Rant 1 - Lismore City Council Mismanagement

Rant 2 - The Weekend That Was – 4-7 October 2012

Rant 3 - Retaining Our Integrity

Rant 1

Lismore City Council mismanagement is a problem I have been trying to help address for a few years. I was hopeful that the recent election may somehow return a conservative dominated Council that may see things improve. As expected, this did not happen and we have to yet again deal with a ‘left’ majority.

One of the new Council’s first tasks was to elect the Deputy Mayor. A look back at some previous Deputy Mayors has seen us with Councillor Ekins in 2008, Councillor Smith in 2009 and 2011 and Councillor Clough in 2010 who was again returned in 2012 under the new Council with a six to five majority. The ‘left’ candidates are retaining the Deputy Mayor’s position through their majority with the ‘six pack’ bigger and better than before.

During his pre-vote speech, Councillor Clough stated he would continue to challenge such things as Coal Seam Gas, Champion’s Quarry and Environmental Zones. These are all State matters which are the domain of our State Member. Although they are great vote grabbers, it would be nice if our Deputy Mayor focused on what he is supposed to do which is representing us on local matters. If he is so concerned with State matters, he could run for a State seat in Government. After all, we already spent over a million dollars on Champion’s Quarry alone for something that was always going to get through.

Councillor Clough’s attitude reflects his primary vote position at number 12 before being escalated to position 6 and a seat on Council through preference deals most would not understand. The community just did not want him in any great numbers. He was gifted his seat and his current position as Deputy Mayor.

Another task completed last week was the election of the County Council representatives as well as the election of Councillors and Delegates to internal and external organisations. This was rather amusing to watch to say the least.

Far North Coast County Council got Councillor Houston unchallenged. Richmond River County Council ended up with Councillors Marks and Meineke after a requested recount saw Councillor Smith’s spot go to Councillor Marks. Rous County Council ended up with Councillors Clough and Ekins after the requested recount saw Councillor Battista’s spot go to Councillor Clough. The process left many shaking their heads and laughing.

The internal and external organisations came next. There were quite a few and they were dominated by the ‘six pack’. The advisory group that concerned me the most was the Economic Development Advisory Group. As the name suggests, this group’s focus is economic development throughout our local government area.

Councillor Battista secured a position on this group for the first time with Councillor Smith being returned for another term unfortunately. The former has considerable local business experience with the latter demonstrating very poor business knowledge or skills over the last four years which we have to now endure for another four years.

The chairperson elected by this group also gets the appointment to the Lismore Business Promotion Panel. Councillor Smith was also in this position for the last few years and there has been considerable concern regarding performance and mismanagement of hundreds of thousands of dollars of ratepayer money annually through the Panel. The Panel is directly controlled by Lismore City Council’s Executive Director of Sustainable Development who can overturn any decision they make.

This money specifically set aside to benefit local businesses in the Lismore CBD is raised from the Special Business Rate Variation Levy (SBRVL). Its purpose is to ensure Lismore retains its position as the Heart of the Northern Rivers, with the revitalisation of the City Centre identified as being the key to this objective. I am not aware of any business owner who believes this purpose is being met. We are losing our way.

Various business owners have been requesting financial information from Lismore City Council regarding their activity and the activity of the Lismore Business Promotion Panel for a few years now. The information is not being provided.

I made three requests at last week’s meeting all of which were ignored by the ‘left’ dominated Council. These included:

1.  That a more appropriate and experienced Councillor be appointed to the Economic Development Advisory Group so this experience flows to the Lismore Business Promotion Panel.

2. A delay in Council’s decision to reappoint the Panel as it stands to open it up to new nominations to seek fresh ideas and in the interest of transparency.

3. Making the Panel a Committee to give it some authority and better guidance and also in the interest of transparency.

Our current Councillor appointed to the Lismore Business Promotion Panel is a Country Labor Party candidate. He does not own a business. Excluding the annual business awards, he has not attended any Lismore Chamber of Commerce events or open forums and he regularly publicly comments adversely about business owners or their representatives without confirming facts. He has also never provided the names of any businesses that actually support his ideas. How does this person represent the business community?

We just want to know where the money is going, why such inexperienced individuals are put in such positions and why there seems to be very little return from SBRVL promotion funding expenditure.

You are listening to River FM 92.9 and I am Big Rob.

Big Rob’s Rant is interactive while being broadcast. You can find me on Facebook by following the links to Big Rob’s Rant on the Big Rob’s website at bigrobs.com.au.

Rant 2

‘The Weekend That Was’ started off slowly.

‘Chest Puff Thursday’ was extremely quiet. There were only a small handful of people around and nothing of any note came to my attention. The police advised a couple of guys were arrested during a break and enter in the early hours of Friday morning.

‘Friday Fight Night’ lived up to its name yet again. The police dog squad were seen to be going through the licensed venues with one guy being taken away for pushing the dog away from him.

An elderly gentleman using a walking frame and walking stick was sitting on the ‘one little seat’ outside Night Owl Lismore. A fight ensued. It is unclear who hit first but the elderly gentleman came off considerably worse with lacerations to his face. A few people tried to help him with police eventually attending and driving him home.

Later that night, a staff member from one of the licensed premises had their vehicle damaged. It appears as though it was repeatedly kicked. A couple of younger girls also got into a fight near the ‘one little seat’. A few punches were thrown before it ended. Not much more came of this fight.

Police reported a drug operation was undertaken on Friday night throughout the Lismore licensed premises. They reported only one drug detection where one male was arrested with an undisclosed amount of methyl-amphetamine. Investigations are ongoing.

Saturday night had its usual crowd of happy revellers with only two incidents coming to my attention. The first involved a Maori guy from out of town who nearly got into a fight with two other guys. They were talked out of fighting when directed to the number of CCTV cameras in the area. They all walked away.

