Council Manager June 2012 Sample

Wyndham City CEOKerry Thompson

THE MAGAZINE FOR SENIOR MANAGERS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Councillor

Supplement

JUNE–JULY 2012

OF RAPID GROWTH

FACING the CHALLENGES

COUNCIL MANAGER

ORGANISATIONALSTRUCTURES

RISKMANAGEMENT

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46 29 20

CONTENTS JUNE-JULY 2012

Publisher: CommStrat

Editor: Ben Hutchison

Graphic Designer: Nicholas Thorne

Art Director: Annette Epifanidis

Contributors: Rex Pannell, Ben Hutchison, Genia

McCaffery, Nicole O’Neill, Anthony Hinds, Angela Quain,

Melissa Gibbs, Dr. Louise Parkes, Kate Oliver, Chris Jones,

Cr Stefanie Perri, Tony Harb & Mitchell Morley

Sales and Marketing: Yuri Mamistvalov

Tel: +61 3 8534 5008

Email: [email protected]

Subscriptions: Ruth Spiegel

Tel: +61 3 8534 5009

Email: [email protected]

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WEB: www.councilmanager.com.au

NEWS

TOP 10 NEWS STORIES ................... 2

ALGA REPORTFED BUDGET WELCOMEDBY LOCAL GOVERMENTBy Genia McCaffery, ALGA President .......12

CEO PROFILEFACING THE CHALLENGE OFRAPID GROWTHKerry Thompson, CEO of

Wyndham City ..........................................14

FEATURESWOMEN IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT:INSPIRING GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENTBy Mid-Western Regional Council ...............18

SUCCESSFULLY INTRODUCING VOIP TELEPHONY IN A LOCAL GOVERNMENT ORGANISATION ......19

TWO DIRECTORATE MODELONE TO WATCHBy Nicole O’Neill. WA’s Shire of

Kalamunda has adopted a two directorate

organisational structure ............................20

MELTON’S RISKMANAGEMENT JOURNEYBy Anthony Hinds.....................................24

BOROONDARAAND MELBOURNE:AT YOUR SERVERS! ..........................28

THE HILLS SHIRE AWARDED FOR INNOVATIVE WORK ORDER SYSTEMThe council has been recognised for its

electronic work order system ....................29

SENIOR POSITIONSMonitoring the comings and goings

of council CEOs .......................................34

LEGAL BRIEFINGREASONABLY APPREHENDED BIAS AND THE COMPETING DUTIES OF COUNCILLORSBy Kate Oliver, Senior Associate at

Maddocks Lawyers ..................................36

COUNCILLOR SUPPLEMENTNEWS ....................................................40

MY VISIONTIME TO REFORM GAMBLING LAWSTO PROTECT COMMUNITIESBy City of Monash Mayor,

Cr Stefanie Perri .......................................43

COUNCIL LEADERSThe mayors of Paramatta

and Launceston lead the way....................44

COUNCIL PROFILEINCREASED PROSPERITY AHEAD FOR HUMMOCK HILLBy Rex Pannell .........................................46

PRODUCTS & SERVICESTRAINING FOR COUNCILS ..............48

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Jun-Jul 2012 Council Manager | 1

2 | Council Manager Jun-Jul 2012

TOP 10 NEWS

Like so many industries across Australia, the local government sector is facing a carbon conundrum. Exactly how the introduction of the Carbon Price will impact on councils is still very much open to question.According to the Clean Energy Regulator, less than 10 councils are expected to be liable to directly pay the tax in the 2012-2013 financial year. However, questions remain about how extensively private landfill owners, electricity retailers and other suppliers to the local government sector will increase their prices to reflect the impact of the tax. Externally, councils must also keep their finger on the pulse of their local economy as businesses adjust to the Carbon Price.And, of course, the crucial question remains: what will happen post the federal election next year?So while councils must be prepared to adapt to the repercussions of the Carbon Price at least in the short term, local government’s carbon obligations post-2013 remain clouded.

I hope you enjoy the June edition of Council Manager.

Sincerely,Ben Hutchison, EDITOR, Council Manager [email protected]

10TOPNEWSSTORIES Roads to Recovery

Program extended

The 2012-13 Federal Budget has provided a funding package of $4.1 billion over the next four years to assist councils and shires maintain and upgrade local roads – the centrepiece of the package is the retention of the Roads to Recovery Program until 2019.

R2R was due to expire at the end of next financial year, but the government has extended the program for a further five years and maintained its annual funding at the current rate of $350 million, supplementing the support councils receive under the Financial Assistance Grants Scheme.

The distribution of funding between councils will continue to be determined by state and territory grants commissions. Since the government last extended the program in 2008, it has funded more than 13,580 local road projects.

Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister, Anthony Albanese, said the renewal of the Roads to Recovery Program reflected the government’s “longstanding and enduring support for local government”.

1

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32More funding for

Black Spot Program

The Federal Budget has allocated $300 million in new funding to extend the Black Spot Program for a further five years until 2019.

