10 Reasons to vote for Peter Moran

           for Shellharbour Council.

1)      I know how Council works. I have attended nearly every Council meeting over the last 10 years. This is more than any other candidate, even those who used to be Councillors.

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Not one of the ALP or Liberal candidates have attended more than a couple of meetings since the Administrator was appointed over three years ago. Many have attended no meetings.

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2)      I have been involved in Council through the writing of submissions. In the last three years I have, on a number of occasions, had my suggestions adopted by the Administrator and incorporated into Council policies. After I spoke at a Council meeting recently (31 May, 2011) the Administrator said “…..the matters raised by Mr Moran were, as one would expect, legitimate concerns."

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3)      I care about how my community works. That is why my wife and I wrote a submission to the recent Council budget, as we have done in years past. Among other things, I called for the abolition of cold water pool fees.  NO OTHER CANDIDATE CARED ENOUGH ABOUT POOL FEES, OR ANY OTHER COUNCIL BUSINESS, TO WRITE A SUBMISSION. I make numerous written and verbal submissions to Council each year on issues that affect our community. Most of the other candidates only take an interest when elections roll around.

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4)      I ask questions. The only reason the community knows about the $176,000 legal fees and the $1.3 million “unliquidated damages” attached to the recent write-off of over $400,000 in relation to the Links golf course is because I questioned Council staff. Council was not going to tell the community about these costs otherwise.

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5)      I have been responsible for saving Council time and money through attention to detail. At a Council meeting on March 30, 2010 I pointed out a mistake by Council staff where a land swap was going to take place with the wrong piece of land being swapped. The Mercury reported this as an “embarrassing backdown” for council.

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6)      I am prepared to put my money where my mouth is. In 2003 I spent over $17,000 of my own money taking Council to the Land and Environment Court to force them to take decisions in accordance with the Local Government Act. Council had taken several decisions relating to the sale of public land in confidential session. I forced them to obey the Act and do things in an open and transparent fashion.

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7)      My team includes Sue Moran (my wife) who has been responsible for the release of the Shell Cove Management Agreement and other documents relating to this troubled project. Previous councilors had been unwilling or unable to have this document released. Sue took on Council using Freedom of Information and the Administrative Decisions Tribunal and had information released. After 12 years of being told these documents were secret ratepayers now can see what we signed up for and why this project is in such financial trouble. Sue has succeeded where others, including previous councillors, have failed.

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8)       Other members of my team include a retired magistrate and a JP. These are highly regarded local people who know how proper processes are supposed to work.

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9)      I have a plan to provide jobs in the area. The Shell Cove project includes a business park expected to provide 1000 permanent full-time job. Under the current plan these jobs will not come until 2018 at the earliest. Even that date depends on Council borrowing many millions to construct the marina first. I believe Council should use project funds to build the Business Park now.  We should seek Federal Government support to hook this Park into the National Broadband Network which is on line just 4 km down the road at Minnamurra.   We can wait at least 7 years for a marina that may never be built and use that to support jobs, or we can build the first NBN-connected Business Park near a major population centre in NSW and attract those jobs now. Most other candidates think those jobs should wait.

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10)  I do not believe in Party politics in local government. I am a member of the Greens but I am standing as an Independent, accepting no money or support from the Greens. If elected I would be answerable only to the community, not the Greens. I have fought for the local community’s interests for over 10 years – long before I joined the Greens. If eleOthers, including the Liberal Party and the Labor Party, wish to entrench Party politicted I would continue to fight for the local community.  cs in your council.

COUNCILLOR CALLS FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ON SHELL COVE

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Cr Peter Moran of Shellharbour City Council today urged the community to contact all the councillors and ask for the Council's Community Engagement Policy to be used in relation to the Shell Cove marina.

"For nearly twenty years Council has been telling the community that the Marina will be built using project funds. Not once have they ever actually asked the community if they want the marina. The Council has failed time and time again to deliver on this project, with missed deadlines and unrealised expectations. Now Council wants to commit the community to commercial risk based on heroic assumptions that even their own expert reports do not support" said Cr Moran.

"If the community supports this project, well so be it. The community should also be asked what services they are prepared to forego if the overly-optimistic assumptions prove to be inaccurate. Are we prepared to see swimming pools closed to help fund the marina? Do we accept that sports field fees will have to rise if the project fails to deliver on expectations?"

