Dear Kangaroo Island Electors, you may have read or heard about the strange article ‘Council calls in troops’ on the front page of The Islander (20/10/2011), following on another strange article brashly titled “Council at war“.
Three councillors, Ken Liu, Graham Walkom and Rosalie Chirgwin were viciously attacked and they were not approached by the journalist for an alternative view on the disputed matters.
You may thus be interested in reading their short response below, which they jointly submitted to The Islander.  Please note that those words in bold were removed from their original letter by the Editor of The Islander, so this is the unexpurgated, original version of their letter to the Editor.
For more information, their full media statement on the matter might be read here.

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We unequivocally reject Cr Clements’ personal attack and the apparently orchestrated mischief published in The Islander (20/10/2011) following the CEO’s response to Cr Liu’s request for up to date legal costs.

Prior to the first meeting of the new council last year, councillors were pressured by the mayor to pursue the Member for Finniss for alleged bullying.  Councillors resisted this attempted coercion but nevertheless found themselves embroiled in a costly and futile external investigation. The consequent legal and associated costs have been used in a manipulative and misleading way implying that they are our doing!

In fact we have not supported spending on legal advice, as most matters may have been dealt with internally rather than by lawyers.  We have repeatedly opposed obtaining such advice and the various costly and ongoing investigations.

Following repeated rejection of our requests to access relevant council documents, and particularly the mayor’s role in this, we lodged a formal complaint to the Ombudsman.  Whilst the details of the Ombudsman’s findings have in our view been inappropriately made confidential by council, he has advised us that council did act contrary to law.

We intend to pursue our lawful obligation to ratepayers to be properly informed on all council matters.

Ratepayers can be assured that we will act in their best interests by questioning the current proliferate spending habits of this council, and all indicative irregularities as they become known to us. We will continue to focus on the Island’s essential needs such as better, safer roads and reducing our ridiculously high budget deficit.

If this council is to avoid being taken over by a mainland body, the current ‘shoot the messenger’ secret culture must change.

Our full media release is on www.kanguroo-island.net

Signed: Crs Graham Walkom, Ken Liu & Rosalie Chirgwin