AN OUTSPOKEN Grant District elected member and the council’s mayor have again clashed over the 2018/19 budget.
At this week’s council meeting, Cr Alan Hill launched a verbal barrage at Mayor Richard Sage over his handling of the financial blueprint.
The debate threatened to spill over at times given the growing tension between the two civic personalities.
This time Cr Hill was critical of a media interview Mr Sage conducted regarding the adoption of the budget and expressing his “personal opinions”.
Mr Sage said he did not “dodge” any questions posed by media and stood by his claims the budget had not been fully debated by elected members.
This sparked Cr Hill to question whether he believed councillors had been “derelict” in deliberating on the financial blueprint.
“Only two out of 10 members debated the budget – I do not believe that is a lot of debate,” Mr Sage said.
Cr Hill also questioned whether Mr Sage felt he was a “team player” and asked him to deliver an apology.
The elected member described the media interview as a “train wreck”.
“I do not think I said anything out of malice, I was pointing out that I considered there were a number of things we needed to discuss,” Mr Sage responded.
He said rate-capping was an issue that needed more discussion.
“But you want an apology Cr Hill, it will not be a problem. If you have an issue, I have a phone. How may times have you actually rang me over the last few years?” Mr Sage queried.
Cr Hill replied he had spoken with him on a “couple of occasions”.
“I have phoned you most of the time,” Mr Sage said.
Cr Hill argued he did not believe in putting up rates for something that “had not happened yet”.
Earlier in the discussion, Cr Hill said he was not happy with a number of items discussed in the interview.
Testing the mood of the meeting, Cr Hill said he wanted his questions and the mayor’s answers recorded in the minutes.
“We can discuss it in business arising, but I do not think that is appropriate at all,” Mr Sage responded.
Interjecting, Cr Hill then asked if the mayor was “ruling him out of order”.
After taking advice from the council executives, it was determined that this was a decision of council.
The motion was carried by the majority of councillors present at the meeting.
Cr Hill claimed the mayor mentioned in the interview that council had neglected to include a number of items in the budgets.
“What items have been ignored in the budget that were fully debated in council?” Cr Hill asked.
Mr Sage responded there were a number of items that had not been debated.
“That was the whole point that we did not debate a lot of these items in council,” Mr Sage said.
Cr Hill hit back “you stated the budget was rushed and blamed staffing levels as a contributing factor”.
“This statement has been interpreted by some as a slur on the ability of staff to do their job competently,” he said.
But Mr Sage rebutted “I have not said that at all, you (Cr Hill) may have said it in the past”.
“What I have said is that staff levels at the time made it difficult – we brought in an acting CEO at the time to assist us through the process,” Mr Sage said.
Cr Hill then questioned whether Mr Sage considered it appropriate to refer to a staff member’s personal circumstances.
Responding Mr Sage said he did not mention any staff member by name.
Frustrated by the line of questioning, Mr Sage accused Cr Hill of “pulling at straws”.
“Is there a point to this?” Mr Sage asked.
Responding, Cr Hill replied “there is a very good point, just let me finish my questions.”
Cr Hill also questioned why Mr Sage raised the matter of a possible communications tower at Glenburnie Saleyards.
“Are we going to build the tower?” the elected member quipped.
After a long list of questions, Cr Julie Reis called for a point of order.
“Cr Hill, you have now had six minutes, which is over time. You are supposed to have five minutes – can you please get to the point?” Cr Reis said.
In response, Cr Hill said “if you cannot see the point Cr Reis … I am asking questions relating to a matter – that timeline does not apply to questions”.
This prompted Mr Sage to also ask Cr Hill what the point to the questions were.
“If you cannot see the point – then I’m afraid I am rather surprised,” Cr Hill said.
“You are a one-man show.”
Cr Hill continued with his questions, with the debate absorbing 13 minutes of the meeting.
Mr Sage admitted he made mistakes during the interview regarding evaluations.
