Mayoral Moment December

 

Welcome to the last Mayoral Moment for 2023 following our Council meeting on 12^th December.

Due to the short timeframe between meetings, there were no planning matters to be considered.  Following an extensive review of the budget by staff, Councillors supported a proposed revised budget to provide certainty to some projects and infrastructure work.

At the meeting we adopted a Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy that is one of the first steps in becoming a child safe organisation in accordance with the newly introduced Tasmanian Child and Youth Safe Organisations Act 2023.  Over coming months, Council officers will be reviewing internal policies and procedures to align them with this new policy and ensuring that we embed child and youth safe practices and culture across all aspects of the organisation.  It will not be an easy task and one that will require whole of local government sector support through the Local Government Association of Tasmania, but Council is committed to continuing this journey.

Councillors and staff were very pleased to receive the Audit Panel’s report on the year.  We were delighted to note the positive comments of our Audit Panel on the journey of renewal that we have undertaken so far.

Council positively supported the notice of motion from Clr Neil Edwards to have further water quality testing done in the Coles Bay area. 

By the time you read this, the Bicheno Skate and Wheel Park will have been officially opened.  This has been a 20-year journey for the Bicheno community that started when a group of young people fronted up to a Council meeting in the Bicheno Hall and requested Council’s support for a skatepark.  It is wonderful to see it now come to fruition and something for the young, and perhaps not so young, skateboarders and wheel riders to enjoy for years to come.

2024 is shaping up to be another busy year across the local government sector and in Glamorgan Spring Bay.  All our staff are committed to doing the very best they can for our communities and as elected members the Councillors will support them in every way we can. 

On behalf of the Deputy Mayor, Councillors, General Manager and all staff, I take this opportunity to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.  As the General Manager regularly says, it’s onwards and upwards for Glamorgan Spring Bay in 2024!

Cheryl Arnol

Mayor

Mayoral Moment November 2023

Welcome to the Mayoral Moment following the Ordinary Meeting of Council on 28th November 2023.

It was something of a record that the meeting was over in about 36 minutes.  I’ve never really known an ordinary meeting to go for so little time but as mentioned by a fellow Councillor, we didn’t have anything controversial to deal with outside of the Government’s proposed Development Assessment Panels (DAP’s).  

Council has taken the view that we may support DAP’s, but it will be reliant on the matters in our submission being addressed.    Overall, Council supports reforms that improve the operation and integrity of the planning system, but that support must be earnt through meaningful engagement with the local government sector and the community.

As always, Councillors were pleased to support community small grant applications and events support.  The Swansea Community Christmas Parade and the Pop-Up Bookstall (P.U.B.S.) in Triabunna were recipients of community small grants and the Coles Bay Triathlon received funding under the events support budget.   

Although not dealt with in this agenda, the other matter that is at the forefront of our minds is the latest report from the Future of Local Government Review Board.  The Board has made a number of recommendations for reform of local government but the one that affects Glamorgan Spring Bay the most at this point is recommendation 4.  

It is implied in Recommendation 4 that Council has had significant consultation with our neighbouring Councils and that GSBC is open to reform, but are we?    My personal view is that the reform board has taken our open-minded approach and used it against us. I stress this is my personal view and may not reflect the view of my fellow Councillors.   It is important to note that as a Council, the Mayor and General Manager had one meeting in the stage 1 days with Sorell (and Tasman) and 2 meetings with Break O’Day (BODC); one in stage 1 and one in stage 2.  Both were called by BODC and were very informal discussions.  

The current reform board has accepted that the government must fund an investigation into the potential merger with their recommendation that the government initiate a local government board to undertake the work into ‘voluntary mergers’ of all the named Councils in recommendation 4.  I am not convinced that all the Councils named in the voluntary merger recommendation (as Phase 1) will in fact agree to be included.  There is considerable discussion to be had over the next 6 or 7 weeks between all those parties to enable an informed and well-reasoned submission by the various Councils to be put to the Minister.

In my view, and I stress it is only my personal view, a much better way to reform local government would be giving the sector a Local Government Act that is fit for purpose.  The current Act is now 30 years old and does not provide a sound basis for good governance.   There are some recommendations in the report around mandating certain things for Councils.  Surely it would make sense to provide clear direction in a new Act for the future before mergers occur.   It could well be that the current 29 Councils would be ‘reformed’ by that process.  

The Tasmanian Government is inviting comment and submissions on the report until the 29th February 2024.  You will find the report at Future of Local Government Review – Tasmanian Government (futurelocal.tas.gov.au)

Until next time, stay safe.  

