On the latest episode of the Local Government News Roundup:
VCAT rules on the validity of the 2020 Moreland Council election of Milad El-Hilabi;
The Horsham Municipal Monitor’s report released;
A Sydney councillor resigns over lack of parental leave entitlements;
A new CEO announced for the City of Parramatta;
And the mayor and CEO relationship that has broken down to the point where they will no longer meet one-on-one.
The Local Government News Roundup is brought to you by the Victorian Local Governance Association, the national broadcaster on all things local government.
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Transcript (with story links where available):
Hi, this is Chris Eddy, with the latest from the Local Government News Roundup.
On the podcast today:
VCAT rules on the validity of the 2020 Moreland Council election of Milad El-Hilabi;
The Horsham Municipal Monitor’s report released;
A Sydney councillor resigns over lack of parental leave entitlements;
A new CEO announced for the City of Parramatta;
And the mayor and CEO relationship that has broken down to the point where they will no longer meet one-on-one.
All that and more ahead in the latest update from the Local Government News Roundup which starts now.
Thanks for joining me for today’s podcast – brought to you by the Victorian Local Governance Association.
VCAT has handed down its ruling on the election of Milad El-Hilabi to the former Moreland City Council in 2020.
It found that Mr El-Halibi was unduly elected to the council, now called Merri-bek City Council.
Acting Victorian Electoral Commissioner Dana Fleming said that if Mr El-Halabi had not already resigned from his position, the decision would have had the effect of removing him as a councillor.
VCAT also ruled that the election of the other three councillors in Merri-Bek’s North-West Ward was not affected by the inclusion of fraudulent ballots in the council election.
Ms Fleming said she was confident that the countback conducted to replace Mr El-Halabi last year reflected the will of voters, which was supported by expert evidence accepted by VCAT.
Mr El-Halibi has been committed to stand trial over election fraud allegations.
Source: Victorian Electoral Commission; Australian Associated Press, 31-3-23
Victoria’s Minister for Local Government, Melissa Horne, has received the final report of the municipal monitor appointed to Horsham Rural City Council.
Jude Holt was appointed last year and worked with the Council over a six month period to assist with a “transition back to good governance, processes and practices.”
Minister Horne said the report recommended no further intervention, beyond a recommendation for the council to invest in a Community Leadership Program to support potential candidates for the 2024 elections.
Observations in the monitor’s report included evident conflict amongst the councillor cohort, noting an overall improvement in behaviour during the monitor’s term.
Ms Holt also said that with the oversight of the Municipal Monitor ending, there is potential for behaviours to regress.
She also makes observations about the capacity and experience of the councillor group to manage the CEO employment relationship, and recommends a broader role for the independent person who supports the performance review and objective setting process.
Ms Holt raised concerns about confidentiality, citing an example of a confidential report being communicated on social media following a council meeting. She said the circumstances diminish goodwill and trust between councillors, and that she had communicated her concerns to the Local Government Inspectorate.
Ms Holt has also called for the government to consider developing best practice guidelines to support the sector in providing consistent reporting of councillor related costs, and in providing a full line of sight to the cost of governing councils.
Source: Victorian Government Media Release; Municipal Monitor’s Final Report
A major milestone this week for proponents of an intermodal freight terminal at Beveridge, in Melbourne’s north.
Mitchell Shire and Whittlesea City Councils have welcomed news that the National Intermodal Corporation has secured 1100 hectares of land, which could see the facility commence initial operations as soon as 2024/25.
Mitchell Shire Council says the terminal will unlock the potential of the Inland Rail Project, and transform freight and logistics on the eastern seaboard of Australia.
Full terminal and precinct warehouse operations could happen by 2028/29, and it is tipped to create up to 20,000 jobs in Melbourne’s north.
Source: Mitchell Shire Council; Whittlesea City Council
Victoria’s Electoral Commissioner, Warwick Gately, has retired as of this week, ending a 10 year term in the role.
During that time, he has delivered 3 state elections and 2 rounds of council elections, along with a supplementary election and a State electoral boundaries redivision.
With a recruitment process yet to be finalised, the Deputy Electoral Commissioner Dana Fleming will act in the position from this week.
Source: Victorian Electoral Commission
Now in today’s Victorian Briefs:
12 preliminary reports are now available from the first round of electoral representation reviews being conducted across Victoria in the lead up to the 2024 council elections.
