WHY IS DAVID PORTER OUR BEST CHOICE FOR MAYOR?

As the most active Councillor during the last term with 300% more noticies of motion than the average, I have already established myself as the trailblazer for change. I have already started working on the action items below, so they are not empty commitments, but without a Mayor committed to improvement, its very difficult to effect change.
As your new Mayor I will comit to getting all the items listed here underway within 3 months of being elected.

    MOTIONS I WILL PUT BEFORE THE NEW COUNCIL

    The dedicated parking officer has created a lot of anger in the community, a review needs to be done to ensure this position aligns with our community vales.

    Review the outrages Merimbula Airport plan with realistic passenger numbers, growth plans, trigger points and leave Merimbula Aircraft Maintenance where they are.

    Conduct a review of Lifesaving services to align with recent Australian Surf Lifesaving reports.

    Review Debt Collection Policy and Procedures

    - As a community we are facing a lot of challenges right now, cost of living and housing are top of the list, we need a council who will minimise its financial impact on the community and at the same time make themselves good communicators and easy to engage with.
    - I have extensive experience here and overseas as a board member, director and successful small business owner with many years experience in Business Process Reengineering, which is all about making organisations more efficient.
    - Words like Accountability and Transparency need to be actions not just words in a glossy brochure, they only happen in the leadership believes in their importance to an organisation, I not only believe in then but have a plan to introduce them at every level in council.
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    - During the last council term I voted against special rate variations (SRV) and against every rate rises.
    - I was even successful in proposing a motion to create a savings workgroup, but without leadership support in workshops all of the conversations about savings were disingenuous.
    - The outgoing leadership has already said the rate rises are not enough, and they are going to hit us with more rate rises again soon.
    - They claim the only way to save money is closing pools and libraries, this shows a poor understanding of business basics given that fumbled projects have cost millions in ratepayer funds.
    - Ask yourself, when the Bega Rec Ground Project fell about $7M short, how was council able to pull that money from the budget without effecting any other projects or services? Why are we having rate rises with that much fat sitting in the budget?

    - Its time for Council to start being responsible with how they spend your hard earned rates, every year millions is blown off without any accountability especially through project management.
    - The Bega Recreational Ground is good example of poor project management with zero accountability.
    - Somehow the project was awarded to an architectural firm that had nom clue about sporting facilities, when I first saw the design I could see it was a huge building that was so poorly designed that it have a large number of spaces filled with store rooms and meeting rooms to fill voids because of the inefficient design, I then observed it had no facilities for women in sport, no room for spectators at the basketball court, the canteen volunteers couldn't see the field and to top it off the media and time keepers booths have an obstructed view of the field, to which the architects said "but the referee keeps the time", I thought they were joking.
    - The grant funded budget of $8.5M was clearly not enough for what they had designed but at no time had anyone put the brakes on.
    - With the project coming in close to $20M, this same council who had told ratepayers they were not financially sustainable pulled the extra money from fat in the budget, how come they can find the money for an overbudget sportsground but not to fund council operations?
    - Council needs accountability and strength of leadership, by electing David Porter as Mayor, Council will finally have someone prepared to implement measures that will prevent the wastage and poor project management that is costing ratepayers millions of dollars.

    - I will ensure that every document provided to councillors or placed on public exhibition, must have a single page executive summary attached to the front so that anyone can know what information the document is providing without having to be a rocket scientist.
    - Council chain of comand will be accountable for the accuracy and completness of the summary.

    - We need to move to a professional model of using facts based, ethical decision making. We must stamp out favors, jobs for the boys or even grudges and revenge, under my leadership, Councillors and staff will be held to account in decision making to ensure honest and ethical decisions at all levels.
    - As Mayor, I will call out councillors and staff engaging in the toxic behavior, especially the practice of making disrespectful and derogatory remarks about members of the community, by maintaining clean and respectful debate about issues instead of personalities we will greatly increase ethical decision making which is a tenant of being a Councillor.

    - Councils financial dealings need an extensive review. Firstly, as mayor I will move to change the way budgets are prepared.
    - The budgeting process should not start with the amount spent last year, but rather start with the projected INCOME, the VISION and the PRIORITIES, in other words budgets must be built from the ground up, and then see how far that money can be spread across priorities and what grants will be needed to cover extra things council wants to do.
    - Councillors should be consulted along the way as to what priorities are and what expenses are included, not forced to go and find information buried deep in a pile of documents with days or hours before they are being called to approved them.

    - We need the Councillor group to be brought together under leadership as a cohesive group representing different views of the community. This means transparent round table discussions at workshops not just staff presentations and all councillors respected equally so as to empower their contributions as representatives of the community. I will eliminate the practice of the Mayor treating Councillors with favourtisim in return for their vote, every councillor will be respected as a representative of the community ensuring a greater level of engagement and community consultation.

    - On the Wednesdays that there are no Council meetings, Council usually runs “Workshops”, which are basically presentation days, where staff give presentations to Councillors. All this is done behind closed doors without any minutes or actions recorded, not only are things said the contravene the oath of ethical decision making but on numerous occasions commitments are made to councillors, which are denied at a later time.
    - As your Mayor I will redirect these workshops to be minuted or recorded so that the community has transparency and particidants are held to account for what was said.

    - I will reintroduce town hall meetings quarterly rotating through the shire. Members of the community will be welcome to have a transparent discussion with council on any issue.

    I will drive a culture change in Community consultation, how its performed, classified and how information is utilised in the decision making process. This will involved transparent classification if interactions with the community to include
    - INFORMATION, where council has made a decisions and is communicating with the community.
    - CONSULTATION, were the community is engaged in the decision making process, this will be moved from staff rebutting concerns from the community to staff working to ensure concerns are managed through the process.
    - OPEN, where the community can engage with council on any issue.
    - DIRECT, where the everyone can expect an honest and respectful answer to every communication.

    - I believe every person should have the right to an independent review of a government decisions. As your mayor, I will be happy to review your issue independently and give you an honest answer to where you stand and how council can resolve your issue. My record in this area, assisting the community is excellent and I comit to continued support in this area.
    - On my review or resolution of your issue, I will also provide information on your pathway outside of council to navigate an independant resolution to this issue.

    - we need to move Council from a roadblock culture to a Can-Do Culture, way too often I hear people ask why dealing with Council has to be so hard. Developers in particular are welcomed with open arms in other shires because they increase housing availability but our shire has a reputation of being the most difficult and obstructive that they deal with. I have already been trailblazer for reviewing customer service policies and procedures and as Mayor I will be able to influence through leadership the tone of councils culture into a "CAN-DO COUNCIL".

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