Paul Pisasale (left) presents Steve Potts with an award for diligence. He said that on one occasion, Mr Pisasale had stayed there with a young Asian woman he had asked him to collect in the mayoral car from an apartment building in the Brisbane CBD. Mr Potts described a similar pattern of events on each visit to the apartments. "I would pick up the key at reception and have it ready for Paul, no questions asked," he said. "There was no paperwork. I was never asked to sign anything. I just went in and said, 'do you have a key for Mr Pisasale?'."

Mr Potts said he had each time passed the key to Mr Pisasale later the same evening and taken him back to Kangaroo Point, by which time the reception desk at the apartments was closed. Mr Zenonos told Fairfax Media he had allowed Mr Pisasale to use one of the apartments, which cost up to $275 a night, but denied the then-mayor had ever stayed overnight. "He got changed there but he never stayed there," he said. "The mayor has asked me to get changed there and I've gladly let him get changed in a room that's dirty so it didn't affect my occupancy or it didn't affect anything. "He does a lot of work in Brisbane so I had no problem giving him a dirty room to get changed or have a shower or whatever he needed to do."

However, Mr Potts said the mayor had in each instance given instructions, as he was dropped off, for the driver to pick him up at the apartments early the following morning. He also cast doubt on Mr Zenonos's claim to have only provided "dirty" rooms. "I took his duffel bag up to a room on one occasion and put his stuff in a wardrobe. It was a serviced room. It was clean," Mr Potts said. Mr Potts said Mr Pisasale had asked him on one visit to stop first to pick up a young Asian woman from the Gardens Apartments in Alice Street in Brisbane, subsequently dropping them both at the Kangaroo Point complex. "No one said anything in the car," Mr Potts said. "I don't think the woman spoke English."

Mr Potts said Mr Pisasale had been alone when he came out of the apartments the following morning. Mr Zenonos made a total of $1.2 million in the past two years by reselling undeveloped land formerly owned by Ipswich council. A former fruit shop owner, he bought two sites, at Stuart Street in Goodna and Nimmo Street, Booval, from council-owned property company Ipswich City Developments within weeks of the council transferring them to ICD in late 2014. Mr Zenonos paid $477,000 for the Goodna site in December 2014 and sold it 13 months later to another developer for $1.32 million. Three months after that sale, council approved the development application, for 41 town houses, in March 2015.

Mr Zenonos sold the Booval site in January 2017 for just under $1.2 million – making a profit of $387,000. The council approved a plan for 18 townhouses on the site, a former council depot, in December 2015. Construction has yet to start at either location. Both developments have faced local opposition. In August 2015, council chief executive Jim Lindsay defended the Booval scheme in a local media report, saying a council zoning decision in 1999 meant there was no requirement for the developer to notify neighbouring property owners. Mr Pisasale has defended the Goodna scheme in local media. Mr Pisasale was a director of Ipswich City Developments from its creation in 2013 until he resigned the post on June 12. The chairman of ICD is now acting mayor Paul Tully, councillor for the division of the city that covers Goodna. Mr Lindsay and council chief financial officer Andrew Roach are also directors.

Ipswich City Council said ICD had found Mr Zenonos after it hired a consulting firm, Ranbury Management Group, to conduct a "market sounding process designed to identify interested parties" at the two sites. "After the process was completed, separate development applications were lodged to council and assessed by city planners in accordance with normal council procedure," a spokesman said. "Land was sold under market conditions of the time, and under due process which ICD considered to be good business practice. Councillors are updated on company matters at regular intervals, however this was a company decision." The council declined to provide details of the book values at which the sites were transferred to ICD. It did not respond to questions about any disclosures by Mr Pisasale or any other councillor of any conflict of interest during any decision-making in council regarding the sites. Ratepayers and the media are unable to obtain documents relating to Ipswich City Developments because despite being owned by council, as a private company it is not subject to Right To Information laws.

As part of a widening investigation, the CCC has interviewed current and former council staff as it probes a range of allegations that Mr Pisasale misused council resources and abused his powers. Mr Zenonos said he would co-operate with the CCC if required. "Look, when they come I can let them know what happened," Mr Zenonos said. "If they come and they want to talk to me about that then I'll answer those questions." Mr Pisasale resigned as mayor on June 6, citing ill-health as it emerged he was under investigation by the CCC over an incident at Melbourne Airport in which he was found carrying $50,000 in cash.

Loading He is currently on bail over a separate charges including one count of extortion. Mr Pisasale has failed to respond to repeated requests for comment or to detailed questions sent for his attention to his lawyer, Glen Cranny.