The Minister has challenged all local governments to reform by voluntary amalgamations and reduce councillor numbers to between 6 and 9. Most observers agree that the local government sector is overdue for reform its just when you get to the nitty gritty detail the argument starts. The local government peak body WALGA has been driven into a frenzy responding to the Minister. The industry is rife with special interests and long standing traditions , there is enormous inertia and resistance to change.
As far as Denmark goes there does not seem to be much scope for amalgamation apart from including the Walpole area into the Shire. There is some merit in this idea however Walpole is in the Shire of Manjimup and they are not very interested in handing it over !.... and of course the good people of Walpole need to have a say in all of this.
So its down to councillor numbers. We have 12 at present split between 3 wards.The proposal is to maintain the ward system but reduce the number of councillors by one in each leaving a total of 9 councillors. The main points in favour of this centre around making the decision process more effective and efficient plus some direct cost savings in having to pay less councillors. The arguments against centre around a perceived loss of democratic representation and increased workload on councillors. On balance I support reducing numbers to 9 because I believe that we would be a much more effective group. After attending nearly 2 years of meetings as a councillor and 2 as an outside observer it is clear to me that 12 is too unwieldy. 9 would still give diversity of opinion and save approximately $30k in direct costs. ( total budget 08/09 for councillor fees,meals,allowances ect was approx. $120k ) .
Anyway thats just my opinion at the moment , I welcome debate , being a councillor I probably will change my mind ! What do you want? send me some comments and vote on the new poll at the right.
One last thing the photo above shows your hard working and humble servants , third from the left back row is Cr. Richard Phair its his birthday today , so HAPPY BIRTHDAY Ric !!!!
I think the arguments in favour of reducing numbers from 12 to 9 are convincing. It would be very interesting to learn more about the contributions of the present Councillors. By this I don't necessarily mean how they had voted on issues in the past ... rather how frequently they contributed to debate in the Chamber, the clarity of their expression and the weightiness of the case they may present to support their view. The availability of Council Minutes on the Shire website goes some way to keeping community members informed ... but the arguments for or against a particular stance usually remain opaque.
ReplyDeleteGood point Cyril. The minutes dont really tell you much , you need to be there to see what happens and even then I can say from the personal experience of sitting in the gallery as an observer for 2 years that things can still be very opaque.
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