As a new Councillor (only been going 4 months) I ask myself how does this council compare with other similar councils in NSW and elsewhere for that matter.
The Division of Local Government publishes annual comparison reports in which they give statistics for such things as number of employees, rates, expenditure on various things. They group similar councils together and we are in group 4. The comparisons are interesting but don't give me a real feel for how good we might be. We are certainly towards the top with respect to the number of employees and the cost of rates in all categories. But perhaps we provide better services than other councils and that costs more?
TCorp also published annual reports in which they give a lot of ratios such as debt service ratio, operating deficit, infrastructure backlog and so on. Useful but I still don't feel that I have a feel for how good or bad the council is.
Perhaps we should be involved in some meaningful benchmarking with other councils such as Wagga Wagga, Tamworth, Bathurst, etc. I'd be happy to hear your suggestions on this one.
I did a quick exercise last week looking at lost time injury frequency rates and what this means for employee health and workers compensation premiums. Our LTIFR is 12 – 15 and we pay almost $1.5 million in workers compensation insurance premiums (as well as having significant injuries to our employees). By comparison, Melton City Council in Victoria has an LTIFR of 5, Wodonga’s is currently 2 and Norske Skog’s is 0. The paper nill has not had a lost time injury for 2 years. A huge opportunity to save money and to look after our employees.
I was not able to get the actual figures from councils so I used a proxy which is the annual amount of salaries and wages divided by the workers compensation premium amount. The higher this ratio is the better is the council's safety record. It's a bit crude but it gives an idea of the issue. The ones I calculated are Albury 18, Wagga 26, Bathurst 14 and Tamworth 40. On this basis we are not doing too well.
If you have any other ideas of what we should be benchmarking I would like to hear from you.
Thursday, 17 January 2013
Thursday, 10 January 2013
The start of a new year
Ready to begin a new year and it is hot, hot, hot! It feels like one of the old summers we used to get here in Albury.
On a personal note I am back on my bike and slowly building up my fitness after the little health scare last year and am enjoying the break and hot weather to laze around and read. Just finished the 2012 Book of Australian Science Writing - perhaps it should be compulsory for various radio commentators and others who have such strong opinions but little knowledge about many things.
We are having a break from Council and we resume on the 29th of January for what will be the most important meeting of the 4 year term. We get to choose the new General Manager for Albury City!
The petition about the Art Gallery is interesting. I am encountering a lot of resistance when asking people to sign. People think they are endorsing the redevelopment and the Council contribution of $7 million. I explain that it is only asking the NSW Government to help fund the project but there is certainly resistance.
I support the redevelopment but I am not happy with the way Council has gone about it. WIth 4 independently elected councillors, you would think that the mood for change would be well understood. Unfortunately I don't get that feeling at all.
On a personal note I am back on my bike and slowly building up my fitness after the little health scare last year and am enjoying the break and hot weather to laze around and read. Just finished the 2012 Book of Australian Science Writing - perhaps it should be compulsory for various radio commentators and others who have such strong opinions but little knowledge about many things.
We are having a break from Council and we resume on the 29th of January for what will be the most important meeting of the 4 year term. We get to choose the new General Manager for Albury City!
The petition about the Art Gallery is interesting. I am encountering a lot of resistance when asking people to sign. People think they are endorsing the redevelopment and the Council contribution of $7 million. I explain that it is only asking the NSW Government to help fund the project but there is certainly resistance.
I support the redevelopment but I am not happy with the way Council has gone about it. WIth 4 independently elected councillors, you would think that the mood for change would be well understood. Unfortunately I don't get that feeling at all.
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Art Gallery Redevelopment
At the Council meeting on Monday 26th November there was a vote 5-4 to defer the decison to go ahead with the $10.5 million redevelopment until further consultation with the ratepayers between now and mid-February. Many people will be disappointed with this decision as they believe that a redeveloped art gallery will be a great assset for the city.
I was one of the 5 Councillors who voted to defer the decision and I was very disappointed to have to vote this way but I felt that there were some important issues. I have been a collector of art in various forms for many years and I know that the gallery will be good for Albury.
So why did I vote this way? The original decision reached by the last Council was to approve the redevelopment on the basis of tripartite funding of $3.5 million from Albury Council, Federal Government and State Government. On August 17th it was clear that the State Governement was unlikely to commit its share of the funds yet, with an election pending, the Mayor stated that the project would go ahead anyway and that she couldn't rule out extra borrowings. Between then and now little seems to have been done to look at alternative ways of funding the project other than using cash and reserves or borrowing more money.
The election came and 5 new Councillors were elected; surely an expression of dissatisfaction with the actions and decisions of the past Council.
At the meeting Councillors were under pressure to make a decision immediately in case we lost the Federal funding but no one could say what the deadline was for jepoardising this money and a report in today's Border Mail appears to show that there was not the urgency being portrayed.
