It is distressing to read of the toxic environment that seems to persist in the operation of our local Council and I wonder at its credibility as gags are applied to some of the elected Councillors who persist in asking for answers on behalf of their constituents (i.e. the electors of the Yass Valley Council who put them there) and who are ostracised.

The General Manager, who by the way is not elected to his position on the Council but appointed, and who doesn't even live in Yass and commutes from Canberra, is the one who seems to be most uncomfortable at the questions being asked by Councillors Frost and Jones. It is regrettable that he has the backing of the Mayor in what appears to be a policy of deliberate obfuscation.

The Mayor prattles on in defence of the General Manager and comments, according to the Tribune's reporting of the matter, about the health and well being of the General Manager's staff and claims that he is protecting them from being placed in a compromising position because of the legitimate questions asked by duly elected members of the Council. It seems to me that these Councillors have every right to ask questions about any matter that concerns them and have an equal right to expect them to be answered.

I read in disbelief about the General Manager's edict to Councillors Jones and Frost that if they should "disobey the GM's direction" they will be "in breach of the Code of Conduct" and Councillor Frost's question about where such a provision appears in the Local Government Act is a valid one - and I agree with Councillor Frost that this is an act of censorship and becomes an issue of freedom of speech.

I'm a rate paying elector of this Council and I don't want to support Councillors who are intimidated by bureaucratic regulation and are afraid to ask questions where they need to be asked. And though I'm not suggesting that corruption and self interest are necessarily within the operations of our Council, as we move through the various tiers of government, it is obvious that they have almost become art forms in both sides of politics - Conservative and Labor.

I want to be confident that we have open government in Yass and that no one on our Council has vested interests for themselves and that their motives in taking part in the governance of our town are altruistic and that all their activities will stand close and open scrutiny.   

Brian Millett,

Yass.