Ed, I’m not trying to be an apologist for the last Council, but even I find it difficult to blame EVERY part time Councillor when they have to work to earn a living at the same time as trying to guard the eggs from the foxes. But if you do a root cause analysis for almost ALL of the issues in Clarence Valley Council you will keep coming to the same conclusion viz., Clarence Valley Council is the product of a hopelessly bungled amalgamation. It’s one thing to merge a bunch of little country shire councils and a medium sized country town council into a multi million dollar public corporation, but to then walk away leaving them floundering under the legislation designed for the little country shire is reprehensible. My feeling is that the State Government caused the problems and it’s the State Government that needs to sort them out starting with the $127M debt, so the Minister will need to bring along his cheque book to the first meeting. They sat back in Sydney for 12 years and watched this disaster unfold and they did absolutely nothing! It’s time to “pay the piper”. Then there needs to be a new Local Government Act Mk 2 that will fit the needs of the big amalgamated councils. Ian Saunders, Secretary GMCAG