A suite of detailed reform measures to open-up the Eurobodalla Shire Council to greater accountability will be proposed to the new council on Day One with a 90-day schedule for full implementation.
Eurobodalla Labor for Council pledged today that its elected councillors would move swiftly with other like-minded councillors to implement the reforms in the new council’s first 90 days.
“Before every council election, voters have frequently heard assurances from candidates that, if they are elected, there would be full transparency and accountability in the future,” Labor’s mayoral candidate David Grace said. “However, the actual outcome after each election has been no change whatsoever to the culture of secrecy and unaccountability that pervades the activities of the council.
“In fact, many people believe the situation has probably deteriorated over the last decade or more and we’ve decided it’s time for some concrete, positive outcomes for the community.
“We are not going into the election with a bundle of vague assertions and aspirations; instead, we have developed a suite of detailed reform measures,” he said.
The measures include a commitment that:
- council’s meeting practices are upgraded to produce properly informed decision-making by councillors; the webcasting of community forums; respect for presenters; and the possibility of some meetings being held regularly at locations other than Moruya;
- council’s conduct complaint procedures are improved to create at least some level of impartiality, openness and fairness in the examination and processing of the community’s complaints about alleged misconduct by councillors and staff;
- the legal advice that is sought (at the community’s expense) from the council’s legal advisors, is to be provided in the context of the community’s best interests, not the officials’ interests and, wherever possible, is to be made publicly available by the council;
- the recruitment procedures for the council’s senior staff positions, particularly the General Manager’s position, properly reflect the essentiality of a leadership team that genuinely believes in a culture of transparency, accountability, honesty and integrity; and
- a range of other vitally important and proper administrative procedures are implemented as soon as possible.
The full details of these reform measures are on Eurobodalla Labor for Council’s website.
The Labor candidates in addition to David Grace are Maureen Searson, Matthew Findlay, Claire McAsh, Deirdre Russack and Jack Egan.