But first, a topical joke in very poor taste re. beef/horse/donkey meat contamination; Why are French cannibals the toughest? Because they'll eat you and the horse you rode in on.
A less humourous joke; when City Council votes on anything to do with the Main Corner Project, there is a mass exodus (cue Bob Marley), a (sing it) 'movement of the people', with all the Councillors whom have a conflict of interest, including Mayor Steve Perryman, running for the door, if not quite leaving the building...uh, thankyou, thankyou very much. (yes, that's The Eagles and Elvis)
On numerous occasions these exodi (plural?) are accompanied by Councillors cracking jokes across the chamber about 'so many of them are leaving because they have a conflict of interest that they might not have enough left for a quorum'; Mayor + 10 Councillors = quorum of minimum 6 Cr + Mayor needed for a legal vote, and anyone with a conflict of interest is not allowed to participate in that issue and/or vote.
Council has completely trashed this process in a series of meetings/votes that I would suspect are largely not legal, eg, after repeatedly ramming through massive, costly commercial expansions of the MCP, two of the final 'tenderers' were Mayor Steve Perryman and Cr Des Mutton's son, Lachlan Mutton, co-owner of Sorrentos, the successful 'bidder'; please read other blogs re Main Corner Project.
Councillors weren't laughing so hard when their December 2012 meeting descended into high farce over a Main Corner hiring issue; Crs Richardson and Maher were absent, and Steve Perryman and Biddie Tietz left the room to the usual chorus of hilarious quips about 'conflicts and quorums'; Byron Harfield took the Mayor's position, but Des Mutton remained seated.
Byron looked straight at Cr Mutton, then at me, but discussion began so I pointed at Cr Mutton from the Public gallery; still nothing happened, so I also quietly said , "What about him?" to which Cr Mutton who was sitting with his back to me, got up, said "Yes, I suppose I should leave", and walked out, as Byron chastised me for "pointing and calling out from the gallery."
All this brought giggles and muffled comments from the packed Visitors gallery, which intensified as Council made the realisation that they now only had 5 Councillors + the Mayor left, not enough for a quorum; not so bloody funny now: after several minutes the matter had to be passed on to the January meeting; it was an embarassing display in front of a packed Visitors gallery whom clearly knew what was going wrong in front of them.
At the January meeting Cr Maher gave a long explanation of as to why nobody needed to excuse themselves, they all sat there, they all voted, it was passed; how bizarre, how bizarre; one meeting the issue brings Council business grinding to a halt, and next month it's all fine; me thinks it stinks.
More concerning is the second December 2012 MCP issue heard 'In Confidence', where Steve Perryman and Des Mutton did leave the chamber, but Biddie Tietz somehow no longer had a conflict of interest and remained in the Chamber meaning that there was a quorum; is this actually a legal vote?
This extraordinary conduct and fanatical obsession with the Main Corner Project are for other blogs, but the MCP is inextricably linked to every planning, development, and/or funding decision that Council makes, all of which are fundamentally compromised by the greed of a few people and their agenda to turn the Old Rail Lands site into a huge Retail/plaza extension of the current adjacent centre, also in other blogs.
This has driven Councillors to do everything they can to stop any development of the ORL site that in any way might compromise their personal agenda; and that brings us to Consultation.
In 2005/06, multiple submissions, media reports, and personal statements at meetings, proved beyond doubt that Mt Gambier wanted a 'Parkland' style public space on the ORL, with an all-weather bus terminal, but Council commissioned expensive plans for full Retail development and re-zoned the site to Retail; there was no plan for a parkland, and no permanent bus terminal on any plan.
During recent debate on the Bus Shelter issue, the public, the Chamber of Commerce, bus driver/owners, etc, all told Council they wanted a proper, centralised, all-weather terminal that offered all the services not available at the Lady Nelson; but Council responded with plans for a $500,000 'shade sail' at the Lady Nelson carpark.
Council flatly refused to consider the logic of spending that money on renovating the Old Rail Station and utilising all of the facilities and services immediately available in the shopping centre that are still not available with the 'shade sail', via roads that already exist; but they did suddenly drop the cost to $250,000 without explanation.
Council flatly refused to compromise their collective personal agenda for Retail on the ORL; they clearly have demolition in mind for the Old Station as part of the Retail expansion - it is right in the way - and are concerned that if it is renovated and the bus runs established through there, then it will prove impossible to shift.
Anyway, why renovate something you know you're trying to demolish?
There has been extensive alleged consultation over the Old Rail Lands and bus terminals over many years, and Council has demonstrated that it will continue to talk about 'public consultation' but actually do what ever is most beneficial for individual Councillors.
The current discussion from Council, trying to justify an expensive wall under the shade sail, is rife with hypocrisy as they trot out all the reasons that people told them initially were a problem, eg, weather direction and strong wind means no real cover, problems Council completely ignored when forcing through the Lady Nelson option: and there's the other missing $250,000 - for that wall.
Nepotism, corruption of process, mismanagement, incompetence, are all bad enough, but when Cr Mutton goes on the front page of The Border Watch Feb 12 2013, about the Old Hospital demolition, demands people get involved, and then criticises those who"...wait after it is set in concrete to complain" well that's just, pardon me, bollocks.
Councillors do what they want, when they want, for each other, with a definable disregard for what ratepayers think or how Council decisions affect the public; they don't give a stuff what the public go through to catch a bus, so long as it doesn't interfere with their own selfishness over the Old Rail Lands.
Tomorrow: Wind Turbines - Has The Spin Run Out Of Puff?
No comments:
Post a Comment