Toowoomba City Council - the dying days of desperation and hatred ...

The outgoing Mayor spent yesterday's Council meeting focusing on two issues:

1. Trying to create an air of uncertainly about whether Toowoomba would run out of water.

2. Trying to derail the election campaign of candidate for Councillor Rosemary Morley.

Amazing.

Clearly embittered that her ill-fated recycled water project was scrapped, the outgoing Mayor teamed up with right-hand henchwoman Councillor Sue Englart to use her remaining time on the Toowoomba ratepayers' purse to still try to scare people in Toowoomba that the water is going to run out - desperately hoping that people will vote for the existing Councillors at the election so they can continue to try to implement her white elephant recycled water scheme.

A bizarre form of legacy shopping.

She is also trying her best to prevent Rosemary Morley being elected to the new regional Council, singling her out in a bizarre attack for questioning the Toowoomba City Council's bore program. With one failed bore and a coal mine dug so far and with no forward planning on necessary equipment, it is indeed odd that the outgoing Mayor would try to defend the Council's record on bores. Council's management of its bore program was so hopeless, the State government had to intervene. To single out one candidate for her attack shows how vindictive the outgoing Mayor is.

Meanwhile, Mr Flanagan's only contribution was to say that he spills his beer at the pub. Unbelievable. Thankfully, according to the Chronicle, he then 'quickly evaporated'.

The outgoing Mayor has made her choice - to quit and run off to Tasmania. She should therefore butt out of the election campaign. Her views and her attempts to influence voters are not wanted.

Excerpt from the Chronicle (annotated):

Grilling over bore drilling

17 January 2008

[Toowoomba's outgoing Mayor] warned hostile councillors to drop the emotion and instead focus on the facts to combat ignorance about the drilling of bores into the Great Artesian Basin.

But she warned against forecasting an outcome.

"We cannot sit here now and it would duplicitous and inconceivable to me that we could sit here now and guarantee what water is going to come out of these bores.

"None of us can do it and nobody can do it until it's pump-tested," she said.

That won't occur until suitable pumps are found.

Council's Director of Engineering Kevin Flanagan said that could be between 10 and 26 weeks.

The briefing about the progress of the bores at the Water and Wastewater Committee meeting was overshadowed by the councillors' need to address criticisms by Rosemary Morley in yesterday's The Chronicle.

Mrs Morley queried the delays and the extra $440,000 in costs.

Outraged councillors took exception to her downplaying the significance of the 658-metre drilling by referring to it simplistically as "digging a hole to get water".

[The outgoing Mayor] told councillors: "Regardless of what anyone who is running for politics is going out there to say, I find it's that mad, crazy time where anyone is going out there and saying what they think, and frighten whoever they want and not frighten whoever they want, to get themselves elected.

"We have to remove the emotion out of this, because it is more important than people getting emotional or getting elected."

Cr Sue Englart led the attack, ruling the bores were important to the city. She labelled it "abysmal" that someone with no experience could cast aspersions over the drilling practices.

Cr Regina Albion was concerned the "misleading" comments could be seen as credible.

Cr Snow Manners declared there was a "history" referring to the recycled water for drinking saga where he, Mrs Morley and Clive Berghofer led the successful "No" campaign.

He said he moved in similar circles to Mrs Morley and she was reflecting the feelings of some sectors of an anxious community fearful the city would run out of water.

Cr Manners said it was a public relations exercise for council to assure people "we won't run out of water".

Crs Joe Ramia, Michele Alroe and Keith Beer agreed all facts on the status of the bores, including the failed Wetalla bore which was too salty, needed to be aired with most councillors opting for a paid advertisement.

Mrs Morley said yesterday people should have a democratic right to speak without fear of vilification from council.

Councillors also heard that when work crews returned to the Leahy Road site at Cooby Dam on Monday there was about one week's work before they moved on to the second test bore site at Loveday Cove.

The meeting was supplied with rainfall figures since December 1.

Mr Flanagan cheekily likened the smaller falls of less than 2mm in the first fortnight to "as much as he spilt on a Friday night at the hotel" and quickly evaporated.

"Since 1988 there have been only nine run-off events that put water in the dams," he said.

Up until yesterday, 125.4mm had fallen at Cooby Dam, 175.8mm at Perseverance Dam and 185.2mm at Cressbrook Dam.

The combined useable water in the three storage dams sat at 11.04%.

Mr Flanagan said, without significant rainfall, the dams would be exhausted by the first half of July, 2009.

Cr Michelle Schneider is ill and absent from this week's committee meetings.

See - Toowoomba City Council - you can feel the hatred.