According to a new assessment of the Program, the latest funding can be expected to prevent more than 2000 accidents and the loss of 14 lives a year. It will deliver a further 1200 projects and builds on the $500 million already allocated to the Program. To date, safety improvements have been completed at more than 1420 sites around Australia, including:• Constructing and upgrading 152

roundabouts;• Redesigning and rebuilding 277

dangerous intersections;• Erecting and improving 225 sets of traffic

lights; and• Installing new safety measures at 47

pedestrian crossings.The projects funded are recommended by

a panel of independent road safety experts.Anthony Albanese, Federal Infrastructure

and Transport Minister, said independent research proved the benefit of the program, with roundabouts shown to be by far the most effective measure. He said following a detailed analysis of almost 1600 completed black spot projects, the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics estimated the measures funded during the Program’s first seven years were preventing over 4000 crashes and almost 30 road fatalities a year.

Funding to promote

regional development

The Federal Budget has built on the government’s commitment to help regions “seize future opportunities for growth and economic diversification”, according to Regional Australia Minister, Simon Crean.

Mr Crean said the Budget delivered new investments in productivity and liveability, and included a range of measures that would improve the lives, wellbeing and growth opportunities for Regional Australia, including:• $3.7 billion for the national Living Longer:

Living Better aged care plan - including improving aged care service delivery in regional, rural and remote areas;

• $1.5 billion Remote Jobs and Communities Program to provide a more integrated and flexible approach to employment and participation services for people living in remote areas of Australia;

• $1 billion over four years to start the first stage of the National Disability Insurance Scheme - providing people with disabilities in up to four regions personalised care and support; and

• $225.6 million to assist parents with the cost of child care, including those in rural and remote areas of Australia who are undertaking work, study or training, to better enable them to take advantage of employment opportunities.Mr Crean said the recent passage of the

Minerals Resource Rent Tax secured the remaining $573 million towards the $974 million Regional Development Australia Fund. He said $150 million had been allocated to 35 projects through Round One last year and applications were being assessed as part of the $200 million Round Two.

4Councils in three states

on first carbon tax list

Nine councils in three states were included on the first list of entities liable to pay the Federal Government’s carbon tax when it comes into force from July 2012.

The councils in Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales were among 248 organisations listed on the first phase of the Liable Entities Public Information Database (LEPID) published by the Clean Energy Regulator.

The councils were Brisbane City Council, Gladstone Regional Council, Western Downs Regional Council and Maranoa Regional Council in Queensland; the City of Armadale, the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, and Mindarie Regional Council in Western Australia; and Shellharbour City Council and Wagga Wagga City Council in New South Wales.

Under the Clean Energy Act 2011, the Clean Energy Regulator is required to publish a list of entities that are likely to be liable under the carbon pricing mechanism.

Entities are included if the regulator has reasonable grounds to believe they are, or are likely to be, liable entities because they meet criteria specified under the Clean Energy Act 2011 within a financial year.

The database is being published through a staged schedule as information is made available to the regulator. The first phase of the LEPID includes entities identified through emissions reporting under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 and natural gas suppliers.

Clean Energy Regulator Chair, Chloe Munro, said the organisation had written to around 330 entities advising they were likely to be liable for the 2012-13 financial year. They accounted for over 95% of emissions covered by the carbon pricing mechanism.

TOP 10 NEWS


Canberra reaffirms

most councils will not

have carbon price

liability

The Federal Government has moved to reassure local government that most councils will not have any carbon price liability from landfills.

Mark Dreyfus – Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency – said a number of councils had asked about how the carbon price would apply to pollution from local landfill sites and the potential impact this might have on rates for communities.

Mr Dreyfus said the potential effect on rates had been over-estimated, misrepresented or misreported. He said several factors had to be taken into account in determining any impact of the price which applies from 1 July:

Mr Dreyfus said the government was working with councils to provide guidance and information on implementing policies to cut pollution and create clean energy and, as part of the cooperation, he had written twice to every council and provided a landfill factsheet.• Only large landfill sites generating more

than 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas pollution a year are covered – the majority of landfills are too small to be covered;

• The carbon price does not apply to pollution from waste deposited in a landfill before 1 July 2012;

• The Government had made rules deeming landfill emissions in 2012/13 to be zero, so councils with large landfills would not have any obligation in 2012/13;

• Councils could capture methane gas to earn “carbon credits” under the Carbon Farming Initiative.

5


76Councils concerned

about carbon price

impact

The Municipal Association of Victoria has expressed uncertainty about the impact on councils of the Federal Government’s carbon price.

Bill McArthur, MAV President, said determining the impact of the carbon price on landfill liabilities continued to be complex and challenging for councils because no other sector had been asked to “get out the crystal ball” and set prices from 1 July to take account of at least 40 years of carbon emissions liability.

Cr McArthur said from 1 July councils should set prices based on an estimated four decades of waste emissions and any future carbon price liability those emissions may attract – not an easy task for them. He said setting prices for landfill waste was further complicated by the uncertainty of how the carbon price and future liabilities might change when a cap-and-trade system commenced in three years.

Despite the Government’s rule that there would be zero emissions in 2012-13, Cr McArthur said waste deposited from 1 July must still include a price that covered any ongoing emission liabilities to ensure future communities were not called on to pay for it. This was known as intergenerational equity.

The MAV President said in metropolitan areas, most councils deposited waste at privately-operated landfills which would be liable under the carbon price. He said councils would have little control over price increases set by private landfill operators and would need to pass these on to ratepayers who funded council services.

