Chronicle …. what can I say!
Sue Brooks September 16th, 2009
Someone said yesterday that the new Chron editor makes Nancy look good! After the last few days coverage I wonder if Council will ever get fair and equal coverage in any media anywhere ever! While there is an attempt at balanced reporting it leaves me cold to see the coverage and front page headlines painting Council in such a negative light.
The flooding story opposite Ramada is a good example. Council had responded with a media release before the deadline the day before the story was published. But what did we read in the paper? We read that Council staff couldn’t be contacted. In my mind that was telling a porky. Council had forwarded a response that same day but the Chron didn’t use it.
In the paper today we see Alan Wetton taking aim. The fees for demolition of the buildings in Maryborough are more expensive than usual due to the Heritage component from what I can gather. The other development related fees are compared with Bundaberg and Townsville. If there were some comparisons made with some Sunshine Coast or other Councils the comparisons would show that FCRC is not the most expensive Council to deal with. Council is not collecting these fees to fight Court battles! Legal expenses are budgetted for every year and Council will always face legal challenges. It is part and parcel of every day life especially for Council areas subject to rapid development.
I’m interested in why the Chronicle doesn’t investigate how many applications are approved only to find the land, with approval, going straight into the ‘For Sale’ pages of the property guide. Recently Council approved a subdivision in Hughes rd on a Wednesday and the land was for sale that following weekend! Much land in Hervey Bay has approvals on it which impact on all our statistics, and the great majority of this land remains undeveloped. No 8 storey buildings are being constructed yet but they are approved. Where is our promised Spotlight? This was supposed to be going into the land opposite Bunnings. We are all still waiting for construction to start but this land is more than likely on the market also.
If anyone believes developers are leaving town because they are having a hard time with Council then maybe we should ask the developers why they aren’t constructing their developments on all the land with approvals. Believe me there are lots and lots of developments approved but not started. I will try and obtain some stats for you.
- Council related issues
- Comments(7)
Sue, I’m a little disappointed in your comments. The Chronicle’s editor is finally echoing what many of us have been thinking for a long time – council is under-performing.
If you and your fellow councilors disagree then get your faces in the paper and tell it how you see it. I do feel the editor is giving plenty of ‘right of reply’ to all articles he is printing.
On the flip side, developers do need to play their part also – but again.. is their failure or inability to meet council requirements due to the fact council’s town planning schemes are so far out of date and out of touch they simply are not workable??
The sentiment is there – many within the community – especially those outside of Hervey Bay are disappointed with how council is progressing.
My employer went into council recently to start the process of acquiring a neighbour’s property and having it reconfigured back into his own land (it was carved off by a previous owner trying to make a quick dollar) and was blown away by all the fees and charges not to mention all the running around.
As the Chronicle pointed out today, our region is paying far too much in fees and we DO wonder why this is necessary.
There is nothing wrong with what the new editor is doing and the fact you have posted a comment opposing his methods perhaps indicate he has hit a nerve.
I for one look forward to an exciting new era in the local media as the focus is put firmly back on what is happening in council and the courts (ie. real newsworthy stories) and less focus on the ‘social activities’ of the community. This is best left for the freebie papers!
Please demonstrate how Council is underperforming Ben? As to getting our faces in the paper unless we buy space that is not always easy. It is up to the paper to select stories and print them. While there are calls for Council to ‘be public’ if one looks at Council media releases via our web site you can then compare them to the coverage given via the media. The coverage is selective and this is perfectly normal. The media will not report everything that Council says or does and selectively chooses which stories and utterances gain newspaper column inches.
It is great to see Cr O’Connell indeed having an opportunity for right of reply today in relation to the burning buildings issue, but wouldn’t it have been better to print both stories on the same day?
I don’t believe our fees are too high in comparison with other Councils and many of our rules and regulations are State requirements and not inventions of Council. But I invite anyone to take a good close look at our budget and suggest how we can reduce fees and stay ‘in the black’.
Reconfiguring land does come at a cost and can be simple or complex depending on zoning and other issues. Again regulated by a State controlled IPA Planning Scheme.
Over 600 people work at Council. These people are working hard and collectively are employed to provide a good quality service to our fellow residents. I feel for them when we read ongoing negative stories about Council. For all of them and for Councillors alike, it is like an attack on our family or our own business!
If anyone is unhappy with Council please put pen to page or finger to keyboard and explain what we are doing wrong and what exactly we can do better. I don’t appreciate criticism that isn’t accompanied by positive suggestions as to how to make things better. I will always endeavour to do what I can to improve the way, and the manner, in which we serve our community.
Sue
It takes a tough skin to be a good public official. There will always be detractors who think they could do better and also those who simply don’t think you are doing as well as you could. Every single one of us can do better.