"I call on community members to contact all Councillors and ask for the Council's Community Engagement Policy (Level 3) to be used. This policy is to be used in cases of major projects that have a city-wide impact. There is no point having such a policy if it is not used. Given that the Council has never asked the community's opinion on this, let alone are we prepared to pay for it, now is surely the time to consult with the residents.

Clr Peter Moran (the good one)
Shellharbour City Council
0403 752838    

The Mystery of the Missing Jobs

Hallelujah. Miracles do happen.

At the briefing for councillors and the public last Tuesday night one of the slides showed that  the Shell  Cove project is expected to create 7200 jobs. I questioned this figure as it is, in my opinion, incorrect. I consider the true figure to be much lower and, in any case, most of the supposed jobs will be temporary construction jobs. I have raised this issue with Council in the past and have always had my concerns brushed off.

Funnily enough, as of Wednesday morning, Council is no longer claiming the project will create 7200 jobs. Overnight, and with no studies or modelling, Council has reduced that claim down to 6000 jobs. I wonder how much lower I can get them to go?

Shell Cove Briefing

Last night Council had the first of a series of meetings relating to the troubled Shell Cove Project. I have the impression it was a real eye opener to some of the Councillors.

It was good to hear Kevin James state that we (the Council) are the owners of the project and Australand is but a project manager for us. We cannot direct actions. We cannot require Australand to build the Marina any more than we can require them to turn back the tide or stop the sun in it’s tracks. 

There was a time when Council could have required that the Marina be built, but the council of the day decided not to have that happen. I refer to two documents from 1992, one of which is a tender matrix drawn up by Council and the other of which is a fax from Lang Walker to Council.

The tender matrix evaluated a short list of three developers against seventeen different criteria. Walker Corp was a distant third. Some six hours before the Councillors were to meet to decide the successful company Lang Walker faxed a revised offer to Council, part of which said “Walker would undertake to provide the necessary finance for the project works including a $2.0 million commitment to immediately commence Harbour construction.”

It will forever remain a mystery why those Councillors chose NOT to take up Mr Walker on his offer but one thing is certain, they believed the offer was genuine. How else would Walker have gone from last to first in a matter of hours?

Instead of having the marina constructed first council of the day chose to let it slide and the next year they signed a Management Agreement which does not allow Council to direct anything. Once Australand took over Walkers there was no chance of Council ever getting the upper hand.

Incidentally, last night I asked Mr James why Council had not pressed for the Marina to be constructed immediately, as the fax had offered. He seemed to suggest that with the complex approvals required for this project, perhaps the “immediate” time frame had not yet expired.

The most disappointing aspect of the night was the attitude of Council that this is a brilliant project that is going well. For years the community has been told it is all about diversifying the local economy and jobs, jobs, jobs. This is a residential development with a little bit of retail and a bit of tourism tacked on. Tourism retail accounts for 0.15% of the land area of the project and less than 0.5% of the jobs yet they still push it as being a tourist development.

I asked a question about jobs and got the response I expected. Council does not know how many jobs are being created by the project as they build subdivisions and lay services. This seems strange for an organisation that claims it is all about jobs. Council claimed last night that the project will create 7200 jobs. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? I They don’t (and wont) tell us that more than a third of those jobs were temporary construction jobs in Shell Cove that have already been and gone. Thats right, those jobs built the present suburb of Shell Cove and those jobs are not here anymore. Another third of the project jobs are temporary construction jobs in the rest of the residential/commercial development. Nearly half of the rest of the jobs are in the Business Park. A total of 33 jobs are tourism related retail. They should say it’s all about job, job, job.

The biggest laugh of the night award went to the comment that a recent application to extend the life of the Bass Point quarry to forty years would take it beyond the time frames of the Shell Cove project.

Council meeting 27/9/2011

The Council meeting on Tuesday night went swimmingly. I suspect I will not always be able to say that.

The election of councillors to committees went fairly smoothly, with only one vote required. That was for the third position on the General Managers Performance Review Committee. I supported Cr Murray over Cr Rankin merely because of the experience of Cr Murray.

One other minor hiccup occurred with the election of a Council delegate to the Killalea State Park Trust. I had been chosen by the other councillors but a last minute letter from the Minister saw a deferral of this item. The contents of the Minister’s communication is unknown to the councillors at this stage but I am confident all will be revealed in the fullness of time. Those more cynical than myself might consider it has something to do with Council proposing to appoint a member of the Save Killalea Alliance to this position. After all, the Department has a history in this matter. Cr Ben van der Wijngaart from Kiama was removed from the Board because of his association with the Alliance. Watch this space.

