Open, Honest and Accountable Governance

A New Structure for Port Phillip Council

Background

Port Phillip needs a new structure to provide open, honest and accountable governance. Under the current regime, Local government in the City of Port Phillip has developed a Democracy Deficit Disorder. The 2008 elections provide a democratic opportunity for the community to remedy this.

Democratic principles can only be realized when appropriate political institutions and practices are instituted. It is necessary to identify the obstacles in the current structure in the City of Port Phillip Council, and overcome them.

Good governance is often referred to as the trust and confidence a community has in its Local government, and the extent to which the community is engaged in its governance. This includes:

Open and transparent government so that people can follow decision making processes and outcomes;
Consultation so that communities feel (and know) they are being heard; and
Good information and communication processes so that communities are being kept informed.

unChain Port Phillip believes the record demonstrates that the 2004-2008 Council has failed on all the above aspects of good governance.

How can the structure of local government in Port Phillip be reformed to ensure that the present Democracy Deficit Disorder does not continue in the next term of Council?

The Local Government Act lays down the basic framework for local government. Its provisions cover the purpose of local government, the constitution of Councils, the objectives of Councils, the role of Councils and councillors, their powers, Council Administration, and the role of Chief Executive Officers.

Furthermore there is a Good Governance Guide (2004), which provides general principles of good governance in local government. However this is not a blueprint so local governments and their communities need to build their own structures for good governance.

The Act and the Good Governance Guide provide the foundation for unChain Port Phillip’s thirteen point plan for good governance.

The 13 Point Plan

The 13 point plan aims to improve the way Council operates in order to produce a better democracy, more transparent governance and better decision-making.

The 13 point aims to help the elected Councillors do the job they are elected to do - to represent the interests of residents and ratepayers of the municipality.

This plan will be further developed in consultation with other interested individuals and community organizations. Comments and suggestions are welcome and should be sent to hollandp@netspace.net.au.

1. Councillors and Candidates

It is imperative that seven excellent Councillors be elected in the November 2008 elections.

unChain Port Phillip is offering five high quality candidates with genuine community links and expertise to be outstanding Councillors in the wards of Point Ormond (Jane Touzeau), Junction (Anna Griffiths), Catani (Serge Thomann), Carlisle (David Carter) and Sandridge (Richard Roberts).

unChain Port Phillip is further recommending electors choose experienced candidates in the other two wards, Albert Park (Judith Klepner) and Emerald (Frank O’Connor).

In order to allow elected councillors to concentrate on policy and strategic matters, Council will consider allocating different areas of activities to each of the Councillors much in the way that at Federal and State level there are portfolios looked after by Ministers.

A portfolio approach encourages Councillors to work together and to think in terms of the improvement of the whole municipality. It also allows Councillors to relate to the bureaucracy better – with each Councillor developing expertise in particular areas, the council collectively is better able to ensure decisions are made in the community’s interests rather than the officers’.

Another significant change to encourage Councillors to think in terms of the whole municipality would be to hold some meetings of Council in South Melbourne and Port Melbourne. The respective Town Halls may be appropriate locations, especially for some of the monthly meetings of full Council. unChain Port Phillip believes that councillors should vigorously champion the interests of residents and ratepayers. In 2008 the state government introduced poorly drafted amendments to the Local Government Act, which would have deterred activists from running for Council and Councillors from representing their communities. unChain Port Phillip initiated public debate on the issue of muzzling councillors which led to the Upper House rejecting the amendments and protecting freedom of speech.

2. Principles and Policy

unChain Port Phillip is developing this set of principles and policies on governance in Port Phillip. These principles and policies are intended to help the elected Councillors over the Council’s next four year term.

Immediately after the election, the Council should conduct a best practice review of local democracy so that processes and innovative ideas from the community and from municipalities in Australia and overseas are used to assist Port Phillip to become a real leader in local representative democracy.

This could be entitled “Port Phillip Conversations”, a series of Open Forums where invited industry experts and professionals, experienced people from other Councils, and other specialists join interested residents to share ideas and discuss how to make the City of Port Phillip more sustainable and more democratic.

The Port Phillip Conversations will include consideration of the British experience led by the Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government. The Empowerment White Paper, ‘Communities in Control: Real people, real power' (July 2008), sets out how the untapped talent of communities can be unleashed to ensure everyone has a greater say in improvements to public services, local accountability and opportunities for enterprise. This includes a new ‘duty to promote democracy’ to help Councils promote involvement through clearer information, better trained staff and more visible Councillors in the community and an extended ‘duty to involve’ local people in key decisions.

