General News
3 August, 2024
Councillors turn against mayor and CEO in damning rebuke
Any semblance of so-called unity within the Horsham Rural City Council chamber has been exposed as a sham by three of its own councillors.
This is the statement signed by Councillors Claudia Haenel, Ian Ross and David Bowe, dated July 30, and reproduced here in full:
"As individual Councillors, we are extremely disappointed that the 2024 budget was not presented for adoption prior to 30th June 2024, with an appropriate community consultation period.
All other RCCC members were able to achieve their 30th June 2024 deadline.
We believe the appropriate governance position should have been that Council resolve to move a resolution, as soon as they were aware of the potential delay, to request an extension from the Minister.
The failure to do so has placed our internal staff under immense pressure and has caused significant reputational damage to Council.
We believe this has been a failure by our leaders.
If Council had been briefed appropriately, then we could have applied for an extension from the Minister, in a timely manner, with a resolution of council.
The relevant documentation regarding the request for extension, as requested prior to the budget meeting on 22 July 2024, was only provided to all Councillors on 29 July 2024, 1 week after the budget meeting.
We believe we were not fully briefed with the relevant deadline extension information, as requested prior to the meeting, where the responsibility of setting the agenda lies directly with the CEO and the Mayor.
These are our individual views and not those of Horsham Rural City Council."