Edgar Adams’ Editorial

Eight lost years

As the clock ticks down to the September 14 Local Government Elections that will see the end of eight years of chaotic management of Central Coast Council, ratepayers wait anxiously to hear who, and how many, people with the capacity to govern the second largest council in NSW, will stand for election.

The first Central Coast Council was an outright disaster with all, but two Councillors totally taken up with their own self-serving agendas and quite happy to see the organisation become financially crippled in doing so.

But step back to the start and the appointment of an Administrator charged with bringing two disparate organisations together.  On all accounts this Administrator failed to achieve any semblance of organisational cohesion in the unrealistic timeframe he was given.

To say that the employees of Gosford and Wyong Councils had an innate dislike for each other would be an understatement.  Any thought that they would co-operate for the good of the region was a fantasy from the start.

In the end the first Administrator left the problem to an elected council and drove off into the sunset.

And so, the first Council was confronted with a catastrophic situation virtually running two separate organisations and at that point no CEO!

It didn’t help that the State Government set the council up to fail by creating five Wards with fifteen councillors, most with personal agendas that would never align with the economic and social needs of the region.

None had any organisational management understanding whatsoever.  Most were economically illiterate.

Enter, Council’s first Mayor Councillor Jan Smith, former CEO of the Community Environment Network for some twenty years.

Mayor Ms Smith’s first job was to find a CEO. She found Gary Murphy, CEO at Lismore Council one of the smallest in the state and with the acquiescence of her fellow councillors, appointed him to run the second largest council in NSW – and one where the staff were running the show.

Ms Smith then embarked on one of her major goals, to get the Porters Creek Wetlands covering 700 hectares from Wyong to Warnervale permanently and internationally protected.

She succeeded.  And while this was underway with help from Green and Labor councillors, cancelled a contract with Amphibian Aerospace Industries who had received a lease at the airport on land to build a aircraft manufacturing facility.

AAI are now manufacturing aircraft in Darwin.

These Councillors cost the Central Coast an aviation industry and the Council had to pay millions of dollars in compensation.

She worked to destroy Warnervale Airport by banning tree lopping, making it dangerous for aircraft to use. 

In the end the Porters Creek Wetlands’ boundary surrounds the airport and can no longer be expanded.

Meanwhile, a surreptitious policy of opposing Development Approvals arose. In particular DAs on industrial zoned land across the Coast were refused on the basis that there was no infrastructure to support the development or so-called endangered species were being threatened.

And while this was going on Council’s finances were going down the tube.

Councillor Smith and anti-airport activist Louise Greenaway, along with all the Labor Party’s councillors Doug Vincent, Jeff Sundstrom, Richard Mehrtens, Lisa Matthews and Kyle MacGregor all contributed to Central Coast Council’s insolvency.

Finally, the Minister for Local Government suspended the council and appointed a second Interim Administrator, Dick Persson who sacked Gary Murphy and appointed Rik Hart as Acting CEO.

In his final report Mr Persson said he had never witnessed such a financial calamity and with his report to the Minister done rode off leaving Rik Hart as Administrator and appointing a new CEO David Farmer who had to clean up the mess.

Over this period all major property developers have given up investing in the region. 

OOO

It is now important that the major parties, Liberal and Labor select candidates who have financial and governance credibility.  Certainly, the greenies and their friends will try to get control again.

In any event it would be a travesty if any of the former councillors got elected.

Edgar Adams