Freo business icon rejects apology as ‘insincere, calculated’

INSINCERE, calculated and evasive is how Bob’s Shoe Store in Fremantle describes Cr Andrew Sullivan’s apology for his role in a disputed parking fine he allowed to turn into a bureaucratic nightmare for the Market Street family business.
One of the owners of the iconic business Luca James Lee today wrote to the City and elected members and asked to have a statement read at full council tonight rebutting the ‘false and misleading’ apology Cr Sullivan made on January 19 this year.
Details of the dispute which were reviewed by an external investigator appointed by the City surfaced after Mr Lee approached StreetWise in October 2021 about what he described as an appalling ‘lack of leadership’ before lodging a formal complaint against Cr Sullivan for breaches of the City’s Code of Conduct.
Having viewed ‘offensive’ internal emails written by Cr Sullivan and obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Mr Lee said in today’s email: “Cr Sullivan’s apology is not accepted and does nothing to ameliorate the harm that he has caused through his unacceptable behaviour and actions. I am concerned if council does not hold him fully accountable for his evidenced behaviour and actions, his pattern of behaviour will continue to occur.
“If Council chooses to blindly protect their own, rather than serve justice and better the functioning of our local Government and our elected members, it will be a sad indictment upon the City of Fremantle and those that purport to represent ratepayers.”
StreetWise cannot say what the council decided because the item is confidential.

Cr Sullivan’s January 19 apology states:

“On 28 September last year, Mr Lee from Bob’s Shoe Store wrote a letter to me that was copied to all elected members and numerous other parties. That letter was subsequently published in an online forum with Mr Lee’s consent. Mr Lee made numerous allegations about my handling of the parking infringement he received in March last year. Given his stated intention was to lodge a formal complaint I did not respond to his allegations at the time, but I can now advise that all of the concerns raised by Mr Lee in his letter are unsubstantiated and I refute them all. Mr Lee subsequently lodged a Freedom of Information Request and received copies of internal email conversations between me and City of Fremantle staff. In some of those emails I was critical of Mr Lee’s behaviour towards our staff and his attitude towards the City more generally. While my comments were not intended for public consumption, a few of my characterisations of Mr Lee were unnecessarily unflattering and I regret making them. To the extent that Mr Lee was offended by those statements, I apologise.”

Mr Lee’s email to members today states: “The ‘apology’ that he (Cr Sullivan) has expressed appears insincere, qualified and calculated to achieve a political aim of further evading responsibility for his actions. His statement of apology was pre-emptive and appears to refer to confidential information that was not yet deliberated or decided upon by Council, or made available to me. In his statement, Cr Sullivan appears more concerned with the fact that his unacceptable conduct was uncovered as a result of internal emails having surfaced, rather than expressing contriteness or sincere regret.”
Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge responded to Mr Lee, who presently is not in Perth, and stated under existing meeting procedures, he would need to send a proxy or be in attendance in order to have a statement or question presented during public question time.
“Given your inability to be here, and the short timeframe available now, I am happy to share a hardcopy of this email with the other Elected Members to assist them with their deliberations on this issue during the confidential section of tonight’s meeting,” the mayor said. “More broadly we are reviewing meeting procedures to consider more flexibility for remote input, especially in light of the COVID situation.”
Mr Lee told StreetWise it appeared Cr Sullivan may have jumped the gun when he apologised at the start of the January 19 council meeting where the confidential item was supposed to be discussed at the end of the meeting: “But that didn’t happen because it ran overtime and they pushed it to FPOL (February 9). So it appears he may have made statements referring to a confidential matter council had not yet discussed or deliberated on.”
StreetWise understands the external investigator’s recommendations against Cr Sullivan included the apology, training to be a better elected member and that the breach of the Code of Conduct be published on a City register detailing the complaint by Mr Lee.
As reported by StreetWise on October 10, 2021, Mr Lee wrote to the City after having received no response to his concerns over the impacts of Cr Sullivan’s behaviour: “Your appalling lack of engagement and obvious lack of concern for the ramifications of your failure to act is a disgusting indictment of the ‘leadership’ that Fremantle finds itself lumped with by default. The lack of leadership is abundantly clear from a walk through the empty streets of the CBD, stepping over used syringes and human excrement and while local businesses continue to struggle, functionaries such as yourself find time to instead prioritise planting trees and waxing lyrical about the Civic Centre’s new lawn.”
Bob’s backstory at www.streetwisemedia.com.au/kick-in-the-shins-for-freo-shoe-icon.