A FACTUAL ACCOUNT OF HOW DEMOCRACY WAS LOST IN THE COLAC OTWAY SHIRE!

Why do we have a Council?
To sucessfully manage infrastructure and services for the local community. Community opinion DOES matter, and when the people of the Colac Otway Shire voted in a new Council with a Mandate to Save Colac Library it was expected that Mandate would be acknowledged.

The Colac Otway Shire Council is prepared to waste millions of Rate Payers dollars on unwanted projects such as a Joint-Use Library AKA "Global Connector" which will be an Education Department building they will NEVER own. This is NOT an investment, it is a "Gift" to the State Government!

Just imagine what could have been done with 2 Million Dollars to actually assist various organizations in Colac, not to mention the existing Library, for $500,000 we can upgrade our current Library and save Rate Payers from this huge financial burden and the on going costs of running the JUL for 30 years, as per the agreement signed by the previous council but delivered by the current Council!

Forcing people to use a "School" Library 2km out of town, a two hour bus trip [if the bus service continues at all] and too far for those using motorised scooters to travel in rain or heat is TOTALLY unacceptable.

The people who made these decisions are NOT Library users, and have NO idea what a Public Library means to its 8000 members, and indeed the 22,000 Rate Payers of the Colac Otway Shire!

This Joint-Use Library project has been pushed through by Bureaucrats who were NOT Elected. Bureaucrats who continually push agendas under Councillors noses, Bureaucrats who run the Council by default instead of the ELECTED Representatives eg. Councillors, who instead of having the courage of their convictions,and carrying out their Mandate, believe what these people tell them eg. If you don't go ahead with a certain project, then funding for other projects may be put at risk. The result is a Councillor behaving like a puppet on a string, voting, in this case a Joint-Use Library that they themselves believe will FAIL!

In the process of Saving Colac Library, prior to the Election F.O.C.L. Inc. used the slogan "Change your Council Change Your World" the people of the Shire did just that and the result was "Change Your Council Waste Your Time"! Democracy no longer exists in the Colac Otway Shire, This is just one reason the FOCL's will NOT be silenced and will continue to fight as our "Diggers" did, for DEMOCRACY! The entire process in regard to the Joint-Use Library has been nothing but a SHAMEFUL FARCE!

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• COLAC
• OTWAY
• SHIRE
• COUNCIL
• VLGA
• JUL
• CR
• LYN
• RUSSELL
• DEMOCRACY

[djc0248]

Can anyone believe that Cr. Lyn Russell in now the Mayor of Colac! Well all I can say is I hope she enjoys cutting the ribbon of "Democracy" when she opens the Joint Use Library in July. This Town would be a great place to live if we had a good Council.

[djc0248]

The JUL "School Library" will only have FOUR "Public Use" computers, exactly what our Public Library has now! JUL "state of the art" yeh right.....remember the Education dept can cancel the "JUL Agreement" at any time for any reason....so the fight for Democracy here in Colac will continue until Colac has an industry standard freestanding centrally located Public Library. I don't want 67,000 people a year inside the new School, but the Council broke their ELECTION MANDATE forcing this to ocur!

[djc0248]

The Council didn't sue them cause they were in the wrong the whole time and they knew they would not win a Court case, so as usual their scare tactic to shut the apposition to the Joint School Library failed again.

[djc0248]

The Council is threatening to sue the Friends of Colac Library / Save Colac Library, after all the work they have done to stand up for Democracy in Colac, the Council want to shut down any negative publicity!

[thedooma]

its the same as politicians they are all the same. And you can keep fighting but they will never listen. They are always right (in there eyes). Is there anyway you could open another libary for you guys?? I rekon you could get support for that.