So let's have a look at this issue of the state of Albury City's finances and its ability to put another $3.5 million into the project. Much is made of the debt service ratio being less than 10% which is viewed as good. This is true but it is not much below the magic number of 10%. It should be noted that Albury has had operating deficits for the last 4 years and is projected to have deficits for the next 3 years. This is not a comfortable position and will need good management over the next few years.
We have already had a special rate rise and this will continue for another 2 years so there are some serious financial issues to be faced.
What can we do to get the Art Gallery redevelopment in these circumstances? We need to to keep lobbying the State Gallery to give proper funding to an electorate that has overwhelmingly voted Liberal for some time now and support a worthwhile project and we need to actively seek other sources of funds rather than fall back on hte easy solution of taking it from Albury ratepayers.
Have your say both for and against by contacting your Councillors and letting them know how you feel.
I was one of the 5 Councillors who voted to defer the decision and I was very disappointed to have to vote this way but I felt that there were some important issues. I have been a collector of art in various forms for many years and I know that the gallery will be good for Albury.
So why did I vote this way? The original decision reached by the last Council was to approve the redevelopment on the basis of tripartite funding of $3.5 million from Albury Council, Federal Government and State Government. On August 17th it was clear that the State Governement was unlikely to commit its share of the funds yet, with an election pending, the Mayor stated that the project would go ahead anyway and that she couldn't rule out extra borrowings. Between then and now little seems to have been done to look at alternative ways of funding the project other than using cash and reserves or borrowing more money.
The election came and 5 new Councillors were elected; surely an expression of dissatisfaction with the actions and decisions of the past Council.
At the meeting Councillors were under pressure to make a decision immediately in case we lost the Federal funding but no one could say what the deadline was for jepoardising this money and a report in today's Border Mail appears to show that there was not the urgency being portrayed.
So let's have a look at this issue of the state of Albury City's finances and its ability to put another $3.5 million into the project. Much is made of the debt service ratio being less than 10% which is viewed as good. This is true but it is not much below the magic number of 10%. It should be noted that Albury has had operating deficits for the last 4 years and is projected to have deficits for the next 3 years. This is not a comfortable position and will need good management over the next few years.
We have already had a special rate rise and this will continue for another 2 years so there are some serious financial issues to be faced.
What can we do to get the Art Gallery redevelopment in these circumstances? We need to to keep lobbying the State Gallery to give proper funding to an electorate that has overwhelmingly voted Liberal for some time now and support a worthwhile project and we need to actively seek other sources of funds rather than fall back on hte easy solution of taking it from Albury ratepayers.
Have your say both for and against by contacting your Councillors and letting them know how you feel.
Monday, 29 October 2012
Openness and accountability
During the election campaign I set out my view that Councils need to be open and transparent so that people can understand why decisions are made. Even if people don't like a decision they will be better able to accept if they know the reasons behind the decision. The following extract is from the Division of Local Government Practice Note 16, "Meetings Practice Note".
I would like all decisions, except those relating to matters which are personal or are commercial, to be made in open council but this is proving difficult. In the two council meetings and a couple of committee meetings I have attended so far there has been a tendency to have voting by secret ballot, even for things like deputy chair of a committee. What are we trying to hide?
Now the Councillors Payment of Expenses and Provision of Facilities Policy is on public exhibition and it contains changes that reduce the amount of openness. If a Councillor wants to attend a conference (and I support this in the right circumstances) he/she no longer has to bring the matter up in open council. Just get approval from the Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Yes there will be a list published later showing who went to what. But once again what are we trying to hide?
At the recent elections 4 Councillors were removed from office. To me that means that the public wants change and what I heard was that they want more openness and transparency. I think they are getting less!
2.3 Councillor Accountability - Open Decision-making
Open decision-making is an important part of local government and should be the rule rather than the exception. The ability of the public and media to attend and watch council and committee meetings — seeing the deliberations and decisions of elected representatives — is essential for councillor accountability. This is recognised by the legislation, which encourages open decision-making at council meetings.
Councillors should be prepared to state their views publicly on both controversial and routine issues. Informed voting by electors is best achieved when they can observe the speeches, debate and voting patterns of their councillors.
Council decisions should be based on fairness, impartiality, objectivity and consideration of all the issues (Sections 4 and 6 of the Model Code). Open decision-making helps achieve this, as well as preventing misunderstanding and unfounded criticisms from the public. I would like all decisions, except those relating to matters which are personal or are commercial, to be made in open council but this is proving difficult. In the two council meetings and a couple of committee meetings I have attended so far there has been a tendency to have voting by secret ballot, even for things like deputy chair of a committee. What are we trying to hide?
Now the Councillors Payment of Expenses and Provision of Facilities Policy is on public exhibition and it contains changes that reduce the amount of openness. If a Councillor wants to attend a conference (and I support this in the right circumstances) he/she no longer has to bring the matter up in open council. Just get approval from the Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Yes there will be a list published later showing who went to what. But once again what are we trying to hide?
At the recent elections 4 Councillors were removed from office. To me that means that the public wants change and what I heard was that they want more openness and transparency. I think they are getting less!
