CONVENER: Jim Sullivan is calling for volunteers to monitor council.
LAKE Macquarie City Council may soon have to prove to residents that it is being managed wisely and in the best interest of the ratepayers.
In what could be a people's first, a public meeting at Morisset Country Club on Monday night resolved to form a council watchdog committee of volunteers to highlight and challenge apparent inefficiencies or operational anomalies revealed by the scrutiny of its members.
About 50 people attended the meeting organised by the Back 2 Basics action group which was formed to challenge council's push to inflate domestic annual rates by a non-revisable 70 per cent over seven years.
Back 2 Basics convener Jim Sullivan said a number of "really major" issues with council were perceived as needing attention.
"They included challenging the need for rates rises when council is showing no approach at all for cutting costs and wild spending; its policy on climate change, and unnecessary marking of property 149 certificates with alarming but baseless warnings which downgrade market values," he said.
"Spending millions of dollars on implementing a green waste third bin is another example.
"For example, we suspect there are practical alternatives to spending $100 million on a third bin.
"Why not have a day once a month where people can access the tip with their green waste free, have it mulched while they wait and take it home again?
"No charge to council from the government for that and the green waste ends up as mulch to help the environment as it would in either case."
Mr Sullivan said area volunteers to join the watchdog committee as observers are now being sought.
"They can contact us on Lakecouncilwatch@email.com."