Margot Giblin Comment
Hobart City Council
Personalities of Would-Be Lord Mayors
Both candidates for the position of Lord Mayor have now referred to the need for a focus on issues, not personalities. Briscoe is referring to how electors will decide to vote, Valentine to personality politics on Council.
Jeff Briscoe is aware he has a hard fight ahead of him given the huge personal popularity of Rob Valentine as demonstrated in past elections. Briscoe is asking people not to vote for someone just because they like them. Rob Valentine is concerned with how things play out on Council now and how they could be improved in relation to personal dynamics in debate. He is asking voters to choose people who won’t play personality politics if elected.
In terms of their own personalities I think both men carry serious handicaps as councilors. Valentine is nice to a fault. He doesn’t want to offend anyone and goes to circuitous lengths not to do so. This puts him at a disadvantage in any debate and also when coping with anyone on Council who is prepared to attack the person not the issue.
Valentine’s demeanour significantly alters depending on who is at the table with him. At Development and Environmental Services committee meetings when Ruzicka, Haigh and Burnett are the only others present it’s a relatively relaxed, efficient and jovial affair and Valentine is not the only one who is clearly more comfortable than at full Council meetings.
Enter Freeman, Zucco or Briscoe and the atmosphere alters with body language morphing Valentine into a tenser, wary and even more cautious individual. Valentine is far less likely to make off the cuff remarks, share anecdotes, laugh with any sense of conviction or venture a clearly defined strong opinion to start debate.
At full Council meeting the effect is multiplied. It’s rare to hear Valentine come down clear and hard on any issue unless and until he has been pushed, so he often speaks most strongly/crossly as a result of being attacked. It’s a vicious circle, and having only been observing for a year I imagine I’ve come in well past the time when this all started.
There are now councilors waiting for a chink in Valentine’s presentation to jump on him and his anticipation of that inhibits him. Added to his natural desire to be inoffensive the result can be a frustrating inability to come straight out with what he thinks. Even when at his most relaxed at DESC meetings his invariable question to any representor at the end of their allotted speaking time is to ask them to state their most serious concern. Given that they have just talked to a time limit of 3 minutes it would seem bleedingly obvious that they’ve already covered this and now is an opportunity for committee members to unearth the unsaid.
Valentine’s approach, combined with fear of what will happen if he does make an unambiguous statement can result in a frustrating lack of decisiveness in debate. Naturally cautious Valentine, who is allowed no room for error, risks nothing.
Briscoe has verbalized his frustration with Valentine at Council meetings but he is partly the cause of the problem. Briscoe often comes to meetings well informed, well researched and prepared for debate. He never hesitates to ask another question, follow through on getting information from officers even if doing so reveals his own lack of knowledge. He wants to appear to be issues based and the initiator of business though this is always with an eye on the main chance, as in his determination to see the pulp mill poll go through with his name on it and without changes. All this hard work can be brought undone by his penchant for personally undermining any councilor whose opinion puts his motions or his glory at risk, instead of sticking to critiquing their arguments.
At the last Council meeting, Briscoe saw fit to tell Valentine that people see him as a fence-sitter in an effort to get his support. He found his mark.Valentine definitely didn’t appreciate the tag and yawn inducing chunks of time then passed squabbling that one out. In attempting to undermine his credibility Briscoe makes Valentine extra wary of sticking his neck out, which in turn feeds accusations of timidity or fence sitting. Briscoe’s habit of doing this with a smile doesn’t make it any more palatable.
No matter who promises what at a Meet the Candidates event, nor whose face gets onto a media release, all Council decisions are made by a committee. Given the variety of personalities and views represented on Council it would seem that the most effective Lord Mayor is going to be one who can listen to an opposing point of view without feeling personally threatened or resorting to sniping barbs and who is able to consistently bring out the best in other councilors.
Briscoe may well be a pleasanter person to debate with if he were Mayor and Valentine might enjoy greater freedom to express himself if he weren’t. However it goes, if they’re both still there in any capacity they need to move on from seeing each other as the enemy.
