Friends of Ku-ring-gai Environment

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Thinking of all those missing, killed and inflicted by terrorists and war

https://www.hkpost.com.au/the-curious-case-of-ku-ring-gai-council

What transpired with the termination of
General Manager John McKee at the last council meeting reported in the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Post this week. ... See more

One of the speeches at Last Tuesday's Public Forum
Speech relating to NM.1 – Contract of Employment – General Manager
Tuesday 12 September 2023

Mayor, Councillors, Staff and community members

The meeting tonight will hopefully rescind the motion put at a previous Council meeting that abruptly terminated the employment contract of the Council General Manager, John McKee.
Mr McKee, who I will state I have no affiliation with, served the Ku Ring Gai community with great professionalism for a period of, I believe, 17 years.
While such a stint is a long period, length of service alone is no reason for the dismissal of a senior member of staff.
To the best of my knowledge, there have been no public criticisms of Mr McKee that have a legitimate and significant foundation.
The Council has run well under his leadership, and projects have been completed to the benefit of the community. Resident rate paid services, from my experience as a long time (65 years) resident of Ku Ring Gai, are performed well. On the whole, any criticisms of Mr McKee would fall within the usual confines of personal differences of opinion or budgetary issues (that is, prioritisation, design limitations, etc).
So then, without any warning that I am aware of, Mr McKee was sacked (well, technically his employment contract was not extended). The result is the same.
The vote to do this was 6 councillors in favour, and 3 in support of the General Manager.
I wonder if the councillors who voted to sack the General Manager could enlighten us – the Ku-Ring-Gai community – the reason for this dismissal.
• Was there an unfavourable Annual Staff Review of his performance to form the basis of your decision?
• Has there been a campaign of complaint from his staff members?
• Did the General Manager embezzle council funds?
• Was there a sexual harassment complaint?
Maybe the councillors would be kind enough to highlight which of these issues caused his termination?
Or were there other reasons for the decision to seriously impact the personal future of this hard working individual, and potentially disrupt the stability of his staff?

I suspect the true reason did not have anything to do with the competence or capability of the General Manager, or any issues raised in a staff review.

Council members need to understand that they do not work for themselves in their position of honour on Council, but work for sustaining the harmonious and safe environment within Ku-Ring- Gai. Period.
Councillors should put this community commitment above all other matters. If you cannot do this simple act, then you are in the wrong job.

A mature person at this juncture would spend time to contemplate what has happened, and humbly apologise, correct the mistake, and move on to the tasks that we – the residents of Ku-Ring-Gai – elected you to do.

So here we are tonight to contemplate a decision made by Council but objected to by 3 of the Council members.
If the decision to sack the General Manager after 17 years of extremely capable and successful management of council affairs is justified by a sudden change in his attitude or capability, then let us all have the evidence for this.
If the decision was made for other reasons that do not relate to his management of staff and projects, then bring this into the open so the matters can be discussed maturely and professionally.
Sacking a successful member of your team on a whim or for other objectives does not result in a harmonious team or optimal ongoing outcomes.

Council works for the betterment of the community and for no other purpose. Decisions made for other reasons by any member of council – and that includes Councillors – should be reviewed and corrected.
Now is your opportunity to do so.

Thank you ... See more

A must read......
Delusional population projections lead us sleepwalking into catastrophe
The article goes on to state:"Letting nature do the culling for us is not in anyone’s preferred playbook. Nobel Laureate Henry Kendall once said, “If we don’t halt population growth with justice and compassion, it will be done for us by nature, brutally and without pity—and will leave a ravaged world.” ... See more