This in an opinion piece from my perspective and I don't speak for anyone other than myself.
The newly elected Cessnock City Council consist of 6 Orange Independents, 6 Labor and 1 Purple Independent. We've had four meetings so far in the new term of council and its been very interesting so far.
First meeting 16 October 2024
This meeting was mostly ceremonial and house keeping. Council elected a deputy Mayor for the first 12 months, agreed on a count back option in the event of casual vacancy in civic office, schedule of meetings and appointment of committee representatives. I did however question a change to the dollar figure from $1mill to $2mill within part c - general limitations regarding tenders of the general manger's instrument of delegation. It was odd to me that this change was not mentioned in any of the business papers and was only identified by comparing delegations from the previous term. The fact that this was not brought to our attention got my attention and I questioned what the reason for this was because inflation alone to me does not justify for that amount to increase by 100%. I asked to defer a decision on this until after we get a briefing on the reasoning behind this change, but that motion was defeated and the change was adopted.
Second meeting 23 October 2024
Our first ordinary meeting we went to work straight away pushing for a bulky kerb side pick up service that would benefit many people in the LGA from the elderly, disabled and to people who simply don't have the capability to take larger items to the tip themselves. Unfortunately the opposition refused to support our idea.
Then there was the issue of visitor economy grants and sponsorship program. I did not particularly have an issue with any of the sponsorships, I thought they all went to great causes. I did have a issue with media reports weeks before indicating that we already awarded funds when infact the matter was yet to be voted on in this meeting. Not only that, but it was decided to take funds from a different allocation and later return the funds assuming council approved this motion. In my opinion this action went directly against long standing democratic procedures and I called the inappropriate behaviour out. And to my astonishment instead of respectfully defending our local democracy I was asked to apologise for being negative by the opposition. I'll say this though, I will not allow faceless unelected and unaccountable figures to override our democratic processes.
Third meeting 20 November 2024
In this meeting our newly elected Mayor showed true leadership bringing forward a mayoral minute in a last effort to fight for our community members and businesses who will be severely impacted by the Wollombi road project. He asked that council seek a funding variation from the state government to extend our project time not to lose the grant funding and in that extra time ensure all feasible options are explored to make sure we have the best possible outcome for our community. Once again, Labor and opposition decided to vote against the majority of our community's wishes, ( I know it's the majority because we made history and have a new mayor ). After debating the issue for the full 45mins allowed on any one item, we lost the motion and went on later in the meeting to approve a tender for the project to start. I am absolutely devastated by this outcome after personally talking to many of the businesses and residents knowing this goes against their wishes. I tried my absolute best to fight for them for nearly two years, long before I ever contemplated running for council. For the record, I voted against approving the tender.
Last meeting of the year 11 December 2024
In this meeting I finally felt we had a more positive outcome for a couple of reasons.
First, another mayoral minute to endorse a formal request to Energy co. for a detailed briefing regarding the Hunter Transmission Project. This project is being rolled out due to federal Labor policies in line with their shift to renewables. What makes this challenging is, it is being done in small stages at a time meaning it affects smaller groups of people at a time so you don't see masses of people complaining like you did in Port Stephens for example. And instead of having a direct line of contact to a government representative, affected people has to deal with a private company managing the project. And to complicate it even further, this involves all levels of government. All these different variables and lack of information creates frustration in our community and councillors can do very little to assist because we have no formal information on this issue. I am pleased to say this motion has passed and I hope this will help councillors to be better equipped in assisting with this issue where required.
Secondly, we passed a new community engagement strategy that I believe is a big improvement from how this used to happen before. And my no.1 example would be how poorly the Wollombi road project was handled. It is my hope that we've learnt from that experience to never repeat it again.
And lastly, I put forward a notice of motion to open briefing sessions to the public. Council used to meet more than once a month and I did not ask to meet more often. Staff is already preparing agendas and presentations for the briefing sessions and minutes are already being prepared and sent to councillors afterwards. The only difference from what we currently do, would be to broadcast the meeting and since some councillors are attending via audio visual link we are already halfway there! The office of local government is currently in the process of making changes to how councils across NSW operate. In their discussion paper the talk about completely banning briefing sessions and that is not what I was asking for. All I asked was that briefing sessions that is not sensitive to confidentiality be open to the public. Some councillors seem to have an utter disdain for the public. But, I'm glad it was not just voted down. Instead it was deferred until after the office of local government make a determination on what the changes will be for councils.
Conclusion
This is already shaping up to be a very interesting dynamic in council chambers. I will continue to stand up for the people of our community and I am looking forward to represent everyone in our LGA to the best of my abilities in the new year.
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