Ok I've been giving this quite a lot of thought (something mr X should have done too BTW) seems to me after rereading the original posts the only offensive language prior to Ekka's phone encounter came from me, describing the standard of work.
So let me clarify a few things for any BCC employees, officers etc.. who may be reading this. I have worked indirectly for BCC through another contractor, so cannot speak with personal certainty of their policies and procedures in such situations as we have here. However I have worked directly with Gold Coast CC, Townsville CC, Thuringowa CC, Charters Towers CC, Hinchinbrook, Flinders and Cardwell Shire Councils. In each and every case these councils have very clearly defined procedures relating to the manner in which inquiries and complaints are dealt with....none of these protocols include the verbal abuse and threatening of members of the public (well not that I'm aware of). It seems to me based on the information provided by Ekka that mr X response betrays either a complete lack of understanding of what the issue is here, or an inability to communicate with others without resorting to base insults. Either way he seems to be an completely innapropriate person to represent BCC in this instance.
All councils have to deal with hundreds of questions and queries about actions they take in the public spaces they are responsible for, and that is how it should be.....something to with accountability I think. We have raised a whole range of relevant and pertinent questions regarding this tree and the works undertaken on it. The passion with which we feel about these issues reflects our commitment to the environmental values that underpin all the work we undertake ourselves day to day.
BCC have written commitments to the very same environmental values throughout their urban planning, vegetation management and protection documents.
Mr X seems decidedly ill prepared in that he was not able to provide Ekka with a generic explaination of the action relating to the tallow wood that began this thread. (Not that such an explaination would have been satisfactory, but it would have been something!)
It is quite possible that someone in council or contracted to council has decided that this tree could be "turned into habitat", but we have previously listed numerous problems relating to both the initial criteria of assessment and the techniques applied in this case, in addition to the importance of informing the public what is happening to this tree and why. Raising the level of public awareness of the councils commitment to enhancing the local environmental values would seem like simple common sense...maybe not all that common?
It is very dissapointing that an officer of the council of our State's capital city can't engage with a rate payer without resorting to such pointless name calling. Maybe he was having the worst day of his life, I don't know, all that has been achieved by his verbal actions is to create the impression that in the case of this tree there has been a failure to apply proper environmental management standards.
I hope that some council officers will read this thread and that they feel they can contribute even if it is by contacting Ekka as the Administrator, and he can relay their opinions/responses to allow them to remain anonimous. Thus far the actions and words of the council representatives we have encountered have done nothing to make any of us feel confident about either the motives or the outcomes regarding this tree.
__________________ Sean  Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
- Kahlil Gibran
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