On Tuesday 12th September, Ku-ring-gai Council met for the monthly Public Forum as well as an Extraordinary Meeting of Council that had been called regarding the General Managerโs employment. Members of the public shared their views on the matter and responded to councillor questions. Then some councillors, including those who had called for the meeting, counted the numbers and staged a walkout. This resulted in a situation where there were not enough councillors left in the room to proceed with the debate or the vote. The matter has been adjourned to Tuesday 19th September.
Iโd like to thank members of the public for coming to share their views on the matter. During the public forum there were calls for transparency, probity, and for councillors to act in the public interest ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ด ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ค๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ท๐ฐ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐’๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ท๐ข๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ท๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ด. ๐๐ถ๐ต These are all values that I share and they support my decision back in August to vote the GM out. The biggest difference, however, is that the general public has not had the same level of access to information that I have had as a councillor these last six years. I am firmly of the view that most people who would have seen what I have seen (๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐จ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต) and who are placed in similar circumstances would do the same as I have or at least be very sympathetic to the circumstances.
I also appreciated it when a former councillor got up to speak and waved a copy of the 2011 edition of the Guidelines for the Appointment and Oversight of General Manager. I wish she was actually on council with me last council term when I fought for (and lost to the mayorโs casting vote) the right for councillors to participate in the setting of the General Managerโs performance metrics. In fact if you look at the minutes from 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 you can see that the oversight of the GMโs performance has always been a divided topic, with the mayor often using the casting vote to quash those who do not agree. A new 2022 edition of the Guidelines was released last year and council is partway through implementing these governance changes. I also expect legislative changes to the Local Government Act and Regulation later this year which will bring long-awaited improvements to governance across all NSW councils.
If Ku-ring-gai does get to the point where a new GM is appointed, I want the process to be supported by an independent and apolitical recruiter and I want it to follow the 2022 guidelines. In the last 12 months we have seen examples of senior public official recruitment done poorly at all three levels of government, and Ku-ring-gai must not go down that path.
I am sorry that this is all that can be said for now. Current councillors are bound by a code (including conduct and confidentiality) whereas former councillors do not have such restrictions.
