I HAVE been told the Oberon Ratepayers Group has now been registered.
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This group could be something really good for Oberon, however, if it is the same group that has over the last 12 months been writing to the local paper with only negative comments about Oberon Council, then it is my opinion they will fail. Not only will they as a group fail, I believe they will fail Oberon. It is also my belief this group has come about because of fluoride being added to Oberon's water supply.
The battle for preventing having fluoride added to our town water supply went on for quite some time. Now whether you believe or don't believe in having fluoride added to the water, the final decision was made by our councillors. It takes a majority to get anything through the council (it really is a numbers game).
OTHER RECENT LETTERS:
I, along with the anti-fluoride people, believe it should not happen, however, democracy was at work and a majority of Oberon councillors made the decision to go ahead with fluoridation of Oberon's town water supply.
I am fully aware that I can be (and fair enough) labelled pro-local government. I actually take this as a compliment because I have been there and know and understand how it works (and how difficult it can be to please people even some of the time).
Local government is, in my opinion, the most important government we have. It is the one we are closest to and we have our own people elected to it by us, the people of Oberon. We need our local government.
What we do not need is when someone has loads of spare time and attends council meetings for the express purpose of reporting his own negative thoughts and, in my opinion, trying to wreck our very important local government.
If the same person is now elected as president of the Oberon Ratepayers Group then we can expect more of his negative reporting, along with whoever the other committee members are.
Do you know anything about this group? Such as who they are and what positions they hold? One has to wonder if it is a secret association.
I ask you, the people of Oberon, to think about this before the local government elections this year in September.
Right now, it seems to me, this fellow at the Oberon Ratepayers Group believes he has more skills and opinions and knows better how Oberon should be run.
The fact is this - he has not faced the community and put his name forward to be elected. He has chosen to form a group without allowing the community to even have a say in whether Oberon wants or needs a ratepayers group.
There was a meeting held back in December that I found out about and, in a funny way, was asked why I did not attend as I was a very vocal person.
I indicated I would attend, however, that was when the communication stopped; no time or place was provided to me to attend. I believe the meeting went ahead and has now been registered.
Should this fellow run for council and be elected, I wonder how he will like it when someone else decides to write so negatively about his work when he makes decisions on our behalf.
While I am pro-local government, I do understand not all council's decisions will please everyone. However, it is important we maintain our own local government.
I ask respectfully that this group now provide the community with complete details of their group and what their intentions are and why they felt it was necessary to form such a group without allowing the community to have a say and possibly attend their meetings.
