Some councillors do have balls!!!!!

The following Leader article stems from another council - one that is obviously represented by people with some sense of community responsibility. By way of contrast with our clowncil they have refused to be 'gagged'; they insist on speaking directly to and for the people they represent - unlike glen eira and its gag which only allows the mayor to speak for others - that is of course after her words have been carefully crafted by the spin doctors. All other councillors in glen eira have allowed their mouths (brains?) to be stitched up!


18 Mar 09 @ 09:00am by Dimity Barber
Casey Mayor Geoff Ablett
A MOVE to silence Casey councillors from speaking to the media has been defeated. As reported by the Berwick Leader today, Casey top media executive Ros Weadman wrote a report urging all communication between councillors and the media be handled by the high paid public relations crew.
But at last night’s council meeting, the community’s elected representatives made it clear they would not accept the policy changes, including:
*A ban on the media questioning councillors directly;
*All media enquiries to be filtered through the communications department for “co-ordination of a response’’; and
*Councillors to ask permission from the communications department before talking to the media directly.
In a unanimous vote, councillors made it clear they would not be gagged and told Ms Weadman to go back to the drawing board.
Casey Mayor Geoff Ablett said big business adopted a “co-ordinated approach” to PR, and so should the city. “Otherwise we are doing things willy nilly,” he said.
But Cr Wayne Smith said he was disturbed by some of the policy changes.
“I don’t believe an organisation can tell a councillor they can’t approach the media. It’s crazy. It wouldn’t happen at any other council and it shouldn’t happen here,” Cr Smith said.
Cr Lorraine Wreford said the changes were “highly inappropriate”.
“It feels like an attempt to gag us,” Cr Wreford said.
“What about the free-flow of information to our community? This is a free country.”
Cr Sam Aziz said the city should take a consultative approach and work with councillors to come up with a “less restrictive” policy.
Cr Kevin Bradford also urged caution.
“The communications policy is one of the most important we have at council. It’s about what information our community has access to,” he said.
“We need to find a fair balance between allowing elected representatives to have democratic free speech while protecting the name of the City of Casey.”
Councillors will debate the matter behind closed doors before the end of April.