About three months ago there was a bit of a stink about the previous Byron Council tying up a line with Rous County Council (RCC) and abandoning Lavertys Gap so late in the day leaving little opportunity for public consultation or a rescission motion.
The reverse side of this coin can also be suspect; that is, the staff put up proposals that new councillors could not possibly know enough about to make an informed decision. I’ve seen that cynical nonsense happen several times over the decades.
As it happens, of the first two items on the agenda, the first was about Council’s two representatives on RCC. The way this was handled is indicative of what we can expect in terms of transparency and accountability. The staff handed out little professional voting cards which they then collected after councillors had filled them in. Then they did their count and announced (surprise, surprise) that Sarah Ndiaye was successful, as was Elia Hauge.
This sucks. I think we, the ratepayers, were entitled to hear before the vote what relevant qualifications the various applicants put forward, if any. Not only that but we were given no idea how individual councillors voted. It was in effect a secret ballot, how is that compatible with transparency?
Cr Pugh showed some signs of unease and asked a couple of questions but got nowhere. A rescission motion would be in order, but does he have it in him?
The second item on the agenda concerned decision-making powers which the elected council were asked to delegate to the staff. Most new councillors wouldn’t even know what an ‘instrument of delegation’ is. I haven’t, at the time of writing, had the opportunity to read the relevant staff report, but I’m suspicious about the timing and the motivation behind it. Council didn’t put any printed versions of the agenda around the room as they previously did, so we observers were expected to follow barely-readable prompts on two special screens, i.e. no opportunity to scan the agenda beforehand or during a boring item.
As I said, things don’t look good for future decision-making; Byron councillors will in effect be asked to endorse decisions already made by the bureaucrats.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