Here’s a few thoughts:
Some people are unhappy with many services being stripped from Maryborough and moved to Hervey Bay.
They ask, Why does council have perfectly good office space in Maryborough (that currently sits very noticeably vacant) while at the same time the officers that were based in that building are now crammed into the rabbit warren that is the Hervey Bay council offices?
Why do we now have dozens of Maryborough residing council staff driving their own and council cars back and forwards to the Bay each day when they could be based here?
Please don’t cite connectivitiy or any other issue as the reason for this. In the age of the computer and broadband internet, many council officers could work from anywhere with a half reasonable internet connection.
I personally was disappointed it took council so long to reject the Granville development last week. If I understand correctly, the council officer’s recommendation for rejection was given several months ago and councilors procrastinated on handing down a decision.
If the recommendation from your officers is to reject then get on with the rejecting so the applicant can get to business addressing the issues.
It was the same with the Flight Training school. Council took far too long to reach a resolution with this development. I understand amalgamation was hovering over council at the time but still feel council could have dealt with that situation far better.
How to reduce fees and charges? Cut the wastage from your business operations. Start with getting Maryborough residing employees working in Maryborough offices to reduce fuel card use. Likewise for those living in Maryborough and commuting to Hervey Bay.
Figure out how to to attract more investment in the area. More businesses, more jobs and more prosperity (and revenue to council). Re-instate economic development unit as a priority!
Have a look at project work – is council getting value for money or are contractors taking council for a free ride?
Have a look at organisational skills of project leaders.. stories of contractors sitting around all day to do a twenty minute job (and charging council for their time) come to mind.
And finally, communicate – When was the last time anyone saw Mick Kruger on the front page of the Chronicle announcing a major new project for the area or opening a new sporting facility or declaring council was working hard to do X? Council is rolling out some exciting projects – the Maryborough CBD works, the new town planning study and other major activities but we don’t really see any of you out there communicating this.
Occasionally we get to hear from Cr O’Connell and I don’t doubt for one minute he is the most active councilor we have. Sue, you likewise at least make an effort to communicate with your constituents. Cr McNeven also seems to reply to most contact from constituents promptly but for the rest who honestly knows?
I am sure many others have even bigger lists and probably more important concerns. Its all good Sue, criticism can be a tool to make us aware of how others feel. Yes, it is a bit disheartening when it is all negative and sometimes unfounded but criticism is also an opportunity to show we can do better.
Well, I am here because Peter Chapman announced your blog in this morning’s paper. That is a positive sign, although a link to your site would have shown a real respect for diligent reporting.
I guess I am one of Peter’s statistics. I have taken pen in hand a few times to have a beef about what I regard as an over-sized monster that was foisted upon us by Andrew Fraser in a travesty of the democratic process and, again in my opinion, is likely to bedevil us in the future.
As evidence, I cite the state’s Health Department, which was similarly thrown together some twenty years ago with little regard for whether it was reasonable to expect human beings to be able to manage such a big complicated system.
You ask for constructive suggestions.
Firstly, we now have lost all sense of having a local representative for our local wards. To compensate, we need you to actively encourage local progress associations, by giving them a genuine voice in how the council’s money is distributed.
Secondly, we now have several councilors who have been elected with the support of an ideological group such as the business sector, environmentalists or advocates for the corporatisation of big government. You all have the right when elected to shape the council according to your vision of a perfect future, but please bear in mind the consequences of some of your courageous policy innovations. Chances are good that in the end, someone is paying the cost for yet another planning regulation or fee.
The recent case of a retail site owner having to shell out for a heritage expert to eyeball his property is a good example. If you are a small operator in our region, chances are that four grand is a big sum of money. So if you love heritage so much, please find the money to fund it yourself, rather than hitting us peasants for the fees to pay an expert to stop us doing what we wish with our own property.
Nor is this a rare example. It has become the rule of thumb that if we want permission from the council to do something on our own property, we better bring our cheque book. It makes an absolute mockery of the term, freehold.
Thirdly, all these fees and regulations tend to kill off the urge for the little punter to try out a small innovative project which may or may not succeed. A four figure council fee is often enough to make the experiment too risky, when you are on a very tight budget.
Meanwhile, in China or India, the peasants don’t have to cope with any of this nonsense. It could be the reason why we are seeing so many jobs disappear overseas and our import bill is soaring.
While the Council’s big job creation projects remain stubbornly in the future tense, we need our little operators to be creating a few new jobs here and there, or else we are going to go into reverse, job-wise.
