With Mayoral nominations opening in August it’s a good time for us punters to think about what we really want out of our Mayor, what issues we really need as ratepayers, and what we don’t want as well. My personal concern is speculative developments in retail and land development. Just look around our city and towns and we will find land parcels cleared of either vegetation or structures laying idle for years after great hullabaloos of Safety helmeted ,silver shovel, fluro safety jacketed media stunts.
Then we have this fixation that the more retail outlets selling the same stuff is somehow good for competition. That’s fine if they are all on the same playing field, but that’s fantasy. The bigger conglomerate the more council concessions/incentive as the smaller mum and dad shows hit the wall resulting in more vacant premises.
I agree forward planning is imperative to running any business being council or private abut the risk management facets is where this council comes up short very short, so my I’m looking for a Mayor that can run a business, run council as a business, as well as a demonstrated skill of managing the gap between timely service provision and population growth realising that critical factor in managing not only council cash flow but extends to the cashflow of accompanying businesses as well.
The Lateral Hazard 