Illawarra councils have been thrown into disarray as the fallout from last Friday's merger proposals raises more questions than answers.
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Full details of the plans – which would join Wollongong and Shellharbour and see Kiama swallowed up by the Shoalhaven – won't be released until January. So for now, questions continue to swirl.
If the mergers go ahead, will councillors be sacked before their term is up? Will the Illawarra once again have democracy replaced with administrators? How many councillors would represent a merged Wollongong and Shellharbour? How will tiny Kiama be represented from Nowra?
For council staff, there are questions about their jobs. And our readers want to know what basic services – like rubbish pick-ups – will look like under merged councils.
For us, the big question is why have these mergers even been proposed?
Over the past few years, we've watched all Illawarra councils grapple with demands of the government's Fit For The Future reforms.
In Wollongong for instance, the council engaged the infamous citizens panel and dealt with public furore over suggestions to get rid of pools, close libraries and roll back services. The council spent months trying to find middle ground, but still copped flack when rates were raised so the council could meet a huge infrastructure backlog.
By June this year, it seemed this unpopular tack had started to pay off, when senior staff said Wollongong would not need to merge with other councils as it was on track to meet all the reform targets and would even reach a surplus in 2017. In October, IPART agreed - marking Wollongong as one of just 52 “fit” NSW councils.
Similar hard work was put in at Shellharbour and Kiama councils, which is why the mayors of both those councils did not expect to be forced to merge when IPART found them "not fit", as they believed strong planning would get them over the line.
But last Friday, it seemed like all this work - and residents' pain - had been for nothing as mergers were mooted anyway. Why bother making councils jump through so many hoops - not to mention spending so much time and money?
Unfortunately no-one but those within the NSW government has any answers, and – with most public servants now on holidays – we will have to wait until next year for more about the mergers to become clear.
For now, the future plan for Illawarra councils certainly seems questionable to us.
