Heading today’s update:
Melbourne ends a sister city relationship in response to the war in Ukraine;
A Greater Geelong councillor steps down;
Council staff walk off the job in Melton;
NSW Councils criticised in Parliament by the local government minister;
Scenarios for possible council amalgamations released in Tasmania;
And much more ahead in the latest update from the Local Government News Roundup.
The Local Government News Roundup is brought to you by the Victorian Local Governance Association, the national broadcaster on all things local government.
Listen to this episode here, and find the link for your podcast player here. The last 20 episodes are available free. Subscribe here for back catalogue, breaking news updates and special bonus episodes.
Transcript (with story links where available):
Hi, this is Chris Eddy, coming to you from the land of the Wadawurrung People with the latest from the Local Government News Roundup.
On the podcast today:
Melbourne ends a sister city relationship in response to the war in Ukraine;
A Greater Geelong councillor steps down;
Council staff walk off the job in Melton;
NSW Councils criticised in Parliament by the local government minister;
Scenarios for possible council amalgamations released in Tasmania;
And much more ahead in the latest update from the Local Government News Roundup.
Thanks for joining me for today’s podcast – brought to you by the Victorian Local Governance Association.
Here are some of the Victorian council related stories making news in recent days.
The City of Melbourne has ended its 34-year sister city relationship with St Petersburg in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The council unanimously voted to terminate the partnership on Tuesday night following calls from the Ukrainian community.
In media reports after the decision, Deputy Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece said the decision reflects community outrage at the atrocities being committed against the Ukrainian people.
Melbourne initially suspended its ties with St Petersburg in February 2020 in response to the Russian invasion.
Melbourne has several other sister cities, including Osaka, Tianjin, Thessaloniki, Milan, and Boston.
Greater Geelong Councillor and former deputy mayor Kylie Gryzbek has announced her resignation, to take effect at the end of the week.
Cr Gryzbek was first elected to the council in 2017, representing the Windermere ward in the northern suburbs of the city, and served for 2 years on the board of the MAV.
In announcing her resignation, Cr Gryzbek said it had been a challenge juggling professional and community responsibilities with family life, and has decided to focus on her full-time senior executive role at the TAC.
Her resignation takes effect on Friday 2nd June
The VEC has confirmed details of a countback to replace Fleur Hewitt on the Borough of Queenscliffe.
Ms Hewitt, a former deputy mayor of the borough, resigned recently due to the increasing workload and challenges of the role.
The online countback procedure has been set for 1pm on Monday 19th June.
Staff at Melton City Council walked off the job last week as part of industrial action.
The Star Weekly says the action is in response to a modest pay increase offered by the council.
The union claims Melton employees are the lowest paid of any growth area council in Victoria.
The council says it has engaged with the workforce and put a revised offer that has been strongly informed by consultation with staff.
Council flood studies are set to be fast-tracked, with the announcement of a $22M state government fund this week.
Water and Planning Ministers Harriet Shing and Sonya Kilkenny jointly announced the money to help councils complete up to date flood data and mapping, and incorporate completed flood studies into planning schemes.
The funding package includes $10M to complete 32 regional Victorian flood studies; $5M to fast track scoping of flood mitigation activities, and nearly $4M to help councils implement flood studies into their planning schemes.
The Age was among those reporting on plans by the City of Melbourne to close parts of Flinders, Spencer and Collins Streets to cars at peak times, along with other restrictions on private vehicles in city streets.
A Future Streets Framework is set to be considered by a council committee next month, before going to community consultation, and ultimately a full Council decision.
The announcement of a new preferred route for VNI West – the Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector overheal transmission line is being digested by impacted councils and communities this week.
The ABC reports that Gannawarra Shire Council is supportive of the new route, quoting a senior executive who says the link needs to be done.
Some landowners are unhappy that they only learned of the new route when contacted by journalists or via social media.
Now in today’s Victorian Briefs:
A $500K federal government grant has been secured by Merri-bek Council to install a community battery in Brunswick.
The Council says the battery should be installed and operating by March 2025 and expects the revenue generated to help reduce energy bills and emissions.
A team from Bayside City Council has won the LGPro Australasian Management Challenge.
The team, competing under the name BRAVE, will head next to the Australasian Finals to be held in Adelaide in August.
Golden Plains Shire is planning for long term growth, with the release of a draft plan that outlines where growth could be located up to 2050.
The draft scenario has been informed by independent expert research, consultation with key local and regional stakeholders, and the aspirations of Council’s Community Vision 2040
The council has prepared an explainer video which is available on its YouTube channel.
Golden Plains Shire YouTube Channel
Planned improvements to bus services in the city of Casey have been welcomed by the council.
CEO Glenn Patterson said this week that extensions and improvements to two routes in the city were among those identified by the Council as being most needed, and it was good news for the community.
In the last episode, I reported on Nillumbik Shire joining the podcasting world with a small business focussed audio series.
