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.

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".

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!

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.

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?

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.

Albury Council Voting System

The voting system for Albury Council elections is complicated and most Councillors have spoken out against it but what efforts have been made to change it?  Perhaps it really suits most sitting Councillors and so they don’t try too hard.

So a quick explanation of how it works.  Anyone can stand for election subject to certain conditions mostly relating to criminal or civil misbehaviour and there is no other test.  Individual candidates are described as ungrouped and are shown at the far right of the ballot paper below the line.  A candidate who forms a group with at least 5 candidates is entitled to have a group voting square above the line provided at least one other candidate requests a group voting square.

A vote is valid if at least one square is numbered above the line or at least 5 squares are numbered below the line.  Past voting patterns show that 70% of voters cast their vote above the line which means that candidates without a group voting square are at a significant disadvantage.  A good example of how this produces strange results can be seen from the 2008 election when Cr Angus with only 39 votes was elected on the surplus votes of Cr Gould.

A candidate can choose to advise people voting for him or her that he/she would like them to vote for other candidates in a particular order – he/she is allocating preferences.  This favours sitting Councillors who can agree to swap preferences and so help each other.  If a candidate gets more votes than are needed to be elected the surplus votes go to the person to whom he/she has allocated preferences.  If a Councillor has surplus votes but has not allocated preferences, the extra votes are “dead” and do not continue in the count.

A fairer voting system would be preferential voting for individual candidates with no group voting.  Electors would be required to vote for at least 5 candidates.

Council, in conjunction with like-minded councils should lobby the Minister for Local Government to have the system changed before the 2016 elections.  It will be one of the things I will try to do if elected to Council.  It should save candidates and ratepayers some money.

Albury Art Gallery

Since the NSW Government funding fell through everyone has had an opinion and I am one of them.  I could not agree with the Mayor's comment that it would go ahead anyway and new borrowings can't be ruled out.  Our Council's debt is rising and our rates are increasing and will do so for another couple of years at least so more borrowing doesn't seem the way to go.

There are also comments about the relative merits of swimming pools and art galleries for example.  It doesn't have to be one or the other.  Each has something to offer the community.  Everyone talks about the value of tourism to the city so let's have a look at some facts.

The Bendigo Art Gallery recently ran the "Grace Kelly Exhibition" because they had the facilities to attract a world class exhibition.  It attracted over 135,000 people over 3 months and injected about $17 million into the local economy - not a bad result I would say.  We could do the same if we had the right facilities but how do we get there?  The Federal Government has agreed to put in $3.5 million and our Council has also agreed to make a contribution but the NSW government will not put in the last bit of funding.  So why don't we look to art lovers, philanthropists and other benefactors for a contribution?

Let's use our imagination and find people who would love to make a contribution to Albury.