The night also ended a little bit strangely. One guy seemed to be following a particular girl around the street and trying to impose himself on her. When she walked off up a dark, quiet and poorly lit part of the street after one of her friends, this guy tried to follow. He was quickly stopped as it was very obvious to everyone that he was interested in her. Security directed police attention towards the guy who was seemingly moved on pretty quickly. The girl got home safely.

Just to address my earlier comment about the ‘one little seat’ and the trouble it may cause between businesses, one business owner seems to be of the view that people hanging around on the ‘one little seat’ is good for business. Another business owner, me, believes it is bad for business since people are getting hassled for money or cigarettes and fights are often occurring.

I have repeatedly admitted trying to get the seat moved across a little bit quite a while ago but this never happened. It now seems that the police and council want the seat gone altogether after realising how much trouble accompanies it. This position has nothing to do with me but it seems I am already getting the blame.

In any case, I have no doubt that the ‘one little seat’ will continue to feature heavily in ‘The Weekend That Was’ segment while it remains.

This is River FM 92.9 and I am Big Rob.

Find me on Facebook by following the Big Rob’s Rant links on the Big Rob’s website at bigrobs.com.au. 

Rant 3

The shock of seeing the alcohol-related violence in Lismore was very short lived for me. It was almost immediately a situation where there was no time to think once I opened my shop trading late at night. My staff were at risk, my property could suffer and I could also get hurt.

Since never being one to run away from a difficult situation, I decided to stand my ground early on regardless of the situation or the repercussions.

I thought the first violent incident I would experience directed at me would come from someone in the street. I did not know anyone in this area and everyone seemed to think they were a cage fighter or worse. I certainly did not consider myself to be a fighter. However, I am one very stubborn person who has very strong views against senseless violence and arbitrary arrest. This resulted in considerable conflict within my mind and a tendency to get involved in things when I really should have stayed away from them.

Surprisingly, the first person to lay their hand on me in a violent manner in Lismore was a police officer at Lismore Police Station a few years ago. I went there to lodge a complaint about poor policing where an Indigenous male was pepper sprayed for no apparent reason while coming out of my shop during a night of considerable violence from others. The police officer tried to damage my shoulder while executing the arrest, he locked me up for a number of hours and then charged me with multiple offences. I successfully defended an allegation of resisting arrest as well as other charges.

Almost a mirror image of that violent arrest at the police station occurred again earlier this year but this time it was my elbow that was targeted. This one is currently before the court and I feel confident that I will also successfully defend this allegation of resisting arrest.

The only other time, until very recently, that a person has laid their hand on me in an aggressive manner since I have been in Lismore was a crazy intoxicated female who had been refused entry from a few licensed premises. She punched me in the head from behind after I refused her service and had to come out to get her to leave the shop. She then tried to kick me in the face while I was facing her and calling police because she was being abusive and would not leave. Fortunately she missed. There is a good photo of the kick in the banner on my Facebook page. The female was eventually charged with assault and pleaded guilty.

I won’t even discuss the other very recent minor incident at this time since it involves a grub that I prefer to ignore. The guy is a stalker who really needs to get on with his life.

In relation to violence in the streets, I initially believed calling the station or 000 for assistance was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, this just seemed to annoy the police who would have to do more work. It also upset the licensed premises who were concerned about being linked under the ‘linking program’. This is the program designed to punish licensed venues if certain incidents are reported. I have ranted about this in the past and strongly oppose the program as it acts as a major disincentive to reporting crime.

Calling police also upsets the offenders who would then turn their aggression on those who called police. We did not need the headaches but will still call if asked to by victims. Of course, I will also always try to help directly.

I then tried to sort things out with some of the security staff but they were already stretched and many were reluctant to risk themselves. I do not blame them as some of the situations we witness are pretty ugly and they do not get paid enough to risk injury. There was also a falling out with one nutter who liked to throw little girls around and also liked to use batons. He worked for the Lismore City Council security contractor. He also features in the banner on my Facebook page holding one of his batons.

I finally decided to just do my own thing after that. This seemed to upset even more people. The police came at me, a lot of the street security snubbed me off and I was always getting asked why I would get involved. Lismore City Council also hated the fact that I was so vocal about the negative factors affecting Lismore.

I just did not find a need to focus on the positives because everyone else was doing it and no-one was addressing the negatives. It is like they think it will go away if they ignore it long enough. You cannot fix a problem if you do not first admit it exists.

For those who I never did respond to, I get involved because calling police upsets everyone, the council security contractor often do not act in violent situations when police are not around and they never act on private property. 

The most important reasons why I get involved are because I know the risk to life that fighting poses and I hate seeing a life ruined by one extraordinary incident if someone does get into a fight and they are then arrested, charged and possibly convicted. This is a university town and the repercussions could be devastating.

I strongly believe prevention is the best way to avoid so many of the related problems. Deterring people from fighting or stopping them if they step up to fight means everyone gets to go home. Who really wants to end up in a cell at the police station, a bed at the hospital or worse, on a gurney at the morgue?

I have had to adapt time and time again over the years I have had the late night business in Lismore and I have made a lot of ‘enemies’ along the way. I have also lost a lot of money as a result of what I can only describe as extreme bullying directed at me from police, council and one particular business operator. I have even copped a lot of shit from some pretty aggressive guys on the street who have been very poorly informed about various things and have had to deal with them one at a time.

After it is all said and done, and regardless of what happens, I am still here standing proud retaining my integrity without risking anyone else’s safety to make a dollar and I still do not care what anyone thinks of me.

As Winston Churchill said:

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

This is River FM 92.9 and I am Big Rob bringing you Big Rob’s Rant.