September 31, 2017
Dear Mayor and Aldermen,
Over time, the LCC has been pressing to gift lands to the
University of Tasmania to support it's concept of moving it's campus from
Newnham to Inveresk. The actual and now proposed transfer of those assets to
UTas is a major issue for many ratepayers. Despite this and resistance and
petitions from ratepayers’ and residents’ groups, the Council has seemed to be intent
on proceeding regardless of it failing to meet the requirements of the Local
Government Act 1993 (LGA-93). These
actions appear to place the Council, it's assets and ratepayers’ fiscal interests
at considerable risk. Consequently, I write to you to advise that:
1. The General Manager who supported, recommended and negotiated much
of that proposed transfer is no longer employed by the Council and therefore
unable to speak to, support or guarantee the security of the transfer actions.
Placing the new General Manager in that position is neither fair nor
reasonable.
2. The requirements specified in the LGA-93 for such transfers do not
appear to have been met, nor has the community been meaningfully engaged in any
way to assure broad support for the proposal.
3. Any failures to meet the requirements of the LGA-93 are, at some
level, both failures of the previous General Manager (whose role is to assure that the LGA-93 is met) and failures of
the elected Aldermen and Mayor to satisfy themselves that Council and it's
ratepayers were adhering to the requirements that they impose on other members
of the community.
As a consequence of the above points, and of the apparent risks, I
am notifying all Aldermen and the Mayor of these risks in the hope that they
take action to assure that any transfer process meets the full requirements of
the LGA-93 and any other legislated requirements before any approvals or
related actions proceed.
Should the Council and it's members be delinquent in assuring
those protections (and thus expose all
parties to potential risks) then ratepayers may have no choice but to bring
these matters to the urgent attention of the State government and/or other appropriate
regulatory bodies.
I, and other ratepayers and residents, have warned the Council on
various occasions over time of ratepayer concerns about these matters.
Rather than investigate or otherwise deal responsibly with
ratepayers’ and residents’ concerns, the Council and it's previous General
Manager have chosen to minimise the risks and dismiss their concerns. Because,
at the next meeting, the Council indicates that it wishes to go ahead with the
transfers, I am taking this last opportunity to act and ask that the Council avoid
a potential disaster through illegitimate actions that contravene the very laws
and regulations that Council requires of everyone else, thereby setting a
grotesque and unfortunate precedent for the future.
Sincerely,
Basil Fitch
Original signed copy
to be delivered by hand to Council at its next meeting.
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