Michael Torrens asks ‘who has control of Gympie council?’

A Gympie Regional Council livestream of its most recent meeting relayed some staff comments on RVs and grey nomads that left one ratepayer asking ‘who has control of this council’?’ Read his letter to the editor here:

Letter to the Editor

Governance runs under a very simple system especially on a local level. Elected officials set direction and the civil servant arm ensures council business is run within the set out guidelines, policies etc.

The civil arm has no bias. Essentially they are black and white. It’s in or out, no prejudice.

Councillors deal in grey. The public essentially have access to influence and create bias. This is why councillors must declare conflicts of interest and why rules and guidelines are put into place for unbiased civil servants to follow.

I was absolutely crushed when watching the livestream of council’s ordinary meeting 27/04/22.

An elected official whilst discussing the RV Strategy suggested that council looks into an RV dump point in the Gympie City that is above flood level. Sounds a fair call to me. Effluent in a confined space during an emergency seems like an issue to me. If they can look after themselves in the event of an emergency, well that also sounds logical.

The civil arm of the council through the acting CEO and the chair proceeded to answer a question not asked and told everyone they don’t leak. The official then went on an obscure tangent informing the elected official that the actual issue was “council would prefer they leave the area, shouldn’t of stayed and ideally not head here”. Sounds kind of contrary to an RV Strategy to me.

The elected official pointed out this actually goes against councils current policy of providing a safe haven for all and in his elected official capacity goes strongly against ratepayers expectations. The civil arm reiterated its stance and was utterly undeterred that it goes against current agreed policy. The chair even joined in to help the civil arm’s case.

This smacks of bias, emotion and personal opinion from an area of government that by all definition should have none. The chair didn’t correct the civil arm that it was not council’s stance nor did the civil arms current head. Silence speaks volumes.

This begs the question. Who is actually providing the direction of council? How many policies are ignored? How much bias and opinion are going into black and white decisions? Can any recommendations be trusted?

Who has control of this council?

Michael Torrens, Gympie

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