After several councillors had put their names forward to continue on various committees, newly-returned Cr Tony Nicholson voiced his objection to councillors seeking to "hold on" to their committees. "Appointment to special committees is not a sinecure," Cr Nicholson said, suggesting that some councillors may view committee representation as a long-term arrangement.
Cr Judy Bromfield refuted Cr Nicholson's assertion and Cr Damian Bester pointed out that the mayor had said a ballot would be held if there were multiple nominations for any committees.
Having had his say, Cr Nicholson put his name forward for several committees including the Historical Information Centre Special Committee, of which he is already the chairman. Cr Nicholson has been a member of the Historical Information Centre for more than 20 years and was the council representative at the time of losing his seat two years ago.
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| Excerpt from 2007 council minutes |
I was there, and found the whole discussion around committee representation to be disjointed, disorganised, and, to be honest, unedifying.
ReplyDeleteBefore the meeting started, there should have been a list of the committees, who was currently on them, how long they had been on them for, and an assessment from each committee about the applicability and performance of the current representative councillors.
The experience of listening to councillors being asked "What committees are you on?" hardly instilled confidence.
Finally, are councillors required to formally report back on each committee? If not, why not?
The historic infomation group has been very silent on the issue of the the convict brick structures unearthed recently, They were certainly known. I would have thought they would have nominated them for heritage listing .the structures are sewrage tunells, built 1837 please refer to the troubled asylum, indeed the councilers have been very num.
ReplyDeleteThe article makes it sound like Nicholson just wanted to make some waves after being away from DVC for two years.
ReplyDeleteDo these Councillors get extra money for being on those special committees ??
An easy solution would be just to let as many interested Councillors be on as many special committees as they have time for.
Pfft! What a lot of hot air from Cr Nicholson, if he was so concerned then he should not have sat on any committee he had been on before.
ReplyDeleteI understand special committees are required to give an annual report to council, but a councillor is required to be on each of them to comply with the status. And no, I don't think anyone gets any extra $'s for being on these committees.