I’ve two more local government related podcasts to tell you about… at Buloke Shire, a 10 episode vodcast series is focussing on flood recovery efforts following last October’s flood event.
The series, called The Paddock, includes interviews with local people as part of documenting lessons learned, and is available through the council’s website. Three episodes have been released to date.
And checkout a new podcast series from Greater Bendigo councillor Matthew Evans. Matthew says the series, called In Our Community, will focus on topical community and local government issues, with episodes releasing every Monday morning.
Buloke Shire Council; Matthew Evans LinkedIn
Now of course it goes without saying that you should only listen to those new podcast offerings once you’re up to date with Roundup!
______
Now for some of the stories making local government news from around Australia this week.
The NSW Local Government Minister has criticised the state’s councils for their spending habits after many reacted strongly to news that their contribution to fire and emergency services budgets would increase by 19.5% next year.
According to Port Macquarie News, Minister Ron Hoenig used Question Time in State Parliament to tell councils to address their own spending issues before requesting additional funds from the state government.
He cited “egregious expenses” such as Kiama Council’s $105 million for an aged care facility and Liverpool City Council’s $350,000 renaming to the City of Liverpool.
The Minister also highlighted errors in council audit reports that he said amounted to $1.3B.
Local Government NSW recently warned that the emergency services levy increases could cause some councils to become insolvent.
Yass Valley, Bourke, and Tenterfield shires are among those who may have to use all or most of their rate increases to cover the levy.
The Northern Beaches Council has said that it will need to find an additional $3.1 million due to the levy increase.
The Office of Local Government has been criticised for failing to demonstrate effective regulation of the local government sector in a report by the state’s auditor general, Margaret Crawford.
Criticisms of the OLG include a failure to effectively monitor councils or to define its role, and that it has out-of-date regulatory frameworks.
Government News reports that the criticisms come as new DPE Secretary Kiersten Fishburn takes up her role, which includes overseeing the OLG.
Ms Fishburn said that although the audit identified “long-standing legacy issues” that were being addressed, improvements would be made based on sector-wide reforms over the next year.
A $100M development in Penrith has been abandoned in a shock decision by the city council this week.
The project to redevelop a car park commenced in 2020, and was to include a basketball court and rooftop garden, while helping to ease a shortage of parking in the Penrith CBD.
The Penrith Press has quoted a council statement which says the council’s decision to scrap the project was due to inflation and changing market conditions – with estimates to deliver the project increasing from the original $100M to around $117M.
The statement said the high cost of the project would have impacted on the Council’s ability to undertake other important initiatives.
Penrith Press, 29-5-23
A recommendation from the Office of Local Government for a staff/councillor interaction policy has been rejected by Griffith City Council.
The new rules, designed to supplement the existing code of conduct, were considered by the councillors to be too extreme and an overreach.
Griffith’s Area News has reported on the debate, which included one councillor describing the recommended policy as a “paternalistic and infantilising approach to councillors and council staff.”
When it came to a vote, just two of 12 councillors , including the mayor, supported the policy.
Area News, 29-5-23
Tasmania’s Local Government Board has released a number of scenarios for the reform of local government boundaries and service delivery models in the state.
The information packs, including data and insights into nine identified community catchments, are expected to provoke discussion and feedback in advance of final recommendations to be released in October.
The data release builds on an interim report that has recommended the number of Tasmanian councils be significantly reduced from the current 29 councils – equating to less than 19,000 people per council area in a state of less than half a million.
The interim recommendations propose up to four amalgamation scenarios within each of the nine community catchment areas.
Councils and communities have until the 2nd August to have their say on the proposals.
The Mayor of Glenorchy Bec Thomas has said enough is enough when it comes to abandoned shopping trolleys.
The council has this week revealed a plan to charge supermarkets $100 for the release of every impounded trolley, otherwise the trolleys will be crushed
Pulse Hobart says the plan is aimed at reducing the need for ongoing enforcement, and ensuring that ratepayers aren’t burdened with the cost of dealing with abandoned trolleys.
At Launceston, the council is set to appoint an acting deputy mayor later this week, following Cr Matthew Garwood’s appointment as acting mayor last month.
That appointment followed the resignation of Danny Gibson as mayor.
The Launceston Examiner says voting to fill the acting deputy mayor position is listed on the agenda for the council’s Thursday meeting.
Both the mayor and deputy mayor roles are being filled on an acting basis until an election is conducted by the Tasmanian Electoral Commission.
Three current councillors have so far declared their intention to stand for the mayoralty.
Launceston Examiner, 29-5-23
Briefly:
The CEO at South Australia’s City of Port Lincoln has announced he will step down in August.
Matthew Morgan joined the city from Karoonda East Murray district council in October 2020.
