Motion for Douglas Shire Council Annual report gets passed but not before tense and terse debate at special meeting
HOTLY DEBATED
A motion that Council adopts the 2021-22 annual report led to an at times tense and terse special meeting at Douglas Shire Council yesterday.
While Councillors eventually passed the motion 3-2 it wasn’t without differences of opinion as several aspects of the report were hotly discussed and debated.
Ms Scomazzon noted the report had always come to Councillors as a final report and on this occasion she could not support this specific draft document.
Fellow Councillor Roy Zammataro also remarked that “he had a lot of calls and complaints” from local indigenous elders about them not being correctly acknowledged in the report.
In response to Cr Zammataro Mayor Kerr expressed his apologies and suggested any mistake(s), grammatical, contextual or otherwise about the specific matter would be fixed before the final draft was completed.
Cr Peter McKeown on the other hand praised the report declaring the draft document was “generally a great job all around”.
Cr Abigail Noli however, questioned Mayor Kerr around several different aspects noted in the report.
“I enjoy reading the annual report and I thank all staff for its production. The preamble by Cr. Kerr however, I disagree with," Cr Noli remarked to Newsport.
"In the Annual Report Cr. Kerr again, (three years now) alludes to lack of transparency in the previous term and yet he goes on to state “I appreciate that sometimes commercial in-confidence laws can often make decisions difficult to understand”.
"In my opinion, the statement is both insulting to the community and their intelligence, but also hypocritical.
"The continual mentioning of buying the ferry for the third straight year of annual reports confirms leadership bungles and attempts in convincing otherwise.
"The projects of which Cr. Kerr so confidently declares didn’t even commence in this term, a fortunate chain of events has just seen their completion recently.
"Smart meters-last term, Cooya beach cycle way-last term, Killaloe Resource Recovery Centre-last term, Council run Carnivale-last term, an emphasis on playgrounds and gardens-last term, Foreshore Management plans-last term. What has Cr. Kerr actually started this term?
"For Cr Kerr to suggest that Douglas has just been roads, rates and rubbish in the past also is ludicrous.
"Words declaring that only this term has brought about other services to Douglas and yet without actually saying what these new services are – I wish to question these words in the Message from the Mayor (in the report)."
In the end after 30 minutes of hard, robust discussion the motion was passed. Mayor Michael Kerr, Cr Noli and Cr McKeown voted in favour, while Cr Scomazzon and Cr Zammataro voted against it.