Dear Editor,
I doubt if there was much journalistic input from Andrew Mathieson in the piece published in The Examiner Newspaper today as it appears to be directly imitating the pen of the General Manager.
"We don’t reply [to questions] at public meetings because people don’t come out to public meetings" ....he says.
LCC has not been replying to questions whether in writing on notice or even after the event when they ask for time to respond, at its AGM or ordinary Council meetings for that matter, for some years.
For all of Mr Dobrzynski’s time as GM, and that of his predecessor Frank Dixon, the person asking such questions has been held in contempt, ignored and limited to just 1 question at times, and a time limit per person and overall, sometimes only 5 minutes total question time.
This year, question time was moved to the BEGINNING of the Annual General Meeting, before the Annual Report could even be absorbed by the few attending, and with Council not represented by its GM because of his unfortunate delay in arriving at the meeting.
The Ratepayers Association stopped asking questions years ago because no answers were being provided (and if a response was begrudgingly given, then it was incomplete, evasive, and completely unhelpful).
Formal complaints have been lodged about Council’s contempt in this regard, but still to no avail.
But....AGMs are not for the people of Launceston, its ratepayers, it is just another meeting of Aldermen, requiring a quorum of 7 Aldermen to proceed.
Even the Aldermen are not participating as evidenced this year, when at times, only 6 of the 12 Aldermen were present in the meeting room.
This brings into question the validity of the whole affair, and highlights the mockery of the attitude of aldermen to the statutory process.
It is not a case of public apathy for the process, as described by the General Manager, but a lack of regard by its ratepayers to the scorn poured on the community by the GM and his senior staff, his use of the word “rubbish” is typical.
Outside the public meeting structure, senior staff refuse to meet with ratepayers unless the responsible officer deems it in their own interests to do so. Aldermen are prohibited by the GM from participating in on-site meetings with ratepayers. He has everyone running scared and subservient to his well-documented bullying tactics.
It will be interesting to observe what will occur when the small group of concerned people present their petition to Aldermen requisitioning a public meeting to gain answers about the multi-million dollar gift of land to the University of Tasmania at Inveresk and Willis Street.
Perhaps the spectre of flaming pitchforks and a bit of civil unrest is what is required to bring the Aldermen and its recalcitrant senior employees, to account.
What are the issues that don’t pass the ‘pub test’?
• The so-called ‘student housing’ building at Inveresk (it is actually a public welfare housing project promoted by UTAS where eligible people will be accommodated, some candidates may be students).
• The $400,000 removal of a traffic lane at Westbury Road to appease the cycling community.
• The $4.5M gift to UTAS of land to enable the dumbing down of the Northern Campus as the best of the institution is transferred and consolidated at the Hobart campus.
• The declining state of the Tamar and Esk River systems.
• The inequitable rating system.
• The declining state of the CBD inhabited only by anti-social ascribants, due to decades of neglect and milking of rates by Council, driving retailers out to the suburbs.
• Poor planning systems that fail to meet the cultural and physical needs of Australia’s third-oldest city community.
• The unnecessary expense in improving security at Launceston Aquatic by building an expensive new fence and pathway and losing more land from the outer Reserve against community wishes.
• And more..............if only the ratepayers were able to set the agenda, to ask questions of their own choosing instead of being mere respondents to what is asked of THEM via the on-line "consultation" process set up by the GM!
No, Mr Dobrzynski, you are not fooling the ratepayer with your belated spin on how council is failing to deliver and failing to communicate.
All of the faceless, anonymous and manipulated on-line communications and “consultations’’ that you refer to and you prefer, will not in the end cut the mustard for Launceston ratepayers.
And ratepayers of Launceston, unless you come together and voice your concerns, the evil forces of darkness will win out and you will be the losers.
Yours sincerely,
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