A GRIFFITH businessman has called for the resignation of council general manager Brett Stonestreet for "inept" management and undermining the democratic process of local government.
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Driver IGA owner Paul Snaidero said a controversial motion at last week's council meeting to overturn a previously adopted policy of council's Business Development and Major Projects Committee was proof "council has become ungovernable and is run at the whim of middle and senior management".
In April councillors adopted the business committee's suggestion to waive a condition requiring developers to install a stormwater management unit if the renovation did not increase the size of the roof.
But last week councillors mistakenly passed a motion to reverse that position based on the suggestion of council's engineering staff, which Mr Snaidero believes was a deliberate ploy to pull the wool over councillors' eyes.
"The elected forum of councillors made a decision and gave instruction to council staff to remove an impediment to development and then five months later the opposing view from middle-management worms its way into the council meeting and confuses councillors," Mr Snaidero said.
"The mayor said he's never seen Griffith business so bad in living memory, well I've never seen council management run such a circus in living memory.
"The management is inept and if they were operating in the real world the council would be broke by now.
"The mayor has to call on his 37 years of experience to gel councillors together because council is divided and while that goes on, the staff are running riot.
"This is comedy capers."
The business community has been railing against red tape and development fees which it believes has led to the decline of the Griffith economy and for Mr Snaidero last Tuesday's controversy was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Mr Stonestreet acknowledged councillors may have been misled by a biased report prepared by his staff, but poured cold water over any suggestion of malice and said he would put that on record next council meeting.
"I understand there is a recission motion to be lodged and I am attaching a brief comment to acknowledge that the report that was included did not include the positive and negative sides of the suggestion and staff did not present a balanced view," Mr Stonestreet said.
"There was absolutely no intention to undermine elected officials, I acknowledge this did occur but it was not intentional and steps will be taken so it doesn't happen again.
"The timing was out of the ordinary as well, the report should have come back to council sooner.
"Not withstanding the fact that the report itself didn't have both sides of the argument, the recommendation by staff that council puts the policy on public display still stands."