Cheryl Arnol

Mayor

MAYORAL MOMENT - OCTOBER

 I've been very fortunate to have the support of the Greater Oyster Bay News at Swansea since I was elected as Mayor and it has proven to be very beneficial in communicating what happens at a Council meeting.  Council does post it on our website after GOBC News has published it.  It occurred to me that a different audience might be reached through this forum so I have decided to post future Mayoral Moments at the same time as Council posts it.

Here is October's offering - 

Welcome to the Mayoral Moment following the Ordinary Meeting of Council on the 24^th October.  As always, I am grateful to the GOBC News for their support in publishing this column.

This month’s agenda dealt with several administrative matters as well as a request for community small grant support for the Triabunna Christmas Crew.  Council was pleased to support this initiative by a very enthusiastic group of people to make Triabunna ‘Christmasy’ again and reinstate the float parade that used to be a fixture of the silly season a few years ago.

One of the administrative matters was acknowledging the recent declaration of office by Richard Parker who won the recount.  It was my pleasure to welcome Clr Parker back to the Council Chamber after an absence of some years.

There will be advertisements placed shortly for land that Council can see no future use for.  Any funds generated will be far better utilised in much needed infrastructure than retaining some under-utilised land.  There is a process that allows members of the public to lodge representations if you feel that this is not the right outcome.

As always, acting as a planning authority was a difficult and at times emotive part of the Council meeting.   I think it is fair to say that all four development applications had a degree of community concern, some more than others. All four applications were passed albeit reluctantly in some cases by the planning authority. 

The proposed Bicheno Ambulance Station has been the subject of much discussion in the community and a request was made by Council planning staff to the developer to defer the matter to enable more robust community consultation to be undertaken.  That request was denied and due to legislated planning timeframes, Council had little choice but to debate the matter at this meeting.   I understand that the new Minister for Health may have stepped in and asked his department to defer processing the development application to enable further discussion with interested stakeholders. As the planning authority, we have obligations to meet under the Tasmanian Planning Scheme and staff put a compelling argument to approve it under the provisions of the Scheme.  It does not mean that Council endorsed the project on the proposed site.

There has been some conjecture about the large Eucalyptus Globulus tree at the back of Morris’ store and how the new development may impact on it.  Some concern has been raised that Council did not take the tree into consideration when officers assessed the application.  Investigations have been undertaken and the tree is on the crown reserve and therefore not part of this development application as the development is all within the developer’s own boundary.   If the developer wanted to take any action in relation to the tree, then they would require a number of permissions.  My own investigation with staff indicates it would be unlikely for Crown or Council to give any permission, unless it was declared a dangerous tree by a suitably qualified person.

On other matters, we are hopeful that the Local Government Board Reform paper will be released at the end of October.    Will we be ‘boundary adjusted’?  Who knows!  If you have an interest in this matter, keep an eye out for the paper.   Personally, I am not convinced that GSBC won’t be targeted for boundary adjustment.

Of greater concern is the Draft Fire and Emergency Services Bill currently before State Parliament.

In summary the key points of the Bill reform are;

Tasmania Fire Service TFS and State Emergency Service SES will combine under a            single entity Tasmania Fire and Emergency Service TFES.

 The newly formed TFES will be headed by a Commissioner reporting directly to the                  Minister for Police and Emergency Services.

The authorities legislated for the current State Fire Commission will be transferred to the      new Commissioner.

 A State Fire and Emergency Service Committee will be ministerially appointed.

Council shares the concern of the broader local government sector that this will mean the current residential fire levy will likely double under either option.  The impact on businesses is worse.  The short timeframe for submissions on the Bill was a major concern for the sector.  We received some welcome news that the submission deadline has been extended to 1^st December.  Please remember that this fire levy is only collected by Council for the State Government through the rates process.  If you are of a mind to review the Bill, please consider putting in a submission.  You will find it at What is changing - Tasmania Fire Service

Now the good news, it is only about 60 days to Christmas!  I think I have blinked and missed a large portion of this year.  Time goes by so fast these days.

Until next time, stay safe

Cheryl

 

LIFE INSIDE LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM!

 As I said in my last post in January, I had grand plans to do more posts.  I started doing a column in the local paper after each Council meeting that seems to have taken over a bit from my blog.  

Having said that there is so much happening in local government at the moment and at the forefront is the Future of Local Government Review and the potential for reform of the 29 Councils that I thought a blog post might be opportune   There is a lot of data available that is all a bit overwhelming for me and I'm in local government so what is it doing to the community.

Please be aware that this is my personal blog. The comments may not necessarily reflect the opinion of my fellow councillors. 

