Pratico's push for secrecy

In January, President Pratico finally came up with an idea, and put a motion before Council.  As comets are sighted more regularly than motions put by Cr Pratico, I was interested to see what it was.

So what did he come up with? I should have guessed…  A proposal to take some of the deliberations of Council behind closed doors.  More secrecy!

His motion: That the CEO investigate and report back to the March 2014 Standing Committee,the feasibility of introducing an Informal Session prior to each Council meeting

whereby authors of Agenda Items would be available to answer questions on the

‘background information’ contained in the reports, to allow Councillors to make

informed decisions during meetings.

What Pratico wants is a private discussion between the councillors to sort out any issues about motions before Council, so that the motions flow smoothly through the Council meeting, which is open to the public and minutes are taken.

Pratico claimed he was taking this action because new councillors were not familiar with procedures which allow them to ask questions during Council meetings.  So why doesn’t he, as presiding officer, simply make sure all the councillors are familiar with the rules and procedures?

The CEO rightly pointed out that the proposal was contrary to the spirit and intent of Local Government rules which say that all deliberations of Council should be carried out in public, so that electors and ratepayers can see how decisions are reached.

His background to councillors said: “it is noted (on page 06 of the “Local

Government Operational Guidelines Number 05 – Council Forums”) that:

 “Anecdotal evidence suggests that in discussing the agenda of the forthcoming

meeting at such forums, implied decisions may be made. This familiarity with the

issues and known attitudes can lead to debate at the ordinary Council meeting being

stifled, or non-existent, much to the chagrin of the public who are not privy to the

earlier discussions. Forums held immediately prior to ordinary Council meetings

cause more complaints of secret meetings and pre-determined decisions than any

other type of forums”.

It is the intention of the Act that Councils conduct business,

and make decisions in a manner that is open and transparent…,” the CEO noted.

So faced with a half-assed suggestion from Pratico, along with a pathetic  justification, against clear advice from the Department of Local Government that arranging these kinds of hidden deliberations was unwise and improper, how did the councillors vote...?

The motion was carried, 5 votes to 4.  Crs Pratico, Hodson, Boyle, Mackman and Nicholas voted for secret Council meetings. Crs Wilson, Moore, Scallan and Quinby voted against the motion.

What's left for the CEO to do?

Our Shire Council has placed an employment ad, looking for someone to fill the following role: "Executive Manager, Corporate Services: principally responsible for the financial management and reporting of the Shire... oversee the management of its records management, administration and customer service, as well as contributing to governance functions.... Salary: up to $123,000.''

You could be forgiven for thinking they were looking for a new CEO, as that is a pretty good description of most of the CEO's responsibilities (and a CEO-sized salary).  But it seems they are simply hiring someone to help the CEO perform these functions. Recently a new position was created to take care of human resources management at the Shire, which is another of the CEO's responsibilities.

But hang on, isn't there already a Deputy CEO to help him do these things?  And doesn't he already have a executive assistant?  What tasks remain for the CEO to actually do himself? 

Shire staff numbers continue to grow while businesses in the Shire struggle and rates continue to rise far in excess of the rate of inflation.  It is a juggernaut that must be stopped.

While they continue to create $100,000 per annum-plus jobs in the administration office (and then complain there is not enough office space), the Shire says it cannot afford to fix its rural roads.

Only the councilors can stop the madness, but the problem is most of them, notably President Tony Pratico, are held in thrall to the CEO, convinced he is an infallible font of wisdom.

Some councillors couldn't care less

I happen to think a local government authority should respect and follow its own rules.

It turns out, many of our councillors couldn't care less.

In December, I tried to get a look at the Minutes of the November Council meeting. They were not available either at the Shire office, or on the website.  I checked the Local Law on this, which said the minutes must be made available no later than 10 working days after the meeting. Since 12 working days had passed when I went looking and because this is not an isolated incident of late publication of the minutes, I decided to inform the officers and the councillors who represent us.

I lodged a complaint with the attendant at the Council reception desk, and I emailed most of the councillors (except  Pratico and Quinby, who I have given up on).

Dear councillor,

Standing Orders (Local Law) says that copies of the unconfirmed minutes of Council meetings must be available for perusal at the Shire office customer service area and Library within ten working days of the meeting.

I have today checked the website and been over to the Shire office and the minutes for the meeting held on November 28 are not available.  It is now 12 working days since the meeting. 

This is not an isolated occurrence.  The publication on the website and availability of the minutes rarely occurs within the time prescribed. It is usually a day or two late.

I would like to know why this local law is so often breached, and also, why it takes so long to carry out this relatively simple administrative task. 

This may seem a trivial matter, but I think it is revealing of the Council’s attitude to the issues of openness and accountability.

The response was instructive.   The council staff decided that my complaint was not a complaint, but a "service request", and a few hours after my email went out, they put the minutes up on the website, backdating the date of publication to fit the 10-day deadline.

Only one councillor, Cr Moore responded to my email, saying she would ask CEO Tim Clynch for an explanation.  When she got the explanation from Mr Clynch she emailed me to say she had received an explanation and if I wanted to know what it was I would have to ask Mr Clynch myself.

I emailed the other councillors who had not responded and indicated that I thought it was rude of them not to bother responding to an email from a ratepayer reporting a breach of the Council rules.

Cr Scallan then responded to simply acknowledge receipt of my email.  Cr Nicholls said he had been away, but would look into it. Cr Wilson responded angrily...

Dear Michael

You astonish me. You’re the only person I know who can turn a simple request into a critique of administrative tasks and at the same time question the integrity of the Council. Now, that’s what I call rude.

Tim Clynch later responded to my "service request", saying...

 

I investigated the matter and confirmed that the minutes from the November Council meeting were not uploaded onto the Shire website by the due date.  This has led to a review of our internal procedures and I am confident that this was a “once-off” mistake and won’t occur again.  I am not aware of this ever occurring in the past so I have deemed it to be an isolated event however the officer responsible for uploading the minutes to the website has been counselled on the importance of complying to the deadlines

The description of the publishing date as being “12 December” was not an attempt to disguise the failure to upload the minutes by the due date.  Instead this was the subject name given to the document when the file was created on the website prior to uploading.  The file was actually created prior to the 12 December and the intention of the officer was that the website was to be programmed to automatically upload the document on 12 December.  This however failed to occur and when your customer service request was received on Monday 16 December the officer simply uploaded the document without looking at its specific subject name (publishing date).  It was only when a councillor (Cr Moore) forwarded me your follow up email later that day on Monday that this matter was identified and I instructed the officer to amend the subject name (publishing date) of the file to “16 December”.

Cr Wilson should note that Mr Clynch did not share his view that I was simply being a rude and annoying trouble-maker, as he added...

 

I do appreciate your feedback on this matter as it will assist us to improve our work practices.

Which leaves us with Crs Boyle, Mackman and Hodson who chose to ignore the emails completely, treating my legitimate complaint with contempt and ignoring their duty as publicly elected officials to communicate respectfully with ratepayers and electors. 

How quickly they forget the solemn platitudes about "listening to the community" which are always trotted out in election material.

Boyle, Mackman and Hodson, I have a message for you; you do not represent only those members of the community you like personally -- you represent us all and if you don't want to do it, stop taking our money and resign.