The predictable outcome of the State Government public inquiry is superficial and will do nothing to fix the root cause of the Council’s management problems (“Public Inquiry Report Released” CCN Issue 334).
There have been no councillors now for 16 months, yet these underlying problems continue to manifest themselves in on-going gaffes, mismanagement, inefficiency, and rate hikes well in excess of what is needed to repay debts from the financial crisis.
The “not so public” inquiry was hastily convened by State Government to head off a genuinely independent judicial inquiry that 22,000 petitioned for.
The Terms of Reference were near exclusively focused on the role of councillors.
Whilst councillors certainly share responsibility for what has happened, it is very revealing that none of the executives who kept their jobs despite the financial crisis were asked to appear and answer questions in the public hearings.
State Government, and the Council administrators it has appointed, have been spinning a narrative from day one, namely that local democracy has failed on the Central Coast.
This narrative conveniently exempts current Council and State Government bureaucrats from any accountability, whilst paving the way for rate hikes based on the flawed argument that local people must pay for the failure of their own local democracy.
It is no surprise that this State Government inquiry has pretty much stuck to that narrative, but its recommendations do nothing to fix the Council’s underlying problems and management culture.
The report therefore provides no closure for a community that continues to face rate hikes and poorer services from a self-interested bureaucracy that treats its customers as its enemies.
Email, Mar 18
Kevin Brooks, Bensville