Griffith City Council held no community emergency meeting to discuss the options to merge with neighbouring councils after Griffith was found to be “unfit for the future” by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) last month.
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Leeton Shire Council held a community meeting on Monday night; 80 community members showed up.
Murrumbidgee Shire Council held a public meeting on Monday night; over 200 community members showed up.
Mayor John Dal Broi said Griffith did not due mainly to the lack of interest shown at the initial meeting.
“We had a meeting and not too many people turned up,” he said.
“We’ve talked to the public and gathered the view from the community, and there just doesn't seem to be the interest in it.
“There's no great feeling about the issue.”
On the form that all councils are to fill out by Wednesday 18 at 11:59pm, there is a section to name which council they would prefer to merge with. Three spaces are given.
Cr Dal Broi said Griffith council would submit Murrumbidgee as their first and only preference.
This will likely not delight Murrumbidgee residents, who, at their meeting on Monday in which they unanimously decided to “stand alone” in their Fit for the Future endeavours, were more than a little sceptical of what would become of their part of the world should a merger be forced upon them.
“When we make our decision here tonight we talk about Narrandera, Leeton and Griffith,” one community member said.
“We talk about Yenda, Beelbangera and Bilbul, three towns from Griffith council get absolutely nothing, then you take Leeton and Narrandera, have a look and Whitton and Yanco,”
The crowd’s scepticism of Griffith council peaked when Murrumbidgee shire mayor Austin Evans made this statement.
“In the talks with Griffith they've said ‘we'll look after you, we're not out to pinch those (money reserves)’,” he said.
The crowd subsequently burst into laughter.
Cr Dal Broi said that if it was solely up to Griffith council, they wouldn’t merge either.
“We are the dominant council, we are the bigger brother and I can see how they’d think we’d be swallowing them up,” he said.
“If the state government gave us a choice we most likely would’ve stood alone.
“Our financials are very sound, sounder than those of Murrumbidgee, so there would be no reason for us to merge.
“We should have done what Leeton did with Narrandera and create a business model to submit to the state government with Murrumbidgee’s and our financials, then we would have been declared fit.”