Models for shared

services analysed

A range of legal and governance models is needed to provide the most suitable platforms for collaboration between councils, according to a paper prepared for the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government.

The interim report – ‘Legal and Governance Models for Shared Services in Local Government’ – said it was clear that shared services would continue to be an option for councils to consider into the future, even if those councils were amalgamated. It said senior managers within participating councils would need to be skilled in aligning the interests of their council with the interests of the group of councils involved.

ACELG said the paper builds on earlier work and investigates models of shared services delivery. It said available legal options and models in use varied greatly across Australia and the report provided a summary of those options, illustrated by five case studies.

The report contains a number of sections. Section 2 sets out the context and rationale for shared services, while Section 3 discusses alternative models for shared services, together with associated legislative and governance issues.

Section 4 provides five examples of existing local government groups in Australia and New Zealand which have used different organisational models to carry out shared services and other collaborative arrangements. Section 5 presents some interim conclusions based on research to date.

TOP 10 NEWS

8 Change of emphasis on

tackling corruption

Government organisations, including local government, need to focus on how they design and manage workplaces rather than relying solely on traditional tools to prevent corruption, according to the Independent Commission Against Corruption in New South Wales.

Speaking to community leaders on the NSW north coast, the ICAC’s Executive Director of Corruption Prevention, Robert Waldersee, said corruption was often a sign of underlying weaknesses in the design and management of organisations.

Dr Waldersee said the operating environment within which corruption occurred became increasingly challenging, as government continued to shift from delivering its own standardised services to contracted or flexible service delivery through the private sector. He said weakness in the operating environment had been a common thread in several ICAC investigations, particularly those that uncovered corruption in procurement.

Poor record keeping, the form of contracting, process design, reporting arrangements, outsourcing decisions, management competence, culture and oversight arrangements all contributed to corruption in an organisation.

Dr Waldersee said over time, the ICAC had developed many approaches to minimising corrupt conduct. Commission surveys of the corruption controls of public sector agencies had shown an increase in adopting basic control mechanisms to the point that most of the prevention tools had been adopted by agencies.

10Challenges facing

rural-remote councils

identified

Staff recruitment and retention, lack of leadership and management skills, ability to manage assets and infrastructure, and increasing governance and compliance requirements are some of the key challenges identified by the CEOs of rural-remote and Indigenous councils.

The challenges emerged from the responses of 29 Chief Executive Officers to a survey which focused on capacity building in rural-remote and Indigenous councils.

The survey was distributed to the CEOs of councils in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, and it was part of broader research from the ‘Rural remote and Indigenous local government’ program undertaken by the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government.

Staff attraction, retention and managing human resource issues were a common thread throughout the survey – the respondents were asked to identify any key positions that were hard to fill.

Twenty six councils (90%) responded that positions which were hard to fill included all technical roles, middle management, and accounting and engineering professionals.

The respondents said technical roles were hard to fill because of wages (competing with mining sector) and that it was difficult to find suitably qualified or experienced middle managers because of their reluctance to leave positions in country towns or urban areas and work in remote regions.

9


Promoting best practice

in innovation and

change

Councils across Australia can now access a better practice guide dealing with innovation and change in local government.

The guide – ‘Innovation in Local Government: Defining the Challenge, Making the Change’ – has been published by the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government. The guide is accompanied by a supplement containing 12 case studies used in the research.

ACELG said the two publications were designed to help provide councils with the best ways to solve local problems, target scarce resources and prepare for the future.

The centre said the guide aimed to be useful to local governments embarking on processes of problem-solving in response to social change. It is mainly intended as a reference document for elected members, chief executives, and senior managers with responsibility for managing and delivering strategic community priorities.

The research findings are supported by leading international thinking on public sector governance and innovation; a survey of Australian and New Zealand local government managers; focus groups with Australian local government managers; and, 12 case studies of public value innovation.

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Following on from the highly successful 2011 Benchmarking Best Practice in Local Government Conference, which attracted more than 150 local government professionals from across Australia, the 2012 event will again provide attendees with information they can immediately use to help drive continuous improvement and achieve a culture of excellence within their own local government organisation.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Presentations will include the latest case studies and advice on innovation and best practice in local government organisational development and management practices, as well as interactive workshops. The Local Government Business Excellence Network and the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government are again Offi cial Endorsing Organisations for this event.

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NEWS


City of Melbourne

receives AAA rating

International ratings agency, Standard and Poor’s, has delivered a Triple A rating to the City of Melbourne.

Lord Mayor, Robert Doyle, said the AAA/A-1+ rating was the highest assigned by the agency and the City of Melbourne was the only Australian council to be given the top rating.

Cr Doyle said the rating was an independent measure that affirmed the city’s strong financial position and underlined council’s economic responsibility. He said it was such economic management that allowed council to propose a record $481 million draft 2012/13 budget that would deliver vital infrastructure and services for a growing population.

Cr Doyle said council delivered the budget against the backdrop of a zero per cent rate rise, allowing it to deliver projects without adding to the burden of ratepayers.

A statement by Standard and Poor’s said the City of Melbourne displayed excellent financial management and had a strong balance sheet, a predictable and supportive institutional framework, and strong budgetary flexibility and performance.

