CONCERNS: Ulladulla resident John Anderson talks about concerns about overgrown areas with Cr Mark Kitchener, who uses an internal system to refer the concerns durect to council staff.
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DAYS after the Save Milton Library campaign coordinator Alison Pakes said the efforts of Shoalhaven City Councillor Mark Kitchener had prevented the library being closed already, Cr Kitchener was back out on the streets, talking to people about their issues.
He has become a regular sight in local business areas, sitting at a table chatting to people and referring their concerns directly to the applicable council staff.
“I’m doing this five days a week, out in the community,” he said.
With each interview issues including potholes, drains and areas that need clearing are discussed, and concerns are sent directly through to the responsible people in the council structure through a community requests system.
“The community requests I’m submitting are only small items, but they are large concerns to the affected residents,” Cr Kitchener said.
“If the item in question doesn’t require a budgetary allocation or an investigation it is resolved quickly to the delight of the resident.”
In fact Cr Kitchener has been so busy talking to people and immediately sending their concerns through to council staff that he has submitted more community requests than all 12 other councilors combined.
Figures showed from December 2013 to the end of September 2014 Cr Kitchener submitted 332 out of the 630 community requests sent to council.
Many of those requests have been submitted through a formal councilor request system set up specifically for the purpose, and Cr Kitchener is again the biggest user with 332 of the 466 requests.
Cr Kitchener said he was taking up the concerns of residents as a way of representing his community, after being “marginalised” by members of Team Gash.
“Team Gash have their own secret meetings in the mayor’s office to which the rest of us are not invited where they hold their own non-minuted discussions,” Cr Kitchener claimed.
“I am personally offended at their exclusive behavior, as I have no intention of being a mere sinecure.
“Nothing much has changed over the past year - the big ticket items are not discussed before they arrive in the business paper, yet all the Team Gash members know the fine details.
“Rather than continue to complain about the arrogant rudeness of this reality I decided I would get on with the job despite being sidelined,” Cr Kitchener said.