3. Councillors and Council Officers

The role of the elected Councillors in today’s local government has been corporatised. Councillors are to act in a way similar to the directors of public companies: they are to steer not row. The role of Councillors is threefold: to set strategic directions and budgets, to deal with major problems, and to support and supervise the CEO and senior management in implementing Council policy. The main tools for setting the strategic directions for the municipality are the Council’s strategic plans: the Council plan, the strategic resource plan, the municipal strategic statement and the municipal health plan. These long-term plans are converted into action through the annual budget and the annual business plan. It is the responsibility of Councillors, not the CEO and Council officers, to determine these strategic directions.

The Chief Executive Officer is responsible for

establishing and maintaining an appropriate organisational structure for the Council;
ensuring that the decisions of the Council are implemented without undue delay;
the day to day management of the Council's operations in accordance with the Council Plan; and
providing timely ( and accurate) advice to the Council

However the current City of Port Phillip Council seems to have subordinated itself to the CEO and the senior officers. The primary objective of the Councillors is to endeavour to achieve the best outcomes for the local community having regard to the long term and cumulative effects of decisions. It is the role of Councillors to provide leadership for the good governance of the municipal district and the local community. Councillors should not be mere constitutional ornaments, rubber-stamping draft documents put to them by administration.

The Council has a Memorandum of Understanding that outlines the relationship between the councillors and senior officers. This document has not been made public. unChain Port Phillip Councillors will push for it to be revised and made available to the public.

The Council also has a Community Governance Statement. This does not properly reflect the role of Councillors under the Local Government Act. unChain Port Phillip Councillors will push to have his document revised as well.

Once elected, our new Councillors will immediately review the performance of the CEO and the organisation to ensure that Port Phillip Council is serving its constituency. Public benchmarks for the performance of senior staff, including the CEO during the 2008-12 term will be established.

The Council has a minimum statutory obligation to annually assess the performance of its CEO (and therefore indirectly the performance of other senior officers). unChain Port Phillip Councillors will review this process and ensure appropriate community participation in the review of the performance of its senior Officers.

The existing culture of “control of the community” by senior Council Officers will be challenged and changed. This will involve two basic thrusts: empowering the elected councillors and empowering the community they represent. As the Good Governance guidelines state: “Possibly the most important role CEOs play in promoting good governance is through the culture they are able to create in the organisation. If the CEO embeds in the organisational culture the concept that Councillors are at the apex of the Local Government structure, and that the administration’s operations exist to support good governance, the organisation is more likely to embrace democratic governance principles and practice”.

4. Controls on Corruption and Malpractice

unChain Port Phillip Councillors will vigorously lobby the State Government to introduce an Independent Corruption Commission to investigate matters such as corruption in tendering and contracts. This will include lobbying through the Municipal Association of Victoria and the Local Government Association of Victoria. Former Port Phillip officers have lashed out at the council’s handling of tendering abuses, saying staff who raised concerns have been attacked or ignored. Therefore our new team of Councillors will review Council’s current whistle-blowing structure to establish why it has apparently failed, and reform it to establish an effective system of control over corruption and malpractice inside Council.

5. Mayor’s Executive Officer

The Mayor, in consultation with all Councillors, will be entitled to recruit an Officer who reports to the Mayor. This would be a full time paid position for the duration of the Mayor’s term of office. The Mayor’s Executive Officer would have the right to attend any of the meetings of the senior executives of the Council, other strategic internal policy meetings, and would assist Councillors to engage with the community on key issues and priorities.

6. Council Directions Paper

One of the major responsibilities of the Mayor’s Executive Officer would be to draft a Council Directions Paper to guide the Council on its strategic policies and budgets for each Mayoral Year. This would be done in consultation with all Councillors, the officers and community groups and individuals. In particular it would be presented in time to set priorities for the annual budget process.

7. Councillors’ Community Officers

One problem with Port Phillip Council is that there are only seven councillors with responsibility for an area that prior to amalgamation covered three Councils with thirty three councillors. To assist Councillors in representing their communities, each Councillor would be entitled to appoint a Community Officer volunteer. Council would support each Officer with office space, computer access and a mobile telephone. The Community Officers would be entitled to attend meetings with the Councillors, including any briefings of Councillors by Officers before meetings of Council and its committees. The value of these volunteers would be subject to independent assessment in the mid-term.

8. Membership of Council Committees

unChain Port Phillip will examine the City of Port Phillip Council committee structure and in particular find ways to draw upon the expertise that exists within the community. Expert residents in areas such as finance, planning and human services could provide councillors and officers with a valuable, additional input into the decision making of council. It is not uncommon, for example, for the audit committees of municipal councils to include outside experts.