“The ratings affirmation reflects our opinion of the council’s strong management team and very strong financial position which provides it with flexibility to withstand adverse economic conditions,” said Standard and Poor’s credit analyst, Anthony Walker.

Mr Walker said Melbourne’s strong and well-diversified local economy, combined with a supportive and predictable institutional framework also supported the rating.

Major study into outer

suburban regions

Five councils belonging to the National Growth Areas Alliance will be involved in a major study into ways of making the outer

suburbs of Australia’s major cities more productive, sustainable and liveable.

The Practical Design for Resilient Outer Suburbs Project will be underpinned by more than $335,000 in funding from the Federal Government’s Liveable Cities program.

A quarter of Australians living in cities reside in outer suburban growth areas which face challenges such as lack of jobs, public transport choices, ad hoc planning and retail development.

The study will be led by Whittlesea City Council in Victoria and will include the Town of Kwinana in Western Australia, Penrith City Council in NSW, Mount Barker District Council in South Australia and Ipswich City Council in Queensland. The Green Building Council of Australia will use its Green Star communities rating tool to assist with the research which will look specifically at how to:• Ensure development is well-designed,

vibrant and people-friendly;• Make sure these areas are more walkable

and less car dependent;• Better integrate public transport with

new housing developments;• Improve job opportunities in outer

areas so people do not face long daily commutes; and

• Encourage greater economic and environmental sustainability.The five councils will disseminate the

results and recommendations of the project across the nation so that other growth areas have concrete research to guide their own decision-making.

Federal Infrastructure Minister, Anthony Albanese, said from a national perspective, the “far-sighted project” was a great example of the kind of cooperation between governments needed to address challenges facing cities such as climate change, a lack of affordable housing and a growing, ageing population.

Mr Albanese said as one of the most urbanised societies on the planet, Australia’s future economic prosperity and social cohesion would depend largely on how successful all levels of government were at making cities more productive, sustainable and liveable.

First trigen energy

network wins funding

Australia’s first large scale low-carbon trigeneration energy network at Green Square in the City of Sydney has been allocated $3.75 million in Federal Funding.

The funding is from the $20 million Liveable Cities program, part of Canberra’s efforts to make the nation’s major cities more productive, sustainable and liveable.

Trigeneration is an energy-efficient decentralised system for generating electricity, which also provides heating and cooling. It is twice as energy efficient as coal-fired power stations.

The trigeneration project is being undertaken by the City of Sydney in partnership with Origin Energy and Landcom, and other investors Mirvac, Leighton Properties and John Newell. The four megawatt energy system, to run on natural gas, will supply low-carbon electricity, heating and cooling to 6000 residents in 3300 dwellings as well as shops and offices at the Green Square Town Centre.

The Green Square development will provide 20,000 new homes, house 40,000 new residents and help to 22,000 jobs. It will be one of Australia’s leading sustainable urban developments, with the City of Sydney installing trigeneration and investigating the construction of a recycled water network and an automated waste collection system.

Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, said the Federal funding demonstrated the national significance of Sydney’s green infrastructure plans and confirmed Green Square’s future role as a leading example of sustainable urban development.

Ms Moore said the city’s plan to connect multiple buildings to a trigeneration network significantly improved the energy efficiency of the system - such networks were already operating in Europe, the US and Asia. She said the local energy network could save NSW electricity consumers as much as $1.5 billion by 2030 in avoided or delayed spending on electricity grid upgrades and new power stations.


Expert local

government panel

finalised

The New South Wales Government has finalised the composition of an independent expert panel that will examine the structural arrangements of councils in the context of improving the financial sustainability of local government.

The Chair of the panel – Professor Graham Sansom, who heads the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government – will be assisted by Jude Munro and Glenn Inglis.

Ms Munro has considerable local government experience. She was the former CEO of the City of Brisbane, City of Adelaide and the City of St Kilda. Mr Inglis has many years experience in local government in regional NSW, including 17 years as general manager at Parry Shire Council and at Tamworth City Council.

NSW Local Government Minister, Don Page, said the panel was created after the presidents of the Local Government and Shires Associations, Keith Rhoades and Ray Donald, wrote to him requesting the government explore ways to review certain aspects of the local government sector.

He said it would take into consideration councils’ ability to support the needs of their communities, ability to deliver services and infrastructure efficiently, ability to provide local representation and decision making, and the financial sustainability of each council area.

President of the Local Government Association, Keith Rhoades, said the newly appointed panel members were extremely experienced local government practitioners and would complement Professor Sansom’s expertise. Cr Rhoades said it was no secret local government needed reform on a number of fronts and he believed the panel would independently review all aspects impeding the performance of councils as well as incentives to improve the health of the sector.

President of the Shires Association, Ray Donald, said the LGSA stood firm

on its position that no council should be forced to amalgamate. He said the Review Panel offered councils and communities across the state a wonderful opportunity to have an open discussion with the State Government about what needed changing financially and in legislative terms.

Governments urged to

improve capital city

planning

A review of Australia’s capital cities by the Council of Australian Government’s Reform Council has found that governments need to improve planning for the future land use, infrastructure and economies of the nation’s capitals.

Chairman of the Reform Council, Paul McClintock, said governments needed to “get better at bringing together different aspects of their city planning”. Mr McClintock said they couldn’t separately deal with land use, infrastructure and economic development.

