I’ve finally figured out why we are stuck in a rut with this
moribund, uninspired and uninspiring Council.
It has become a self-perpetuating machine.
Here’s how it works:
Our charismatic CEO hires lots of staff and treats them
well. He also looks after the councillors, providing them with resolutions to
vote on and projects to approve which they can then call achievements. He puts
on nice food and alcoholic drinks after every meeting and regularly takes them
and their spouses out to dinner with his senior staff and their spouses (all on
the ratepayers purse). Everyone is happy.
Comes the time for an election or by-election. Friends,
relatives and associates of the councillors and the Council staff are
encouraged to run. When it comes to voting, most of the community are apathetic
because they have been told in the Council newsletter and the compliant local
media that everything is hunky-dory. But there is one group of highly-motivated
voters -- council staff, councillors and
their friends and relatives, who are naturally keen to maintain the status quo. Because the CEO has hired so many staff,
these insiders and their circles of friends and family make up a big enough section
of the population in this small community to ensure, because they will always vote,
that one of their own is elected.
In the recent election, we saw the outgoing councillor Brian
Moore replaced by his wife Joanne. How cosy!
Another candidate was the husband of a former councillor. One of the current councillors is the father of a Shire staff member.
CEO Tim Clynch has just been given another pay rise, but he continues to hire staff to help carry out the duties he is supposed to perform. The Shire now has more than 50 staff members, so many that Mr Clynch has recently decided he needed to hire a part-time Human Resources Officer. So until the growth of the population here outstrips the growth in Shire staff numbers, or until we amalgamate with another Shire, it seems nothing will change.
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