Logan City Council and Logan Ratepayers Association have clashed over whether a 2022 flood-mapping decision was abandoned without then-mayor Darren Power or other councillors being told.
Logan Ratepayers Association president Brett Raguse says Right to Information documents show then-councillors Jon Raven, Mindy Russell and Miriam Stemp and two senior officers knew by April 2022 that a flood-map amendment was no longer progressing.
“The questions are no longer whether Jon Raven and senior council officers knew,” Mr Raguse said.
“The documents clearly indicate that they did.”
A Logan City Council spokesperson rejected that interpretation.
“Claims that a confidential meeting was held in April 2022 to decide not to implement a council resolution are incorrect,” the spokesperson said.
“The project board could not make, change or overturn council resolutions.”
The council voted in February 2022 to prepare a minor amendment to its flood-hazard overlay maps.
An internal Logan Plan 2025 Project Board presentation in April 2022 is said to describe the amendment as “not progressing now”.
Logan Ratepayers Association says the resolution had effectively been abandoned and that then-mayor Darren Power and other councillors were not told.
The Logan City Council spokesperson says the wording was a project-status update and did not record a decision to cancel the resolution.
“References in project board material to the minor amendment ‘not progressing’ reflected project status updates and did not constitute a council decision,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said an August 2023 council report recommended using a Temporary Local Planning Instrument, or TLPI, instead.
The spokesperson said the report stated the minor amendment could update mapping based on local flood studies but could not introduce the broader risk-based policy being developed.
The spokesperson said the report recorded an August 2022 workshop, two May 2023 workshops and individual meetings with councillors about the proposed maps.
“The former mayor and councillors were briefed on several occasions on the required transition to risk-based flood mapping,” the spokesperson said.
The council spokesperson says Mr Power moved the August 2023 motion endorsing the TLPI pathway and repealing the earlier decision.
According to Logan Ratepayers Association, Mr Power claims he was unaware of the April meeting and was never told the February resolution had effectively been abandoned.
Mr Raguse said residents expected council decisions to be implemented or returned to council.
“This is about governance, transparency and accountability,” he said.
“When a council passes a lawful resolution, residents expect that decision will either be implemented or brought back to council for reconsideration — not quietly abandoned.”
Logan Ratepayers Association committee member and former mayor John Freeman said Cr Raven should stand aside if an investigation found he knew the resolution was not being implemented and chose not to act.
“If it is proven that Mayor Raven was aware of this non-implementation and chose to do nothing, we expect him to stand down immediately pending a full investigation,” Mr Freeman said.
Logan Ratepayers Association has called for an independent Queensland Government investigation.
The council says its records show the resolution was formally repealed and information was not withheld from elected representatives.
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