Open letter to Townsville

Since I have been elected as the councillor for Division 10 there has been much publicity relaying the altercations between Team Hill led by the Mayor and myself. Unfortunately, I have found it necessary to defend myself on numerous occasions against what I believe were personal attacks on me from Team Hill.

But I need to assure you that this coming election is not about how big the fight is between me and Team Hill, it’s about how big the fight is that is in me for you, the Townsville ratepayer and resident.

With a Mayoral election campaign now underway, the broader issues regarding how this current council is failing you need to be urgently addressed.

My election campaign is about you, the ratepayer and general member of the Townsville community because it is about leadership, prudent governance and integrity. It is about transparency. And it is certainly about your money, in the form of rates and utility charges, and the priorities in the allocation of that money.

And it is also about ensuring that you have meaningful input into issues that concern you. To this end, if elected Mayor, I will undertake to hold a community meeting once per month in a different suburb each month, which I will attend and which all councillors will be invited to attend in order that the elected body of council can regularly hear your concerns and suggestions.

The feedback can then be considered by all councillors and if consensus is reached, acted on by the council.

In the coming weeks, I will be illustrating to you how the current council is falling very short on what I believe to be the absolute critical basis of good governance of our city. And I will outline ways in which I intend, as your Mayor acting in your interests, to halt and hopefully reverse the decline and decay of Townsville council’s core management tasks, and chart a new, truly progressive direction for North Queensland’s de facto capital.

My election platform is not based on negativity and limited to exposing the current inadequacies of city governance.

I will be putting forward my proposals on various issues during this campaign and I also want to hear from you about your concerns.

I will also be seeking to put real decision-making power back in the hands of those you elect to council, especially those decisions with a substantial impact on the council’s budget that are currently made by unelected public servants.

This campaign is not about Hill v O’callaghan.

It is about YOU versus the future. It’s in your hands.

Fran O’callaghan, Oonoonba