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Simple question for mayor

Staff ReporterFremantle Gazette

THANK you, Mayor Pettitt (Gazette, August 20) for not disputing that over the past 20 years Fremantle City Council has been squandering ratepayer funds duplicating existing State-funded services.

However, on the subject of staff numbers your phrase “full-time equivalent council staff numbers” ” let me simply ask you what percentage of city council budget is spent on staff?

In 2002, half of the council budget went on staff costs. Any financially responsible business venture that spends more then 30 per cent of its income on staff costs is not sustainable and is on the way to bankruptcy.

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If your “enlightened” council is supposed to be so pro-active “to make Fremantle more attractive to high-quality developers”, why is it that under your management we have lost Myers, our largest retailer; all our leading book retailers as well as many other small retailers?

In addition, our Coles and Woolworths stores are on life support.

With your latest plan to concrete over a significant portion of our largest city park for a skate rink there is no reason for anyone to come to Fremantle except to see “closed shops, concrete parks” and be forced to dodge hoards of skaters zooming along our footpaths past graffiti “art”.

My only concern about the proposed amalgamation is that Melville might not want us because we would be a drain on their resources with our unsustainable economic structure.

However, with responsible management I believe that Fremantle can once again be WA’s thriving second city.

Bring on the amalgamation; and Melville, please accept poor Fremantle.

Frank Acocella, Hilton