But a Fire and Rescue NSW compliance team found a duct that links Pesce’s venue to a chimney on the rooftop was “not fire rated” in a report forwarded to the council in December. Pesce said this week that he was unaware of that report,though he conceded that the local certifier who approved the work has since been the subject of disciplinary action by NSW Fair Trading for his work on unrelated jobs. The chimney dispute is ongoing.

Privately,Pesce has told friends of his frustration at critics within the Sutherland community and suggested some people are jealous of his success and the wealth he has built.

“I feel like I’m getting punished because I’ve worked hard in my life,” he said.

Public records suggest companies controlled by Pesce or in which he is a joint director hold 13 properties,and members of his family own several more in the Shire. These are in addition to the family home in Taren Point and other assets such as the mayor’s car fleet.

A previous Pesce family home featured a capacious garage with a hydraulic platform allowing eight vehicles to be stacked across two decks,but the mayor’s classic car collection is now mostly locked in storage.

“It’s not the best look for a mayor to be driving a Bentley,” he said.

The confidential rezoning plan being developed by the council is still under discussion and not yet public,but is understood to include housing density increases,allowing building heights of up to 20 metres,affecting parts of 13 suburban blocks between the Kingsway – one of the Shire’s major thoroughfares – and Cronulla golf course. If enacted,it could lead to a development bonanza with potentially thousands of new apartments constructed near the beach.

In absence of Pesce and Hassan Awada,another Liberal councillor who declared a conflict of interest due to property ownership in the area,the proposal to increase zoning in north Cronulla was put forward by Deputy Mayor Carol Provan.

Only independent councillor Leanne Farmer voted against the proposal in the confidential session,but she would not discuss the details because of the confidential nature of the council meeting. “My voting record speaks for itself,” Farmer said.

The north Cronulla site where Pesce owns units already carries some high-density provisions thanks to an earlier council rezoning so it is unclear whether he will benefit,and he has no plans to cash in,he said. “I’m not a property developer,” he said.

Pesce bought the north Cronulla apartments in the early 2000s under the name Carmelo Violi from the family company of a business associate,Robert Giardini.

Giardini came to public notice a decade ago when he trademarked the names “Save Our Shire” and “Protect Our Shire” and warned an anti-high-rise development residents’ group that was using the same names to stop or face legal action. Media reports of the case didn’t mention that Giardini was co-director of a company with Pesce,and a political donor to one of his council election campaigns. Pesce said he was unaware of that spat at the time,though he subsequently heard of it.

The registered address of Giardini’s trademarked business names is the headquarters of LCI Partners,an accounting,financial advisory and property development group that sponsored the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks rugby league club.

The nondescript office in Church Street,Parramatta,is the hub of a network of registered companies and people deeply involved in property development in the Shire and elsewhere in the state.

All Pesce’s businesses are registered there with his accountant Gerardo Incollingo,who is managing partner of the LCI group of businesses along with chairman Frank Cavasinni,a businessman who was behind a so-far unsuccessful bid to build new coal-fired power stations in the Hunter Valley in 2019 with Chinese “belt and road” money.

Pesce and Incollingo met as teenagers when the pair were taking karate classes. They owned a racehorse named Trip of Fame together,along with several other Shire businessmen including Giardini and Cronulla Sharks chairman Dino Mezzatesta - who is co-director of a company with Pesce and,separately,an investor in Sutherland property development sites with Incollingo.

LCI Property,of which Incollingo is listed as the sole shareholder,has acted as development manager in five major residential apartment projects in Sutherland Shire in partnership with other development companies. “Gerry has a knack of bringing in people and putting together deals,” said a source familiar with LCI.

Incollingo said he was always scrupulous in declaring associations with Pesce and other Shire councillors with whom he has had personal dealings.

Property developers are forbidden from making donations to political parties at local and state government level in NSW. A developer is classified as someone whose business is “mainly concerned with the residential and commercial development of land” and has a relevant application pending,or has had three determined in the past seven years.

“I want to be very clear about that – very clear that we don’t make any donations to Carmelo in any way,” Incollingo said.

When reminded of electoral documents that show a donation from LCI Partners to Pesce’s election campaign in 2008,Incollingo said:“I don’t think I was doing any developing in 2008. It was purely accountancy at that stage.

“Any DA that we’ve lodged through LCI Property we’ve declared any association,” Incollingo said. “There’s definitely no conversation between Carmelo and I about rezoning. I don’t think I’ve got any uplift in any of my properties (due to council rezoning).”

Pesce said he was not fully aware of Incollingo’s development activities. “That’s another division of his company. He’s my accountant.”

It is unlikely that Incollingo’s earnings as accountant outstrip his income from property development given he is currently suspended from practising after being found to have backdated a trust deed for developer Charlie Demian.

Federal police raided the Parramatta office of LCI Partners in 2017,according to a 2018 judgment by Justice Anna Katzmann in the Federal Court.

Material seized by police showed that documents provided by Incollingo to the Tax Office on behalf of Demian were dated 2003,but the metadata showed they were created in 2015.

Incollingo was not charged with any crime and the case settled but the Tax Practitioners Board found Incollingo had knowingly obstructed tax laws ”by supplying the ATO with documents that had been backdated to substantiate already lodged income tax returns.”

Incollingo said he was working to put the episode behind him and his long-term clients knew he had a history of honest practice.

“Once you look after one person they speak to their friends,” he said. “The Shire’s a very small place.”

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