By XAVIER SMERDON
POLICE were called to last night’s Wyndham Council meeting to deal with more than 200 angry residents.
Tensions boiled over at the meeting after the council refused to answer questions about Tarneit and Truganina resident’s rate rises.
Residents and landowners living on or near the urban growth boundary learned several weeks ago that their rates had risen by 100 to 400 per cent.
At the start of the meeting Wyndham Council’s Director of Corporate Services, Steve Lambert, said that questions submitted by the residents would be taken on notice and answered at a later date, rather than being answered at the end of the council meeting as is usually the case.
Mr Lambert said he could not go into details but that residential rates had increased as a result of their properties being included within the urban growth boundary, therefore increasing their value.
This led to shouting from the public gallery as the residents demanded at least one or two of their questions be answered.
The council then threatened to adjourn the meeting if order could not be reinstated, before attempting to answer a handful of questions.
Within a matter of minutes the council had lost control of the meeting and the residents were calling for the councillor’s resignations.
The councillors then held an emergency meeting behind closed doors with just three resident representatives to decide what should be done.
David Booth was one of the residents called into the meeting.
“The Mayor was saying that this is the first time she had heard of this, Mr Booth said.
“She’s supposed to be the Mayor but she was just washing her hands of it.”
As the furious ratepayers waited in the council chambers police arrived to monitor the situation.
David Sajtar, who’s rates have gone up by 120 per cent said he was insulted by the police presence.
“I’ve come to express my concerns and disagreements and as a result of that they’ve called in armed police to silence us,” Mr Sajtar said.
“I’m totally confused.”
Joe Comito said he felt betrayed by the council.
“We’ve got no gas, no sewage, no water, no street lights, no public transport and we’ve put up with it for years,” Mr Comito said.
“Now the council think they can just flick on a switch and hit us for double.
“They’re picking on a minority. I’ll vote them out for this.”
It was later announced that a public meeting would be held next Monday at 7pm at the Civic Centre.
Mayor Kim McAliney told Star she and the other councillors had not received one complaint about the rate rises before the meeting.
“It’s the first time in my seven years on council that this has happened,” Cr McAliney said.
“We did not predict that this would happen at all. I had not had one complaint regarding rate issues. They may have directed it to the officers but certainly not to any councillors, and that’s what we are here for.”
Cr McAliney said the behaviour of the residents was disappointing.
“We’ve got meeting procedures that we changed around to suit people and they just shouted at us,” she said.
“Shouting at the councillors is not the way to get things done.”
CEO Kerry Thompson said it was not appropriate to reveal the exact reason that the police were called.
The council then continued with its normal meeting almost two hours after it was originally scheduled to start.
Cr McAliney said all councillors and the CEO would attend the public meeting next week.
