At last month’s full council meeting, Independent councillor Ian Stephens reported back to members the discussions raised during the public State of The Island Debate (the one Hoffers got the wrong end of the stick on).
He relayed some of the concerns raised by the public, 70 of whom turned out to the previous week’s public meeting to share their views on the future of the Island.
Following Cllr Stephen’s presentation, several members had their say on the outcomes of the public debate.
“Complete and utter drivel”
One such councillor was Roger Mazillius who was elected by the people of Cowes South and Northwood to represent their views.
He managed, in less than four minutes, to insult the views of all those members of the public who expressed their concerns or made positive suggestions on the future of the Island.
In response to the views of the public raised at the State of the Island debate, he started by saying, “Mainly, a lot of this is complete and utter drivel.”
“They are just cowards”
Having listened to his speech rant a couple of times and reading over the words, it strikes us that what he said doesn’t really have much to do with the views expressed at the State of the Island debate after all, but come across more aimed at those dare to express an opinion.
He goes on to say, “It’s the sort of rubbish that cowards hiding in their little rooms spew out anonymously through the slurry pits of certain Websites. And they think it’s so clever.”
As he continues and the tone of his voice comes across to us as betraying a bitterness. He finished by saying, “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen and the trouble with a lot of these people, Chairman, is they can’t stand the heat, they haven’t got the guts … I’m afraid chairman they are just cowards.”
Surely against the Code of Conduct
This type of outburst by an elected councillor against anyone, never mind members of the public, must surely break the council’s Code of Conduct – something that Cllr Mazillius has been ordered to apologise for in the past.
Recording and transcript of full speech
For those who didn’t attend the meeting, we thought it would be worth sharing Roger Mazillius’ words with you, so have transcribed his speech below.
For those able to listen to audio, we have also added the recording of his address. Something, in our view, worth listening to in order to understand the tone he used to make his speech.
The words of Roger Mazillius
I don’t in anyway doubt the honesty and integrity of Cllr Stephens in giving this motion, he is an honourable man and does his best, but I have to say to you Ian, just before you sat down, you described this matter as ‘expert public opinion’.
Ah deary me, ‘expert public opinion’.
I’m sorry, let’s just look at one example of the many. Let’s look at the first paragraph of page four. Housing, “no new developments in the South Wight area in years”, well Freshwater, Brighstone, Totland, “a few in the Medina area”, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, I could go on. So, let’s have a bit of reality.
Mr Chair I vaguely recall, because I am old enough to recall, the 1983 Labour party election manifesto (Geoff’s twitching a little bit) this was the work of the then leader, Michael Foot, it was universally accepted as the longest suicide note in electoral history. Well I’m sorry, it has been superseded by this.
Mainly, a lot of this is complete and utter drivel.
It’s the sort of rubbish that cowards hiding in their little rooms spew out anonymously through the slurry pits of certain Websites. And they think it’s so clever. This is just in the main, rubbish and drivel.
We can analyse this until the cows come home and that would not stop.
A lady from the public called out a little while ago, “real democracy”, my goodness gracious me, what a real democratic system we have. We actually stand for election, we actually put our manifesto and our personal integrity on the line, year after year after year, or four years after four years.
Chairman, I’ve served the public on the Island for nearly 18 years, god willing I’m going to go for another five or thirteen. My electorate gave me the largest majority of any member here, my electorate voted for me in excess of 19 times more than the handful of people who turn up and produced this ‘expert public opinion’.
Sorry chairman, this is just ludicrous.
We know what democracy is because we put our names on the the line all these years and there’s many people here, some who have served as long as me and I hope some of them will continue to serve.
If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen and the trouble with a lot of these people, Chairman, is they can’t stand the heat, they haven’t got the guts, they haven’t got the policies to actually think.
They think, “Oh I want to exercise real democracy and I’ll offer myself”.
I’m afraid chairman they are just cowards.
Audio
Click on the play button below to hear the audio recording.
[audio:http://otw-audio.s3.amazonaws.com/cllr-mazillius-slates-public-opinion-jan-2012.mp3]