One matter that is weighing heavily on my mind is whether the communities across Glamorgan Spring Bay (GSBC) want to be split up or boundary adjusted which really is only a nice way of saying amalgamated in my view.  The underlying principle of GSBC over many years of potential amalgamations and boundary adjustments has always been that any reform must have advantages for our communities.  Right now, I am struggling with what the advantage would be if the whole of GSBC was in a newly created south-east council or Bicheno was sent to a new north-east council.  The maps in the community catchment information packs are not really clear on where Coles Bay would end up! 

Some of the data that has been provided appears to be flawed.  Why is 7-year averaging being used when all councils have a legislated requirement to have 10-year financial management plans and asset management plans?  One Mayor has suggested to me that they believe the data has been cherry picked to provide an outcome that suits the Board, not necessarily the communities of interest.

It all becomes a bit more perplexing when the Minister for Local Government says on ABC Radio that he doesn't have a problem with 29 Councils if they can prove their sustainability.  The Board on the other hand has stated that the status quo is not an option and mandated reform is the only way to go.  Which one is right?  In the information packs, the Board has given Councils the opportunity to provide other options. 

Boundary changes are apparently only one part of the equation.  Councils and communities are being urged to think about options for complementary supporting reforms such as shared services and partnerships with potential models of engagement and representation.  In the main, Councils across the State are doing that now.  I don't think there would be one of the 29 Councils that does not have some form of community engagement strategy. Whether we do our community engagement well or not is probably a debate for another time. The issue of course is what will 'representation' look like in a new larger council?  There is a school of thought that wards or electoral districts might be an opportunity, but some don't agree with that. What is the optimum representation in a new larger council.  It is one of many unanswered questions.

What about rates?  There would seem to be an underlying expectation from communities that their rates would not go up significantly in a new larger council, but services would still be provided.  So, the Minister said on the same ABC Radio program that this reform was not about reducing rates.  To some extent I agree with the Minister.  If a new larger council was to provide improved services then it is logical that they would need more funding.  Where does the main of the funding come from?  The local government funding model is built on charging rates which is defined in the Local Government Act as a tax, not a fee for service.

What about staff?  It is contended that a larger council could attract a highly qualified skill set of staff to meet all the mandatory requirements, but will it?  There is a shortage of qualified people across all areas of planning, engineering, accounting just to name a few and that is not just in the local government sector. Engaging staff to continue providing services is particularly difficult now with the uncertainty around the future of any/all of the 29 Councils.  Why would anyone want to start a new job in the current uncertain landscape of local government reform?

Recently a member of our community who is very experienced in the local government reform space suggested that without the potential economic and practical benefits being identified, there can be no proper process that will lead to a good outcome.  To the best of my knowledge, there has been no economic modelling done as to what the optimum number of Councils for Tasmania should be.  As my correspondent said, is it 10, 15, or 6?  

As Councils, there is no clear direction from Government as to what the target number of Councils is.  All I know is that as elected members and staff, we are spending significantly more time in briefings and workshops within the sector and with our neighbouring Councils.  It is not only costly time wise but there is an impact financially as well.  

There has been no indication of the transition process to a new council.  Who is going to fund that?  It is going to be a very costly exercise just in the establishment of new identities alone.  What about acting as a planning authority.  That part has been taken out of the terms of reference of the Board and given to the Minister for Planning.  There has been no communication with Councils that I am aware of around who or what will run planning and yet we are being expected to offer suggestions on how we would provide this service to our community either as a stand-alone Council, shared service or amalgamated.  

We seem to have a very ad hoc process going on in the local government sector in this reform process.  Too many options with no economic objectives have been suggested.  It is going to be difficult to achieve an outcome to reduce the number of Councils that will deliver the services we all want from our local council without robust economic modelling and the establishment of clear economic objectives.  As my experienced correspondent said, it can't be just a 'feel good' exercise.  It has to achieve an outcome that is beneficial primarily to the ratepayer and overall to the communities of interest. 

It doesn't look like that right now!

GRAND PLANS!

 

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year.  Do you do New Year resolutions?  I gave up on those years ago.  Whilst not a New Year resolution, I had grand plans to write a weekly blog but it is now more than a month since the last one and we have had the January council meeting a week ago!

The elected Council has been very busy with approaches from residents and ratepayers, workshops, Council meetings and the myriad of other things in the life of a local government Councillor.  It has been a bit of a baptism of fire for our newly elected Councillors but they, and the returning Councillors, have all jumped in with enthusiasm.

The Councillors have established a relationship and collaborative approach with staff that is seeing some positive outcomes.  The General Manager and his senior staff have been very patient in answering all the questions that have arisen! 

