Four former mayors, six other former councillors and two former MPs are among 77 candidates standing in the upcoming Central Coast Council election.
They include some that were at the helm during the failed and costly amalgamation, as well as the ‘sacking’ of the Council due to its financial crisis, which led to 13 councillors being suspended (and ultimately sacked) by the State Government.
At the time it was estimated that (the council was) $89M in deficit, with no cash to pay its staff.
How are these ex-councillors allowed to throw their hats back in the ring?
While they may argue that they have experience, we can argue that they are experienced in dragging our region into shame, our roads into disrepair and decimating services due to the lack of funds as a result of their previous mismanagement and incompetence.
Yet no-one was held accountable and our rates increased by 15 per cent to claw back the debt.
I implore you – look at who the candidates are in your ward and who should be elected to decide on the future of the Central Coast.
Remember – councils are responsible for three main issues – roads, rates and rubbish.
Forget all the other grandstanding on social and politically-correct platforms; leave that to the state and federal politicians.
Don’t allow former councillors to repeat the sins of the past.
Email, Aug 29
Lisa Andrews, Lake Munmorah
Hi Lisa,
I’m on the same page as you and still can’t believe no-one was held accountable. I’m in the Wyong electorate. How can I check if any of the current candidates were in office at the sacking of the council?
Hard to believe the hide of these former councillors nominating themselves again.
Do they not acknowledge the mess they left behind that an Administrator spent years cleaning up.
Showing up at polling booths smiling. Obviously, they think voters are mugs.
The former Councillors have not been banned from nominating for the Council election. There was an Inquiry into the Council’s financial management after the Councillors were suspended. The Councillors were not held responsible for the Council’s mismanagement. The biggest problem was that the Council did not have a professional financial manager in a position that was responsible for the overall management of its finances for at least a year. The other problem was that money was transferred between the CC Water Corporation and the Council’s General Fund to fund Council’s operating costs.