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Law unto itself

It appears that Cr Aziz has decided to become spokesperson for the City of Casey in religion, election, advocate for state Liberal Party, spokesperson for the residents of Casey, East West Link project and the state Liberal advocate for the Port of Hastings project.
Cr Aziz has taken on roles outside of his duties for which he was elected to do.
I am informed that “it is not the responsibility of a councillor to lobby the State Government ministers for better deals/conditions for Casey residents”.
Nowhere in the Local Government Act do I read that a councillor is elected to be the spokesperson for the entire population of the City of Casey in matters of religion, and yet Cr Aziz did exactly that.
As reported in the Herald, he takes it upon himself to speak on behalf 281,000 residents and condemns the religion and tells Muslims residing in the City of Casey to go home to where they belong because we don’t want them here and at the same time tars them all with the same brush and brands them all as terrorist.
Regarding the appointment of Cr Aziz to the position of the advocacy for the state Liberal election campaign, the East West Link project and the Port of Hastings project, it is not the role of Casey councillors to campaign for a state election.
Casey councillors do not and cannot represent the entire city’s political views, they can only present their own political views, in this case Liberal views.
The councillors do not speak on behalf of a majority of the residents, when they campaign for the Liberal Party.
Regarding the council elected position of the advocacy for the East West tunnel project and the Port of Hastings project.
Council have to be reminded of the fact that they were elected to oversee the running of Casey, not the running of the state. These two projects are not considered to be of any benefit to the city.
Councillors are currently running for State Government selection, while still being paid for by the City of Casey ratepayers.
The majority of residents agree, if a councillor decides to run for State Government, they should resign from the position of councillor.
It is not surprising that they are all Liberal. Would the campaign costs be paid from the Casey administration funds if they were Labor candidates.
It is a possibility that we will have a change of government, in which case it is very likely that all the previous matters of complaint of funding, corruption, secret deals and the transparency of the dealings of this council will be raised again, and this time investigated.
The council has become a law unto itself, this position of total control over the lives of residents and their rate funds must cease.
Many residents are concerned that this council and management are out of control, acting only for a small number of residents and not for the benefit of the total community.
Martin B. Ryan,
Narre Warren.

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