General News
11 November, 2025
Fiery exchange over APA club treatment
A HEATED exchange has erupted in Tablelands Regional Council over the way the organisation is dealing with some of its community groups and not-for-profit clubs.
The exchange between Cr Kevin Cardew and chief executive officer Nikola Stepanov started after he questioned why the council had been unable to seal a new lease for Atherton Performing Arts (APA) even though the council had passed a resolution to do so 11 months ago.
The group has been occupying the old Silo Road theatre for more than four decades but needs to sign a new lease to remain in the premises.
Last December, council rescinded a resolution to dispose of the theatre building and, instead, appoint APA as the new trustee of the reserve and enter into a new sub-lease.
But according to Cr Cardew, “12 months down the track and nothing’s happened”, leaving members of the group to contact him.
“They are extremely upset – I have members of the group crying to me over the phone because they can’t negotiate with council officers a lease which is what was promised to them in December last year,” he told the meeting.
But Dr Stepanov rejected his claims, saying the group had declined the trusteeship and had refused to sign two proposed leases because they contained terms and conditions that would have made the group responsible for insurance and maintenance of the old building.
“They said it would make them unviable,” she said.
The group was then offered a draft licence which would remove the financial burden but would not give them exclusive use of the building.
“They refused to sign two draft leases. I can’t give them more favourable terms than I would give every one of those 155 different groups that we have licenses or leases for,” Dr Stepanov said.
“They were offered a licence which doesn’t attract the significant financial burden of a lease, noting the condition of that building.
“For our leaseholders, they generally have to maintain those buildings and you can have a simple look at it – council needs to decide what it’s going to do with the building and then commit to spending a substantial amount of money to restore that building if it is going to do so.
“Councillors are completely aware of where we are sitting with our financial position and also the state of all of our buildings which number more than 800 so at this point of time, you have to look at which ones you are going to keep and pour money into those so they are maintained at a standard level.
“They (APA) cannot afford to maintain that building under a lease. That’s what they have said. It’s not my role to force someone or an organisation to sign something that they say they cannot afford to sign.”
But Cr Cardew hit back, saying that “I would think that officers and CEO should have the skills to negotiate during the 11 months this has been going on and in accordance with council’s direction, you would have the skills to provide them with an acceptable lease”.
Mayor Rod Marti said it was “not wise” to have the discussion in an open forum and backed the CEO, saying she was acting in council’s best interest and to trust her to do the job she was employed to do.
But Cr Cardew was determined to get answers as to why the lease had not been provided, and also drew attention to the council’s recent decision to reject any rates concession for two local clubs who will now have to fork out thousands of dollars more. (see Page 4)
“I am appalled at the way this has been handled. I am appalled with the way we are dealing with the not-for-profit organisations in our community,” he said.
“I am embarrassed to be a councillor in a council when we go through and deal with our not-for-profits (like this) – we saw what happened last council meeting, the outrage in the community out there with the junior rugby league and sailing club and now the APA…it’s not good Mr Mayor.”
But the CEO hit back, describing his comments as “completely inappropriate”.
“I want to go on the public record – I reject any suggestion that (the officer) and I have acted in any way that is appalling,” she said.
“I reject any suggestion that our officers have not treated these organisations with the utmost respect and used our skills and knowledge to reach an agreement that is consistent with the community’s interest.
“I absolutely reject that and find your statements deeply offensive, not just for me but for staff.”
With raised voices, the pair continued the exchange until there was silence, when the Mayor ended the discussion with: “Right”.