It is important to continue discussions with our communities as we enter the review stage of the Strategic Plan and start the formulation of the budget that will shape the coming financial year.  I encourage everyone to speak or write to your Councillors if you have an issue that you want raised.   

I don't know where the saying originated from, but I have often said that too many times on any matter, people 'kick the gravel in the carpark' instead of raising their concern.  It applies to many aspects of our life whether its sport or community or Council and often we don't raise a matter because we don't want to be seen as serial complainers or we may feel that we will be victimised. 

Operational matters become a bit problematic as elected members cannot direct staff to fix that pothole that is bugging you or do whatever else might be on your radar but we can raise it for you and get it on a list.  Unless we are told or asked about something then we really are at a loss as to what your issue is.  Don't forget you will contact all Councillors by email to Council  (council@freycinet.tas.gov.au).   

Another avenue for complaints is available on the Council website.  WORKS & WASTE MANAGEMENT SERVICES – GLAMORGAN SPRING BAY COUNCIL (gsbc.tas.gov.au)

Look for the Works Request tab and submit a request

Check out the other On-Line Request tabs on the website as well.  There just might be one that suits your specific request or complaint.

On Australia Day this year we celebrated not only our Citizen of the Year, Young Citizen of the Year and Emergency Services Worker of the Year, but welcomed new citizens as well in a formal Citizenship Ceremony that I had the privilege of being the Presiding Officer.

Covid has impacted on so much of our life over the past couple of years and placed enormous stress on our health system.  Like me, I'm sure you will be looking forward to a relatively Covid-free year.  I know the virus is still out there so please take precautions that suit you and your lifestyle.

As we age, it is fair to say that we all become a little more realistic about what each new year will bring to us so live your life to the fullest.  Each day is a blessing that we must grasp with both hands.  I saw a quote from the American actor Clint Eastwood recently where he was asked about his age and why he still is making movies at 92.  He said he wakes up each morning and doesn't let the old man in!  What a great way to look at life.

“Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine.”
― Roy T. Bennett, Author The Light in the Heart

Until next time......

Loo with a View

 

I wasn't really expecting to do another post so soon but a few people have asked about the Loo with a View Survey so here goes!

Concern has been expressed by Councillors that the survey probably wasn't indicative of the sentiment of the Swansea area.  It is recognised that we have an aging demographic in the Swansea area and the Facebook forum may not be the best way to run a survey.  

 How do we get the message out about surveys and other communications in the changing world of print media.  As a society, we do seem to be gravitating towards electronic means of communication in all forums but is it fair?   To answer my own question, probably not!  We seem to assume that everyone has an email address but that really isn't the case either in some areas.  It is evident that there is a shift away from electronic transactions of various sorts with all the hacking and scams going on so it is a real dilemma. 

At the last Council meeting, it was decided that the General Manager should bring a report to the January meeting with a suggestion for the siting/use of the Loo with a View building that was constructed some time ago. We do have to get the best outcome for the use of the building.  Do you have a preference but didn't participate in the survey for whatever reason? If you have an email address, drop Councillors a line - council@freycinet.tas.gov.au before the 10th January.  We'd love to hear from you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

I can't believe that it has been 5 weeks since the declaration of election of Councillors and my last blog!  It seems that 2022 has managed to rocket by in the blink of an eye.  

The new Council has been very busy with an induction day that presented as much as possible about the legislation, acting as a planning authority, Code of Conduct and the myriad of other things that form the steep learning curve of being elected to Council.  Despite being on Council for 20+ years, I found the induction very valuable with the changes that included the Statewide Planning Scheme and some changes to the Local Government Act.  

There's more change on the way and community members are encouraged to check out the State Government's website - https://engage.futurelocal.tas.gov.au/   There's a couple of options papers out right now that may prove interesting to ratepayers.  The review is due for completion in June 2023 and whilst it is not really using the A word (amalgamation), it is talking about boundary adjustments and making Councils more sustainable.  I confess to not having read all the documentation as yet.  It will probably form some not so light reading over the Christmas break.

Council supports our local schools with a citizenship award that is known as the Mayoral Medal.  It is always a pleasure to attend a school and see the wonderful work that the dedicated teachers do for the younger members of our community.  Triabunna District School has had enormous success this past year with academic achievements across National and State education testing programs.

What are you doing for Christmas and New Year?  I hope you get to spend it with those you love this year free from the dreaded Covid.  Whatever you do, stay safe in whatever activity you undertake.  

Christmas is a very special time for families and friends from all walks of life.  Whatever your faith may be, enjoy this Festive Season.  We can only hope that 2023 gives all of us a break from Covid or poor weather.                          

                                 

                    MERRY CHRISTMAS and SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL