NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND 2 James Plumridge

School’s still out for York Shire Council

When Minister Tony Simpson suspended our democratically elected council, he insisted that councillors would have to undergo training in the mysteries of local government before being allowed to resume their decision-making duties.

After the amalgamation fiasco in Perth, we might all be forgiven for thinking that it’s Tony Simpson and his zombie inner circle that need training, not Matthew Reid and his colleagues.  We did have councillors who could have done with some training, but they’ve resigned, perhaps to spare themselves the embarrassment of failing the course.

The remaining councillors must now be worried that the promised training will never take place.  It’s several weeks since Minister Simpson kicked them into the naughty corner, and there’s still no hint of a training program or any clue as to what such a program would include or who might deliver it. 

It’s rumoured that a former CEO was offered the training gig, but knocked it back.  He’s too busy writing a political thriller, House of (Credit) Cards, and a study of financial sadism down the ages, Fifty Shady Rays.

Agoraphobia

As every schoolchild knows, ancient Greek democracy centred on the agora, or meeting place, an open space where everybody entitled to take part—that is, free adult males, no children, women or slaves—would come together to discuss and vote on issues of the day.

York’s agora is the old Town Hall, an historic venue for council meetings often enlivened by the thrust and parry—though until the last council election, usually rather more parry than thrust—of public question time. For many years, York residents have made their views known and their presence felt by asking questions in the old Town Hall.

We can’t vote, but we can influence events.  Remember how public opinion, massively on display at the Town Hall, steered Council away from what thuggish landfill corporation SITA clearly believed—not without cause—was a done deal.  Participatory democracy at work, and everything accomplished with courtesy and good humour. 

Alas, it appears that someone in the shire office has developed a bad case of agoraphobia. 

If you were at the ‘Council’ meeting on Wednesday last, you may have wondered why it was held at the Recreation Centre instead of at the old Town Hall.  The Centre isn’t an ideal place for Council and public to meet.  It’s noisy.  The acoustics are dreadful.  It can’t accommodate as many members of the public as the Town Hall.  It lacks the romance of the older venue. It just doesn’t feel right.

Many York people don’t like going to the Centre, which they associate with incompetence, waste, chicanery, public money diverted from more important projects and an unexpected and unwelcome 16% increase in their rates.

Unfortunately, it’s been decided that future Council meetings—we have to call them that even though the Council itself isn’t actually there—will all be held at the Recreation Centre, at least until the legitimate Council, led by Cr Reid, is restored to power. 

And why is that?  My informants tell me the reason has to do with the size and location of the Centre.  To put it bluntly, the view is that if meetings are held at the Centre, fewer people will turn up to them, and that means fewer ‘trouble-makers’.  It’s a way of discouraging ratbags like you and me, dear reader, from making nuisances of ourselves by asking embarrassing questions in public and inflaming the passions of the mob.

Sinister or what?  Commissioner Best, please put a stop to this nonsense.  York people are used to meetings being held at the old Town Hall.  That’s where public meetings should be held, not in a draughty white elephant where the air-conditioning doesn’t work properly, food and drinks are being served from the bar during meetings and inane laughter and gossip oozing from the kitchen drowns out what people are saying. 

And by the way, it isn’t only retired old codgers like me who go to Council meetings.  If meetings continue to be held at 3 pm, instead of later in the afternoon as in the past, working people, and mums who have to collect their kids from school, will find it hard to attend. 

Or is that part of the plan, another ploy to deprive potential dissidents of a voice?

A fair go for ratbags, I say, and a jihad on the enemies of democracy and free speech, whoever they are and wherever they may be found.

Perhaps somebody should ask a question about all this at the next Council meeting.

Questions on Notice

Speaking of questions, I’ve put the following to Council on notice:

1.             What tertiary and/or professional or trade qualifications are held by the following Council staff:

(a)   Acting CEO

(b)   Deputy CEO

(c)   Environmental Health Officer

(d)   Planning Officer

(e)   Manager, Works and Services

(f)    Compliance and Human Resources Officer?

2.             Are any members of Council staff currently studying for qualifications relevant to the positions they hold, or planning to enrol to study for such qualifications in 2015?

3.             Will Council staff or any of them be required to undergo in 2015 any training relevant to the positions they hold or which they may assume or be transferred to during the year?

4.             It appears that at some time in the near future Council will be advertising to recruit a CEO.  What qualifications will be required for that position, bearing in mind (a) that Council in making that appointment must believe that the person is suitably qualified for it (LGA 1995 s. 5.36) and (b) that the role of the CEO encompasses the giving of what may amount to legal advice (LGA s. 5.41(a))?

I’ve told Commissioner Best and A/CEO Simpson that these questions are not to be construed as an attack on the competence of Council staff.  Nor do they touch upon the personal affairs or actions of Council employees, whose qualifications, like those of doctors, lawyers and teachers paid from the public purse, are a matter of legitimate public interest.