Despite an election still being a year away a social media storm has erupted between Queanbeyan councillors highlighting an ever-growing chasm among the ranks.
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Councillors and Queanbeyan's former general manager have taken to Facebook to publicly air grievances, in particular about a recent council decision to look at transferring funds from the park upgrade to a cinema project.
On Queanbeyan mayor Tim Overall's personal Facebook page, where he has more than 1500 friends, including media representatives, other councillors and members of the community, one post has garnered more than 70 'likes'.
The post in part reads: "My personal opinion is for some councillors to try to backflip on this commitment on the basis of erroneous suggestions of revisiting finances and other dubious assertions is a slap in the face to the community."
The post was met by a series of comments, including one by former Queanbeyan City Council general manager Gary Chapman, which reads in part: "the council is being run by dumbasses".
The comment was in reference to a majority block of councillors that continually votes against the mayor.
Mr Chapman resigned from Queanbeyan City Council last November after several months of stress leave. He now holds a senior management position at Yass Valley Council.
He said he stood by his accusation.
"My view is unchanged, I think they are dumbasses but that is an acceptable term these days for outright stupidity."
Yass Valley Council refused to comment on the remarks, or on information that complaints have been made to the council about Mr Chapman's conduct on social media.
On the Queanbeyan Age Facebook site, a post about the council decision had attracted more than 110 comments, including personal attacks indicating rifts between councillors.
Mayor Tim Overall said despite the public stoush, "council in general, overall is working well".
"Where the issues arise, and there has really been two which have caused the dissension, is where a narrow majority of councillors have failed to act in the community interest and overturning commitments to the community that are built into our four-year delivery plan," he said.
The feud erupted following a meeting of Queanbeyan City Council in August. A notice of motion was put forward by Cr Jamie Cregan to halt further spending on the CBD and park upgrades and divert the money into a cinema project.
A majority of councillors voted against the mayor to carry the motion. Cr Overall and three other councillors rescinded it the next day.
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Cr Cregan said the fallout from the decision had been played out over social media.
"None of these things have been discussed privately and why they chose to do it publicly like they have is beyond reason," Cr Cregan, who had also weighed into the Facebook debate, said.
He confirmed he had lodged a complaint with Yass Valley Council and the Office of Local Government about the former general manager.
Several councillors have expressed their anger over the feud, referring to it as political game playing 12 months out from the next local election.
Queanbeyan City Council general manager Peter Tegart refused to comment.