The council reviewed all eight capital city strategic planning systems against COAG’s nine agreed criteria, with the assistance of an expert advisory panel. Its review found that while governments had shown strong commitment to improve their planning systems, none of those systems was entirely consistent with COAG’s agreed criteria to re-shape capital cities.

Mr McClintock said COAG’s reforms and the review process demonstrated the value of collaboration by governments on planning capital cities, and it was essential that governments continued to work together to achieve COAG’s objective for the capitals.

He said the value of improving planning in major cities was clear – around 75% of Australia’s population called them home and they generated nearly 80% of GDP.The Reform Council made a number of recommendations to COAG on the need to:• Engage more with community, businesses

and other stakeholders;• Focus more on implementing plans and

getting results in cities; and

• Consider ways to improve investment and innovation by the private sector.

Melbourne to lead

sustainable cities

network

Melbourne will lead a new global network on Sustainable Urban Development.

City of Melbourne Lord Mayor, Robert Doyle, will chair the network with the support of the international C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. It will engage other global cities, including Johannesburg, London, San Francisco and Sao Paulo that have expressed a strong interest in sustainable communities.

Cr Doyle said the C40 Network would allow Melbourne to share key ideas and learn from other global cities embarking on similar efforts. He said through the network of cities, Melbourne would also engage key stakeholders and partner with the private sector to deliver on-the-ground, practical solutions to the challenges associated with sustainable urban development.

The network was announced at a C40 workshop in Melbourne which also released plans by Lend Lease, in partnership with the council, to create a carbon-neutral sustainable community as part of its participation in C40’s Climate Positive Development Program.

The Climate Positive Development Program aims to create a model for large-scale urban communities that reduces greenhouse gasses and serves as urban laboratories for cities seeking to grow in ways that are environmentally sustainable and economically viable.

Lord Mayor Doyle said Melbourne’s Victoria Harbour would become a blueprint for cities, developers and governments to work together to create strong, sustainable communities. He said the city’s work in sustainability over the past two decades has focussed on adapting the city to a changing climate.

Managing Director of Lend Lease’s Development business in Australia, David Rolls, said the past two years had focused

NEWS


on refining the Victoria Harbour vision. Mr Rolls said the company had placed a strong emphasis on creating vibrant, activated and appealing places for residents, workers and visitors.

Category winners

for national awards

announced

The 27 category winners of the 2012 National Awards for Local Government have been released by the Federal Government.

The category winners were judged by independent judging panels and include 11 winners from small councils with fewer than 15,000 rateable properties.

Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, Simon Crean, said the quality of the 2012 entries was extremely high and showcased the “vast array of creative and innovative projects our local councils are rolling out all around Australia”.

Mr Crean said in 2012, councils were given the opportunity to enter a number of new categories including Active Arts, Energy Smart, Excellence in Road Safety, Improving Services to Remote Communities, Innovation in Natural Resource Management, Land-Use Planning, Rural and Remote Health and Strength in Diversity.

He said the National Awards were an important plank of the partnership with local government and recognised the critical role councils were playing to make communities more productive, liveable and sustainable.

The category winners will now be considered for the overall 2012 National Awards for Excellence in Local Government, which were to be announced at a special presentation in late June.

Parramatta ends

deal for billion dollar

redevelopment

Parramatta City Council and developer, Grocon, have dissolved an agreement signed six years ago to undertake an urban redevelopment project valued at around $1.6 billion.

A statement issued by the council said the city and Grocon had mutually decided to end the Civic Place Development Agreement because of the “very different economic circumstances” that existed today compared with 2006.

The statement said, however, that council remained committed to delivering Civic Place and it would return to the market to give all developers an opportunity to tender for an adjusted project.

Lord Mayor of Parramatta, Lorraine Wearne, said council would build on the good work it had undertaken with Grocon and expected to announce updated development plans for Civic Place in the near future, including when the tender process would commence.

The council and Grocon refused to comment on whether the developer had been compensated – both parties cited a confidentiality provision for their refusal.

Cr Wearne said the council had not yet quantified the amount of money it had spent on the project.

The Lord Mayor said the council was also working on two sites recently put to the market for redevelopment – the Lennox Bridge car park and the car park at 189 Macquarie Street.

She said the city had received submissions for redevelopment of the Lennox Bridge car park and was now in the process of negotiating with potential partners. Council expected to announce the successful proponent this year. The vision for the site included restaurants, a new riverbank Discovery/Visitor Centre, plus multi-purpose function spaces.

Cr Wearne said developers were also invited to submit proposals for a mixed-use development at 189 Macquarie Street.

Together, these sites amounted to more than a third of Civic Place and would complement the next stage of Parramatta’s future.

Surging population

growth in outer suburbs

Wyndham in outer suburban Melbourne was the largest and fastest growing local government area in Australia, according to the latest population figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Wyndham’s population increased by 12,200 or 7.8% in the 12 months to June 2011. The ABS figures also showed strong growth in the outer Melbourne areas of Whittlesea – up 8,700 people or 5.6% and Melton – up 6000 people or 5.6%.

Among the New South Wales local government areas with the largest population increases in 2010-11 were outer suburban Blacktown – up 5800 people; Liverpool – 3400 and The Hills Shire – 2600.

