Day of reckoning is coming for council

MICHAEL Giles is one hundred percent correct with what he wrote in his Comment Column in last week's Sentinel Times. While new Mayor Clare Le Serve wrote an excellent piece in The Mayor’s Message delivering the message: "As Mayor, I will be working with community to support climate change, reconciliation, protection of our coasts from erosion, support the arts and culture sectors as well as delivering support to our farming community”, I would counsel Clare Le Serve to take note of what The Editor of The Sentinel Times has had to say:

"The issues around action on climate change, reconciliation, and social engineering including “preventing family violence” (if that’s even a core role of council) received a lot of prominence, more some would say, than the three Rs of local government rates, roads and rubbish, as well as the other core responsibilities of council, and the importance of transparent and accountable leadership."

Clare, your predecessor oversaw the worst "Community Satisfaction Survey" for Bass Coast Council during his time as Mayor as a direct result of his actions. Literally every category went down, and I would implore you not to follow his example.

In particular, community response reveals lower satisfaction on the issues of 'Overall Performance' down from 57 to 54, ‘Overall Direction of Council' down from 47 to 44 and 'Community Decisions', reflecting the level of genuine community engagement and consultation, down from 53 to 48 in the 2023 Survey.

As Michael Giles rightly points out: "If councils don’t get the balance right between having a social conscience and managing the core responsibilities of council, a day of reckoning on that score is coming – in October 2024”. The next Council Elections.

Rob Parsons, The Gurdies