Saturday, 13 October 2012
My first month on Council
So far I have attended several workshops (one even lasted over 6 hours) one full Council meeting, a meeting of two committees and a meeting of the audit committee. I was elected Chairman of the Finance and Administration Committe and one of 2 members of the Audit Committee.
My impressions so far is that there is a massivee amount of material to be read (I expected that so no problems) but the administrative support given to Councillors is wonderful - thank you Maria Barrett and Merran Palmer.
Some other impressions that might be cause to worry about the direction and intent of some people. There seems to be an obsession with secret ballots even to elect Deputy Chairmen of Committees. Let's be open and show people how we vote and then they will understand if there are alliances in Council.
I also have the feeling that "everything is set" and nothing can be done so us new guys just need to settle down and realise how good things are and what a great job Councillors have done to date. Now I accept that, generally speaking, the city is in good shape but surely improvements can be made and at least some things can be done better.
As a new Councillor what I can do at this stage is ask lots of questions and you can be sure I will. In the next couple of posts I will show you some of the questions I have asked. I will give Councillors the courtesy of showing them first.
By the way, if you have any questions, contact me and let me know.
My impressions so far is that there is a massivee amount of material to be read (I expected that so no problems) but the administrative support given to Councillors is wonderful - thank you Maria Barrett and Merran Palmer.
Some other impressions that might be cause to worry about the direction and intent of some people. There seems to be an obsession with secret ballots even to elect Deputy Chairmen of Committees. Let's be open and show people how we vote and then they will understand if there are alliances in Council.
I also have the feeling that "everything is set" and nothing can be done so us new guys just need to settle down and realise how good things are and what a great job Councillors have done to date. Now I accept that, generally speaking, the city is in good shape but surely improvements can be made and at least some things can be done better.
As a new Councillor what I can do at this stage is ask lots of questions and you can be sure I will. In the next couple of posts I will show you some of the questions I have asked. I will give Councillors the courtesy of showing them first.
By the way, if you have any questions, contact me and let me know.
Monday, 10 September 2012
Waste and inefficiency
If you wonder why rates are high you should start looking at waste and inefficiency. I have previously mentioned that there are 89 active credit cards amongst council employees and the average monthly bill is aobut $56,000.
But what about inefficient work practices at all levels in council? While campaigning I heard so many stories of poor work practices and expensive equipment being grossly under-utilised. Just as an example consider this. A piece of footpath about 4 metres long has to be replaced. First we have a front end loader and a laarge truck to remove the damaged concrete. Next day we have 3 council vehicles and 5 employees to box up the section, place the reinforcing and then float off the concrete. Does that seem a bit excessive to you?
But what about inefficient work practices at all levels in council? While campaigning I heard so many stories of poor work practices and expensive equipment being grossly under-utilised. Just as an example consider this. A piece of footpath about 4 metres long has to be replaced. First we have a front end loader and a laarge truck to remove the damaged concrete. Next day we have 3 council vehicles and 5 employees to box up the section, place the reinforcing and then float off the concrete. Does that seem a bit excessive to you?
Saturday, 1 September 2012
A gang of 4 on Council?
Last Friday Cr Sawyer and three new candidates, Ross Jackson leading the ACRM ticket, Darren Cameron leading Country Labor and Breck Scott-Young made a public show of signing an agreement containing a numbr of commitments they would make if elected. These included limiting rate rises to CPI and examining all spending. I certainly agree with the latter and, if elected I will be a very strong questioner of council policies and spending. I invite you all to alert me to things that you are aware of that cause inefficiency and increased costs.
There is at least one inconsistency in this issue. As far as I am aware Cr Sawyer did not vote against the budget which included the rate rise that all ratepayers have experienced this year, so why the change of heart now and a commitment to limit rate rises.
I was asked to be involved but declined as I wish to be a true independent. I will look at each issue on its merits if elected and will vote the way I see it not as part of a group or to get a favour in return later.
That seems to be one of the issues with at least one sitting Councillor who has a problem with the perceived gang of five. The answer is not to set up a gang of four.
There will be nine Councillors and to get a measure up you have to convince at least 4 other Councillors. Blocs and cliques will only lead to more disunity and disharmony and I am convinced (I hear it as I walk the streets) that people are fed up with this behaviour.
There is at least one inconsistency in this issue. As far as I am aware Cr Sawyer did not vote against the budget which included the rate rise that all ratepayers have experienced this year, so why the change of heart now and a commitment to limit rate rises.
I was asked to be involved but declined as I wish to be a true independent. I will look at each issue on its merits if elected and will vote the way I see it not as part of a group or to get a favour in return later.
That seems to be one of the issues with at least one sitting Councillor who has a problem with the perceived gang of five. The answer is not to set up a gang of four.
There will be nine Councillors and to get a measure up you have to convince at least 4 other Councillors. Blocs and cliques will only lead to more disunity and disharmony and I am convinced (I hear it as I walk the streets) that people are fed up with this behaviour.
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