Eurobodalla councillors used Tuesday’s council meeting to call on the community to get involved in policy development for their shire.
The policies are those that were endorsed by the previous term of Council and, as required, are now to be adopted by this term.
Disappointingly the councillors failed to acknowledge or pay respect to two presenters who spoke only an hour before on the subject of the policies to be reviewed. The two speakers politely and factually informed the councillors that there were errors in the policies being put out for comment and that the policies themselves were disingenuous in their intent to seek public comment given that they were predominantly motherhood statements that did little more than tick boxes to ensure "business remained as usual".
Rather than return the two policies in question to the General Manager with the comment "Could do Better" scrawled across the document the Councillors chose to say nothing.
It will be interesting to see what happens to these policies when they return from public exhibition.
All council policies must be reviewed in the first twelve months of office and Eurobodalla has more than 90 to get through. Policies are bundled and submitted to one Council meeting per month, then placed on public exhibition for 28 days.
Mayor Mathew Hatcher said resident input was vital.
“Eurobodalla citizens can play a role in policy development, giving councillors advice about where the community wants to be on a whole range of local government issues. As Cr Grace said, without that community input, we’re just nine people around a table making decisions.”
An amendment to the Council report by Cr Amber Schutz means public exhibition of policies will prominently include other relevant documents.
Policies on public exhibition can be reviewed and submissions made at www.esc.nsw.gov.au/haveyoursay. Councillors see all submissions from residents in full.
Above: All council policies must be reviewed in the first twelve months of office and Eurobodalla has more than 90 to get through: Eurobodalla councillors want community members to contribute to policy development for their shire. In essence if you don't make comment you will get what you are given and told you had your chance to make a change.
