Apologies for slightly repetitive post but major issues still un-resolved. I'll do a 'TBW review' post each weekend.
Also, the 'Blog Statistics' with view numbers, post stats, audience and search terms, etc, tells me that I'm big in Japan, Indonesia, Croatia, China, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq, Colombia, India, Pakistan, Poland, Brazil, Germany, France, Russia, Serbia, Greece, the USofA, the United Kingdom, and lil'ol' Australia...amongst others...seriously...
Apparently my blog is being read, at least some of the posts, across the globe...bizarre...oh, and a big shout-out to DeGaris Lawyers, Piper Alderman Lawyers, and the Education Dept, all of whom apparently read my blog...
But I digress; during the week I had the distinct pleasure of explaining to some-one the situation with the $12+million Main Corner and how it has been handed free of charge - no rent, no bills, no nothing - to Sorrentos Cafe which is Lachlan Mutton who is Councillors Des Mutton's son...she was thrilled...as people always are when they find out the reality...
And I remember Mutton Jnr had the bare-faced audacity to go in the media and whinge about how he had to pay for his own plates and stuff...boo shrekin' hoo...you can almost taste the sense of self-entitlement...gets given a brand new ratepayer funded commercial kitchen in a brand new ratepayer funded function facility, and a Council supplied captive audience/clientele, and he still wants to whinge about it...deadset....oh, and we're paying all Lachlan's bills at the Main Corner too; gas, electricity, etc.
How is it appropriate for City Council to spend vast sums of rate-payers money to build commercial premises for their children and/or mates?...and are the costs of running the Commercial Function/Kitchen facility included in the $624,000 pa operating cost of the Main Corner...there must be an Inquiry, particularly before Council is allowed to proceed with anymore spending...
Council continues to neglect fundamental services and responsibilities, and repeatedly try to support and/or justify this with already proven deceits. As per previous posts, their conduct with the Rail Lands Retail Agenda is indicative as much as directive...(whaaa?-Ed)...Council's behaviour and decisions are typified by the Rail Lands Site issue, as much as their obsession with massive Retail Development on that site directs (has directed) all of their planning and development decisions.
Pulling down a building for a walkway that already exists 40 feet away, pulling up the appropriate small, dark pavers to replace with completely in-appropriate large grey ones (including $40,000+ for a Tile Laying Machine specifically for that job); replacing posts all along Keegan Drive - why? - but leaving hacked down trees and rubbish strewn about at run-down lookouts, etc...these are the acts of a Council that has run out of ideas, is desperately keen to be seen to be doing something, and/or needs to create some controversy to hide all the other malfeasance and/or incompetence...Red Herring politics
I am very concerned with the tone of the debate as it appears in TBW re the Council's 2012/13 Budget...it appears Council is using it's influence to promote postponing their November 2011 $10million Rail Lands Parkland Concept.
Comments in the Editorial 14/05/13;
"There is no point spending millions of dollars of ratepayer's money if they become just
another disused garden park."
and the long letter from Bill Barrows 16/05/13;
"Mr Barrows said council should halt redevelopment of the rail corridor to help reduce
council's rate burden on the community. "The rail lands don't need to be done now - it
is easy for councillors to put rates up, but the impact on the community must be considered.
It is in my opinion not justifiable."......."
show that the push is on to shelf developing the $10m RLPC, and it' all so obvious...
Council sets up a ludicrous Budget with multiple projects that naturally people rail against, set up the Rail Lands as a waste of money, and it sits there like wasteland for another 8 years, or, and far more likely, it will be sold to fund the other debts and/or projects with the threat/reward that 'if we sell the Rail Lands we won't have to put your rates up...quite so much.'
Perhaps Mr Barrows could approach Council and The Border Watch and get them to explain the $350,000 missing/stolen from the Main Corner project by former CEO Greg Muller...(and perhaps the Von Stanke letter thing-Ed)...yes, good idea...(and the pool thing...and the bus thing-Ed)...yes, quite...(and the Lady Nelson Bus Shelter farce-Ed)...yes, indeed...
