Our Aldermen in our Councils - Frightening stuff !

[egilmore]

I live in one of the cited councils in the following outstanding report from today's The Australian . After reading it many recent events and peculiar processes , which I had no explanation to , have become clear . We worry too much about federal and state politics but really our local council has more influence about the way we live our daily life . Some of the people that sit in those councils have nothing to do with reality yet they might change our life in future ireversebily ...cheers eG

Mad schemes in councils gone wild
Caroline Overington
January 07, 2006
THE mayor of Waverley, Mora Main, has a vision of a perfect world and it's practically car-free.

Residents in Sydney's east who needed to get somewhere would borrow keys to "share cars" - preferably electric ones - from the council carpark and use them to, say, do some grocery shopping.

The rest of the time, they could just walk serenely from place to place (lugging the children, car seats, sand buckets, mobile phones, handbags and the shopping) or glide along on the light rail (that doesn't yet exist).

Besides cars, Ms Main would also like to see fewer air-conditioners ("because we get beautiful seabreezes and it is only 40 degrees once in a blue moon"), and fewer backyard swimming pools (because the sound of children splashing can disturb creative types trying to work from home).

In recent weeks, she has been mocked for refusing to accept an Australian flag to fly over Bondi Pavilion.









In the course of promoting these ideas, Ms Main - who is 50 years old, never married, has no children and whose politics are Green - has been accused of being many things, among them a batty Leftie, an autocrat determined to tell others how to live, while being out of touch with the lives of "ordinary people".

In the letters pages of Sydney newspapers this week, many wondered whether Waverley council - which covers the famous Bondi Beach - had gone into "PC overdrive" and whether it was the maddest council in Australia.

But there are quite a few contenders for the "Council Gone Wild" title.

Cairns City Council was once concerned about coconuts dropping on the heads of tourists as they walked along the Esplanade. Former councillor Bob Burgess wanted to pass a bylaw to allow macaque monkeys from Malaysia to collect the coconuts.

"Each year it would cost a fortune to de-nut the trees," he said. He thought his 1989 idea of hiring monkeys would be cost effective and create a tourist attraction.

"Sadly, my idea was ridiculed by people with less vivid imaginations," Mr Burgess said.

But it is not only regional councillors in Queensland who make mad decisions. The Gold Coast City Council last year erected a $25,000 pane of glass to silence hecklers in the council chambers.

In South Australia, Port Lincoln mayor Peter Davis recently suggested that asylum seekers who misbehaved while in detention could be silenced by, well, by being shot. "Tell them 'settle down boys or you might be buried'," Mr Davis said. "We'll only have to shoot a few to get the message across."

Mr Davis - who says he doesn't "hold anything against people of Islamic origin" and says he happens to "love their Persian rugs and their banking system" - has also recommended ways to cook and serve up galahs.

Boroondara Council in Melbourne's east wanted to ban cricketers from hitting a six at the local ground. It decided that batsmen would score no runs if they hit a six over a certain boundary. This came after citizens complained about the risk of a ball hitting their car.

Nearby, at Glen Eira City Council, the Bracks Government last year sacked the entire administration because the councillors couldn't stop heckling each other.

Another Victorian councillor, Vicki McClelland, who is now Frankston Mayor, was involved in a bitter battle with adversaries, who publicly criticised her weight, her taste for moccasins and suggested she work at the council tip.

The Tweed Shire Council (taking in Byron Bay to the Queensland border) was sacked last May after a report revealed that many councillors were "puppets" of a property development company that was trying to benefit from the coastal property boom.

And in Launceston, the council last year ordered a war veteran to take down his Aussie flag flying from a flagpole attached to his heritage-listed house because he didn't have a permit.

There was, of course, a politician who knew how to deal with stupidity, corruption and waste at the local council level: Victoria's Jeff Kennett. In 1999, he swooped over Victoria's 211 councils and sacked the lot of them.

"It's wasn't because we thought they were incompetent, although there were certainly some very stupid decisions being made," Mr Kennett said.

"It was mostly that we had too many, very small councils with too few ratepayers, so all the money was going on administration and not on services."

