Hello and welcome to the blog...and a continuation of the rabidly scathing appraising of the crassly corrupted manipulation of proper process that is Mt Gambier City Council...and I make no apology for the festering fury rupturing through yesterday's reviewing and duly present as follows...
I note that Wangaratta Council has been disbanded (by November 2013) for 'wasting $1.5million in one year'...(amateurs...Mt Gambier Council can waste that much before it gets out of bed each morning-Ed)...and issues of bullying and harassment that see the CEO (and other senior officials?) off on 'stress leave'...and a panel of administrators will run Council until the next elections in October 2016...this is clearly what needs to happen to the Mt Gambier City Council...
I spent 2 1/2 hours on Tuesday night watching these people carefully organise what appear to be mutually beneficial projects that will be paid for with public funds...Mayor Steve Perryman repeatedly leave the Chamber with a conflict of interest...Councillors constantly praising and thanking each other for doing the work they get paid to do...and all whilst unable to make my opinion known because if you say anything from the gallery you can be expelled, and I ain't givin' the bastards the satisfaction...
And if I hear one more person say "It takes a village to raise a child" I'm going to 'Christian Cuddle'* them 'til they can't stand up (*previous posts...and yes it is a poor attempt at humour, not a threat)...
But when it's said by Cr Jim Maher, yet again, in a Council meeting whilst self-congratulating Council about yet another pointless, indulgent 'Education Forum', held at (and probably catered for by?) the Main Corner Complex, then I can only assume that Cr Maher just doesn't understand how hurtful it is, the distress it causes, when he says it in front me, someone he knows is a parent who has been fighting for over a decade to get appropriate action about the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...
I genuinely don't think that Cr Maher is using this phrase specifically to try to upset and distress me, but he knows as well as anyone what has happened at St Martins and that my personal experience is that "It takes a village to cover-up the abuse of a class of seven year olds"...but what sort of village?...and Council are our 'village leaders'...
Upsetness Warning: What a screaming hypocrisy for Council to engage at all with Education and Social Inclusion, and the well-being of children, etc, and these vacuous 'getting the opinions of the children' forums, etc, and yet be completely, complicitly silent on the St Martins Issue...if one is Council's business then so must be the other...and which is more important?
I know I bang on about it in almost every post, but Mayor Perryman is absolutely, knowingly complicit in helping the Lutherans cover-up that abuse...and all of Council knows about St Martins...Cynicism Warning: so when I see/hear these people holding forth about the importance of nurturing children and listening to them and developing airy-fairy shrekin' programs for inclusion, etc, I just want to scream...so instead I do this...but I digress...
On Tuesday night I believe that Mayor Steve Perryman left the Chamber 3 times due to 'Conflict of Interest'...firstly due to the Tender for a new refuse truck; secondly re the Rail lands Clearance Tender; but it was the last one of the evening that is most concerning...when the debate turned to the Old Hospital Demolition Tender and the Laundry issue at that site...(with Cr Richardson and Smith absent, and Cr Biddie Shearing having left earlier)...
Mr Perryman remained in the Chamber whilst the laundry issue was debated and voted on...Cr Maher moved that the laundry area be demolished and that was defeated after Cr Mutton spent 5 minutes vehemently opposing it...then Cr Mutton immediately introduced his own motion to save and renovate the Laundry...Cr White made a grand little speech about how 'he was initially opposed but he would bow to the will of Council and now vote to save it' (paraphrase)...bollocks...and the motion was passed with an alleged costing of only $200,000...more bollocks...
Then the debate turned to the actual Demolition Tender, and Mayor Perryman cited a 'Conflict of Interest' due to some sort of "contract" and/or "accommodation" issues with "the Tenderer"...I'm sorry I can't be more specific, but he was muttering so I could not hear him clearly...regardless, he left the Chamber and the Tender was awarded to Adelaide based company McMahons.
I understand that Mr Perryman, as proprietor of the Presidential Motel, has some sort of 'agreement' with McMahons to provide accommodation services re the Demolition, and that this is the 'Conflict of Interest' that Mayor Perryman was referring to when he absented himself...
I am unaware of any tender process for this highly lucrative accommodation 'agreement', it has somehow just ended up with the Mayor's motel...and there is great conjecture as to how Mr Perryman came to be in an 'agreement' with the Tenderer before the Contract was voted on in Council...
Either Mr Perryman approached McMahons about that 'agreement' using his inside knowledge that they were Tendering, or they have, given the absence of an Accommodation Tender, gone directly to Mayor Perryman and offered and/or negotiated this 'agreement' whilst the Tender process was still under way...
It is not being slanderous or inappropriate or anything other than fact to say that this clearly inappropriate 'agreement' is either potentially Insider Trading (Mr Perryman approaches McMahons) or potentially Bribery (McMahons approaches Mayor Perryman).
I call on Mayor Perryman to explain how this extraordinary 'agreement' came into being and immediately renounce that Accommodation 'Agreement'...I'm sure that other providers would be more than happy to help Mr Perryman fulfil that lucrative 'agreement' by offering accommodation to the McMahons workers.
Furthermore, by awarding the Demolition Contract outside of Mt Gambier, Council has ensured that the $2million+ they borrowed in their last Budget, via doubling their own borrowing limit, will almost all leave Mt Gambier...bar the money McMahons spend at the Presidential...so that's most of the $2m+ cost (plus interest, it's borrowed) of ratepayers money leaving Mt Gambier, except for that which winds up in the Mayor's pocket...
Again I call on Mayor Perryman to explain publicly exactly how this 'agreement' came about.
Regardless, this situation with Mayor Perryman up and down like a jack in the box with his multiple Conflict issues is absolutely untenable, and so is his Mayorship...Council is wholly dysfunctional and it starts at the head...and heads must roll...
Tomorrow: Rort Report Part III
I should have known that, after 2 1/2 hours of flowery speeches, rolling 'Conflicts', and highly questionable Tenders, two posts were never going to be enough...and of course there's the 'coverage' in The Border Watch newspaper to be considered.
And within moments in one interview with Stuart Stansfield on the ABC Local Radio this morning, Cr Mutton said the tender was open ended because 'they (McMahons) may find extra costs like, eg, Asbestos contamination', but then said 'we've already spent a lot of money, eg, on an Asbestos register'...which is it?...is there a Register or not?...because if there is a Register there should be no surprises...
Cr Mutton is also on the front cover of TBW today doing his best Miley Cyrus impersonation...or Peter Gabriel...it's a Sledgehammer thing...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
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