Tag Archives: community

292 – Check–Plan–Do or Plan–Do–Hope?

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600 words (4 minutes reading time) by Tim Whistler

When reading local government plans, you could be forgiven for thinking that The Secret (2006) was a management manual: “ask, believe, and receive”. It is hard to see how some councils think they will make a difference from the way they plan.

To be fair, I agree that councils usually aren’t intentionally stupid or reckless. They’re juggling rate caps, grant uncertainty, ageing assets, and a community that wants more of everything. They are under pressure, and when it comes to their long-term plan, the temptation is to plug the spreadsheet gaps with “efficiency dividends” and “future asset sales” and hope it all works out.

But that doesn’t make it strategic. I call it Plan–Do–Hope.

Council plans

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283 – Celebrating 10 years

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Lancing Farrell

117 – ‘Captain Council’. A local government superhero, posted on June 15, 2015

Local Government Utopia is 10 years old.

Yes! Our birthday was in January this year. We have been too busy writing to reflect on what 10 years of commentary on local government might contain. I have looked at the very first post and what we set out to do. I think we have been true to our aim.

See what you think…

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280 – Reframing the challenge to councils

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2000 words (20 minutes reading time) by Lancing Farrell

Introduction

Is the challenge that councils face insufficient revenue to cover costs? Or is it that they are providing services outside their remit? Or is it waste and inefficiency in their operations? Is it all of the above? And, if it is, where do you start to address it?

When you look at the different things councils are doing to respond to the rate cap – arguing for its removal or modification to enable higher rate increases, cutting services and service levels, shaving 10% off every budget to force savings, or implementing an ‘efficiency dividend’ through successive budgets – you could be forgiven for wondering if councils are trying to solve the same problem.

Having a common view of the problem to be solved is a start to genuine and effective action across the sector.

I have been thinking about a simple re-framing of the problem councils need to solve in a rate capped environment.

So, what is the problem?

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279 – ‘Guerilla volunteering’ – a response to risk aversion and red tape?

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1200 words (12 minutes reading) by Colin Weatherby

A recent article in the Melbourne Age by Alan Attwood, entitled ‘Red tape’s strangling volunteering – creating more casualties than you’d think’, is timely in drawing attention to a growing problem in Victorian local government. Risk aversion and red tape are making it difficult for people to volunteer in their own community or even get a job at their council. This focus on playing safe seems to be counterproductive.

As Sidney Dekker and Georgina Poole point out succinctly in ‘Random Noise – Measuring Your Company’s Safety Performance‘, most organisations don’t exist simply to be safe; they exist to provide a product or service. It is unfortunate that many councils seem to be starting to think otherwise. Dekker uses the term ‘safety theatre’ to describe the superficial and often misleading efforts that organisations put into safety. I can’t help thinking that some of the risk management red tape making volunteering more difficult fits that description.

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275 – My council’s value for money statement

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680 words (7 minutes reading time) by Tim Whistler

Some of the posts on this site really test your patience. There can be just too much idealistic thinking.

Personally, the idea of a Value for Money Statement seems to me to be the latest invention of councils trying to find a new way to pretend they are doing something that they are not. The name says it all. If this is not an example of John Gall’s ‘operational fallacy’, I don’t know what is. Along with Financial Sustainability Strategies, it is a distraction from the serious work councils need to do to fundamentally change what they are doing.

Anyway, it started me thinking about my local council and what they could write about their way of providing me with value for money – assuming they were prepared to be honest. Here is my attempt to describe what I can discern about the principles behind how they actually think they provide value for money:

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274 – The Wigan Deal and Value for Money

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1500 words (17 minutes reading time) by Carole Parkinson

The Wigan Value for Money Statement

Lancing Farrell’s post on Wigan and the Deal 2030 explains how a council has successfully decided to make a radical change in the relationship with its community in response to austerity measures imposed by central government. By all accounts the Deal 2030 has been successful in reducing the resources needed for the council to deliver its services, in large part by reducing demand for those services by helping people to do things for themselves or to access services provided by the VCFSE (voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise) and private sectors.