Please review my previous posts re the Rail Lands Retail Agenda which explains Council's absolute and clearly un-relenting commitment to Retail on the Rail Lands.
I believe that the 'propaganda' side of it looms when these positions and/or this agenda get full stories and pictures, etc, yet the opposing views get bit piece coverage in 'Letters to the Editor'.
May I please claim a 'retrospective I Told You So' with the 'Letter to the Editor' from Andrew Lang of World Bioenergy re Biomass TBW 17/05/13;
"I urge the Mount Gambier council along with other regional South Australian councils to
send some councillors and council officers to one of the regular conferences or workshops
providing practical information on bioenergy economics and technologies that are held
across Europe every year...The relatively small cost of sending these people should be
recouped many fold...."
When this was mentioned in Council's meeting in March 2013, I said to myself, because I was literally the only person there, that this is the set-up for a rate-payer funded junket to Europe for corrupt Councillors...hitch the cash-cow (that's you and me) to the Gravy Train, and choohoowhoooooo...we're off on a Scandinavian holiday courtesy of ratepayers...
Why does City Council have any business going anywhere to do anything? They can't do the fundamental things properly like provide and maintain public Bus Shelters and/or services...and it's not good enough to say that public transport is not Council's responsibility, and/or "is not cost effective, therefore un-warranted", etc.
Time and again Councillors like Merv White trot out this 'justification' when it suits them in opposing something they personally don't want to do, and completely ignore the exact same issue if it gets in the way of what they do want to do, eg, no to a covered pool vs yes for the Main Corner.
Park and Stride: Virtually no public response other than disbelief that Councillors and/or staffers who get rate-payer funded cars and/or reserved parking right next to their workplace, would be so stupid as tell others that they need to park one place and walk everywhere...in the rain, baking heat, with children and/or shopping, etc.
Also, I have been swamped with a barrage of allegations about the conduct of Mayor Steve Perryman in his position as a motel operator, allegations that appear to have hit The Border Watch 17/05/13 with the article about a motel operator charging massively increased rates during the 'Generations in Jazz'.
I will put these very specific 'complaints' in a letter to him, and post the letter as well. Due to his position as Mayor, Mr Perryman is obliged to a higher level of conduct, let alone maintaining basic legal standards.
But the crowning glory for the week, buried on page 7 TBW 17/05/13, a small anonymous article of 80 words "Finnigan ordered to court". Please read previous posts re Bernard Finnigan, and join me in asking why it is that TBW has literally a dozen pages, including Front Pages, for horse racing, but a critical and damning piece of legal/judicial bastardry that involves a senior local politician, and shows all of us exactly what we are as a society, gets a brief mention buried deep...
I'm not a bad person because I wanted to go to the races and just scream at them, "What the shrek is wrong with you people?'...and I'm not a good person because I didn't...(unfortunately, that makes perfect sense-Ed)
Maybe, just maybe, I'm a little bit too clever for myself...(yes, 'cause that's the problem-Ed)...yes, thankyou...and The Border Watch is actually seeking to genuinely promote the debate rather than manipulate it...there is a big difference...
In such a closed and officially vindictive community people tend to not speak out...unless provoked by, say, an article praising the paving, or one explaining how much the Main Corner fiasco is costing per day with no hope of recovery (although I think TBW continually under-quotes the building cost).
Consider The Advertiser's reportage, or rather lack of, on the Forestry Sale issue, and the extensive and diverse coverage in The Border Watch. I have been seethingly critical of TBW but never forget that where the entire Adelaide media flatly refuses to touch the St Martins Lutheran School Cover-up, at least TBW has done some coverage...some...
I do this blog not least of all to address this intense official pressure to comply or suffer the consequences, and to address the bias and deceit pouring from Council via The Border Watch, but in my every criticism of the paper is the genuine belief that The Border Watch is a critically important piece of social infrastructure, and that makes it encumbent of the paper to do it's best for the community...every time on every subject...
If I can try so hard, so can they...
Tomorrow: The Federal Election We Had To Have
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