Perth Voice Interactive

VINCENT councillors strongly back mayor John Carey’s desire to reconsider the city’s ongoing membership of the WA local government association.

They agree the peak body for WA councils has been a wet lettuce on issues including council amalgamations and transparency.

WALGA president Lynne Craigie sounds largely satisfied with levels of council transparency and training for councillors, something Mr Carey hotly disputes, especially given recent corruption and crime commission investigations into Perth lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi.

He wants other councils to declare all gifts and freebies given to councillors online, along with mandatory training for councillors.

Deputy mayor Ros Harley has attended WALGA zone meetings for four years and says little gets done.

“If you want to go to a really interesting meeting four times a year and feel like you achieve absolutely nothing, zone meetings are the place to go.”

She says WALGA staff do a good job but its state council did little for Vincent during either the amalgamation or transparency debates.

“We’d really like to see some better leadership from WALGA,” Cr Emma Cole agrees.

Cr Matt Buckels was a little equivocal, saying the politics amongst brass at WALGA doesn’t much matter as long as training programs and similar services stack up. But he still voted for a review saying it could be the “kick up the arse” WALGA needs.

Cr Carey says WALGA’s training services are solid and a review will at the very least alert the council to services it may be missing out on.

Council staff will weigh up the pros and cons and report back.

by DAVID BELL