Gianpiero Battista has resigned his position as a Councillor on the Lismore City Council.

On his facebook page late this afternoon, Mr Battista released the following statement;

Dear residents of Lismore and Villages

It is with mixed feelings that I announce today that I have resigned from my position as Councillor on the Lismore City Council.

I am very proud of my achievements in Council including stopping a 17% SRV increase, funding for the Museum lift, changing to 20% the local content criteria for Council’s tenders over $150,000, proposing a 20% reduction and freeze in CBD rates for at least the next 2 years, the backing of the re-development of the Lismore Regional Gallery, and finally unwavering support for NORPA which I believe is, together with our sporting events, one of the unique selling points of Lismore.

I have enjoyed most of my last 12 years as Councillor representing our ratepayer, but feel I can no longer effectively be the change which is why I have made this decision.

The mixed feelings are both sadness and relief.

This was not a light decision and it has been on my mind for the last couple of months with origins since the last election 4 years ago.

The sadness comes as I will not be able to represent the views of my community, and those who have supported me throughout my tenure. However I am relieved as the frustration and emotions after each Council meeting will no longer be present.

Since the appointment of the new GM, I have found it extremely hard to perform my duties and I know this is also the case for some of my fellow Councillors. Trying to deal with a bureaucratic machine that is bent on making some of us redundant and disconnected from the decision making process has taken its toll.

Some examples of this are; continuous and unanswered requests for meaningful information; deliberate exclusion from important decisions such as the $2m offer to refurbish the Lismore Lake Pool; being excluded from accessing Council’s emails and information; and finally and probably the issue for me that has ‘broke the Camel’s back” the incredible resistance and opposition to my Notice of Motion which was trying to raise funds to improve the Lismore budget and also save jobs.

Spending ratepayer’s money for legal advice on whether Council should ask their employees to donate 10% to save some of their colleagues' jobs is just one example that has impacted my belief in council’s management capacity of good reason.

The leadership vacuum of the last 4 years has allowed others to “run the organisation” as their own forgetting that the ratepayers are the customers and principal stakeholders who ALWAYS have to foot the bill when things go wrong.

I have served this community well and in normal circumstances we would be now in ‘caretaker mode’ due to a pending election. Unfortunately due to COVID our tenure was extended for 12 months which I have decided not to fulfil.

One last positive outcome of my resignation from this current council will be that of saving ratepayers $20,000 in Councillor’s fees.

Again, I would like to thank everyone for their support for the last 12 years and finish by leaving this advice to both my colleagues and the ratepayers: do not let anyone stop you asking questions and keep asking for the information as you cannot make an informed decisions without it.

Thank you to those employees at Lismore City Council who have supported me and the elected Councillors. I wish you all the best and much success in the coming years.

Gianpiero

More to come....