At the last Council meeting the Mayor presented two Mayoral Minutes. No doubt penned by staff these were delivered with little notice to the councillors and with NO notice given in the agenda to the general public as might be inclusive practice and certainly used by the Mayor in regards to banning helium balloons that she did in Feb 2017. 2.7 Mayoral Minutes 2.7.1 What is a mayoral minute? The mayor may put to a meeting (without notice) any matter which the council is al

My name is Jim Bright and I am a resident of Narooma. I'm here to speak to you in the context of the extraordinary level of secrecy and non transparency that has prevailed within this council in recent years. At the last meeting of this council, you will recall that a number of people, including myself, argued that, from both a good governance and legal perspective, this council was obliged to publicly indicate the nature of the two matters, that had been described in the age

Dear Mr Beagle, I have finally received a response from councils General Manager (thanks no doubt to Clr McGinlay’s support) In answer to my letter asking why council publicly claimed to need three rate rises, by saying they did not have the money to fund a new wish list of projects (totalling around $17 million) When council actually had $29.2 million in spare cash in (unrestricted fund) accounts? Well firstly the GM’s response confirms this basic fact. Yes council did hav

Dear Beagle Editor, Councillor Nathan’s public leaking of the results of Catherine Dale’s recent performance review is self-serving and potentially in breach of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998. She uses her revelation of the general manager’s “outstanding” assessment result against the last council’s KPI requirements to justify the faulty process used for Dr Dale’s reappointment. Her letter to the Beagle also demonstrates her disdain for the way

Welcome to this week’s editorial, Those who follow the Beagle pages might have noticed that there is an ongoing battle between Council and a representative group of dog owners in Batemans Bay who are attempting to establish a fenced off-leash area for dogs at Corrigans Beach. The primary problem the group has is that Council just isn’t listening to what is being requested. The group has been very clear in exactly what it wants however their plain English presentations t

Letter to the editor Beagle Weekly Since there's been the usual dearth of official council information about what had gone on behind closed doors regarding our councillors' recent decision to give a new five-year $1.5 million contract to the current General Manager (without any of that tedious market-testing or interviewing stuff), I was encouraged to see Wednesday's letter from Clr. Nathan that promised to tell all. Somewhat disappointingly, her letter proved to be a little

Letter to the Editor There has been some speculation and misinformation around the achievements of Council’s General Manager and the process by which her contract was renewed, and this letter presents some facts and my views on this matter. Some months ago several of my fellow councillors and I researched the process around the General Manager’s review and contract, and the conditions surrounding it. In particular clause 5 of the Standard Contract of Employment for General Ma

Dear Beagle Editor, I note that in your list of A few little things to deal with before moving ahead you raised the issues around financing and future plans. Those in the community who have any interest in the Bowling Club site eventually begin discussing how it was that the site was purchased and why it was purchased. We know that, in 2009, the Batemans Bay Bowling Club amalgamated with Club Catalina, in a bid to ensure its survival. By March 2013 the Batemans Bay Bow

At the 13 June 2017 Eurobodalla Council meeting a report on possible interim use of the ex-Bowling Club in Batemans’ Bay was tabled. Dr Susan Mackenzie - Vice president, PerfEx and Alternate Member of Sunset Committee spoke on behalf of PerfEx, as an alternate member of the Sunset committee, and for the general Arts community of Batemans Bay. She addressed several points of contention that suggests there is more discussion needed about the options being considered for the sit

Irrespective as to whether Council wants to put the past behind it and move ahead there are still unanswered issues that continue to raise their head along with more recent issues that add to the perceived divide that exists between Council and those in the community who have an expectation on this new council delivering the mandate that they all stood for which was openness and transparency. The Beagle has been covering most of the issues on the Council Blackboard below how

Welcome to this week’s editorial, This week saw Eurobodalla Councillors go into a confidential session and return to announce that Dr Dale’s contract as General Manager has been extended for five years, commencing from 1 July 2017. Most residents and ratepayers would be indifferent to this announcement however to those who carefully follow Eurobodalla Council matters the announcement and the process are both disappointing. The Councillors voted 8 to 1 to extend the contra

Last Tuesday’s meeting of council was one of great significance for our little shire. The public learnt that the General Manager’s employment contract had been renewed, for a further 5 years, with effect from 1 July. The renewal was approved by a majority of councillors, with Councillor McGinlay being the only one to oppose it. There had been leaks of this impending renewal to sections of the community in the week leading up to the meeting, which gave rise to much consternati

At yesterday’s council meeting Paul Bradstreet of Surf Beach, along with Peter Cormick and Jim Bright attempted to set out the case for the public discussion of the renewal of the Eurobodalla Shire Council General Manager, Catherine Dale’s, contract. The chair stopped Paul Bradstreet from speaking part way through his presentation as he was only allowed two minutes to present with no extension of time allowed: This is the presentation in full had he been allowed to p

Mayor Innes and Councillors Mayne, Brown, Pollock, Thomson, Nathan, Constable and Tait, It is beyond comprehension that you knowingly and deliberately defied the Local Government Act today when you voted to close the meeting. LGA Section 10D(1) states: “The grounds on which part of a meeting is closed must be stated in the decision to close that part of the meeting and must be recorded in the minutes of the meeting.” LGA Section 10D(2) states: “The grounds must specify t

PUBLIC FORUM PRESENTATION - 13 JUNE 2017 My name is Jim Bright. I'm a resident of Narooma. I'm here today to speak about the arrangements that are in place in NSW for the employment of local council General Managers. These arrangements have been decided by the Office of Local Government and are set out in this document (OLG Circular 11-14 dated 8/7/2011). In particular, I am going to speak about the arrangements that come into play when a council might be approaching the te

The Beagle Editor The June 8th UK election results should be a message all political party's and their advisors. It’s very clear residents and voters are no longer convinced of the tripe being peddled by want-to-be politicians and councillors anywhere these days. Political party’s and groups have been exposed trying to con potential voters via the media propaganda machinery all over the place. What’s needed is likely political aspirants to hold regular public meetings a

A massive agenda with a most secret matter The agenda and associated papers for tomorrow's meeting of council comprise more than 600 pages and if we were to include those further pages deemed confidential – being unavailable to the public - I expect that the figure would exceed 700: far too many to even attempt to run through. It is possibly the most voluminous agenda of all time. And so, because of my significant time constraints and countless many higher priorities, I will