“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few. The manna of popular liberty must be gathered each day or it is rotten. The living sap of today outgrows the dead rind of yesterday. The hand entrusted with power becomes, either from human depravity or esprit de corps, the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continued oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot; only by unintermitted agitation can a people be sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.”
–Wendell Phillips in Massachusetts, 1852
Unfortunately, vigilance is becoming increasingly more difficult as ever more council business is conducted in secret sessions, certainly at the KCDC, away from the gaze of reporters and watchers like us.
The whistleblowers know that they are despised and likely to be bullied, both by senior staff and other councilors. We salute them.
The quitting Councillor who cites bullying as his reason for departure is from the South Wairarapa District Council. Bullying was also reported in the Horowhenua by a now ex Councillor Mrs Anne Hunt. (Read here also on that). Another Clr spoke out about being told how to vote (& I’ve heard two other occasions/councils elsewhere […]