Wanneroo and Rockingham on the northern and south-western outskirts of Perth recorded strong growth in the year to June 2011, increasing by 6200 and 3900 people respectively.

Population growth continued to be most prominent in outer suburbs, inner areas, urban infill areas and along the coast. Areas that recorded a decline included inland rural areas that had been affected over the past few years by drought.

Outside the capital cities, the largest population growth generally occurred along the coast in 2010-11. Several LGAs on Queensland’s seaboard had large population increases including the Gold Coast – up 9600 people; Sunshine Coast – 5000; Townsville – 4500 and Cairns – up 2600.

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The 2012-13 Budget has provided good news for local government and signalled the desire of the Federal Government to continue a strong partnership with councils.

Acknowledging the challenging environment facing the Government, given its commitment to return the Budget to surplus in the face of the enormous cost of rebuilding infrastructure following floods across the country, ALGA submitted its budget recommendations to the Government in January.

In our submission, we called on the Government to show commitment to long-term funding of vital services.

Our submission stressed that while we understood the current economic climate, important services and projects “do not wait for a convenient moment”.

One of our key recommendations was for the Government to deliver an increase in Financial Assistance Grants (FAGs).

While the Budget did provide local government with ongoing funding under the FAGs scheme, and we appreciate receiving accelerated quarterly payments, this funding has not been increased.

The Australian Government has promised a review of the FAGs payment scheme and we take this opportunity to remind the Government of the need for an escalation of the indexation of FAGs funding to reflect the real financial pressures on local government.

Our submission also called for the Government to ensure the long-term future of Roads to Recovery (R2R) funding. We applaud the Government for its decision to extend the program for a further five years, beyond 2014 when it was due to finish, but our objective remains a permanent program. Under the R2R program, councils are provided direct funding of $350 million a year, from the federal Government for local roads, to help them maintain more than 650,000 kilometres of local roads. The maintenance of the local road system is one of local government’s major commitments and for most councils, road maintenance is the single largest item of expenditure.

Last year, ALGA launched a national campaign to secure ongoing federal funding to assist councils to maintain local roads and address an estimated shortfall in investment of $1.2 billion.

By increasing the investment in local roads and making the program permanent, councils could rest assured that the quality and safety of local roads was being treated with priority.

The decision to extend R2R shows that the Government has listened to our call but the task remains with ALGA to push the case for permanency.

ALGA’s budget submission also called for greater clarity and improved equity for natural disaster arrangements and prevention of cost and responsibility shifting onto local government by other levels of government, particularly the states and territories.

These issues were not addressed in the 2012-13 Budget but they remain priorities for ALGA and we will continue to advocate for them.

Our job is to build on the advances in the budget and to deliver for councils and communities across the country and I look forward to working with the Government to achieve that goal.

Fed Budget welcomedby local goverment

By Mayor Genia McCaffery, ALGA President

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• Australia’speakenvironmentalconferenceforthePublicSector• Sept18&19,SebelAlbertPark,Melbourne• TwoDaysfullofpracticalandleadingknowledge• TwoSpeaking/WorkshopStreamseachday• EarlyBirdRegistration:Only$600+GST-SoBookNow

Thisconferencewillincorporatetheone-dayPublicSectorCleanEnergyForum:leadingthewaytoefficient,low-carbonenergyuse.

ThisForumwillbestagedonDay2-September19.

Register now at www.governmentsustainability.com.au

The 2012 Government Sustainability Conference will again provide local government professionals and delegates from the wider public sector with comprehensive analysis and advice about how to ingrain environmentally sustainable policies and practices within their organisations and the communities they serve.

Workshopswillinclude:• Carbon Accounting in the Public Sector - Workshop presented by National Centre for Sustainability, Swinburne University.• Barriers and Drivers to Embedding Sustainability in your Government Organisation - Workshop presented by Local Government Association of NSW and Shires Association of NSW.

This conference will follow on from the highly successful 2011 Government Sustainability Conference, which attracted more than 200 attendees. By focusing on the issues and needs that are faced by governments and their authorities, this conference has become the peak annual environmental conference for Australia’s public sector.

GOLD SPONSOR SILVER SPONSOR BRONZE SPONSORS CONFERENCE CARBON AUDITOR & OFFSET PROVIDER

ENDORSING PARTNER MEDIA PARTNERS

Confirmed Speakers include:• Stan Krpan, CEO, Sustainability Victoria• Felix MacNeill, Environmental Management Coordinator, Federal Department of

Education, Employment and Workplace Relations• Rob Murray-Leach, CEO, Energy Efficiency Council• Michael Oke, Coordinator Environmental Management, City of Yarra• Adam Beck, Executive Director Market Development and Sustainable Communities,

Green Building Council of Australia • Laura Lynch, ESD Unit Coordinator, Moreland City Council• Tiernan Humphrys, Manager Environmental Sustainability, Capital Projects & Service

