By Violet Li
Tooradin Ward would-be candidate Rob Ward has pulled out from the coming Casey Council election, believing he can play a “more positive role from the outside” to “critique the decisions of the council”.
Star News reported in May this year that Mr Ward would run for a third time in the October election and stand in Tooradin Ward.
However, last month, his name didn’t appear on the formal list of candidates because he decided not to nominate.
Mr Ward said the recently amended Councillor Code of Conduct and power exerted by the mayor had made restrictions placed on councillors clearer.
“Some of the changes that have taken place in Codes of Conduct and regulations are good, but they also muzzle to some degree the voice of councillors,” he said.
“I think the capacity of an individual councillor is very limited, so I think I will stand outside, supporting councillors, critiquing in a positive way the decisions the council make.”
Mr Ward said a classic case would be the administrators’ decision to close down the L’Arte Central Café and other community facilities at the Casey Administration Building.
“The café, the toy library, the radio and all of the other things that were there have been kicked out, but the Cranbourne Library next door will stay there under the same roof and same building for another two or three years,” he said.
“Where’s the logic in that? The council were answerable to nobody in that case. Hundreds and hundreds of people objected, and they fell on deaf ears.
“The community consultation has been a joke. I’ve attended some of the community consultations. They’ve already decided what they’re going to do. They’re playing around to the edges.
“There’s all sorts of things like that as a councillor, I could say nothing about. But as an independent person, I can say something about.”
Mr Ward said Casey would end up with a relatively inexperienced bunch of councillors.
“It’ll be like herding cats. You get 12 cats in a room and try to line them up. It’s impossible. And that means the bureaucracy of the council will be running the show again,” he said.
“The capacity of one person on the council to really make a difference in the decisions made by the council would be really hard because the council officers and the council bureaucracy have tremendous sway, and the CEO has tremendous power.”
Mr Ward said his commitment to the community remained unabated.
“I still want to support the community. I still want to be involved in the council as much as I can, but as a truly independent person. I have no party affiliation,” he said.
Mr Ward is a committee member at the Cranbourne Chamber of Commerce and a member of Casey’s community safety committee.
A “lesser factor” in his decision to pull out was his recent surgery, Mr Ward said.
“Relatively minor, but it took me out of action for a couple of weeks. I couldn’t attend meetings. I couldn’t run anything. I’m back to normal now, but it would have interrupted my campaign schedule.
“I’ve been waiting two and a half years for it. So when they rang me and said we’ve got a date for you, I just couldn’t put it off.”
Finances were the last reason behind his withdrawal from the election.
“It’s also pretty expensive. Some people are spending $15,000. Now I don’t have that kind of money. And you can easily be outspent by the political machine,” Mr Ward said.
Mr Ward said he would be supporting Tooradin Ward candidate Anthony Tassone.
“In fact, if he wasn’t running, then I would probably still have run,” he said.