The latest reports were released on Wednesday, being for Moorabool, Mount Alexander, Hepburn and Central Goldfields shires.
Submissions are invited in response to each report, with a public hearing for each to be held later this month.
Source: Victorian Electoral Commission
A cat curfew in Surf Coast Shire will be extended to 24 hours, after consultation showed community support for a stricter regime.
The current curfew applies 8pm to 6pm in urban areas of the shire, but from the end of September residents in all parts of the shire will need to ensure cats are confined to the owner’s premises at all times unless properly restrained.
Source: Surf Coast Shire Council
A contentious Lara Flood Study has been abandoned by Greater Geelong City Council, after hearing concerns from a large number of potentially affected residents.
The Council voted not to send it to the planning minister to appoint an independent panel, but had to resolve separately to avoid cancelling flood overlay plans for a number of other areas of the municipality.
Source: Geelong Independent
Still in Geelong, where the council has announced the composition of its inaugural LGBTQIA+ advisory committee.
The new committee will meet six times a year to advise the council on issues affecting people who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Mayor Trent Sullivan said the committee will guide the council in addressing and reducing homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and other forms of sex or gender-based discrimination in the community.
Source: Greater Geelong City Council
A statue of disability advocate Stella Young has been unveiled in her home town of Stawell this week.
Ms Young was just 32 when she died in 2014.
With the blessing of her parents, former Northern Grampians Shire CEO Liana Thompson successfully applied for a grant for the statue from Regional Arts Victoria and the Office for Women.
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Now for some of the stories making local government news from around Australia this week.
A councillor at the City of Sydney has announced she is resigning due to the challenges of juggling her workload with motherhood.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Cr Jess Scully said a lack of parental leave for councillors was a key reason for her decision.
She plans to put a motion to the council next week to ask the state government to implement paid parental leave for councillors, and consideration of vote pairing or proxies for councillors who cannot attend a council meeting due to carer responsibilities.
Cr Scully’s resignation means a countback will be needed to fill her position.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Former Georges River and Ryde council general manager Gail Connolly has been announced as the new CEO of the City of Parramatta.
The appointment of Ms Connolly, who was awarded a Public Service Medal earlier this year, was announced by Lord Mayor Donna Davis after an extensive national search.
In addition to leading Georges River and Ryde councils, Ms Connolly has previously held senior roles at Gold Coast, Sydney and Campbelltown councils.
The CEO position at Parramatta was vacated last year by Brett Newman, who left for a role in the private sector.
Source: City of Parramatta
At Coober Pedy in South Australia, a new team of administrators has commenced work as plans to sell the town’s water network commence.
The sale of the water network will go to tender soon, in a bid to pay down a significant chunk of the town’s $10M in debt.
The new three person administrator team will have KPIs set by the Local Government minister centred on water, electricity and rates. They’ll be required to report to the minister on a quarterly basis about their progress.
Principal Administrator Geoff Sheridan told the ABC that there would be tough decisions to be made, with the aid of a very close consultation process.
The team picks up the work of long time administrator Tim Jackson, who recently completed a 4 year term.
Source: ABC News
Tim sits down with me for a wide ranging discussion about his time at Coober Pedy and his extensive local government career on the April edition of Council Conversations – coming very soon, with early access for Friends of the Roundup subscribers.
From one council under long term administration, to another… Central Darling Shire in NSW has been without elected council members since 2014, when the council was dismissed for financial mismanagement.
Now, the ABC reports, the shire administrator is seeking a long term funding agreement with the state government, which he believes is a prerequisite for coming out of administration – which is scheduled for September 2024.
The local government area is the largest by land mass in the state, equivalent to the size of Tasmania, but it has fewer than 1,800 residents.
Administer Bob Stewart says the shire lives from grant to grant, and does not raise enough money from rates to sustain operations.
Without a sustainable funding model, he believes anyone taking on a councillor role will be drinking from a poisoned chalice.
Read more on that story from ABC News – link in the show notes.
Source: ABC News
To Queensland, where Noosa Shire Council will lobby the state government for a review of the state’s rating system, to lessen the financial impact that dramatic land value increases are having on ratepayers.
Mayor Clare Stewart said many of the latest valuations in Noosa have seen values double over 12 months, which would lead to average increases of around 44% before CPI.
