BATHURST councillors say they are determined not to be sidetracked by the fallout from Jess Jennings’ stinging criticism of his colleagues following last week’s contentious mayoral election.
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New mayor Gary Rush and Councillor Bobby Bourke came in for particular attention in Cr Jennings’ outburst, but he was also critical of councillors Warren Aubin, Greg Westman and Michael Coote who, he said, undermined former mayor Monica Morse.
Deputy mayor Ian North yesterday said he would have gone about things differently to Cr Jennings, but he did not believe the outburst would damage council in the long term.
“I was probably a little disappointed with the way he went about it, but it’s not my place to say whether Jess did the right thing or the wrong thing,” Cr North said.
“At the end of the day, though, it doesn’t change my opinion of any individual person and we’re all here for four years with a four-year job to do.”
Cr Aubin said last week’s mayoral vote had been an opportunity to show divisions on council were finally breaking down, but Cr Jennings’ statement had undone a lot of that work.
“Jess has made his statement as an individual but the rest of us were happy with the result last Wednesday and we’re looking forward to working together for Bathurst,” he said.
Cr Aubin said it was a different situation to him famously posting on Facebook after last year’s mayoral election that he had been “knifed in the back” by Cr Morse.
“That was a situation where I had an agreement from a person to vote a certain way and in a phone call just three hours before the vote she hadn’t wavered from that,” he said.
“So that disappointment was very personal to me – this year Jess really has nothing to do with it. He wasn’t running for mayor.”
Cr Westman said councillors were looking forward to long-term planning sessions to be held next month as a way of putting past differences behind them.
“I think the people of Bathurst deserve strong leadership and if political differences are coming to the fore then I would remind councillors that there is no place for political games in local government,” he said.
Cr Coote agreed Cr Jennings was doing Bathurst no favours by politicising council.
“You have to have the right attitude when you go to talk to ministers and MPs but all Jess has done for the past few months is belittle John Cobb and Paul Toole so how can he enhance council’s co-operation from those two people?” Cr Coote said.
Neither Cr Morse nor Cr Graeme Hanger would be drawn into comment on Cr Jennings’ words.
“I do what I have to do to represent the community and I think I do a pretty good job of that,” Cr Hanger said.
“That doesn’t mean I have to jump up and down and make a big noise about it.”
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