To: Mr Peter Yannopoulos
We acknowledge receipt of your recent correspondence and appreciate the time you have taken to share your views.
We are pleased to see a stated desire for the Forum to improve its consultation and communication with the community. Constructive input is always valuable and can contribute to a more transparent and representative process.
However, you are currently the applicant for a major modification opposed by several neighbouring residents who have raised serious concerns. In that context, your repeated use of threats and false accusations undermines your claim of wanting to help improve community consultation.
This pattern of conduct is not new. Following Council’s stop-work order related to an unauthorised demolition, the Forum Committee received an email from you on 23 November 2020 stating:
“You think you might be doing the right thing for your community, but all you’re doing is delaying the inevitable. Don’t waste my time any further. 48 hours. Otherwise this becomes something much more time-consuming for you I can assure you.”
Four days later, a second email included the following statements:
“I’m not sure if you understand how to read… Instead of being pests and disrupting / slowing down our process, encourage people to discuss their issues with us before making it public… We can either work with you, or you can make us an enemy. The choice is yours.”
These communications, combined with your recent Facebook comment expressing an intention to “dismantle them [the Committee] piece by piece”, which you later amended, and the tone of your most recent letter, which includesconditional offers to drop litigation in exchange for retractions and apologies, demonstrate a continuation of the same approach.
On the morning after the recent Forum meeting, you also called for support on Facebook for a young woman who claimed she had been silenced at the meeting, even though she spoke only after it had ended. In a detailed critique of the Forum that morning Ms Batchelor repeated many of your own talking points, and promoted your survey, despite admitting she had not previously heard of the Forum. In calling for support of “that woman” you failed to disclose your business connection with Ms Batchelor, who had sat next to you at the meeting and left with you afterwards.
Such correspondence and conduct cannot reasonably be characterised as constructive engagement.
The use of pressure, threats, or attempts to coerce the Committee is inconsistent with the principles of good faith and respect that underpin the operation of Community Consultative Bodies.
In the spirit of openness and transparency you have called for, we would encourage you to engage with the community and the Forum in the same good faith and civility you are asking of others. The Forum remains committed to respectful dialogue about how it can best represent the residents and ratepayers of Berry.
However, it is essential that this dialogue occur without threatening behaviour from individuals who hold a direct commercial interest in development matters currently before Council. We look forward to any future communication proceeding on that basis, free from intimidation, personal attacks, or perceived conflicts of interest.
The Berry Forum Committee