An Exemplerary Mayor

Hobart's Lord Mayor Thomas may have won his mayoral robes by a whisker but he has put Hobart on a stable footing uncompromised by bleeding heart green agendas. Lord Mayor Thomas leads from the front and sets an example for the rest of Tasmania.

While his aspiration to amalgamate Glenorchy and Hobart Councils is yet to be achieved he is a man of vision. It took him to make the move to bury the hatchet with Launceston and get some perspective back in local government in Tasmania. We all knew Hobart was the premier local government in the state and it took Lord Mayor Thomas to reassert that. Watch this space.

Mayor Thomas has a clear vision for the city and a commitment to see Hobart evolve into a strong, vibrant and sustainable city. The council has also been engaged in an exciting process of planning and consultation to realise this vision and to ensure that Thomas's Hobart reaches its full potential as a vital and thriving capital city.

Lord Mayor Thomas set his roll in stone when he decided to take back the city's reins while he was on his summer break. In doing so he set a precedent that Tasmania's Mayors could all profitably follow.

Hobart's Inner City Development Plan is well within Mayor Thomas's hands. The community consultation process is now driven by his vision of Hobart as a people-focused city. The Inner City Development Plan (ICDP) is a key action in the Council's Economic Development Strategy 2009-2014 as a means of fulfilling Mayor Thomas's vision for Hobart.

Mayor Thomas is leading his council out of the faltering 'statewide council union' warrants the the support of Tasmanian ratepayers and residents. He is ensuring they get his kind of council driven by his aspirations and where he leads others might well follow.

KEEP OUR COUNCILS STRONG

COUNCIL SURVEY FAILS ITS CONSTITUENCY

The Examiner reports today that despite council officers' best efforts, the local government community satisfaction survey recently published turned in the poorest satisfaction outcome ever in nine categories of council service.

This is just not good enough taking into account all that council officers have invested in these surveys. Clearly, with only 1240 respondents, council staff members have been far too relaxed and too much at arm length. This is especially so as they are the experts in the delivery of these services and setting the charges for them. They know what is going on.

Council officer know that Tasmanians get excellent service from their councils but ratepayers expect far too much. Generally speaking its the Councillors and Aldermen who interfere with the work of officers and it needs to be said that officers need to be taking more control of council business and get the elected representatives to be less convinced in regard to their self belief. 

LGAT President, Barry Easter, is doing too little too late and his warm and fuzzy feelings in the Examiner in the end do nothing significant for those slogging it out on the coal face.

It seems that councils' waste management is grossly misunderstood. Council officers all do that very well. Apparently ratepayers have fallen victim to those green bleeding hearts who are encouraging them to want things that just cannot be delivered economically. If what they want were to be realised council jobs will be lost and local economies will fail.

Likewise, it appears that ratepayers want better roads and footpaths and better planning. What they need to realise is they are actually being well served and they need to be more appreciative of what they are getting. 

There is no point in expecting what cannot be delivered. If ratepayers want more then they are going to have to pay more in rates. That would do two things, put more shoulders to the wheel but more importantly, put more grunt behind the shoulders already there. 

Barry Hodge

KEEP OUR COUNCILS STRONG

Nine Times Out of Ten Council Officers Get it Right

Council officer are faced with many really difficult decisions and setting rates is up there with the most difficult. These people need to look after a Council's interests and bring in the income. Otherwise they would not be able to provide the services they are paid way too little to deliver.

Yes unashamedly, the aldermen and officers of Break O’Day municipality have found that, if the forest industry can no longer pay its share of rates Councils will have to find the money somewhere. Clearly there are farmers in the region with the capacity to pay and they should be paying. Forestry cannot any longer.

Some say that rate in Break O’Day for instance are now significantly higher than in other council areas but if the money is needed it is needed. If some farmers’ rates are going up by 40 per cent it is because they have the property and they can pay. If that means that the rates rise from $5000 a year to $10,000 then that is because the property is there and the property owner has the ability to pay.

Council officer live on meagre salaries compared to the work that they do under very difficult conditions. Councilors get a pittance for their work as well. Telling them that their work is not up to the mark is outrageous. Perhaps these farmers could come into the council and do better. That would be a turn up for the books,

There is every chance they couldn't make it all work despite all their bleating. Just be satisfied and get on with earning an adequate income so that proper rates can be paid.

The Recycling Myth

Tasmania's local governments are just not in a position to be recycling all its waste. It cost a lot of money to  manage kerbside recycling and local government needs to review its position on this part of its operation. Maintaining this service in its current form is unsustainable.

The are people out there advocating "zero waste" and basically they a green bleeding hearts. This is just not practical and councils, and councillors, who say that it can be done are not saying how it can be. They should put up or shut up.

In the Examiner today one of these green bleeding hearts was there talking about how bad it was that the Gunns site in Launceston was being trashed. Of course it is being trashed, they are demolishing the buildings. The owners are demolishing these buildings to make way for a new one to sell building material from.

If this building material was to be recycled then the company who owns the site would be doing itself out of business. How could they justify recycling these materials and to be trying to sell the new materials to builders and DIY people? It makes no sense at all for them to be recycling! So we say the the green bleeding hearts, get out of the bloody way and let business get on with doing business in the best way as they can to make the biggest profit they can.

These green bleeding hearts have killed off one big profit maker on this site. Shame, sham, shame on them! Rather than councils banning the kind of demolishing going on at the Gunns site they need to be facilitating and helping business make more profits not putting obstacles in its way.