A MOTION to seek legal advice should the council be sacked failed at an extraordinary Palerang Council meeting last on Thursday.
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The November 19 motion was “to instruct legal advisers for the purposes of seeking an injunction to prevent the illegal dismissal of Palerang Council if that occurs”.
It also sought to “minimise costs to Palerang ratepayers by seeking to conjoin any such legal action with that of neighbouring councils.”
“We were seeking a legal injunction just in case the State Government sacks us,” Mayor Peter Harrison said.
“There was discussion at the meeting, but basically most councillors did not think it was appropriate to ask ratepayers to defend councillors’ jobs - so the motion was lost.”
Cr Harrison said in order to stand alone (as resolved at the council’s November 5 meeting) the council had proposed to increase rates 40-50 per cent over five years.
“Rural councils have been hampered by a lot of State Government cost shifting. Roads should be managed by the State. This has cruelled a lot of rural councils,” he said.
“We have 1400km of roads in this shire and this creates a significant hole in our budget.”
Cr Harrison also dismissed the idea of moving the northwest part of Palerang (Nerriga) into Goulburn Mulwaree, which is a request voiced by many Nerriga residents at various recent forums.
“This will always be an issue where there are small communities on the boundaries,” he said.
At the November 5 council meeting, Palerang had rejected IPART’s “flawed” assessment of their council as “unfit” in line with the community’s preference to stand alone.
“We did a lot of consultation and we are not being recalcitrant, we are just putting the wishes of the community forward,” Cr Harrison said.
“Fifty-four per cent of residents voted to stand alone and 21 per cent voted for merger with Queanbeyan.” Cr Harrison said no alternative motion was raised after the original motion did not get up.