A lack of leadership …

All photos of the region … by Paul Tapp

I love my local community, it’s full of beautiful places and beautiful people. But recently I have been frustrated with the complete lack of leadership – as I see it – within our local government.

It’s more than just the comments in The Monthly about bogans ( TT here ) and a Mayor who does not ‘give a shit about these people’. It is, in my view, about inappropriate behaviours and a culture which would rather intimidate others than address the problems.

But most of all I believe it’s about a lack of leadership.

Let me give you some examples, as the Editor of our local news, a voluntary role, I wrote an article about bullying in our community after experiencing the issue myself. Of course, once the article was written, people started talking to me about their experiences and so a series of articles developed.

One of which was about bullying in local government. You see, as Editor, I attended a few council meetings and what I witnessed was a disregard for meeting procedures and what I believe were some very poor and inappropriate behaviours.

It was just plain unprofessional.

I did some research into the issue and looked at data from research which had been conducted in NSW into the issue, finding that the problem was quite common. Now, one would expect that, upon reading the article, the council would respond with a press release outlining what they were doing to address the issue.

That is the leadership I would have expected. Not so. Weeks went by and then a letter from the General Manager arrived to our volunteer management committee threatening legal action. How do leaders address issues of what citizens see as inappropriate behaviour?

Not like that.

( To read more about this issue and read the letter go to: https://www.facebook.com/jim.scurrah1/posts/10204547966637932 )

You would also expect leadership when a town suffers from an ‘act of God’ which results in damage to our vital tourism industry. Instead, council’s response is ‘there is nothing we can do’.

When forced to take some action, it hands over the problem to the local Chamber of Commerce to investigate. They are all busy people trying to run their own businesses, all very competent, but without the resources to conduct such an investigation. Once again, a lack of leadership on an important community issue.

Now, there are some hard-working councillors on our Council; they read the agenda, attend workshops and want to work hard on the issues. But, unfortunately, there appears to be a majority who simply want to put their hand up to agree with every recommendation offered by the General Manager, without doing the research.

Take, for example, the issue of policies; the General Manager refused a councillor’s request to go through a policy in detail at a workshop. At the Council meeting, rather than deal with one policy at a time, they were all presented together as a ‘fait accompli’.

One councillor asked to vote on them separately, but the majority of councillors did not agree. The councillor was even rebuked by another councillor for wanting to go into detail at the meeting about the policies.

Turns out one of the policies presented did not even meet minimum legislative standards. With that small modification made, they were all voted on and passed. But was this the best possible outcome for democracy or for our community?

It certainly highlighted the lack of work ethic amongst some of our council members and highlighted a central issue within our Council. We, the people, elect Councillors to set the strategy and direction for our region. The Council employs a General Manager to ensure that this strategy is implemented in the most effective and efficient manner.
Unfortunately, what we have is unclear roles and, you guessed it, a lack of leadership, in my view.

Then there is the police presence … what is with that? Every meeting for the past few months we have had at least one, sometimes a whole posse of local police, present at Council meetings. Now in my mid-forties, I am one of the younger Council meeting regulars; there are usually about twelve of us in the gallery, and each month it’s usually the same faces.

We must be a dangerous lot; Council meetings must be a hotbed of local crime to require such a police presence. Or maybe it’s just the free coffee and the warm room which brings the police? One thing is for sure … attending local council meetings is not ‘fighting crime’, it is not making our community safer and it is not very welcoming. It would certainly indicate some issues with how councillors and council staff relate to the wider community. Once again, the response to a perceived issue (?), highlights a lack of leadership.

Thank goodness we get to vote soon. But I am worried that because we have been devoid of what I believe is good leadership for so long, that I wonder if people remember what it really is. I do know what it is not, it is not being flamboyant or being ‘famous’. It is not about being good at self-promotion, which is what people mean when they say our current Mayor is good at promoting the region, it’s nice that everyone knows we have a French mayor, but that’s not what makes this region a great place to live and invest in.

Let’s hope people don’t think we have a French Mayor because no one local is up for the job. I would prefer a local person, then at least whenever something great happens it would not be compared to something better that is French!

Council elections are not popularity contests, it’s not about voting for a ‘star’; it’s the region that should be the star, not an individual. Council elections are about voting for people who will work hard for our community, who are involved in our community and who are capable and intelligent.

Please remember that when you post off your vote. We need proactive leadership in our community if we are to pull through the tough times and create a respectful and inclusive community. So please vote, and don’t make it a popularity contest.

Miriam Scurrah is the voluntary Editor of the Great Oyster Bay Community News which provides local news to the Glamorgan Spring Bay region. With qualifications in business, education and criminology, but none in journalism, she is a citizen journalist with a passion for her local community and social justice issues. She is currently undertaking a PhD on prisoner learning, maintains a number of websites and Facebook pages on national and state prison issues and is the founder of the Australian Prison Foundation.

Cartoon from the Great Oyster Bay Community News

Says Miriam Scurrah: Visit my site: http://www.scoop.it/t/tasmania-prison-service-exposed – Prisoners have no voice in society, their families are silenced through fear of retaliation from prison management, organisations and workers are silenced through fear of losing access and funding – but if we want a safer society – we must make people accountable for the abuse of human rights which occurs daily in our Tasmanian prisons.