9. Advisory Committees

Council has established advisory committees on various matters such as urban history, older persons, multicultural issues, indigenous issues, contemporary art acquisitions, audit, sustainable community issues and community grants assessment. However members of these committees have stated they are less effective than they should have been. The operations of these advisory committees will be reviewed to ensure that this important channel of community input into Council decision-making is most effective.

10. Port Phillip Forum

unChain Port Phillip Councillors will push the City of Port Phillip Council to help set up a “Port Phillip Forum”. This would build on previous models of community development in the City, such as the St Kilda Community Development Advisory Committee and the Port Phillip Community Forum.

The Port Phillip Forum could be a ‘statutory authority’ of the Council, with an independent Board and Constituency, a core financial grant from Council and capacity to raise independent funds.

The function of the Port Phillip Forum would be to act as a strong and consistent voice connecting the community with Council or State Government. Membership of the Port Phillip Forum would be open to individuals and groups such as tenant’s groups, traders’ associations, Community Health Centres etc. An elected committee would manage the Port Phillip Forum. It would have a mission and charter of conduct approved by its members and by Council.

The Port Phillip Forum would be the digital and online hub for current and emerging issues in Port Phillip. In addition to conducting major online consultations, it could hold public meetings, and seek to reach the more isolated communities in Port Phillip. It would facilitate expert comment from within and beyond Port Phillip on key issues. It would be a focus for community volunteers.

11. Residents’ Group

unChain Port Phillip will discuss with other groups and individuals the merits of establishing a broad residents group for Port Phillip. The aim of the group would be to support Councillors in the next Council term from 2008 to 2012. This could take the form of a coalition of residents’ groups.

The group may also choose to participate in State Government decision-making on Council matters such as the number of Councillors for the municipality and the methods of election, planning issues, Council priorities around revenue and funding issues, social justice and economic inclusion issues, and cost shifting between governments.

12. Community Participation and Access to Information

unChain Port Phillip will organise an annual community summit, with the Port Phillip Forum playing a major role in the development of this. This will draw together the advisory committees, community groups as well as the grassroots community. The summit will be held at a time to assist in the writing of the Council Directions Paper. Furthermore there will be ward meetings, in person and online, which could be held every three months.

More accessible and open information is a pre-requisite to community empowerment. Despite freedom of information legislation and more ‘Plain English’ drafting, people feel less well-informed about their local Council today than they did some years ago. Therefore unChain Port Phillip Councillors will ensure improved public access to records of key internal Council meetings and decisions – a new protocol will be developed.

An internal Freedom of Information protocol will be established that goes beyond the current minimum legislative requirements governing the City of Port Phillip. The Council website will be revised to ensure that there are measures for the community to access information and assess the performance of Council. There will be one integrated website to provide a transparent and comprehensive picture of Council’s operations.

Council could adopt a right for local people to force a debate on specific local issues onto the council agenda. This could be a duty on council to respond to petitions, ensuring that those with significant local support are properly considered.

A strong way to empower the community would be to allocate a significant sum each year to each Councillor to spend in his or her ward (say $500,000). There would be an appropriate set of checks and balances to ensure community participation in the decision-making and financial probity. Projects that reflected the community’s priorities rather than Council Officers’ would therefore be funded. A similar model has had marked success in Seattle and has been adopted in some Australian municipalities.

Often residents and ratepayers say that when they ring Council it is difficult to find the right area or indeed person who is accountable for having the query answered or the matter fixed.

unChain Port Phillip suggests the appointment of three to four District Officers for each Ward from the current Council bureaucracy (so there should be no extra cost from this initiative) who each have a third (or quarter) of the Ward to look after on a geographic basis and are the point of contact for residents and ratepayers on every issue they have and who are then directly accountable for fixing issues. They would have to report both to their bureaucratic superior and also to the ward Councillor. Woking Council in the UK is an example of this District Officer system in operation.

13. Process and Implementation

Responsibility for the review of existing structures and development of the above policies will rest with the Mayor and the Mayor’s Executive Officer. The Mayor will establish a group consisting of the Mayor, the Mayor’s Executive Officer, officers, outside experts and community representatives to steer this process. This recognises that the Mayor does not have any executive authority. While the Mayor can be responsible for the development of the strategic vision for democratising Port Phillip, its implementation must be done through the Council’s traditional decision-making structures. The outcome should be an exemplary Council, one that is truly democratic and effective.