Council off on fishing expedition

Paul Dunlop
IF the sign on mayor Bill Ronald’s office door says Gone Fishing, he may still be on council business.
Cr Ronald and colleagues are seeking a catch unlikely to pop up on too many restaurant menus.
Their main quarry the ones that got away.
Council at its 23 January meeting asked to be provided with a comprehensive list giving details of current and former shire staff.
The request shapes as a precursor to a promised personnel review.
Asked by Cr Doug Hamilton whether the mayorled move was a “fishing expedition”, Cr Ronald replied: “That’s exactly what it is.”
Cr Ronald said councillors were rarely advised of staff movements but believed it was appropriate to know why people left the organisation.
“Maybe we lost good staff that we shouldn’t have lost, maybe we lost staff who are better lost,” he said.
Councillors want to know who has come and gone from the Cardinia Shire staff over the past five years.
They want a list of the staff who have left and details of the positions they held, reasons for their departure and whether they received redundancy payments.
Councillors also want a full list of staff names, positions and contact details; a list of council cars, users and usage and a list of external service providers, their projects and remuneration where the council has paid more than $50,000 in any one year.
Pressed on why the information was necessary, Cr Ronald said it would help councillors, particularly newer councillors, make decisions on a “number of issues of interest in the community”.
Cr Ronald said he wanted the information before the February council meeting.
The full John Dory will no doubt be revealed soon.