In this week's Mayoral post-council meeting social media broadcast the Mayor says "Hi, everyone, I'm just going to give to a bit of a wind-up" before introducing her account of Council's meeting.
VIDEO: Eurobodalla Mayor Liz Innes talks about Council's to-do list for the next 12 months and advocacy on a Narooma road issue in this week's Council meeting wrap-up. Republished under Fair Dealing
While this might appear as an unfortunate misuse of words there is a growing opinion that the Mayoral Wrap Up is a little too light on and quite selective of what is covered. In the instance above the Mayor glowingly presents the upcoming projects that Council will be attending to in the coming year yet fails to mention that the meeting also voted to increase the Mayoral and Councillor fees by 2.5% while the same agenda disclosed a rate increase of 2.7% Her wrap up also failed to mention the considerable debate around Council continuing to use a single Code of Conduct reviewer for the past three years from a panel of over 100 fully trained, accredited and available alternates. Those who believe this social media wrap-up to be a wind-up note that the very succinct presentation to Councillors by Jim Bright of Narooma alerting them to Council's continued default position was not webcast on Public Forum as Council has now determined to remove that service. Mr Bright bought to the attention of Councillors that Council staff, under the authority of the General Manger Catherine Dale, only gave Code of Conduct complaints to the one reviewer, irrespective of whether those raising the complaint request specifically that it goes to someone else. The wind-up/wrap-up failed to mention anything of this. While the Mayor talks about Centenary Drive, Narooma she also fails to offer any mention that the Moruya Business Chamber came in to Council, cap in hand, as sought Council's support to add some elements to Council's operational plan that would see the public toilets attended to some line marking for long-vehicles and assistance with the town clock along with installation of a bicycle rack. Not big items to ask for. Councillor Maureen Nathan had specifically asked earlier about small changes (the minutiae) to the operational plan and if they were possible. She was given an assurance that that was the case however such modifications, for no stated reason, were not availed to Moruya requests when the issue was raised in discussion. So is the new wrap-up that appears to be more than selective in what is delivered best for the community? Or is it just a wind-up as has now been inadvertently recognised by the Mayor. Of continuing concern is the fact that the Mayor appears to be the one who is the face of these wrap-ups and the one always quoted in media releases. There are nine councillors, all of who will most likely consider if they will stand as a Mayoral Candidate in September 2020. In the lead up to that election and there is already handshaking and shoulder rubbing taking place to develop teams and alliances. The Mayor, being inadvertantly provided with such generous "marketing" by her media team is vicariously taking the limelight that could be shared among other keen contenders such as Pollock, Brown, Mayne and McGinlay. There is no reason at all why each and all of the councillors take turns in giving the community the wind-up that might pan out with a few of them as being a far more accurate wrap-up.
