Loading ...HAMILTON’S Frank Marcollo said unfair public scrutiny, personal abuse and the “hangable offence” of making a decision in council, would stop him from running this year.
Negativity has also affected Southern Grampians Mayor, Bob Penny’s outlook on the job, with him saying biased media treatment would probably turn people off standing.
Mr Marcollo ran for council in the 2008 elections but said this year, he thought better of it because councillors’ freedom of speech had been hindered by negative vilification.
He said he had seen some unfair things happen to councillors in the past and called for a greater level of understanding and appreciation of people’s actions.
“Life is too short to be in a situation where everything you say is put under scrutiny,” he said.
“There seems little evidence that an adversarial nature of community engagement through the media actually has provided growth for Hamilton,” she said.
“The challenge is to work together. We can all do better.”
This follows her comments in July last year, when she said, “This is the town run by the Spec, for the Spec, live or die by the Spec”.
Full report in today’s Spectator.
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