart City Council can say for certain who is running the city.
Reynolds announced in June she would not contest October’s election, saying she would step down after almost eight years as lord mayor to take a role with the Global Solar Council, an international body promoting rooftop solar.
The council’s chief executive had told elected members in writing that Reynolds would step down as lord mayor on 9 August.
Three weeks after she was supposed to have waddled out the door with her belongings in a cardboard box, Reynolds is still parked firmly in the council offices, hosting council events and issuing media releases under the “Lord Mayor” title. Deputy – or maybe lord mayor, nobody knows – Zelinda Sherlock fronted a press conference to welcome Lime e-bikes, confirmed she was acting lord mayor, and then could not say when the arrangement had begun, refusing to answer questions three times before a staffer jumped in to the rescue.
This is a capital-city council that cannot name its own mayor.
Meanwhile, the timing couldn’t have come at a more awkward time for Sherlock, she of the light fingers.
Last month councillors voted 5–3 to refer allegations that Sherlock had been helping herself to food and drinks from the elected members’ lounge – soft drink, wine, beer, nuts and chocolates meant to be consumed on the premises – to Tasmania Police and the director of local government. CCTV obtained under Right to Information showed Sherlock and a companion leaving Town Hall with a stocked bag on two occasions. Staff had been noticing the larder mysteriously thinning since 2023.
Frustrated with the lack of detail surrounding who is running the city, councillor John Kelly said other councillors he had spoken to found the situation “breathtaking” and described Reynolds’ handling of it as “appalling leadership.”
You mean, he’s only just noticed?
Kelly claimed the confusion was “obviously an attempt by the Lord Mayor to quieten the chatter about the Sherlock theft allegations”.
He called on the director of local government to intervene.
At the same time other councillors are asking whether Reynolds is, like her fellow Green councillor Sherlock, helping herself to stuff she’s not entitled to.
Meanwhile Alderman Marti Zucco has demanded the council reveal whether the lord mayoral allowance is still being paid through Reynolds’ leave, what additional pay Sherlock is receiving and the total extra cost to ratepayers.
“Ratepayers should not be left wondering whether they are effectively paying twice for the lord mayoral position,” Zucco said.
Hobart’s lord mayor is paid an annual allowance of about $145,000.
Booze and chockies not included. The peanuts don’t come with the job: they’re running.
Council and CEO refused to clarify on just who was doing which job and how much they were getting paid. Reynolds did not return calls for weeks – until she was ready to do her big backflip (a rather mind-boggling image).
Anna Reynolds has sensationally reversed her decision to step down as lord mayor of Hobart in August, ending weeks of confusion over who was running the city, Pulse can reveal.
Speaking to Pulse this evening, Reynolds said she had changed her mind and would stay in the position for now.
“[I] changed my mind,” she told Pulse.
In other words, the Climate Cult sinecure evaporated or was never quite as firm as the resignation speech implied. The deputy who thought the council fridge was a takeaway window is still under a police referral. The sitting mayor has un-resigned by prerogative. And the people who pay $145,000 a year for one lord mayor cannot get a straight answer as to how many they currently have.
The makers of Rats in the Ranks would have killed for material this rich. Hobart ratepayers are living it.