Mr Kennett chopped the number of Victorian councils to 73. Labor, which opposed the policy when Mr Kennett was in office, has kept the numbers low.

Mr Kennett said: "People who were entrenched in office, who did appalling things, were the ones who screamed loudest."

But he added: "No change will necessarily prevent a rogue council from developing. It still happens here in Victoria. When you want to re-paint a building, it can take months and then they come back and say, you can only paint it grey or some other dull colour.

"What we need is a system where somebody can issue a permit for minor works, immediately, at a cost of around $10. Instead, we have a sheer stupidity, where councils are not decision-making bodies, they are avoiding making decisions, at huge cost."

Amid all this madness there are, of course, superb councils, such as the port city of Fremantle, in Western Australia, where Mayor Peter Tagliaferri has made it his goal to remove all residential rates within eight years. Mr Tagliaferri believes it well within council's ability to "give something back to the locals".

Back in Waverley, Ms Main has so far had the restrictions on pools and air-conditioners rejected, but the "share car" idea begins on January 20. There will be four cars - not hybrids, but petrol-driven Toyota Yarises - for residents to use.

"It's not so radical," Ms Main said. "It's just somewhere between a hire car and a taxi."

Asked if she had developed a thick skin while being heckled over the past few weeks, she paused and said: "Well, you've got to be quite centred."

[LainieJean]

You have to keep in mind that councillors are not paid, they are volunteers. It is a considerable job to take on in addition to a normal day job and often the people with the enthusiasm to do the job have very fixed ideas on what they hope to achieve, and sometimes an axe to grind. The councillors are also elected, so the ratepayers get to choose who they want or don't want.

I certainly agree on the small issues. We wanted to put up a 4m x 4m garden shed a couple of years ago to store some of my daughters excess things. It took over three months to get permission from the local council. I had to attend a council meeting to explain why we wanted it. Interestingly at the council meeting my application was the only one being dealt with that evening that was actually approved.

The offending shed is on a 3 acre property, is at least 50 m from the nearest house, is green to match the trees, and is completely screened and invisible from the road. When my partner applied to add a small verandah to it, so that you could open the door on a wet day without getting wet, we were told that we would need the verandah to be designed by a certified structural engineer if it was built of steel. (We build it from timber).

On the subject of councils, there was a news article a month or two ago about a Sydney council that wanted a complete ban on installing swimming pools in gardens as a water saving idea. I never did hear whether this was passed or not. Does anyone know?



Cheers

LJ

[chesterdash]

this is probably a separate topic but how much are your council rates?

Here at dorrigo rates are about $1200 for a house block some of which have no curb and gutters!

Our council is the greenie,yuppie,dope headed BELLINGEN council.

[LainieJean]

ours are similar to yours for our main house, but much less for a weekender we have in the SW of WA. Our roads are quite well kept and we have two libraries and reasonable ovals and other council facilities.

our rates are calculated on rentable value of the house, rather than size of land, unless zoned rural. Extra if you have a swimming pool. If no house then you pay a standard minimum rate.



the rates are not consistent, however as a rental property we used to own (same suburb) had slightly higher rates than ours although it was a smaller house on a smaller block, worth hugely less, and definitely would be rented at much lower than our house would rent for

we are hoping to extend our house shortly, which will, unfortunately, result in an increase in rates. Not easy to get builders or tradesmen at present, so it may be a while before we can do this.



Cheers

LJ

[hybridbloke]

the veins in my temple throb whenever i describe the local debacle----councilors are paid,have allowances,and can do better for themselves than when in the real world........no c.e.o. has been allowed to finish their contract since amalgamations/commissioner days-------the latest to go was a competent and capable lady, the only reason given for her dismissal is the repeated line, 'it aint just cause she's a lezzo'--------and they rip a fortune out of me each year----the only form of government to be able to tax capital instead of income,there are years when shire tax is 100% or more of my taxable income...........and it goes on indulging whims, and stroking the ego's of control freaks.

[garryk]

It happens here too , the greed I mean
No volunteers here , paid similar to State politicians

http://ambit-gambit.nationalforum.com.a ... 00360.html

garryk