Pedal to the floor
Sue Brooks February 22nd, 2010
I have always mowed our lawns using 2nd gear on our small ride on mower but hey decided to be brave last time I mowed and try to mow in top gear. Yesterday I had to mow again so am now tearing around the backyard zipping along in 3rd gear on one section that has long runs. The mower copes and even though I reckon if I misjudge and hit a tree or something I may end up rather bruised and battered it does reduce the time spent chopping grass and burning fuel.
While mowing I ponder. I ponder all the things I haven’t done that need doing. Who needs a return call, who needs me to visit and how many outstanding resident queries are still needing a bit of follow up or a watchful eye. I try to check to see if Council staff are able to address the issue raised by residents or do I as a Councillor need to ask for some changes to policy or strategy etc? Sometimes I ponder other stuff but recently Council pondering has been very dominant.
So while the newspaper headline asking for me to be ‘got rid of’ didn’t upset me as I was expecting it, it did raise the issue of how the media reporting influences the public perception of our politicians. I was pleased Saturday night that a representative from the River Heads Progress Assoc. took the time to ring me to assure me that the association in no way supported the comments by the grumpy resident nor had they ever passed a motion in support of his request to have 3 gum trees removed.
I always tend to believe what I read and what I’m told. Maybe because I’m not one to twist the truth myself I find it bizarre that others regularly practice truth bending. This particular resident has several times stated that he had the support of this local community group in his quest to have the offending trees removed. In this instance the truth is more than welcome.. Plus I received an email from one of his neighbours who also doesn’t support his tree removal agenda… It is always difficult to represent ‘everyone’ but even more so in relation to topics that divide our community. In other words be active and express your opinion as staying quiet means your representatives don’t hear you and if they are like me and try to faithfully represent majority opinion, then we may be acting on the opinion of the actual minority!
Lastly on the bullying allegations. There isn’t much to release as nearly the entire report consisted of transcripts and the people involved are protected by legislation. It does seem to me it was a matter of people being unhappy with a new regime. However I detest the stupid connection between politicians and staff. Politicians are supposed to be separated from staff and not have any power over sacking or hiring them. But in practice this seems to be dodgy. Look at the recent Kaiser appointment for instance. Locally the Mayor has a big influence as he can hire and fire the CEO and direct him to do his bidding. Something Councillors individually can’t do. Councillors can be involved in hiring and firing at the top level of staff which is a big responsibility that needs to be handled ethically and objectively.
- Council related issues
- Comments(3)
G’day Sue,
Cut your grass at a slower speed, you get a better result.
Regarding Mr Enright and “his” trees, what was never mentioned was how close to his house they were?
If he used the name of the River Heads Association untruthfully, they should be putting in a retraction.
Regarding you future on council, as I have pointed out before, just buy a few fridges for “friends” donate some of your salary to charity and tell people you are just a “quiet achiever” your re-election is guaranteed.
Sadman
The trees are quite close to his boundary, the RHProgress Assoc did pass a motion and forward it to Council last year asking for Council to review its ‘tree’ policy I do recall. Council then decided not to change any existing tree management legislation but has more recently decided to apply to the State Government for a Temporary Local Planning Instrument to align the rules relating to trees across the region. I prefer to simply try and work hard and do my job rather than make decisions simply based on what gives me the best publicity and ‘makes me look good’. As you can see by recent media coverage I’m probably not winning the PR battle! Thanks for writing, Sue
PS I thought that I had to spend my allocated $15k Fed Gov money for infrastructure projects that were ’shovel ready’ so decided to get some park benches installed along the foreshore in line with the Foreshore Plan. I didn’t think buying BBQ’s was allowed but each Councillor did choose their own projects. Community groups have benefitted from their brand new BBQ’s however.
Good advice sadman, though I disagree with you on one small point.
Sue can hardly claim to be a “quiet achiever”
Achiever she might be, but certainly not quiet, nor should she be. She is the only one amongst that sorry lot with the guts to communicate directly and publicly with the community. Keep it up Sue, it is appreciated by many.
Don’t be too concerned about the critics. You have to be actually doing something in order to attract attention. Critics are always the most vocal group in a community. I move about a bit, and I can assure you, that amongst the people I meet, there are many more for you than against – the silent majority.
fraserwatch