He is moving to a role with PlotBox, a cloud based software firm specialising in cemetery, crematorium and mausoleum management
The City of Newcastle has been crowned NSW’s Top Tourism Town by Business NSW, in recognition of its work to increase visitation and support local tourism development.
The city will now vie for the Australian title later this year.
Cr Jeff McConnell has been re-elected for a second term as Deputy Mayor at Queensland’s Scenic Rim Regional Council.
Cr McConnell was successful in securing a majority of votes, over the only other candidate – Cr Virginia West, a former deputy mayor and the council’s longest serving member.
Some more council stories making news this week:
Campbelltown City Council in south-west Sydney is launching a 12-month trial of bin locks to prevent cockatoos and wind from spreading garbage on front lawns.
The council will provide residents with two types of locks to test their effectiveness in reducing waste spillage – although one bird expert has told the ABC that the highly intelligent cockatoos will likely find a way around the locks.
An update to CEO delegations at Bundaberg Regional Council in Queensland has been approved, after a last minute withdrawal of one controversial recommendation.
The local ratepayers association ran a campaign against the inclusion of a power for the CEO to resign state government land for which the council is trustee.
The delegation was included as part of recommended updates from the Local Government Association of Queensland.
Bundaberg Today has more on that story.
And ABC News reports on the determination of Upper Lachlan Shire Council in NSW to go ahead with a rainbow storytime event, despite the circulation of “disturbing” leaflets in the community.
The council decided to host the event after the cancellation of a similar event in neighbouring Goulburn Mulwaree Shire recently.
Now for today’s International Spotlight:
Several hostels for people experiencing homelessness in England are being forced to close as councils cut funding for homelessness services.
INews reports that Kent County Council is removing funding from its homelessness service, with Devon and Leicestershire councils also considering major cuts.
Homelessness charities in these areas are already having to close down accommodation, putting some people at risk of returning to the streets.
Kent County Council is currently providing transitional funding to the affected charities until March 2024 when the funding will be cut.
A spokesperson for the council said the “difficult decision” was made due to “unprecedented financial pressures”.
Charities say it’s shortsighted to cut funding when the homelessness problem is actually increasing.
The cuts come as the government has set itself a target to end rough sleeping by 2024.
In Canada, municipal groups in the province of New Brunswick are expressing concerns about a bill that would grant the local government minister the power to amend or repeal municipal bylaws.
Global News reports that the bill is intended to create a commission to oversee conflict of interest and code of conduct complaints, as well as help municipalities reach funding agreements over regional facilities.
But peak bodies are arguing that a new provision giving the minister the ability to interfere with bylaws passed by democratically elected councils undermines local autonomy.
The local government minister has defended the clause as necessary to prevent unintended consequences of provincial significance.
Fredericton is one council that has voted to send a letter to the minister expressing their concerns and seeking clarification. The bill is set to receive scrutiny by a legislative committee on Friday.
The Far North District Council in New Zealand has apologised for providing inaccurate rating projections to ratepayers after the council’s automated “ratings calculator” produced incorrect assessments of the rates homeowners would be paying next year.
Ordinary homeowners who checked the council’s site were told their rates would go up by thousands of dollars, according to a report from the NZ Herald.
The council has blamed its “ratings calculator” for the error, which has now been corrected. The actual rate for next year has yet to be set by the council.
Acting chief executive Janice Smith said in a statement that there were several reasons for the publication of the incorrect information.
She said, “Our rating and property teams have learned important lessons from this and we have put safeguards in place to ensure this does not occur again.”
A couple of other international stories of interest this week…
In Spain, the success of the right-wing opposition in regional and municipal elections at the weekend has led to the country’s prime minister calling a snap general election.
The Guardian has details on how the conservative People’s Party won the local elections by a large margin, taking absolute majorities in the Madrid region and city council, as well as in a number of other regions.
And an intriguing story from the city of DuBois in Pennsylvania, where earlier this year the city’s former city manager was arrested on allegations of stealing more than $600,000 in taxpayer money over a decade.
The Standard-Journal has the story of how a bag of cash, amounting to nearly $100,000, has been handed to officials by the city’s solicitor- telling them it belonged to the city without any explanation of where it came from.
Some details are emerging, such as the existence of cash lockboxes at a local charity where the former city manager served in an executive capacity.
As speculation and controversy swirls around the discovery of the cash and the council’s internal financial control mechanisms, it all became too much for one city council member, who resigned last week in the best interests of personal safety and overall well-being
_________
That’s the latest from the Roundup for the 31st May 2023.
If you find the podcast useful, please consider leaving a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts or your preferred podcast app.
You might also consider becoming a Friend of the Roundup. Subscribers receive early access to special episodes and can listen to the entire back catalogue of the podcast.
The Local Government News Roundup is recorded in the city of Greater Geelong, Victoria, on the land of the Wadawurrung People of the Kulin Nation.
I’ll be back soon with more of the latest local government news. Until next time, thanks for listening, and bye for now.