Toowoomba City Council - writing on the wall ...

Letter of the day, the Chronicle 5 July 2007 (annotated):

Writing on the wall

Without doubt the one quality a new mayor for Toowoomba should possess is the ability to consult with ratepayers on every issue that could ultimately change their daily lives and living conditions.

One thing that could never be said about our current mayor is that she lacked passion for the job, but to divide a community like the way we saw Toowoomba divided during the Water Futures debacle is unforgivable.

From a personal point of view, I thought [the outgoing mayor] has the steady hand that Toowoomba needed, bringing to council a different style of leadership [!], with the ability to lead this city into the future and beyond.

And indeed, she did just that. But she lost me and a lot of other ratepayers with the divisive debate on recycled water and the waste of money involved - this from a civic leader is, in my view, absolutely intolerable. I think the writing was on the wall as soon as Snow Manners won his seat on council and I think it is also on the wall for a number of other present day councillors.

I now think it is time, with nearly nine months to go, to sweep the slate clean and consolidate the push for Snow Manners to become Toowoomba's next mayor.

Like it or not, he is the best suited to the job, simply by virtue of the fact that he is a serving councillor, who shows the diplomacy and tact that was evident last year when Toowoomba became the centre of attention in Australia - for all the wrong reasons.

RH

Toowoomba