Gympie council silence on Shane Gray resignation is ‘dangerous’ | Letter

Gympie council’s continued silence over its CEO’s shock departure is ‘disappointing’ given the noise it once made about ‘transparency’ and given that ratepayers pay the councillors’ salaries - and Mr Gray’s.

The silence at the top end of the council on the matter of the CEO’s shock departure is both surprising and disappointing.
The ratepayers,who have been paying his salary (and theirs ) have a right to know what precipitated the CEO’s premature “resignation”.
The glaring irony in their silence is that, when they were a consistently united opposition in the previous council , the four returned councillors were stridently critical of its lack of transparency. How often they complained about the hidden costs of reviving the Rattler!

But, apart from their now apparent about-face on the importance of openness and transparency, the danger in their silence is that it invites rumour and conjecture on the part of a disillusioned electorate.
A cynical view of the CEO’s departure might be that he was “persuaded “ to resign for political reasons. That mid-term polling, or merely “sniffing the electoral wind” suggested that, if things were to continue as they had been, the ride would end for the current council in 2024.
Council had experienced emphatic backlash because of a series of unpopular decisions. It started with a hostile street protest and widespread social media criticism of the withdrawal of the temporary koala protection provisions.

This was followed by the controversial decision to fell the iconic Mary Street trees. And then there was the demolition, instead of the restoration,of the Kandanga Tourist Information Centre, with the remaining grant funds redirected to a car park at the Saleyards.
Given that all of those decisions were ratified by the council and that the CEO had apparently been saddled with responsibility for them, the question arises, ”What purpose does the council serve?” Does it have any purpose other than to hire and fire the CEO? Could that job be performed at significantly less cost by a different panel?
Admittedly, none of the foregoing might approach the truth, but it serves to illustrate the point — the silence is dangerous.
Merv Welch, The Palms

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Originally published as Gympie council silence on Shane Gray resignation is ‘dangerous’ | Letter