Forum –
Why are we proceeding with the futile and ill-judged referendum on the number of councillors required for our city?
This seems to have been some kind of pet hobbyhorse for Administrator Persson, since I know of nobody else who sees any value in the exercise.
Pointless as it is, it might have passed muster, if conducted as part of a general election campaign in September.
However, now that there will be no election until September 2022, this stand-alone effort is nothing but an unwarranted expense, at a time of fiscal austerity, and an intrusion on Central Coast ratepayers.
Since there will be no general election, how will this referendum be conducted, will voting be compulsory, and what will be the effect of the vote, regardless of the outcome?
Elected councillors can decide, at any time, to alter the makeup of the Council, so any opinion uncovered by the referendum can only be advisory, and, without any rationale being advanced for the proposal, what message will it convey to the next Council, when it eventually meets?
Is it too late for our Administrator Mark 3 to cancel this unnecessary distraction, at a time when we should be focussing on the critical issues that the city is facing?
Let us get our financial house in order, before we start debating the optimal number of representatives that we need to manage our affairs.
Furthermore, if the question is going to be debated, let it be a full and open discussion, not the arbitrary suggestion of one person who hasn’t even hung around to support his position.
Incidentally, the suggestion by Dennis Silvers that our financial woes should be borne by those who caused them (“Hard to sustain growth with a 43 per cent rate rise”, CCN 292) is exactly right.
Those who voted the councillors in are responsible and they should own up and make good the damage that the rest of us have suffered through no fault of our own.
I didn’t vote for any of the nincompoops I was saddled with and have the right to feel fully aggrieved at those who put them in office.
Email, May 18
Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy