The unelected develop policies to control the elected
For four years, we have suffered with extreme rate rises, reductions in services and poor service response to inquiries.
If you sent in a request to the council-under-administration, you would get the standard response "We will get back to you in around three to six weeks", if you were lucky.
With the return of local democracy to the Coast, the elected council would surely respond faster than this unelected behemoth.
However, any hope of councillors assisting their constituents has been stopped even before they are elected.
The current Council business paper with over 1100 pages of attachments outlines the suite of councillor policies developed by the unelected to control the elected.
This suite of documents includes the council's code of conduct and the councillor and staff interaction policy.
The current policy allows councillors to lodge customer service requests on the behalf of their constituents, stating that "councillors can bring concerns that have been raised by members of the public to the attention of staff".
Council staff want that interaction gone, and under the new item 6.2 no staff member will be allowed to talk to a councillor.
This is ridiculous.
One of the key jobs of a councillor is to respond to their constituency, yet the current administration does not think a councillor should be able to talk to staff or help you with your concerns.
SOURCE:
Email, 19 Jul 2024
Mark Ellis, Woy Woy