Disquiet At Mundaring

On the subject of the Community Forum at Mundaring on Wednesday evening (see also previous post - http://ianrker-vincent.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/another-contradiction-but-pickard-gets.html), there was a lot of disquiet among the 120-or-so people who attended - although most were too polite to vent the anger that underlay that disquiet - as I found out when talking to some of them after the meeting.

Shire President, Helen Dullard, who is in the unfortunate position of also being a member of the Local Government Advisory Board, singularly failed to convince the meeting that there was nothing more to be done except work with the City of Swan to get the best deal possible. Her attempt to convince the meeting that the Shire of Kalamunda had wasted $80,000 on its poll in October 2013 and that its spending more money now on opposing the takeover by Belmont would weaken its negotiating position was a spectacular failure and, I have to say, an almost unforgivable slur on the actions of another local council.

I can only presume that Ms Dullard was unaware of criticism from the City of Belmont Mayor that his community had been denied access to the poll provision of the Local Government Act (reported in the Southern Gazette, Belmont Edition), which suggests that Belmont and Kalamunda are thinking alike at least on this critical issue. 

When I challenged Ms Dullard's statement that everything was decided, by mentioning the legal action in the Supreme Court, her only response was along the lines that "Tony Simpson says the legal challenge has no chance of success". Well, what else would he say? If he acknowledged that there was a good chance of its succeeding, he would have great difficulty justifying his continuing to defend the action.

At the end of the meeting, despite Ms Dullard's apparent reticent to put a motion to the vote (saying something like she 'had the feel of the meeting'), a resolution was carried unanimously that: "This meeting condemns the boundary change decision with respect to the Shire of Mundaring".