OUT WITH THE OLD

I resigned because I had had a gut full. My departure from the Council was mainly based on five items. I felt so frustrated at not being able to achieve anything in the period of time that I was there.
I was informed many times that I did not understand, and I thought I had a fairly good understanding of Council after having been on there for seven years prior, and three years this time, I thought I had a fairly good knowledge of Council.
I was informed many times that I did not understand a thing, I didn't understand the financial workings of the Council. I was informed that I was a racist - I'm no more racist than anyone else.
I did inform Ali right from the very beginning that there were several things I didn't like; there were four of them. I didn't like crooked lawyers, I didn't like crooked accountants, I don't like people who lie, and I told him I don't like Pakistanis. So I had nothing to hide - that was three weeks after I was sworn in.
I also mentioned to him many times that he had to stop spending money, when I was chairman of the finance committee, he took no notice. When it was mooted for the conference [National Conference in 1998] I said, Council will not be able to put any money in, they could put in time but not money, but it was not to interfere with the running of the Council.
For three months prior to the conference nothing was done in Council except the conference. In fact there was the time that was spent on him running around the countryside trying to get sponsors and trying to get people to attend interfere with the running of the Council.
He kept putting people on when we never had money - you can't employ people when you haven't got the money - simple as that. We did try and stop him, it was impossible. Plus the fact that you've got five people who would vote in favour of what Ali wanted done.
What are the most urgent reforms that the Council need to address?
I'll tell you what - the new member is going to be wooed, oiled, and he will be told that, "as you are a new member, you don't understand what's going on".
If he survives the wooing - how would you rate the priorities for reform?
What I would do first of all would be to get the elected members to go back and talk to the people, because the present Council have lost contact with the people
What are the people going to say though?
Many of them are not happy with the way things have happened. A good example is the closing of Davidson Street where they're putting in a mall. The first people knew about that was when it was going to happen, plus the fact, I understand that it's going to be a one way street. I can't see how it's going to be a one way street when the service lanes are used for semi trailers.
It's just another place for the Aboriginals to sit down and drink in my opinion. You want go and see what they do in Peko Park, it's a mess. I mean it's not nice - very few tourists stop there. There's graffiti everywhere, the whole thing in my opinion is not looked after mainly because the workforce just don't have the time.
By the time they get out and cut the verges, and do all the other things, they just haven't got the work force.
OK, assuming that no Council ever keeps everybody happy, what's fundamentally wrong with the Council?
Well they're not looking after the people; it's the ratepayers who pay the salaries of the workers, if you can't see where your money is going, for value, you start to wonder; now alright Ali mentioned the fact that they spent $200,000 on roads, well that's a furphy, for the simple reason, this year there's only been a $1000 worth of patching, possibly a little bit of line marking, but that's about all. Because the money is spent on salaries.
Do you think there are too many people in the administration side?
I do. I mean you've got people in there in my opinion are walking around doing nothing. And yet other people, like Schoppie who are doing work which way out of his scope, that Ali should be doing. Lets face it: in this day and age the Chief Executive as he likes to call himself should have a P.C. on his desk there and be able to type his own letters, not have a personal secretary do it.
You wouldn't want to pay someone that much to type his own letters would you?
You're paying him in excess of one hundred-odd thousand dollars, you've got a girl in the office getting forty-odd thousand, just to type letters. In this day and age you should be able to just sit there [and type]. He says he works so hard, because he has to laboriously write all his own stuff out. If you've got a P.C., why write it out when you can type it out. Simple. You're paying for double handling of letters.
Have you got any advice for the new Councillor?
I do believe they're looking at the budget, possibly his input into the maintenance side of it, he may be able throw some light on it. I know for a fact there's been very little maintenance on the Council Chambers for at least ten or eleven years. They just don't believe it's needed. They don't patch the roads either. I don't think they're going to let him get onto the finance committee, they may put him on the works and service committee. I think Barry will have a quick grasp of it, he'll come up with ideas, but whether the ideas will be accepted is another thing. I do believe he's not going to be yes-man - time will tell.
Why didn't you wait a bit until we were within 12 months of the next election so we didn't have to have a by-election?
I believe the people have the right to choose who they wanted, not cop who ever would have been appointed.
Do you have further political aspirations as far as the Council is concerned? Would you be prepared to stand for re-election at the next Council election?
Yes, that's correct, that exactly what I intend to do. That way hopefully we might be able to get some common sense back into the Council. People with new ideas, and people who are not stale, and I do believe the Council is stale.
"I was informed many times
that I did not understand."