THE outgoing chair of the City of Greater Geelong\u2019s administrators has given voters some advice about they should be looking for in their new councillors.<\/p>\n
Dr Kathy Alexander, who will step down from the role following the October 27 election, was speaking at the Geelong Business Network\u2019s latest breakfast forum, held at Little Creatures Brewery yesterday (Wednesday).<\/p>\n
She said the administrators had done much work at the city, but there was still much to do. \u201cIf I was to be absolutely honest, I would say we\u2019ve built a platform, the walls aren\u2019t up and we haven\u2019t even designed the roof.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Alexander said voters should judge how informed candidates were about the plans put in place by the administrators, such as the Our Future strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cA few candidates have already made it clear that they haven\u2019t necessarily asked for information before they\u2019ve come out and said \u2018I support X\u2019 or \u2018I support Y\u2019, so be very clear that we have informed decision-making in Geelong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Responding to a question from the crowd about whether voters should go for \u201cpersonalities or policies\u201d, Dr Alexander said they should choose neither.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you should be voting for is a person who\u2019s really capable of listening effectively to their constituency and understanding what the issues are, a person who\u2019s then capable of being able to articulate those issues to their colleagues in the council, a person who can work as a team because if a council is a bunch of individual personalities then they\u2019ll probably end up being sacked.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the best councillors were those who knew the 80 per cent they held dear as well as the 20 per cent they were willing to compromise on, but disagreed with a suggestion that the state government-appointed monitors would be restrictive on the new council.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re on no tighter a leash than any other council in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the governance procedures that have been put in place by us are absolutely standard practice in most major cities.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the job of the monitors was not to engage but to observe compliance with those procedures.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad we had four-and-a-half years (as originally recommended by the commission of inquiry), it would have been completely unnecessary; the roof would have been on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE outgoing chair of the City of Greater Geelong\u2019s administrators has given voters some advice about they should be looking for in their new councillors. Dr Kathy Alexander, who will step down from the role following the October 27 election, was speaking at the Geelong Business Network\u2019s latest breakfast forum, held at Little Creatures Brewery […]<\/p>\n