Hats off to the Byron Shire Council for finally committing to a community consultation process for large projects (Echo Dec 31).
After multiple failures and the resultant complete loss of faith and confidence by the community in Council, a motion was passed to formulate a process and engage with the community.
Nice job. Someone’s listening. At last.
What’s disturbing is that two councillors (Lyon and Dods) seemed content to lick their index fingers, stick them in their ears, and sing ‘lalalalala’. Not us they say, we’re bloody geniuses, doing a great job, and know more than you jokers who actually live and work in our community (and care about it). Eat cake you imbeciles.
Then our very well remunerated ‘leader from the shadows’, Council General Manager (GM) Mark Arnold chimes in with ‘not operationally feasible’. This can be translated as ‘I’m smarter than the councillors, and anyway, it’s too hard. We have our way and we’re always right. We’ve only got 400 or so employees, and it’s way past lunch time. Don’t you know we have homes to go to.’
Now the decision has been made and the motion passed, we can only hope that the reluctant councillors play some team ball, embrace it and work towards a plan that works for the community. Crs Lyon and Dods should park their egos (best hurry if 57 Station St is your parking preference). If not, they should resign. That’s democracy.
As for the GM. The mayor should remind him that he is an employee, appointed by Council who has hire and fire authority over him. When given a directive from the board (Council in this case), the GM’s job is to plan, execute, and deliver.
GM’s don’t go all sooky-la-la because the democratically-elected Council did their job and gave clear direction to an employee who has been in the job a very long time and is perhaps getting a little too comfortable.
So, councillors and Council staff, time to play your part in a team effort to win back confidence and engage the community in your decision-making matrix. Remember, fair-minded people want to be heard and will accept decisions if due process has been followed. Unlike some councillors we don’t always have to be right. Just heard.
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. 
