It is now almost three years since The Independent first called Lord Mayor Graham Quirk’s bluff over his blunt denial that he and his other Team Quirk candidates had wrongly used the council’s official cleat in the 2012 municipal poll.
The cleat – blocks of gold and blue down the left-hand side of official council material – cannot be used for political or campaign purposes. It’s simply against the rules. We asked Cr Quirk to explain back then how what he and his candidates used differed from the official cleat so that any reasonable person could have known the difference.
Similar questions to Central Ward councillor Vicki Howard followed soon after, seeing Ms Howard while just a humble candidate letting people think she’d already been elected used the gold and blue blocks on just about piece of campaign material for many months leading up to election day. She even had the copycat council cleat put on the back of her campaign vehicle. They have never had the courage of their convictions to respond openly and honestly to you, our readers. They stand condemned by their silence.
We have persisted with this campaign because we don’t believe our elected officials deserve their jobs unless they’re prepared to obey council rules and bylaws just as we mere mortals are required to do. What if we break the rules? Maybe risk some free car parking time but cop a fine? In times of water restrictions, have a greener garden by doing the wrong thing?
Our charge is that Lord Mayor Quirk, Councillor Howard and other Team Quirk candidates broke council rules for the simple reason that a pretence of somehow being linked to the council gave them a leg-up to very highly paid jobs. For that they should be ashamed of themselves.
On behalf of our readers, we simply declare that Lord Mayor Quirk and Councillor Howard need to suck it up, show some decency and say that what they did was underhand and sneaky and vow never to do it again. We’ll all then move on.
Footpath signs from the 2012 City Council elections. Not the city council cleat, Lord Mayor?