Council also determined the fees payable to Councillors and the Mayor. The Councillor fee was set at a rate roughly equal to the rate paid to the previous Councillors, adjusted for CPI increases. This brought it in at just over $16,000pa. Interestingly enough, I looked at most of the Councils in the Departments Regional/Rural list. These Councils roughly align with Shellharbour, in population and budget. I did not find any other Council with such a small number of Councillors . All that I looked at had between nine and thirteen Councillors. The small numbers are what have led me to serving on eight different committees.

A tender to operate waste management/recycling services at Dunmore tip was determined, with one part of the contract being given to Mission Australia and the remainder of the tasks being performed by Council staff. Mission Australia are an entirely worthy organisation who provide employment to a large number of Aboriginal people. Sadly the unsuccessful tenderer (Great Lakes Community Resources) also works with the marginalised, ie refugees. Apparently there is an unemployment rate approaching 90% among this group. I hope that in the future Council can find some way to work with both of these organisations.

By the way, there is a briefing on Shell Cove, open to the public, next Tuesday, 6.30pm at Lamerton House. See you all there.

Off to a good start

I attended a meeting on Friday with five of the other six councillors. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss with each other our areas of interest in relation to Council’s committees and working parties. There are forty-five such appointments across thirty committees. These are to be divided up between the seven councillors so it makes sense to ensure that we are appointed to committees that interest and engage us. It also made sense not to have to do it at the Council meeting, thus ensuring the public did not have to sit through the discussions and life stories which informed our choices.

What was gratifying was that everyone worked in such a co-operative fashion. The three ALP councillors, two independents and one Liberal all bent over backwards to ensure that everyone had a fair crack at every position. The more high profile positions were shared about and I have the impression that everyone walked away from the meeting satisfied.

It was unfortunate that Clr Rankin was unable to attend. He will find it especially unfortunate when he realises he has been nominated for everything no one else wanted or was able to accept. Enjoy your twenty-seven committees Paul!

This was not caucusing in action. No decisions were taken. Nothing is firm. It was merely an indicative process that allows the business of the Council to be conducted in a timely fashion when we meet on Tuesday evening. 

Welcome to Council

What a couple of weeks! I was elected to Council in sixth spot and have not stopped learning since.

The weekend following the election we new councillors had 2 full days (9am - 4pm) of inductions/training. This weekend we have had another full day on Saturday. In October we have 4 full days lined up. There are numerous evening briefing sessions marked in the calendar. It's all go, go, go.

The Council has also met to choose its Mayor and Deputy Mayor. These decisions presented me with some real difficulties, some hard questions. For instance, could I, as a 'greenie' support a Liberal candidate for Mayor over a Labor candidate? This decision became easier once I spoke to the two candidates and put things into a historical perspective.

Kellie Marsh is not an old time Liberal. Traditional Liberals believe in low taxes (or rates), few services and a devil-take-the-hindmost attitude. Kellie is not in this mould. She is employed, and volunteers, in the area of youth disadvantage. She spends most of her time supporting, for little or no pay, the most vulnerable members of our community.

Marianne Saliba is not old time Labor. When I used to be a member of the ALP, people gained office through their works in the community - either through working in blue collar jobs or volunteering in their field of interest. Marianne has worked as an electorate officer to a Labor politician and has been supported by Sussex St (via the N40 rule) into Parliament. Her campaign manager for Council was David Hamilton.

I was told by an impeccable 'inside' source that if I did not support Cr Saliba for Mayor, the ALP would not stand a candidate for Deputy Mayor. This was apparently an attempt to scare me into voting for the ALP as that was the only way I would have my preferred outcome of the two top positions on Council being filled by the major Parties. This information actually reinforced my view of the ALP. The all-or-nothing attitude is something that I find quite unattractive.

Once I had decided that I would support Cr Marsh for Mayor, I allowed my name to go forward for Deputy Mayor. If the ALP did not want that job, I did not want the Liberals to have both top positions. Once Cr Saliba's nomination for Deputy was read out, I was always going to support her even though I had the numbers. The outcome of both Labor and Liberal in the top jobs is an ideal outcome for the community, in my opinion.

Now it is up to we Councillors to make it work.