Let elected mayor do her job

I WRITE as an ordinary ratepayer of Glenorchy.

It was obvious to me that after the last election that there was going to be trouble in the Glenorchy City Council.

The former mayor was still on the council, which was a great misfortune, as he was able to cause a lot of trouble.

Other entrenched councillors, pals of the former mayor, and a certain senior council employee also had their noses out of joint when the new mayor tried to reform the council and its operations.

The former probably disgruntled mayor and his mates did everything they could, aided and abetted by the aforementioned senior officer, to frustrate the new mayor at every turn.

This behaviour is still continuing with their attempts to delay or prevent the release of the report resulting from the inquiry into the council’s operation.

What is so appalling is that the ratepayers will have to foot the legal bills arising from these stalling activities.

It is about time that Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein took the bit between his teeth and fired the lot, ordered new elections and banned all the present council, with the exception of the properly elected current mayor, from standing for re-election.

That should be a life ban and the people taking legal action should be required to pay their own legal fees.

The senior employee taking legal action should be told his services are no longer required and he should also pay all his fees.

The ratepayers of Glenorchy elected the mayor to do her promised job. Let her do it without any “Branches” hanging around and in her own time without any “Quick” solutions being offered or impediments being placed in her way. Bob Clarke Moonah

We will remember

THE sorry saga of the Glenorchy City Council just keeps on going. Surely Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein should sack the council, call for an election and give the ratepayers an opportunity to vote for a new council, one that is for the city, not themselves.

If aldermen from the sacked council elect to stand again, the ratepayers may vote them back in, however past performances of the suspended aldermen will not stand them in good stead to be re-elected.

They only have themselves to blame for that. Their past actions will be remembered at voting time. Alan Leitch Austins Ferry

Recipe for disaster

WHEN it comes to the current farce at the Glenorchy City Council, there is only one person to blame, the Minister responsible for the system.

Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein has failed to choose between aldermen electing their own mayors or giving mayors some genuine powers.

Failure to make such a choice has been a recipe for council anarchy and voter dissatisfaction that will inevitably be repeated after the next local government elections, if not at Huonville or Glenorchy, then somewhere else. Hans Willink Acton Park

How things change

HARRY be nimble, Harry be quick, Harry is burning two ends of the candle stick.

When Harry Quick came into the Glenorchy City Council, Harry was mayor Kristie Johnston’s mentor and backer with a bit of political nous, but what and where is he now? Living in Victoria? Another little “magnificent seven” perk?

When the British arrived in Tasmania in 1803, there were convicts and authorities. When the authorities recruited convicts and made them policemen, these people were called “turncoats”.

It looks as though Harry Quick is still living in the past. You can’t have it both ways Harry. Ray Wakefield Claremont

Merger no solution

FORMER mayor Peter Coad’s comments are his, and don’t necessarily reflect the attitude of the people of the Huon Valley (“Sacked mayor’s merger battle”, Mercury, July 20).

If you look at the negatives to amalgamation you would see why. The people of the valley would be no more than the poor relatives, only getting what crumbs the Kingborough Council saw fit to brush off their table. Besides, the Kingborough Council is in debt, we are not. If the administrative personnel and the councillors of our council worked for the ratepayers, as they should, with no other vested interests, then there would be no conflict and the Huon would be governed correctly without State Government intervention. John Stephens Huonville