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“It is a matter of conscience” that compels Robyn Jenkins to speak out about the MidCoast Council Local Representative Committee (LRC).
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Yesterday she acted to submit a letter of resignation from the LRC to administrator John Turner and to provide copies to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Minister for Local Government Gabrielle Upton.
Today she is speaking to the community to cast a spotlight on a committee that “is not achieving” and “is being sidetracked to talk about things that are not fundamentally important to the people.”
The former Greater Taree City councillor and deputy mayor believes “it is not ethical” for her to accept an annual payment of around $19,000 for the work required of her on the LRC and says that in recent months she’s “become increasingly disillusioned” by the role of the LRC and its contribution to MidCoast Council.
She cites the proposed MidCoast Council and MidCoast Water merger as an example of the disconnect between the committee and administrator, John Turner.
“The LRC knew nothing about MidCoast Water, nothing, until we read it in the paper. We knew when the community did,” Ms Jenkins said.
“There is more than 100 years of experience in local government on that committee and it seems to me that experience is not being put to good use in order to prepare for the incoming council,” Ms Jenkins said. She believes the committee should be working to create draft policies and procedures for MidCoast Council in addition to “being a conduit for community opinion.”
Ms Jenkins says Mr Turner meets with the committee once a month.
“To my mind we haven’t covered anything particularly substantial in those discussions and often we have found out about things that have been decided after they have been announced.”
She believes LRC members should be able to provide advice on “issues that are of relevance and importance to the community, issues that the community feels passionate about, issues where I think it is necessary to take the community’s opinions and interests into account before you make decisions.” However, after more than six months on the LRC her summation of the representative role is, “I get the impression that it is all about maintaining the status quo.”
Ms Jenkins says the LRC “doesn’t always speak as a whole, as a single entity”.
“There is still to my mind a deal of uncertainty in the relationships within the committee and I’m not quite confident that the committee is as cohesive as it should be.
“I’m just at the end of my tether. You go there, you sit there, you do nothing. We were all asked to sign a legally binding undertaking that we wouldn’t talk about what went on in the committee. I did not sign it because I considered it was restrictive and undemocratic.”
Ms Jenkins suspects her resignation will be a surprise to some members of the LRC.
“It was really a matter of conscience for me in that I am being paid the same amount of money to be a member of this committee as I was to be a councillor.
“I don’t feel that the ratepayers are getting value for their money because the system is not in place to enable me, and in my opinion, other members of the committee to put forward the community’s opinion before a decision is made by council.”