A TINY FRACTION THAT SPEAKS VOLUMES ABOUT THE WHOLE

Despite criticism from community members, City of Launceston council passed the recommendation to award a $530,000 contract to Tas City Building – a business a Councillor has an interest in – to build shower and bathroom facilities for Town Hall workers and Councillors. 

Clearly there is a majority of  Launceston's Councillor who believe they are entitled and have a 'divine right' to do what they like when they like. Indeed, when the GM/CEO auspices a concept and when he taps them on the shoulder with his SECTION62/2 empowerment wand they become all the more and more emboldened. Greed is infectious!

The project will also see change rooms and waste management be build at the annex. The total budget allocation for the project is $610,000. [VALUE LINK]

Somewhat curiously there are off-the-shelf ‘end-of-trip-showers’ available for approx. $10K each. [LINK] However, the suppliers are apparently disinclined to offer ‘dividends’ to people placing orders as they value their business’ reputation. So, on the evidence this firm could supply 10units for 10% of the GM/CEO’s budget allocation! Even so, they probably do not come with the dividends that speculatively some suppliers offer.

How can that be? How can the constituency challenge this outrageous wasteful project?

The controversy around the project came when the tender for the project in December 2021 failed to attract any applicants and council moved to award the contract to Tas City Building. However, how hard did management try to find either more firms to tender or seek another way to fulfil the projects' purpose?

Clearly the GM/CEO and/or the Mayor haven’t ensured that Council officers delivered on due diligence or is this a case where the competence of City of Launceston’s Management has been tested beyond its capacity to deliver? 

It is of more than some concern that Councillors revisited the previously lost recommendation at the very next council meeting when more of the 'inclined incumbents would be in attendance. 

Is this an exemplar where you keep on voting until you get it RIGHT as is the case in TOTALARIN GOVERNANCE like Italy’s once was? 

Councillors Paul Spencer and Tim Walker spoke against the recommendation, and at the previous meeting the two councillors had abstained. Will they be rewarded for this at the upcoming Local Govt elections or will those seeking DIVINE RIGHTS do all they can to interfere with their chances now, at election time and/or after IF Launcestonians vote for them given that on this occasion they spoke up for fiscal restraint?

Cr Spencer said he couldn't understand why council had only reached out to one business and not three. "To go to one without giving anyone else the opportunity is totally wrong, I can't see why this can't go back to tender," he said. In fact there wasn't one voice in support this proposition.

Again, is this an exemplar where you keep on voting until you get it RIGHT as is the case in TOTALARIN GOVERNANCE like Italy’s once was? 

While Cr Walker said he was not against having these facilities available to council staff, it might no longer reflect the "mood" of the community. What an outrageous idea, taking the ‘community MOOD’ into account! 

In speaking for this recommendation, Cr Andrea Dawkins said the argument was going "around and around." Yes, she spotted the problem … keep going around and around until you get it RIGHT but she couldn't go that far a vote accordingly

Cr Andrea Dawkins - argument going around and around in circles, decision of a previous council, this is reactionary, not showing us at our best "Is this the way we want council to operate?" she said. 

"We have a motion before us. We can either support it or not." Yes, she spotted the problem … keep going around and around until you all get it RIGHT … It only matters, apparently, that the GM/CEO gets the outcome HE wants, right, wrong, reactionary of no… Cr Dawkins also needs to read a dictionary from time to time, it’d help her heaps!

Deputy mayor Danny Gibson said the move was about getting things done in the city. "We can do one of two things," he said. "We can either stop work and do nothing or we can keep moving forward." 

NO, NO, NO there is a third thing to do! As ‘representatives’ Councillors might well consider putting aside their DIVINE RIGHTS stance and investigate the options Direct Deliberative Democracy opens up! If you are about to seek 'public endorsement' at an election it would be prudent to listen to the 'public's protests' as the consequences of not doing so could well be expensive.

However, it is written in The Illiad “Sit still and wait for orders from your officers, who are better men than you, coward and weakling that you are, counting for nothing in battle or debate. We cannot all be kings here; and mob rule is a bad thing. Let there be one commander only, one king, set over us by Zeus the Son of Cronos of the Crooked Ways” 

The purpose of this tale is to in some way demonstrate the consequence of disconnecting GOVERNANCE from 'the governed'.and the need to get on with connecting the two things.