Planning, Victorian Department of Health• Andrew Foran, CEO, Centre for Sustainability Leadership• David Baggs, CEO, ecospecifier• Marnie Kikken, Manager Environment and Sustainability, Ku-ring-gai Council• Hugh Wareham, CEO, ECO-Buy• Guy Pritchard, Local Government Programs Manager Yarra Valley Water• Nicola Hoey, Principal Environmental Sustainability Officer, City of Boroondara• Samuel Redmond, Senior Consultant, GerrardBown • Emma Fuchsen, Sustainability Education Officer, Rural City of Wangaratta• Bronwyn Chapman, Manager of Environment, Rural City of Wangaratta

For conference registration and attendance enquiries please contact:

Registration ManagerPh: (03) 8534 5050

[email protected]

Sponsorship & Exhibition Enquiries:

Brian RaultSales Manager

Hallmark Conferences + EventsCommStrat

Ph: (03) 8534 [email protected]

OR

Paul AndrewSales Manager

Hallmark Conferences + EventsCommStrat

Ph: (03) 9370 [email protected]

SEBEL ALBERT PARK, MELBOURNE 18–19 SEPT

GOVERNMENTSUSTAINABILITYCONFERENCE 2012


CEO PROFILE

Appointed in 2010 to lead Wyndham City’s 1200 staff, Kerry Thompson is fine-tuning the organisation in a number

of ways to ensure it is addressing the many issues and high workload caused by the rapid population growth occurring in the city, which is situated on the western outskirts of metropolitan Melbourne.

Wyndham’s estimated population at June 2012 was 184,000 people, with the municipality experiencing a 7.1% annual growth rate.

In the following edited extract of an interview with Council Manager magazine, Ms Thompson details how Wyndham City is focusing on leadership development, creating cross-organisational groups and piloting the implementation of lean management systems.

Council Manager: How are you leading your organisation to address the challenges of such a rapid rate of growth?

KERRY THOMPSON: What we’ve done is a number of different things. When you talk about the rapid growth, you are talking about 62 babies being born a week here, nine families moving a day and we’ve had 12,000 to 14,000 new residents a year - that’s the sort of growth we’ve got.

What we’ve done is a lot of work around leadership and culture. We’ve been doing leadership capacity work - and I’ve worked with the senior management group (on this) for the last seven months. And a key focus of that’s been around how do you stop and look and reflect and build in that innovation and creativity?

So it’s a way of saying how do we create a culture where we can be constantly reviewing and considering what we are doing - what worked in the last community, will it work in the next one, what do we have to learn from that to get a constant

review process, and looking at other options. So that’s been one of the key things we’re doing, working with that leadership team, and we will do the same with our next level down, they will go through the same program over the next seven months.

This helps to fine-tune the organisation to deal better with complex issues?

It’s getting that overall capacity to manage with complexities. With the pressures of the day-to-day job to get so much done, it’s to have time to say “do we keep doing it this way”, and what’s working and what’s isn’t.

The other one is that when I commenced I actually created a position of Director of Advocacy. If you look at the major private sector organisations - they will go and have a very high senior position on government relations.

So it was really to say advocacy needs to be done in a strategic way in government relations. So we have a

Facing the challenge ofrapid growth

Wyndham City CEO Kerry Thompson describes how she is steering her organisation through the complex challenges posed by being one of Australia’s fastest-growing municipalities.


Director of Advocacy who does not have a large operational area but works across the organisation with me and actually developed an advocacy strategy that had community and council involvement and looked at what are the key issues for the next three years and the constant review process.

That’s really helped keep our priorities on what we need to keep working with state and federal governments and communities with, as well as other key stakeholders.

We all try our best, but quite often we would focus on it (advocacy) at federal or state election times...this means it is front of mind in a strategic way all of the time with someone working at that level.

Is the role a key one when it comes to securing grants and funding?

It’s very much that, but it’s also very much around policy, around how you do growth, how do we get more local jobs here. So it’s also very much about influencing governments about policy direction as well.

The other key one is the strategic work this council has done around its social infrastructure needs and its infrastructure plans. We do have a 10 year capital works program, we don’t just look three-year.

So we have a 10 year capital program -

behind that we have a document that takes that to 2040 on social infrastructure needs based on what growth happens.

So we’re doing that - absolutely planning ahead. And to help us with that service delivery, we’re making sure we’re creating as many multipurpose facilities close to schools and other hubs to create good community spaces for new communities that can be quite isolated. And that work means you might put your kindergarten, your maternal child health, your libraries and youth services spaces together.

And the last component of that is we also are investing a lot of time and energy in talking to not-for-profit organisations and NGOs, and will do things like have space that they can rent, or can work with them to look at how we encourage them to come into this municipality and provide services. And also our economic development unit is very successful in trying to attract investment into the area. Local jobs is one of our most important issues.

we’re making sure we’re creating as many multipurpose facilities close to schools and other hubs to create good community spaces for new communities.

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CEO PROFILE

How is your organisation coping with what I am sure is a lot of work that needs to be done in relation to urban planning?

There’s a couple of things that’s happened - in Victoria, the Growth Areas Authority does the planning for growth areas, however they want our input and they work in partnership with us. And we appreciate that.

So again, that’s incredible pressure because there would be a number of precinct structure plans, growth plans, framework plans occurring.

So what we do internally, we have across the organisation what we call an integrated planning group. And that brings our urban planning, our social planning, the recreational and leisure staff in, and they will look at things at a policy level - what works, what’s not working, review those plans and have input.

