The upcoming Council meeting of Tuesday July 27th, 2021 will be a last hurrah for most of our current Councillors as they step down to allow the Council to go into caretaker mode in the leadup to the September 4th election. The Innes Council of 2016 to 2021 will be remembered by many as one of the most toxic terms of Council the community has witnessed. While the Mayor might reflect that her major accomplishment in the term was the Rural LEP most will remember the final document as a slap in the face to the RFS and the wider community who warned that further subdivisions of rural land could well prove fatal. Soon after the RLEP was adopted with its allowances for rural subdivisions the bushfires came through. Fortunately no-one was killed as a consequence of the planning changes. The final meeting next week might see the Mayor attend to chair. Her absences of late from her civic duties have seen Deputy Pollock take the chair for the Public Forum and Public Access sessions. Once again the Innes Era will be remembered for having stripped away the interface between the Council and community by removing the live streaming and recording of Public Forum and all but dissolving Public Access. Next Tuesday will see the final Public Forum under this term of Council. No doubt the duty of chairing will once again be left to Deputy Mayor Pollock while the Mayor remains in her office. Next Tuesday's meeting will most likely be a final hurrah for Lindsay Brown from Narooma who has been having a most difficult time in gaining preferential support in his run for the next term. Mr Brown still has some explaining to do regarding his discharge from the Local Government NSW Board in 2018 James Thomson failed to make quota at the last election and was lucky to make the draw coming in eighth. With very little to show in his five years and with less than 100 words mouthed during his five years in Council chambers it will be more than surprising to see him stand again and, should he do so, be elected. Maureen Nathan also score poorly at the last election. So much so she only received four votes, yet by way of preferences handed down from Liz Innes the Expert in Everything managed to gain a seat at the big table. Her running mate, Jack Tait, also under Liz Innes's ticket, managed a more respectable 14 votes to also benefit from the Innes hand-me-downs of votes after she had secured Mayor. This time around Jack won't be so lucky as Liz has declared she is not standing again. It is not known if Phil Constable will stand. He is popular in Narooma and if he did stand would be a real threat to Lindsay Brown appears to have lost favour in his own town. That favour has passed on to Phil Constable and Pat McGinlay who are both considered to be proactive and genuine in their engagements with the many groups and individuals they have met and represented over the past five years in the Dalmeny, Narooma, Tilba area. Pat McGinlay would have no difficulty in being elected again however he has decided to step down leaving the path open for another Green candidate to contest the seat he vacates. Anthony Mayne is running again. There has been a tag team of sorts with Mayne and McGinlay that may well have come about as both were ostracized by the Innes Faction of Seven from the outset when they had the audacity to ask questions in briefings and to challenge staff around various recommendations. The final exclusions came when the pair had the affront to reveal Council's dirty laundry in the public domain of the council chambers. The dark horse to watch will be Rob Pollock. He knows his way around the system and is very well connected. He does have the capacity to challenge the senior management and he does know the ropes. The only difficulty is that he is tarred with the brush of siding with the staff and their black and white legislation and their lack of empathy for the community who hope for shades of grey. Rob is considered arrogant and this may not work well for him. However the Shire needs a leader and someone at home with Local Government protocols and processes and Rob might surprise in the final votes. So who, of the councillors around the chamber next Tuesday will remain. My guess is just one or two. Best of all to many though will be to see the end of the Innes Era. Meanwhile nothing will change in the senior executive and they will remain in their plush seats ready for the scrub-faced new term to enter all naive and bubbly only to be squished with legislation, legal opinion and the all to often use of "Commercial in Confidence" and the reminder that Codes of Conduct complaints are just a pen stroke away for anyone wishing to cross the line.
Who will remain after September 4th?
