Council election day poll

2. Should the state government compensate ratepayers for the ongoing costs of the amalgamation?

3. Do you support that council should approach the state government to guarantee representation for the former Urana Shire?

Council unanimously agreed on the action at its latest monthly meeting, on May 28, in Urana, after much debate by councillors.

Council’s decision was made on the motion of Crs David Fahey OAM and deputy mayor Shaun Whitechurch.

As reported in The Free Press following council’s April meeting, Cr Fahey flagged his intention to move a Notice of Motion for council’s May meeting in his vehement wish to secure adequate councillor representation in the northern part of the Federation Council area.

Cr Fahey’s Notice of Motion, point 3, for consideration at council’s May meeting, read: Should the amalgamation of Urana and Corowa shires be reversed (de-amalgamated)?

“Personally, I would have preferred to keep the de amalgamation part of the question in, to place more pressure on the minister but that’s what I like about democracy, we can debate, we can disagree, we can listen to each other’s views and we can still come to an understanding and general agreement,” he told The Free Press.

“In working together for the betterment of Federation Council, with open and transparent debate, we have the opportunity to move forward for the betterment of all rate payers throughout the Federation Council area.”

The main thrust of the Morundah resident’s motion was to guarantee future representation for the residents of the former Urana Shire area.

“I am passionate, not parochial. This motion was never about de amalgamation but representation,” he said.

No councillor wants to see de amalgamation and reference to it was removed from council’s May meeting motion; if the third question was an overall rejection by residents and ratepayers, council would pursue other avenues according to Cr Whitechurch.

“At the time of merger when I was deputy mayor of Urana, we had ongoing discussions with the then Corowa Shire Council and agreed, that if we were forced to merge, then a 3/6 split of councillors would be a fair split and that wards may be a possibility (3 Urana/6 Corowa),” Cr Fahey said.

“The government and Corowa executive of the day chose to ignore this and any other positive requests from us and democracy were sold out that day for $21 million dollars, without any proof of any economies of scale, without any proof of savings, knowing that representation for the former Urana Shire would diminish.”

Federation Council was formed on May 12, 2016 by the NSW State Government amalgamating Corowa and Urana Shires.

In light of the recent post-amalgamation inquiry (Professor Joesph Drew), ongoing financial sustainability concerns, and proposed special rate variation it seems important to allow citizens to have a direct say on both the past and their future according to Cr Fahey.

He said amalgamation went ahead despite both communities preferring to stand alone as their respective council areas with over 70% of Corowa residents and 88% of Urana residents supporting the option of standing alone in Fit For The Future (FFTF) submissions.

“As a result of the forced amalgamation, this decision has resulted in a 22 per cent increase in costs to run the two council areas as one. This has had the flow on effect that Federation Council needs to apply for a permanent rate variation to remain financially sustainable.” Cr Fahey said.

“A fully independent report, commissioned by Federation Council, by three eminent professors, empirically shows that special rate variations are needed into the future, that representation in the former Urana Shire area is tenuous, that the communities are not similar, and that Corowa Shire had a much larger backlog in infrastructure than what was reported.

“I believe that it is time to directly ask the question of residents regarding the events of the past, and how they would like their future shaped,” he said.

Mayor Pat Bourke from Urana and Cr Fahey are the councillors from the northern part of Federation Council area.

“We need to guarantee a voice for those 1200 residents that cover 3400 square kilometres of the former Urana Shire area,” Cr Fahey said.

Councillor discussion on the subject went for over half an hour. “We’ve thrashed it out, we’ve come up with outcomes and we’re united,” Mayor Bourke concluded.

Earlier in the meeting, council’s general manager Arian Butler reported on the recommendation (No. 20) of Professor Drew which stated that council “should write to seek compensation for the failed amalgamations. Notably, this was the single most common response from the community surveys….”

Mr Butler suggested compensation could take the form of an ongoing untied grant, or financial assistance in pursuing some of the recommendations noted in this report.

“It is important for council to be seen to be pursuing a more just outcome,” he said. Councillors agreed.