Mayor Stewart said the council was working through a range of scenarios to lessen the impact.
But in the meantime, she will be joined by Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig in seeking a meeting with the Resources Minister to understand why their two councils have had land valuations conducted in two consecutive years, while some other councils have not.
Source: Noosa Shire Council
Briefly:
Muswellbrook Shire Council in NSW has appointed a new general manager. Derek Finnigan has been announced as the successful candidate, after a lengthy recruitment process and two rounds of interviews.
Mr Finnigan has been acting in the general manager position since Fiona Plesman resigned after five years in August last year.
Source: Muswellbrook Shire Council
LGAQ has welcomed the announcement of state government funding to facilitate the delivery of housing action plans across Queensland.
CEO Alison Smith said the announcement extends on the good work being undertaken by 22 councils through the Western Queensland Alliance of Councils to develop local housing action plans; and complements work under way to quantify housing need across the state’s 17 remote and discrete First Nations communities.
Source: Local Government Association of Queensland
A reported increase in apparent misuse of e-bikes has led to calls for an urgent safety audit in the Northern Beaches council area.
According to the Manly Observer, the Council has supported a councillor’s motion requesting the council’s local traffic committee urgently audit electric bike, electric scooter and other electronic active transport usage on the city’s shared paths, bike paths and footpaths.
The audit will look at speeding, shared path issues, signage and education campaigns.
Source: Manly Observer
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In Western Australia, a decision on the voting method for this year’s Town of Cambridge elections has been deferred after a raucous public gallery forced a short adjournment of the council’s latest meeting.
The Council was considering a recommendation to run an in-person election, amid concerns about the security of a postal ballot.
PerthNow reports that there was vocal opposition to the idea from the gallery and some councillors, who want to see a postal election conducted, in line with most other councils.
The council will seek advice from another WA council whose postal election was declared invalid before holding a special council meeting next week to make its decision.
Source: PerthNow
Now for today’s International Spotlight:
As 230 councils across England prepare to go to election in early May, the leader of the Labour party Sir Keir Starmer has announced it would freeze Council taxes this year if it was in government.
According to the BBC, many councils are due to raise rates by 5% from the start of this month.
Sir Keir was speaking at the launch of the party’s local election campaigns, and said a freeze of council tax could be paid from an increased windfall tax on energy firms.
He described a council tax freeze as a tax cut for 99% of working people.
Source: BBC News
In New Zealand, the relationship between a mayor and council CEO has deteriorated to the point that they will no longer meet without a dedicated intermediary.
Gore District Council’s mayor Ben Bell, and chief executive Stephen Parry, have been meeting weekly since the start of the year, after reportedly entering into mediation prior to Christmas.
After councillors discussed the issue in a confidential session, it has been confirmed to media outlet Stuff, that they formally noted a breakdown in the relationship between the mayor and the CEO, and agreed to appoint another councillor to act as a dedicated intermediary on governance and relevant operational matters.
Stuff has previously reported on concerns held by the council’s senior executive team about the impact of Mayor Bell’s behaviour on staff mental wellbeing and health.
Ben Bell became New Zealand’s youngest ever mayor when elected last October.
Source: Stuff.co.nz
Elsewhere in NZ, the Deputy Mayor of Westland District Council, Steven Gillett, has stood down from the position after being questioned about whether he was doing enough for how much he is paid.
Stuff reports that Cr Gillett and mayor Helen Lash had a difference in interpretation over what the job entailed.
The deputy mayor receives $60,000 in pay, compared to other councillors who receive $28,000. Cr Gillett says he believes other councillors had complained about his output, and if he remained in the role he would have to continually justify his remuneration and workload.
The mayor is expected to formally appoint a new deputy mayor at the April council meeting.
Source: Stuff.co.nz
And finally, an addendum to the recent story of the Florida mayor who quit his position in the middle of a council meeting, and walked out, never to return.
Frank Hibbard has been replaced by the Council with a former mayor, who served in the position for five years from 1999 to 2004.
69 year old Brian Aungst will complete the last 11 months of the mayoral term, and has pledged not to run for the permanent position. He will be formally sworn-in this week.
Source: St Petersburg Catalyst
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That’s the latest from the Roundup for the 1st April 2023.
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I’ll be back soon with more of the latest local government news. Until next time, thanks for listening, and bye for now.