It is 10 years since the Deal 2030 was launched. As with any big organisational change, it is hard to evaluate its success from the outside. To help us, there have been several reviews of the Deal 2030 since it was implemented, including the King’s Fund (2019), the Centre for Policy Impact (2019), and a Corporate Peer Challenge (2017). All have reported favourably on both the success in implementing actions in the Deal, and the impact of those actions on the Wigan community. Therefore, it was with some interest that I saw Wigan Council has recently released a Value for Money Statement.

Perhaps everything is not what it appears?

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272 – What is the big deal about the Wigan Deal?

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1200 words (13 minutes reading time) by Lancing Farrell

In his post on the Victorian local government enquiry, Colin Weatherby mentioned the Wigan Deal as an example of how councils can avoid the politics of sacrifice – i.e. being forced to give up what you have today – and instead move to the politics of transition – i.e. finding better ways in the future. It seems like a no brainer to me and I am sure every elected representative would agree that this would be better politics. Unfortunately, they are not necessarily getting to make the decision – or, if they are, they are being given limited options by their bureaucracy about the decision they can make.

Strategic versus operational decisions

As an aside, this has been a point of contention in Victoria where the Local Government Act restricts councillors to making ‘strategic decisions’, while the CEO and staff make ‘operational decisions’. The definition of each type of decision seems to be quite flexible. For anyone wanting to see how this plays out, watch the Mornington peninsula Shire Council meeting on the 28 May 2024 at the 4 hour and 25 minute mark. Fascinating.

In contrast, the Wigan Deal was created and implemented with the commitment and direction of both elected representatives and the organisational leaders.

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269 – Unrestricted cash: are councils hopeless or helpless (or both)?

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630 words (7 minutes reading time) by Lancing Farrell

Professor Joseph Drew has posted another of his valuable and prescient videos for local government leaders. His analysis of the financial sustainability of councils in NSW heralds a warning across Australia for councils experiencing rapid increases in expenditure that are not being matched by revenue increases – especially those subject to a rate capping regime. NSW councils are running out of cash to fund operations. The FinPro/Municipal Association of Victoria report in 2022 showed that all Victorian councils except those in metropolitan areas are experiencing underlying deficits and the problem is getting worse.

Professor Drew’s warnings should really be a headline on the agenda papers for every council meeting!

I think part of the challenge for councils in acting on his warnings and advice is the prevalent sense that there is nothing that can be done – councils are at the mercy of forces greater than any they could hope to overcome. In discussions with Professor Drew I have likened it to a movie where a meteorite is expected to hit Earth and no one thinks it can be stopped or deflected.  Half the population are resigned to their fate and having a party, and the other half are sitting in the dark with their fingers crossed hoping it will miss.

Maybe a better explanation is that hopelessness is the feeling that nothing can be done by anyone to make the situation better. People may accept that a threat is real, but that threat looms so large that they feel the situation is hopeless. Helplessness is the feeling that they have no power to improve the situation. I think councils have a strong sense of both.

Well, for those with greater confidence that something can be done (and should be done to protect community interests), here is a list based on the initial advice Professor Drew provides (he is prepared to offer more detailed and specific advice to councils that ask):

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260 – Ministerial Interventions in Local Government

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600 words (7 minutes reading time) by Lancing Farrell

The two previous posts on model collapse and local government have prompted me to think about what has happened in the sector in the last few years. The sudden increase in Ministerial interventions does seem to indicate that something has changed. It may be more than just the introduction of rate capping in 2016.

I started asking colleagues what they think is happening. Unsurprisingly, several had views on what has happened, although no one was definitive. Everyone has anecdotal information from their council. I will have a go at describing the views told to me.

The first colleague reiterated the view put forward by Tim Whistler, that Covid prevented councillors building relationships with each other. It also affected the induction for newly elected councillors, which can be important in clarifying the responsibilities of a councillor, the Council, and the CEO and staff. Roles and responsibilities are cited in Ministerial Terms of Reference in almost all interventions.

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