Council's response to BRRA registering a series of domain names such as ballaratcitycouncil.com and other similar options was most interesting.
The response was to attack BRRA for registering those domain names.
The real issue is not that BRRA registered the domain names. It is that it was able to. It was only able to do that because the domain names had not been registered by the council, which is an extraordinary oversight for a large organisation.
It highlights yet another example of oversight and incompetence to follow from a string of major examples of late. In The Courier (September 17) a spokesperson (without a name apparently) stated that council had "reduced the number of domains to spend ratepayers' funds more wisely".
This response is preposterous since domain names typically cost about $7-$10 to register.
After wasting almost $2 million on the executed $40 million civic hall project, it seems more than a tad ridiculous to claim careful spending as a reason for the oversight.
And we do not know how much was spent on the various components associated with Lake Wendouree because they won't even answer a six-month long enquiry from a councillor over this. Rather than attack BRRA for registering the domain names, council should be attacking senior officers for the fact that BRRA was able to register the domain names.
DR ELISA BACKER
President, Ballarat Residents & Ratepayers Association