CUTTING the waiting time for ''coffees, pizzas and gelato'' is a key campaign pledge by Labor powerbroker Joe Tripodi, who is trying to win the presidency of the 27,000-strong Club Marconi in south-western Sydney.
But with the election only two days away, the powerbroker's behind-the-scenes involvement in a much smaller Italian community club is threatening to derail his bid.
The Calabria Community Club, a two-hectare paddock with a small house and just 70 members, is set to become an Italian-style forum, similar to the complex in Leichhardt.
The spoils of this potential $100 million development in Restwell Street, Prairiewood, has escalated into a feud among a who's who of the Labor-linked Italian community in the area, with lifelong allegiances in tatters.
A former club vice-president, the developer Pat Carbone, is now embroiled in a bitter dispute with his former friends Mr Tripodi and the club president, Rocco Leonello, a local Labor identity who worked as Mr Tripodi's policy adviser before he quit Parliament last year.
The financing of the deal, which has been organised by Mr Leonello through obscure companies and with little consultation, has ignited the war between club members, whose founders include the furniture moguls Nick Scali and Tony Brescia and the controversial businessmen Pat Sergi and Tony Labbozzetta.
Mr Carbone, who claims he was wrongly sacked from the board after raising doubts, said he had ''grave concerns'' about the deal.
''I want to know who stands to benefit from it and who is really is behind it,'' he told the Herald.
Mr Tripodi has been accused of pulling the strings behind the scenes, but he says he is being dragged into the dispute to discredit him before his election bid. ''Groups in the dispute have attempted many times to drag me into it to favour their argument,'' he said. ''I have not been involved and I do not wish to be involved.''
Mr Tripodi, the former member for Fairfield, has had a long-running interest in the Calabria Club. He was criticised in Parliament in 2006 for pushing for the rezoning of land owned by the club by Fairfield Council, while one of its directors, Mr Leonello, was on his staff.
After the rezoning in August, its value has risen from $2 million to $15 million. It has the potential to develop into a $100 million ''mini-city'', comprising hundreds of residential units, and restaurants and commercial space, and this is causing friction.
Board members have been alarmed at the secrecy behind the financing of the proposed development.
It was not until Mr Carbone snatched the contract from Mr Leonello that anyone knew that a deal had been done with two unknown companies, the CDT Group and Panbic.
What is more concerning to some club members are the terms of the deal, under which Panbic, which will lend the club $3 million, stands to make a windfall gain of $6.5 million.
The CDT Group's sole director and shareholder is Vietnamese-born The Cuoung Tran, a ragtrader with no experience in property development. Mr Tran, who according to Australian Securities and Investment Commission documents has three different birth dates, has not had great success with his businesses. All have been de-registered.
ASIC records indicate that rather than being a high-powered finance company, the second company, Panbic, has shares valued at $6 and its headquarters are in a run-down house in Marrickville owned by Huy Minh Tran, 41.
He has previously secured bank loans for Panbic by offering a seven-seater Subaru and two other vehicles as security. Another company in which Panbic was a shareholder failed in 2008 with debts of almost $3 million.
CDT's Mr Tran is a close relative of Huy Min Tran. The latter told the Herald they were introduced to the deal by TK Ly.
Tan Kein (''TK'') Ly is the secretary of the Cabramatta branch of the ALP, an organiser with the postal workers' union and a close ally of Mr Tripodi.
''TK won't move without Joe,'' one local Labor party figure said.
Mr Ly played down his relationship with Mr Tripodi, saying they were not close friends.
He said he was approached by Mr Leonello and the board to find investors.
''They're not a very big company, but they're very good people,'' he said of the Trans. ''This has nothing to do with politics. It's about good people trying to save the club.''
Mr Leonello said the board ''considered all available refinancing options and selected the one that best positions the club for the future''.
''We have every confidence in the financier and thank them for assisting our club when no other financier would,'' he said.
Mr Tripodi and Mr Leonello denied Mr Tripodi had attended board meetings, but said he had been at a meeting of directors at the request of Mr Carbone.
''I was invited once to conciliate [the] dispute,'' Mr Tripodi said. ''I was not successful.''
Mr Tripodi might be hoping for a better result at this Sunday's election at Club Marconi.
