A COPY OF THE Ombudsman’s letter to the Mayor, Charles Sturt Council as presented in the Agenda for the Monday 28th November meeting. The Council staff have blanked out a section of the letter which presumably names the wards which councilors “P”, “B” and “M” represent.
Remarkably enough, councilors P, B and M have chosen not to reveal their identities to their electors. It is reasonable to assume that their reasons for wishing to remain anonymous are based on a belief that they have not breached the Council’s code of Conduct provisions. However it must be the case that, if open government is a consideration, then their identities will be revealed once the Council has ruled on their cases, innocent or otherwise..
A consequence of Councilors not putting their hands up is shown by the unfortunate linking of Councilor “P” and a the former Deputy Mayor Angela Keneally. This occurred during Cr Randall’s speech to Charles Sturt Council at last weeks’ Special Meeting. The lumping together was unintentional, and the Cr retracted any imputation, but it is obvious that the reluctance of the Councilors referred to in the letter to own up to their identities in the Ombudsman’s Report leaves all Councilors open to guilt by association in this regrettable fashion.
No comments:
Post a Comment