We’re back.
After almost six months outside Hawkesbury Council Chambers, the Gazette has returned to the press desk. Finding it, however, remains something of an adventure.
The press desk has moved three times over the course of our attendance. Perhaps it should have its own entry in Council’s asset register: mobile infrastructure, useful life uncertain.
Our original position was occasionally shared with perfectly pleasant middle-ranking bureaucrats. They were important enough to be needed at the meeting, but apparently not important enough for a seat at the big table where your wage needs to exceed $200,000 plus a year. The arrangement kept them within dashing distance should a senior officer require assistance.
There were pleasantries. There may even have been conversation.
Apparently, this proximity caused concern about what might pass between staff and the newspaper. We were subsequently relocated to a couple of student-style desks near the swinging entrance doors to the Council Chamber.
Then came the altogether more ambitious relocation: out of the building.
The exclusion imposed by then-mayor Cr Les Sheather and then-acting general manager Will Barton was presented as a precaution against workplace health and safety risks.
We disputed the justification. We remain concerned about the use of workplace safety powers to exclude a newspaper from observing elected representatives conducting public business; and that the Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig had to intervene and we had to threaten Supreme Court action before Council permitted our return to its premises.
But we should acknowledge that the enforced absence had its compensations.
We did not miss the speeches that take five minutes to arrive at a point already made by the previous speaker. Nor did we miss the elaborate ceremonies of appreciation that precede a straightforward question to staff.
Gratitude is lovely. A concise question eliciting accountability is wonderful. Occasionally, councillors could try the second.
Council officers deserve courtesy and respect. They also occupy publicly funded positions in an organisation whose decisions warrant examination. Asking a difficult question should not require an opening tribute.
From our seat, the greatest danger is Council's toxically positive culture in which habitual gratitude’s to staff makes scrutiny feel impolite, or dare we say it, a WHS threat. It has eroded the role of councillors to hold their employee, the General Manager, to account for the outcomes Council administration is suppose to achieve.
The new Council podcast offers an excellent example.
In discussing the cancelling of the Oasis upgrade project, Mr Barton explained the value of project assessment and the wisdom of avoiding an unaffordable construction commitment.
That is a reasonable argument. Nobody should want Council to proceed with works it cannot fund.
But what "Will" (the name Mr Barton uses when signing official emails to the Gazette) did not explain is how a project under his portfolio has taken four years, risen to more than three times its original budget and consumed about $1 million without ever breaking ground?
That is where the press desk earns its place.
Mr Barton was Director of Infrastructure Services during the project, which makes his account of its history relevant. Will is best placed to give account of the project difficulties, as is the Mayor to ask questions that hold him to account during the podcast. This would make any pod cast worth listening too.
The same rational applies to public bins community members noticed have gone missing. We are told removals have produced little or no additional litter and, in some places, less. Excellent, if the monitoring demonstrates it. Publish the dates, locations, counts and method so residents can assess the result.
A council can produce attractive announcements, congratulatory presentations and an agreeable podcast. None replaces asking critical questions on matters of public interest.
Hawkesbury residents deserve a council where good work is acknowledged, uncomfortable questions asked so mistakes are acknowledged and improved outcomes for the community achieved.
So we are pleased to be back, even if the furniture remains unsettled.
