Is the Councillor Tier Really Needed?

Their are a number of factors I feel need to be made public as we head towards our new council elections.

To be blunt many ratepayers I have spoke to are a asking why we need to be paying for that level of government at all. Since the sackings the sun did come up and things around the place just seemed to carry on regardless and for those who have repeatedly bleared keep politics out of Council would agree no councillors no politics.

I’m sure our professional public servants have proven they are quite apt in doing their role under the Administrator and I’m sure service delivery is much easier without political or parochial interferences.

The cost factor too cannot be overlooked and do we get the bang for our ratepayers now we have now experienced both sides of the exercise? Those figures would be interesting as for decades councillors have sealed their success on how much ratepayers money the have extorted for their electorate and claimed it as if it was them who were giving the money, creating the them and us mentality.

The elections will proceed with the new ground rules I hope the people elected should perform accordingly with new safeguards of transparency across every division, but keep in mind we are not the only ratepayers who have been caught out by mismanagement. Other councillors in other councils charged so I am comforted that the CCC investigations are still ongoing across the board , but in my mind the jury is still out on the value of the added tier after experiencing Council by Administration Only.