Chris Calcino God save us all and our council
MY GRANDPA only ever knew God Save the Queen was playing because everyone stood up.
His tone deafness is legendary, but he has nothing on our elected local government officials.
Cairns Regional Council’s meeting this week was a rotten shambles — an exercise in alienating ratepayers and undermining your own good work.
The majority-wielding Unity Team, despite so many assurances the alliance dissolves after the election, buckled down to stop the independents from doing their job, all in the name of self-aggrandisement.
It was complicated and yuck, but here’s the gist:
The Unity Team accepted about $200,000 in donations before the last election, including a heap from property developers.
It has since become illegal to accept donations from developers.
Retrospective legislation means Unity Team members cannot vote on any items touched by a donation they have received.
Since the majority of councillors belong to Unity, those decisions have been delegated to the CEO.
New advice makes it clear that is not the only way — a subcommittee comprising a majority of non-con- flicted councillors could be formed to decide on those thorny items.
Rather than have their fellow elected councillors do their job, and against their protests, Unity opted to leave an unelected bureaucrat to make those decisions.
The sentiment seemed to be “if we can’t do it, you can’t do it”, which is both vindictive and stupid for people who want to get voted back in next year.
The big argument was that the State Government planned to introduce amendments to the legislation that brought this mess about in the first place. It was uncanny. A group of councillors who on any other day expends gallons of hot breath bagging out the Palaszczuk government for its incompetence suddenly found an extraordinary amount of faith in its legislative abilities.
Keep in mind none of the independent councillors knew what that legislation looked like, or if it would ever pass through parliament.
Only the State Government really knows.
It has been suggested the legislation would allow the council to come up with a set of parameters, such as a cap on donation size and how long ago it was made.
Those parameters would be voted upon by — get this — non-conflicted councillors, who would have the option to allow the Unity Teamsters back in the action.
So those four councillors that Unity did not trust to make decisions would be asked to trust Unity to vote on matters in which they have actual bona fide conflicts of interest. It is insane. If I were Cathy Zeiger, Linda Cooper or Brett Olds, I would be seriously considering my options here. Received a $1 donation? No go, buddy. None of this is to say the Unity Team has acted illegally in any way, shape or form, but to have a group of conflicted councillors blocking a group of cleanskins from doing what they were elected to do just stinks to high heaven.
The other big argument was that the CEO had, on every occasion a conflicted matter was delegated to him, voted in line with the council officer recommendation. Big whoop. How is that a good thing? I don’t know who that council officer is, I don’t know who his uncle is, I don’t know if who he owes money.
We elect councillors because we want them to represent us.
If that means going against a crap recommendation from some faceless bureaucrat, so be it.
Mayor Bob Manning has been in Canberra and has the opportunity to swoop in and save the day, introducing a democratic solution while we wait for the State Government to pull its finger out.
If the Unity Team councillors thought this display would go down well with the community, they need to extract the wax between their ears.
Teams and parties should be banned from local government.
Cairns Regional Council’s ordinary meetings are open to the public.
The next one starts at 9am sharp on Wednesday, February 27.
CAIRNS REGIONAL COUNCIL’S MEETING THIS WEEK WAS A ROTTEN SHAMBLES — AN EXERCISE IN ALIENATING RATEPAYERS AND UNDERMINING YOUR OWN GOOD WORK