It is a lot of pressure…but we think we get the better outcome by having the different input from those different areas. It also means that as we have to go through those precinct structure plans, we start picking up trends or changes in policies or key issues that we want to follow up. So that group will come up with key issues and work with the Advocacy Director and myself about how do we start influencing some changes there.

In the City’s most recent annual report you mentioned that you are seeking to implement continuous improvement in your organisation - how are you seeking to do that and where are you at in the process?

There’s a number of projects: we’ve just moved to the lean process, which is with the Six Sigma but it’s probably got more

focus on the service industry than the original one on the manufacturing.

So we’ve introduced that. We’ve agreed to pilot it and then do a good evaluation. As you know there are a number of tools or ways you can do it, but so far it’s been very successful.

So we’ve gone with lean at this stage, we’ve also appointed a fantastic business continuity sort of plan to work with all the various areas of the organisation.

So again, it is an internal consulting role to work with that and the lean process, and so far - terrific! We went out originally looking for volunteers but we knew the key areas, so it’s focusing on our systems and services in areas that are very much across organisation to see if we can get improvements. And the way that we’ve worked with that is to have people trained and understanding and then they help the next group.

The other one is all your IT – we’re moving so we’ve got much more mobile access for staff: home care workers with iPads, linkages, getting much more of that in to make it easier for people to do their job out in the field.

What’s your goal for the organisation - where do you hope to take the City in the next few years?

Mine is an organisation that’s absolutely constantly up for the challenges and it’s innovative…so I think my goal is to push leadership further down into the organisation. And to have people feel that they can absolutely come up with innovation and creativity about how we deliver what we have to for our communities, knowing there are less dollars and there is more demand on local government.

So it’s really getting the smarts about, you know, just because we’ve done the same thing for 30 years it’s OK to question and challenge. So that’s a real mission: to

get an organisation where thinking and challenging becomes the norm. I say it’s OK to make smart mistakes! And that’s the language I use around here. Sometimes you’ve got to take calculated risks about trying things that may not work in the community, but how else are you able to find out?

What advice would you have for the many other rapid growth councils in Australia drawing from your own experiences?

Mine is to give yourself and your senior management team time to reflect, because I think the biggest thing - and it’s not just growth councils - but you end up on that treadmill going 100 miles an hour.

For us we’ve got to construct so many kinders and community centres, and you’re running just to keep up. You’ve got to find a way to say yes, we know all those tasks need to be done, but you have to be able to step away from them and make sure you’re keeping an eye on that strategic direction and reflect on what you’re doing on a day-to-day basis.

For more information about Wyndham City visit

www.wyndham.vic.gov.au

That’s a real mission: to get an organisation

where thinking and challenging becomes

the norm.


CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT & CALL FOR SPEAKERSWith all levels of Australian government under pressure to deliver quality services and manage complex organisations with limited financial resources, this conference will provide public sector professionals with knowledge and solutions to successfully generate efficiencies and optimise systems and processes.

Conference attendees will be supplied with practical case studies and advice they can immediately use to improve efficiencies, performance and productivity within their own organisations.

This event will be designed for professionals working in both large and small government organisations at local, state and federal level.

Key topics will also include: optimising Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems for the public sector; harmonising processes across complex organisational structures; achieving efficient and effective CRM and service delivery, etc.

CALL FOR SPEAKERS:Has your government organisation achieved efficiencies, systems enhancements or performance improvements that you would like to share with the wider public sector?To propose a presentation for the Public Sector Efficiency Conference, please email a 300-word summary of the presentation to Conference Director, Ben Hutchison, via [email protected]

This conference will be staged by CommStrat, specialist provider of Australian public sector events and publications, including Government Technology Review, Council Manager Magazine, the annual Cloud Computing Forum, etc.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

Professionals from throughout local, state and federal government

departments, agencies & authorities, including:

• CIOs

• CorporateServices&SystemsManagers

• BusinessSystemsManagers

• ManagersofEnterpriseArchitecture

• OrganisationalDevelopmentManagers

• CFOs

• SeniorExecutives

• ProcurementManagers

• CustomerServiceManagers

• ITprofessionals

• ServiceDeliveryManagers

• CEOs/GeneralManagers

• PLUS:Consultantsandserviceprovidersfromtheprivatesector

PublicSectorEfficiency

Tuesday 9th

Wednesday 10th

October 2012

The Menzies

SydneyNSW

Optimising systems and processes to achieve more with less

REGISTER AT

www.efficiencyconference.com.auEarly Bird Registration Now Available

MEDIA PARTNERS

FOR CONFERENCE REGISTRATION ANDATTENDANCE ENQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT:

Registration Manager

Ph: (03) 8534 5050

[email protected]

SPONSORSHIP & EXHIBITION ENQUIRIES:

Brian Rault

Sales Manager

Hallmark Conferences + Events

CommStrat

Ph: (03) 8534 5014

[email protected]

• Solutionsforimprovinggovernmentsystems,processes&structureswhilemaintainingqualityservicedelivery

• TwoDaysofpracticaladviceonhowtoachieveefficientorganisationalperformanceintoday’schallengingpublicsectorenvironment

• ERP&CRMsolutionsforlocal,state&federalgovernmentdepartmentsandagencies

Documents

Council Manager June 2012 Sample