A previous councillor was asked at a recent ‘meet the candidate’ meeting why we should vote for him since he was the cause of the council going into administration.
The candidate rightly pointed out that the problem was much greater than the previous councillors being the cause and explained that they had not been given the information by senior management or the CEO of the then Council.
This explanation goes right to the heart of this election of councillors for the new council.
There seems to be a belief on the part of some of the nominees that they are going to change the world if elected.
The administrator and current CEO have at many meetings recently gone to great pains to address this; it does not seem to have been taken on board.
The role of a councillor is to make sure that the management of the council is being conducted in (an appropriate) way.
This is done by questioning the directors and CEO at the monthly meeting and between times if necessary so that all actions taken by the CEO and directors are in the interest of the ratepayers.
Instead we often see councillors not fulfilling their role, grandstanding and wasting time.
The current position is that the financial affairs of Central Coast Council are such that we do not have the resources to be embarking on grandiose schemes such as some of the new nominees seem to be suggesting.
There is a huge debt which needs to be paid off and the State Government seems to have the attitude that they would rather give any money to the Hunter Development Corporation than to Council.
Ratepayers should think carefully as to who they vote for in September because they are the ones putting the very people into power who may well be the cause of continuing problems.
Email, August 19
Geoff Mitchell, Kariong