Two Bits – 6 May 2016

Late last Thursday I noticed an email from Pam Mills, treasurer of the ratepayer’s association, inviting us to their agm that night. Nobody else was available so I went along. I’m not quite semi-retired, though these days I leave the committee meetings to my band of intrepid reporters. If I had a rand for every meeting I’ve been to in the last 46 years of newspapering, I’d be rich.
Hoo, I’m glad I went. The upside of the life of a newspaperman is that you get to see a lot of interesting stuff. It was a first for me, what happened at the agm of the Dolphin Coast Residents and Ratepayers Association (Docrra) in the Simbithi country club meeting room.
Ratepayers’ bodies have ebbed and flowed over the years, depending on the level of outrage of the citizenry. Like any organisation, from Alcoholics Anonymous to Zimbali Rotary (no connection, though!) they wax and wane and as always, are run by a handful of dedicated people.
In the hands of Ian Mardell, Rina Freeman, Frank du Toit and others, they regarded themselves as the residents’ watchdog and there was always a spirited dialogue with local government. And I loved them because they always gave me good copy. Parish pump stuff through and through.
Last year chairman Louis Luyt Jnr and deputy Barbara Shingler stepped down and handed Docrra over to a new committee chaired by Dave Charles, publisher of a fortnightly tabloid publication and local radio station, who volunteered his services.
The drought fines crisis peaked around then, with Siza Water threatening hefty fines for water ‘abusers’. Docrra whipped up a public meeting and Siza backed off somewhat. Since then, the association has not achieved much. Various projects started, then shelved or failed. They don’t tell the Courier or their members what they’re doing and, as a consequence, public interest is now minimal.
Barbara Shingler tells me they handed over R306 925 cash and a membership base of 1 950 people. Barbara runs the biggest property management company in the area and the database included all her body corporate owners. The new committee said no, they wanted a clean sheet and started a recruitment drive from scratch. Brave, but disingenuous because membership now stands at an abysmal 131.
Anyhow, as the agm gets underway, Tina Cook, who is a member of the committee, stands up and says the meeting cannot go on because it has not been properly advertised in the local newspaper (this paper) in terms of the constitution. Chairman Dave Charles replies that the constitution is outdated and she is overruled.
Cook repeats herself and John Everett chimes in as well, so Charles says right Tina, there’s the door, leave the meeting.
Cook and Everett and Charles get into a shouting match, and Charles shouts “So sue me. There’s the door.
If you don’t leave now, I will remove you myself.”
The 40 or so people are sitting there watching this like a tennis match. Extraordinary! Cook and Everett storm out and Charles reads out his chairman’s report like nothing’s happened.
Di Jones, who chairs the conservancy and represents Docrra on the King Shaka airport noise control group, was livid and has no hesitation in saying so. Cook deserved more respect. “The way you treated her was unacceptable.”
At which point Charles did a lot of blustering, claiming that the meeting did not need to be advertised because it was not open to the public, that the constitution had been written before there was email and anyway these were irrelevant details, because people wanted to make Docrra work.
My opinion is that Charles was way out of line. First, that was no way to speak to a lady. Second, like our country’s President has learned, you have to follow constitutions, no matter how inconvenient they are. How can he expect to engage with local government as a watchdog if Docrra doesn’t follow its own constitution? Third, when you handle public money, your organisational details have to be very clean – Omo clean.
Municipal regulations dictate that council has to recognise a legally constituted body of ratepayers. Council does not have to negotiate with an unruly bunch, sometimes known as a mob. Last Thursday’s fiasco has probably depth-charged the chances of Docrra negotiating residents’ problems over a cup of tea with council. As I said already, it was extraordinary behaviour.
As a ratepayer myself, I want residents to have a watchdog group. As editor of the local newspaper, I want Docrra to know that it might be in trouble at the moment, but our columns are open to publicise any genuine attempt to get it, or its successor, back on its feet.