Having just read the editorial from the Mayor in My City Logan titled “Right decisions not easiest”, I would suggest to the Mayor that “the wrong ones are!”
The Mayor’s piece is an obvious attempt at damage control, in response to the absolute farcical scenes at the Eagleby pool of late. A community “engagement” sideshow with plenty of councillors and public servants but no answers.
When the local councillor, who voted to keep the pool open, was asked by a resident about their reasons for voting the way they did, a public servant came in and silenced the councillor. When another councillor there was asked a question, the same public servant came over and physically ushered the councillor away.
It was astonishing.
The mayor defends such behaviour by rattling off a list or hypotheticals and maybe this and maybe that?
None of these “what ifs” make any sense in relation to the Eagleby pool, as it is a council-owned facility, surrounded by council-owned properties and has been for the last 30 years.
For the mayor to use the excuse of “oh, there might be potential legal action, or an earthquake, or Elvis might come back…who knows….you certainly never will”, essentially allows him to gag EVERY accountable question on EVERY questionable decision.
The most worrying part of this is that the mayor actually believes that he’s running the most open and transparent council ever. So when a councillor is bullied into silence by a council public servant, his attitude is “job well done”.
He also states that the council is transparent because he told us the score: 8-5. That’s it. You lost, Eagleby.
Remember folks “Democracy dies in the darkness”.
Dark times indeed.
James Herbst
Mount Warren Park
