*: Fwd: The first promise Clark broke & the promise the Libs can't keep...

All councillors or even those intending feel free to use any of the below links content or info by linking to it for your campaign now or in the future.

Personally we have spoken to a great number of people who all think there needs to be a big shake up see the links below for some of the reasons.

parkwood-is-crowing-again

Request to sack council 2004 to 2005

Australian recycled water info

interesting council issues

From: Rob Molhoek <rob@rob4mayor.org>
Date: 18 Jan 2008 13:14
Subject: The first promise Clark broke & the promise the Libs can't keep...

Hi,

In case you didn't see it in today's GCB it seems the Liberals made the promise that they just can't keep proclaiming the populist promise of a Rates FREEZE.

Clarke promised the rates freeze in his last election and it was the first promise he broke – because he soon realised constructions costs are a large component of Council expenditure related to maintenance and upgrades of our infrastructure around our city.

This time around Clarke has learnt that you can't keep populist promises like that and hasn't promised a rates freeze again:- instead has matched my commitment to a sensible CPI limit policy. We have made the hard finance decisions in this current council term and got council back on track financially just to have the Liberals make us suffer that pain all over again in two or three years time.

The Liberals however have no idea that they are simply lying to the voters with this promise. Their rates freeze is simply a promise they can not keep. I am told by State Treasury Department Officials that such a policy will mean a $210+ Million dollar hole in Council's budget. What the Liberals are really promising is a cut in road maintenance & upgrades, no new parks, no new libraries, no sewage treatment plant upgrades and no major water pipe maintenance:- how else to fund a $210M a year shortfall? How can they make their other spending promises while promising no increase in rates? Simple: they are going to borrow on the Council Credit Card and our kids will be paying for their financial mismanagement for years to come.

They are trying to buy resident votes with fools gold coming from a Liberal party from the hip policy cauldron.

The UniteGC team policy is simple: to keep rates at or below CPI. But it goes beyond that. I have a plan to ensure we continue to deliver Operational Surplus's in Council's budget as I have done over the past three years as Finance Chair. We intend to extend the re-valuation averaging on property values from three years to five years and maintain the rate deferral program for the elderly. Crucially however we will not fund this using debt and in fact we commit to maintaining Council's AA+ rating by reducing debt to asset ratio levels. In other words no debt will be raised without assets being built to pay it off so citywide, ratepayers don't foot the bill.

I intend to place all available funds received from the State Government as part of the SEQ water reform process to first and foremost pay down all of Council's debt with remaining funds used to set up a future fund for Council revenue producing investments. Lastly I feel the mayor should be responsible for the preparation of the annual, 10 year and 20 year budgets and be accountable for their proper implementation. No longer should a mayor be able to hide behind the finance committee (in the Liberal case their anointed 'second in charge') and not face the hard decisions of the city. Councillors will not longer be able to unilaterally vote against a budget without detailed explanation so as to stop the politicking around budget time.

Here is the article: (as for announcing the next 'deputy mayor' what arrogance! It is selected by the successfully elected Councillors after the election, next they will be picking their wall hangings for their offices!)...