IN case others overlook the significance of his words, Russell Schnieder’s letter (All in the planning, Bay Post, January 14) should be emphasised in large print: "Eurobodalla Shire Council’s attempt to hike rates by 26 per cent over three years results from a self-inflicted wound caused by council and its advisers … Its restrictive policies … have gutted the shire’s rateable base … Between 2011 and 2014 rateable values in the shire dropped by 5.3 per cent … Those in neighbouring shires which had developed far less alarmist policies rose by between 4.3 and 7.9 per cent.”
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Residents must identify the problem in council’s administration before throwing more money at it.
Council keeps hidden what its own staff have tried to tell us for years through Insync Staff Surveys that they are among the most poorly managed in a very shabby state.
Council’s own consultants confirmed the negative culture and poor internal communications, consistent with the absence of motivational goals and leadership skills.
Despite the statutory requirement for senior staff in local government to be employed on a contract basis, with renewal subject to demonstrating high levels of performance, ESC's ‘managerial' staff remain unresponsive in jobs that are, evidently, too big for them.
Local government is a very expensive and cumbersome additional layer of bureaucracy in our heavily over-governed nation.
If it does not listen and assist residents to determine how local affairs are administered, what do we vote and pay for?
Don Burns
Tuross Head