Cashed-up Councillors

Posted to Waverley Leader (19/5/2009) on 23/5/2009 at 8:56pm
Commenting on "Cashed-up Councillors"
 http://Waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/cashed-up-councillors/

Unlike Mayor Paul Klisaris who “… goes to work and gets paid for it”, Councillors were, once upon a time, well respected, distinguished members of the community serving the it for free.

Although there are provisions in the Local Government Act for the Councillor’s allowance review after taking office for seven months, there is nothing in the Act to say that the allowance has to be increased; which means the allowance can be decreased or remained unchanged.

At this difficult time, I could not see any justification for such substantial increase of about 35%. Do keep in mind that payment to the Councillors is allowance and not annual salary. The money cannot and should not be used for other purposes except for Council-related matters. $24,000 is more than excessive for many Councillors, whose role is only on part-time basis. If the increase is performance-base, then they will have to demonstrate their productivity has increased by 35%.

If the Mayor and other Councillors are not happy with what they are getting, there are volunteers with a lot more experience can take over their places. Many voluntary organisations are chaired and managed by unpaid volunteers.

City Alfresco Style Dining

Posted to Your News, Waverley Leader on 10/5/2009
City Alfresco Style Dining
http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/your-news/story/city-alfreco-style-dining/

Many cafes extend their trading floor space to the side walk. The furniture occupies area, thus narrowing the walk way. On very busy sunny days, this hinders free flow of pedestrian traffic, and may post a safety problem.

While the side-walk Alfresco-style dining may give the city a touch of European atmosphere, the negatives may outweigh the positive. Most diners are considerate, but some leave unsightly mess of used bags, bottles, containers and cigarette butts.

Side-walk diners, like many people, are concerned about the air quality they breathe, and yet they are quite contented to sit next to busy roads where unhealthy exhaust fumes are continuously emitting from motor vehicles. If the diners are smokers, they will suck in double dose of carcinogens – the tar and the exhaust particles.

Diners who choose to dine outside on very cold days should wear appropriate attire instead of using external gas heaters installed by the business owners. Most of the heat is wasted in warming up the open air, and only small proportion benefits the diners. Such inconsideration reflects on the naivety and hypocrisy of the diners on climate change and global warming argument.

I would like to call upon all authorities to ban the use of external heating devices, unless for emergency purposes, in the name of energy conservation, climate change minimisation and being a good global citizen.