Shoalhaven Mayor Patricia White speech

Transcript

00:00So if it's in the paperwork and it's a recommendation by senior staff that we do something

00:05and we question why are we doing that and we get their answers, we don't necessarily get it from

00:11you. Since the toilets have been contracted out, I regularly use the toilets, the public toilets

00:19to see about how they contact, how are they cleaning and the complaints that are coming in

00:26and they are all reported back to senior staff. Councillor Wells, you remember Councillor Wells,

00:31many of you know I've worked with Councillor Wells. Councillor Wells myself asked in relation

00:36to the toilets that we were given a report as councillors every six months as to what was

00:42happening. It didn't happen, we didn't receive them and we asked and asked and asked and we

00:48didn't get them. So moving forward we are looking at how we operate further

00:57because we can't, as I said, continue to have $35 to $40 million disciplines. We can't afford

01:05to cancel 90 of projects that sent money back to state government that were grants for jobs.

01:14I want to see you out there every day working and so we're having to work through the issues

01:20and work out the way forward, how we move forward. I am very concerned about what gets put out into

01:26the public and who gets on radio and starts spruiking about, oh you know we're going to lose

01:31500 jobs, we're going to do this. That's absolutely ridiculous because if we lost 500 jobs

01:39we couldn't do the work that we have to deliver. So common sense tells you that that can't happen.

01:47But there are a few out there in the media and there are a few out there in social media

01:53who like to pump everything up and make it look as bad as bad as bad. I can't tell you over the

02:00last two months the number of people that have had comment to me on the great work that the

02:07council staff are now doing. And that's what they want to see, that's what the general public,

02:12that's what the residents want to see. They also ask councillors to show value for their money,

02:18to value for their rights.