LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS

Jan from Ebdentown

My opinions are actual, factual, events, personal experiences, which are documented and explained at length in my posts on Neighbourly – Face book and www.publiclibrarytrends.blogspot.co.nz... dating from Feb 2017 if read should answer questions as to why I feel the way I do.

INTERNET I don't have wifi at home – I use public wifi, Libraries etc. and friends, usually on a Thursday for a couple of hours, also on an occasional a Sunday.
Once I post I don't see or know what happens and I am unable to respond for a week or more. Under these conditions conversations don't work well, however I am usually open to clarifying questions.
Getting to any meetings is difficult for some people without transport or issues with their mobility, some I know do not go out after dark . We have an ageing population- these barriers to access localised information and accessibility to democracy are growing and are of global concern.
Not everybody has the same resources – financially, physically or economically and without community based journalism, information about what is happening in our city we often unaware of what is happening until it happens.
NONE of my comments have been gender based, so anybody who thinks so is reflecting their own mind sets – not mine - COUNCILLOR STEVE TAYLOR was the first councillor to reply to my emails, he offered to meet me. For reasons that were mine, that did not happen. He responded in a timely and business like manner.
THE ONLY other people to reply were WOMEN all the MEN excepting S.Taylor ignored me to a man.
RE-ELECTION All those standing for re-election, have now got a track record – an election is 'judgement day' a performance review, to see how the voters feel about them and their governance over the past three years.
THIS IS exactly the right time for me to tell of my experiences, it is the most appropriate time, there is no better time.
To share publicly personal, actual, truthful, experiences of your interactions with government or council and elected representatives is your legal democratic right.
EXPECTING – demanding, information, transparency, accountability and accessibility from our public representatives and public servants, is our legal democratic right and is exactly what we all should be doing, everyone of us, whatever our concerns or opinions.
It is a responsibility of all society to do so, it is critical we hold those in power, especially those we are taxed and elect to govern us, represent us, serve us, to account. Important that we take part, that we be heard, that we vote.
To be denied that legal right, to have that legal right withheld or interfered with, to be ignored and rendered invisible - is disenfranchisement.
LOBBYING elected representatives to interact with us and to take our views and concerns seriously is your legal right and is democracy in action, democracy made visible.
EVERYTHING I have posted publicly, I also conveyed directly, in multiple emails sent to all those named, telling them of my intention to go public, with ample time for them to reply, respond or refute, before I shared my experiences publicly, which I subsequently did on more than one occasion on more than one platform in 2017. I say the same thing now as I did then.