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Neighbourhood Forum 5 co-convener Felix Bronneberg can understand why members of Wollongong City Council’s citizens panel don’t want to reveal their identities.
But he said forum members were disappointed that the panel, which was intended to make the council more financially sustainable, wasn’t transparent.
This view is shared by Shellharbour MP Anna Watson, who called on the council to reveal the 36 members of its citizens review panel, which will set the agenda for the organisation’s review of rates and services.
The council’s public relations manager, Susan Wardle, said panel members declined to appoint a media spokesperson because they were worried about being lobbied by other residents.
Mr Bronneberg said that neighbourhood forums were also concerned that inadequate information had been made public about the council’s overall financial position.
‘‘The reports from council indicated it was looking at reviewing its rates and services at the beginning of the last financial year...why didn’t it happen?’’ he said.
‘‘We now have this mad rush. We [the forums] were only told by letter on September 3 that a citizens panel was going to be randomly selected to assess the financial sustainability of council.’’
‘‘This is a complex task requiring what we regard as independent professional expertise and experience.
‘‘We question why there isn’t a more professional methodology.’’
The neighbourhood forums, representing the entire city, stated in a petition and open letter that they were ‘‘very concerned that the extremely reduced timeframe is based on the need for a possible recommendation for an extraordinary rate rise to be dealt with before the end of this calendar year’’.
‘‘The council has indicated to us the state government deadline is around December 14,’’ Mr Bronneberg said.
‘‘We are not opposed to the panel but believe an independent, experienced management consultant should be appointed to allow a thorough investigation and overhaul of the council’s finances, methods and procedures,’’ he said.
The council’s randomly-chosen citizens panel members had their first weekend meetings on October 12-13, with one more meeting planned for next week, before presenting a series of recommendations for public exhibition.
Panel members were chosen at random by market research company Taverner Research based on age, suburb, education level, home ownership and ethnicity.