NOW we can all get some sleep!
The elections are over in Bass Coast, South Gippsland (and the USA) for another four years but if you thought there’d finally be some respite, you’d be wrong.
The action around the council table might be just getting started.
At Bass Coast, there’s a contest brewing for the next mayor with deputy mayor Cr Rochelle Halstead and two-time former mayor Cr Brett Tessari in the running.
Far be it for the local newspaper to suggest that mayoral arrangements might be better sorted out behind closed doors, but that’s exactly what we are suggesting might be best this time around.
Voters have made the right decision again and brought in six new councillors while leaving three in place for continuity and experience.
But if there’s a public contest for mayor just as the new council is finding its feet, potentially dividing it right down the middle 5:4, it could set a pattern for division when what Bass Coast needs after four years of secrecy, exclusion, division and captain’s calls, is a collegiate and respectful approach to decision making.
Sure, debate the issues and policies as hard as you like but unless the council can work together, the voice of the people will not be heard and responsibility ceded to the bureaucracy when setting shire priorities.
At South Gippsland, the honeymoon after the dismissal is over, stability has been restored and it’s time to start holding the council’s performance to a much higher standard, from councillors knowing proper meeting procedures, insisting on operational efficiency first before any discussion about removing the rate cap and genuinely listening to the people when planning projects.
Revisiting the Korumburra Senior Citizens Centre debacle, for example, should be the first item on the agenda.
The people have spoken, now everyone including the sore losers we’ve seen bleating on social media over the weekend, need to respect the preferential process and let the new councils get on with it.
