No Taxation Without Representation?

Our letter in today's West Australian sets out a clear case for sacking the City of Perth Council and holding fresh elections for Council and Lord Mayor - along with an interesting 'turn the tables' letter from B Walton of Embleton.

A key issue that has been all but absent from discussion of the City of Perth Act is that the current Subiaco electors who will be forcibly transferred to City of Perth on July 1st will be without representation until October 2017 - and even then will only have the chance to vote for half the council and not for the Lord Mayor, who is not due for re-election until 2019.

No matter that some City of Perth councillors will do their best to engage with the ex-Subiaco community, the fact is that they have not been elected by those people.

At the same time, the City of Perth will expect those people to pay rates and rubbish charges to support a council budget they have had no part in determining.

This smacks of 'taxation without representation' which was one of the major causes of the American Revolution. We could hardly blame those soon-to-be-former Subiaco ratepayers if they were to refuse to pay taxes levied on this undemocratic basis.

Simpson Puts City of Perth Council on Notice

Local Government Minister, Tony Simpson, has put the City of Perth Council on notice, saying he would consider action if "they did not get back on track". He called last night's 'goings on' a "disgrace for the ratepayers of the City of Perth" - I hope he actually meant 'electors', although since the City of Perth is supposedly the Capital City of WA, with claims (under the City of Perth Act) to "to maintain and strengthen the local, national and international reputation of the Perth metropolitan area", we are ALL citizens of the Capital City and affected by the actions of the City of Perth.

The 'goings on' last night were a disgrace for all the citizens of Western Australia.

Asked if he would consider sacking the Council if the bad behaviour continued (as we have been arguing here should happen), Minister Simpson said he would "definitely have a look at it".

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/31629239/perth-councillors-turn-on-deputy-mayor/

Not All Doom And Gloom at City of Perth

Despite yesterday's shenanigans at City of Perth, it seems it is at last starting to dawn on more than a minority of councillors that greater openness, transparency and accountability are required.

Cr Reece Harley reports that, in the same meeting, the City of Perth Council adopted two resolutions to this effect:

1. "That Council requests the administration of the City of Perth to upload audio recordings of Council Meetings to the City of Perth's website by close of business the following working day."

2. "That Council requests the CEO of the City to carry out a review of the terms of reference and membership structure of the City's Audit & Risk Committee. Council notes that all other Capital Cities of Australia have an externally appointed and suitably qualified member as Chair of their Audit Committee."

https://www.facebook.com/ReeceHarley4Perth/posts/988454307918263

City of Perth Council is Dysfunctional and Should be Sacked

I doubt that anyone in Perth is unaware of the ongoing saga of Perth Lord Mayor, Lisa Scaffidi, and her travel rorts, including damning reports from both the Crime and Corruption Commission and most recently from the Local Government Department (http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/WebCMS/WebCMS.nsf/resources/file-perth-inquiry-report/$file/Perth%20Inquiry%20Report.pdf) which recommended as follows:

3. Conclusion and recommendation 

37. The findings which relate to possible minor breaches, in relation to accepting prohibited gifts and failing to disclose interests affecting impartiality, occurred in excess of two years prior and therefore, are outside the statute of limitations. Disciplinary action cannot be taken in respect of those matters.

38. In light of the remaining findings, the authorised persons recommend that consideration be given to commencing disciplinary action against Mayor Scaffidi in relation to the allegations contained in this report under the heading “Schedule of Alleged Breaches’. Those allegations mirror the findings of the authorised persons. However, since the State Administrative Tribunal must independently determine whether any serious breaches have occurred, the findings in this report would amount only to allegations in the event disciplinary proceedings were commenced. 

Scaffidi's intransigence in response to these findings prompted Deputy Lord Mayor, James Limnios, to threaten a motion of no-confidence in the Lord Mayor, but he was pre-empted this evening by Cr Janet Davidson successfully moving a motion of no-confidence in the Deputy Lord Mayor himself. According to West Australian reporter Kate Emery on Twitter (https://twitter.com/kirovkate?lang=en) Cr Limnios has apparently declared that he will not step down as Deputy Lord Mayor. According to Kate Emery, Crs Reece Harley, Jemma Green and Lily Chen opposed the no-confidence motion (as did Limnios). The others were in favour.

Any fair-minded observer would have to conclude that the City of Perth Council, far from being the elite capital city council promoted by Barnett and Simpson during the passage of the City of Perth Act, is dysfunctional and should be sacked and new elections should be held as soon as possible, which would give a voice to those electors forcibly transferred against their will from the City of Subiaco.