Court out

I refer to the letters Deficit Of Ideas and Court In The Act from Mr Glazebrook and Mr Richardson respectively (Berwick News, 18 June).
Both of these letters have a deficit of reality.
Does Mr Glazebrook really expect people to believe that the City of Casey has a $84 million budget surplus?
The reality is that accrual accounting standards require the budget to be presented in this way – it is a surplus from operating which is then largely spent on capital works.
In fact, council aims for a balanced budget and the surplus in the draft budget for 2015-’16 is just $99.
And Mr Richardson seems to have trouble distinguishing between the police and council as well as recalling the basic facts.
It was the police who arrested him in 2012 and subsequently charged him with trespassing and resisting arrest – not council.
At the time he was not a councillor, as he claims, but agitating from the public gallery.
The charges were not dropped as he claims, but he was placed on the diversion scheme and required to apologise for his actions.
His actions were partly the cause of Mr Richardson being stripped of his previous JP status.
It was also the police who sought the intervention order from the court this year – not council.
Cr Mick Morland,
Mayor, City of Casey.