The crazy Casey council is good at one thing, getting their names in the paper.
Just last Thursday, the Herald Sun ran a story (off-line) about Casey councillor Wreford calling on the government to criminalise the supply of alcohol to minors to combat binge drinking in the area.
The Casey council routinely focuses on areas totally outside its jurisdiction while failing to take care of the basics, like a functioning council and an accountable chief executive.
The demand is not greatly conceptually different from their recent grandstanding votes demanding new hospitals, roads and other taxpayer funded facilities from state and federal governments.
One councillor notorious for this kind of cunning stuntery is Cr Steve Beardon, whose next notice of motion probably demands Six Flags Magic Mountain, the Socialist Left's Bill Albon and Hustler combine in joint venture to establish a new Cranbourne based Thai style theme-park celebrating the exotic arts to save Beardon a trip to Bangkok.
The one thing in common with each of these stunt resolutions is that the disgraced council, where councillors steal beer from the mini-fridge as part of their sense of entitlement, actually offers to contribute none of its own vast multi-million dollar budget.
COUNCILLOR SLAGS HER OWN PATCH // OR DOES SHE?
But on this occasion, it looked like the grandstanding backfired with the the councillor quoted in the binge drinking article slagging off her local area of Narre Warren saying there are "out of control teenage parties in her area every weekend." She denies ever saying these words.
The issue of her being misquoted arose when Cr Steve Beardon checked the story on the News Limited database at or prior to 11.41pm on Wednesday night, as the Thursday newspaper was being printed.
Beardon had either been expecting the story or is in the practice of checking the database every night for advanced warning of the nature of stories, usually planted by him in a way that has caused serious concern in the Local Government Department.
She responded that she'd been misquoted:
I didn't say there was out of control parties in my area every weekend!!!!!
Because he'd circulated the story through the night before and it contained an allegedly incorrect quote, Council officers suspected it another example of Beardon's orchestrated propaganda campaign which has played such a big role in discrediting Casey.
WREFORD DENIES BEARDON SPEAKS FOR HER
Cr. Wreford strongly denies this though, telling the OC that "No other councillor speaks to the press on my behalf". She says - and provides some evidence - that she has been campaigning for some time on the issue of underage alcohol abuse. This is clearly an issue in Narre Warren, the home of party animal Corey Delaney.
Beardon though clearly has more questions to answer on other issues, with him facing repeated accusations of breaching the Local Government Act by illegally disclosing confidential information.
Emailed documents obtained by the OC reveal that Beardon is in breach of recent directives from the state government Ombudsman by making persistent and direct communications with the staff who are meant to properly report to the Chief Executive, one of the state's highest paid and underworked bureaucrats Mike Tyler.
If a municipal inspector finds that Beardon has been giving improper directions to council officers or disclosing confidential information he could face criminal prosecution and be sacked from the Council.
Game on.
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