Councillor Matthew Stadtmiller will be seriously contemplating running for Mayor of Hilltops Council at the next meeting to be held on Wednesday September 25, 2019. Both the positions of Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be made vacant at the meeting.
The 35 year old Councillor first ran for Harden Shire in 2012 and was Deputy Mayor in 2013. He has sited a number of poor decisions in his opinion, made by Council over the last 2 years as the driving force.
The catalyst this week being the removal of asbestos at the Young Pool potentially costing ratepayers $667, 640.00 which was done without a Council resolution or the chance to find another course of action by Councillors.
Councillor Stadtmiller said, “I called for an investigation into how Council could find itself in a position where Councillors and ratepayers were not informed before the decision to proceed with such a cost blow-out and I am incredibly disappointed with the response I received. We are well overdue for change.”
He said, “Money continues to be spent at an alarming rate. $6.5 million for the so called community library. Over $3 million dollars for new change rooms at Young Pool and an IT system which hasn’t been properly implemented and wasn’t actually needed, costing ratepayers millions, including costly annual fees.”
He said, “There was already an IT system in place at Harden which was purchased and was suitable for a small to medium Council which is what Hilltops Council is, yet it was not utilised.”
Stadtmiller said that both he and John Walker had been targeted over the last 2 years. He said, “Council needed to re set and start fresh, or the ratepayers of the area would be the ones who would suffer in the longterm.”
Stadtmiller said, “I have been elected to Hilltops Council and If I think there needs to be change I need to be prepared to speak up and affect that change. It is obvious that Hilltops is underperforming and with the 2017/2018 audited financials yet to be received, there are questions which need to be asked and difficult decisions which need to be made. I’m prepared to make those decisions and make them now. Somewhere along the line, local government can forget the core issues which it needs to achieve before it embarks on extra curricular activities. They are, making sure the water is clean, the garbage gets picked up, the pot holes are filled in and the shit flows downhill.”
