Photo: NORA DEVAI
SHOALHAVEN City Council lacked transparency, accountability and integrity and was in need of an overhaul, according to mayoral candidate Dennis Argall.
Mr Argall has officially announced he will be running for Mayor in the 2008 local government election, and he’s calling on the community to follow his lead to effect change.
Campaigning had not yet begun but Mr Argall was looking to the future of the Shoalhaven and said he would be running for council as well as contesting the position of Mayor.
Criticising the current council for a lack of transparency and integrity, Mr Argall said it was the result of people sitting silent and he was “fed up”.
“This crew is not going away easily, it’s tragic in some ways,” he said.
“As a candidate I will be taking another step in dragging people on to their feet to do something.”
If elected as Mayor, Mr Argall said he intended to serve only one term before handing council over to the next generation of leaders.
“I will serve one term only. This job can get us into a vibrant future, but that belongs to the young generation.”
Ultimately he is motivated by a desire to see change, and while he would like the opportunity to bring that about himself, Mr Argall said the system could be changed if enough good people stepped up.
“I would be very happy to see other people stand for Mayor, and I don’t care what side of the political pool they come from. But I do care for them to give integrity to transparency,” he said.
“I encourage community members to form candidate groups to get the council out of the hands of the current gang.”
Mr Argall said he was not affiliated with any political party and his platform was based on transparency and accountability, integrity and community, and leadership.
Council would best be led by following the principles of a company board, he said, and “not delve into the administration of council and not come in with dirty little resolutions”.
“Their bad reputation has arisen from the manipulation of information in that place. The pretend stance of modern dignity in the chamber is false.”
It was not, however, the organisation itself that needed to change, but the behaviour of the elected council.
“We need a new council to sit down with senior officers, the Department of Local Government Association and ICAC to define and commit to its own code of practice instead of weaseling through the law.
“Wouldn’t it be lovely to have good people in that council chamber? To have a good team of councillors that behave in the way an elected council should? That sort of change would feed down.”
For the first month of the campaign Mr Argall said he would be taking to the road without any political support.
“I will have no support from leading politicians for one month,” he said.
“I have the confidence in myself to do this.”
In the meantime he encouraged people in the community to follow his lead, stand up for change and create candidate groupings and build preference swap arrangements to drive the votes to good people.
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