Very Worrying Signs for Fraser Coast Regional Council
Jim MacKellar ponders the meaning behind the words the Mayor used in comments to the Fraser Coast Chronicle last month.
I have finally had time to fully digest the Mayor’s comments in the paper (FCC 20JAN10) and I find them much more disturbing the more they are understood.
The first half of the article has the Mayor describing a consistent and worrying interference in the free flow of information to the Councillors. He even mentions the possible negative effects this interference may be having (most probably is) on the morale of the officers who write the reports. But then he says, “But at this point I am not going to do anything because I’ve got a couple of other problems to take care of first”. Which raises a couple of concerns. Firstly, can the Mayor only deal with one issue at a time? If this is so it is no wonder that he is not being pro-active in his role. He is far too busy trying to catch up.
Secondly, is the issue of priorities. A Council makes decisions giving primary consideration to the information presented to it by the qualified staff. If there is consistent interference in the flow of information, with the intent of influencing the decisions made, all the Councillors should be gravely concerned. Any interference with the integrity of the reports must have an end effect on the integrity of the decisions Council is making.
Thus the Mayor is saying that he has a couple of other problems that are of greater importance than ensuring the integrity of the decision making process. How drastic must these problems be?
“What I really want to do is get the Councillors motivated,” the Mayor then goes on to say. Get the Councillors motivated? The inference is that we have a Council made up of elected members who are not motivated. Is it the Mayor’s job to motivate the Councillors? I think not. The paid staff may need to be motivated during difficult times but Councillors should come as a fully motivated package from day 1 to day stop.
These are not teenagers or members of the local footy team. They are well paid representatives of the people who put themselves forward for the position with a full understanding of all it entails. Everyone of them was an experienced Councillor when they stood for election.
The only possible reasonable excuse for lack of motivation is that they realize that they have been almost totally sidelined by the executive and have become only figureheads of Council to rubber stamp the executives decisions. If this is the case then they need to get together as a team and fix the problem, because they are the only people who can fix it. The solution lies in their hands, do they have the courage to grasp it?
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:42 am
The only “worrying signs for the Fraser Coast” is the fact that 10 or 12 years of public complacency has finally caught up with us.
This council is little better or worse than preceeding councils, the big difference is the financial climate. There is an old saying that “a stitch in time saves nine”. Past councils have ignored this, as have the electorate, we have let things slide and now we are on the slippery slope of our own making.
The cynic in me suggest the next 5 to 10 years are going to be rough and whingeing is not going to help.