Prominent Ballarat figures have weighed in on debate over the future direction of the city under its current leadership.
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Crunch time is looming for City of Ballarat councillors, who will vote on whether to re-appoint or re-advertise chief executive Anthony Schinck’s contract at an in-camera vote on Wednesday, August 5.
Ballarat businessmen John King Snr and Jim Selkirk have thrown their support behind re-appointing Mr Schinck, while former mayors John Barnes and James Coghlan and a former senior officer with council Ron Egeberg have started a petition demanding councillors advertise the role.
The petition was launched on Saturday morning. Mr Egeberg believes it will give residents another vehicle for community engagement.
“This petition is an opportunity for the broader community to be able to voice their dissatisfaction with council,” he said.
“People can vote and also leave a comment. The thing with petitions and social media is that it encourages activity fairly quickly.
“We will have a very good indication of where we are sitting by Tuesday. By Wednesday we will ask councillors to take it and go from there.”
The petition can be found by searching Ballarat on Change.org.
JG King Building Group director John King Snr believes there has been too much negativity directed towards council and the CEO in recent months.
Mr King, who has lived in Ballarat for more than 45 years, said he would fully back the councillors’ decision to re-appointment Mr Schink.
“I think we are on a bit of a roll at the moment and why change things now?” he said.
The re-development of Ballarat Health Services and the establishment of the western residential growth area are some of the examples of action during Mr Schinck’s eight years in the top job that have impressed Mr King.
He said people can often forget what a hard job it is to work at council.
“I think he’s done a great job and listening to him speak, he’s enthusiastic about Ballarat’s future,” Mr King said.
“From my understanding the CEO has met the goals council has set for him.
“I’d love to see the people who have gone through the planning stage, now get to see the work through.
“We need to give them a good opportunity to finish what they started.”
In June 2013, the current council contentiously voted to extend Mr Schinck’s contract by two years and to advertise the position when the contract ended at the beginning of 2016.
Council has made known its intention to re-appoint the current CEO at Wednesday’s meeting.
