After attending the last three Council meetings it is obvious Council is in crisis.

Your headline "Frost and Jones gag order"  shows how much power the General Manager is prepared to wield if anyone dares rock the Rowe boat.

Most Councillors remain seated at the oars on one side as the disobedient Frost and Jones dare to ask for explanation of the General Manager's direction, do we park or ride, can we drink the water and such, while vanquished to the other side.

With some Councillors 'Roweing' and some not, we seem to be going in circles. The restrictions placed on Cr Jones and Frost by the General Manager, as supported by the Mayor and Rowers, limits their ability to act as our elected representatives and therefore is skewing outcomes.

Clearly in a democracy one should have the right to disagree and or ask for an explanation without the fear of reprisal.

This type of behaviour from the General Manager is not new. We upset the General Manager in February when telling a few truths and subsequently verbal communication with Council staff was restricted.

Behaviour modification by restricting ratepayer services was the weapon of choice that was aimed at us. Going to the dump, paying rates and conducting Council business became difficult.

Mr Rowe has now given Councillors Frost and Jones choices A, B and C as noted in your paper but forgot options D, E and F.

D) Rather than Councillors work with the General Manager as in (A), how about the General Manager work with the Councillors? (the ones we elected).

E) Rather than Councillors resign from committees as in (B), what if the General Manager resigned? (I don't remember voting for a General Manager).

F) Rather than bring staff into the conflict as in (C) why not leave staff out of it? (Council staff should not be used as pawns).

This situation only exists because the Mayor and a number of Councillors let it. My vote goes to Councillors Jones, Butler and Frost if we are to steady the ship.

Touie Smith Snr,

Yass.