However, at the personal level, I must thank you and your fellow councilors for doing the job. Someone has to be the conduit in a democracy and you people have stepped up to the plate. Politics must be very tough on the self image.
It is certainly not your fault that a hairy chested young former State Minister for Local Government foisted this amalgamation thing upon us, then wiped his hands of all financial responsibility and moved onto greener pastures.
Unfortunately, it has left you in the sights of some pretty angry peasants.
Finally, I think Peter’s series, on how the councilors are going, could be a force for progress if it is done with an open mind on the part of all concerned. It is vital that councilors do not put up the shutters and that the journalists resist using the tactics of the shock jocks.
We, the voters and newspaper readers, will be watching all parties for signs of positive intention and reasonable performance of the jobs that we pay for one way or another.
Ben thanks for your comments. I appreciate that everyone is sad to see some services and staff removed from Maryborough. I think the reasons are primarily to do with team building and good communication as well as the over riding issue of trying to save money. Staff are still working from all over the place however as Council was keen to ‘streamline operations’ but wanted to provide a consistent level of service. While we can all work online to a large degree there is something about being at work and socialising and chatting to our work colleagues. Being always separate from them can be isolating and I believe Managers need to be within reach of their staff also.
I also believe it was essential for Maryborough, Tiaro, Woocoo and Hervey Bay staff to get to know each other and learn how we all were doing the things we were doing prior amalgamation. It has been a challenging time for everyone.
Many staff that worked at Maryborough live in the Bay and vice a versa. The Mayoral assistant lives in Maryborough and works in the Bay and did so prior amalgamation. The Community Services Director lives in the Bay and used to work in Maryborough but now spends more time in the Bay. Many staff are working closer to where they live although some aren’t. I personally often drive to many places I didn’t have to prior amalgamation! So I’m travelling more than ever before also.
Granville has been deferred 3 times. The last two times I did not vote in favour of referring the decision. The final decision is still to be made.
Flight Training. Council made a decision to progress discussions and agreements and this was still happening at the time Flight Training decided to end the discussions and withdraw their DA. I personally agree that straight after amalgamation many new staff and Councillors took some time to learn the complexities of this proposal and possibly time frames could have been shorter, however Council did not reject it.
Travelling to work is not a cost covered by Council unless you are a staff person who has been shifted to somewhere else and receive relocation compensation by ways of the Transition Legislation. My information is that there are few staff under these arrangements but that relocation of staff was unavoidable given we are now one Council not four.
We have a new Economic Development Strategy and a hard working Councillor and staff team who do their best to support business and attract new. If you have some suggestions as to how they could be doing better I am eager to listen.
I don’t like paying conultants lots of money and prefer project officers employed to carry out a specific task. We do however live in a red taped world I’m sad to say and some consultant work is essential. Council does not have the expertise that can be found via some consultant firms. A recent example is developing our Land Use Strategy. We could not have done this work internally.
I think the Chronicle, other print and TV media give quite good coverage to Council news and activities. This coverage is often postive and informative (though sometimes not). Recent news that comes to mind is myself on Friday news speaking about the SEMP, Mick about the Community Centre and patient transfer facility at the airport, new works for Main St, Hervey Bay… You rightly mention CBD Maryborough, new footpaths and kerb and channelling there and a new gym at PCYC and extensions to the hall at Poona… need I go on.. I might add that there is a lot more to Council than just building stuff.
While Council has media releases constantly available via our web site we are at the mercy of the media. It is up to them not us what they print or put to air. You can subscribe to a new Council produced e newsletter via the web site also for more news.
I appreciate your excellent attempt to use examples and not generalise and I am obviously defensive of Council so please continue the conversations and I will try to respond as directly as I possibly can.
Hi Brian and welcome to the blog. You now have 11 Councillors who represent you wherever you may live. I do agree that Progress Associations are a key community tool and Council is in constant communication with these community groups. The Howard community has compiled a list of wants, desires and needs for instance, and Council is responding to these. Not everything will be granted but it does help Council prioritise and understand what a community sees as important.
All Councillors regardles of their personal or professional or political leanings should be making each and every decision based on the needs and wishes of our community. I trust we all do our best to achieve this requirement as per our foremost responsibility as Councillors.
The heritage issue is a creature of the past Maryborough City Council to my knowledge and nothing new that has been foisted upon the community post amalgamtion. I detest fees and charges but the State Government asks us to do more and more and gives us less and less financial assistance. I wish I had a solution to this challenge as I dislike paying higher rates and fees as do most people I speak to.
I agree with you that small business is the backbone of our community and Council is keen to make business start up easier not harder. If you learn of anyone having problems do let me know. While having visited my son who is living and working in China these last 6 years, I can relate to what you are saying!
An individual Councillor does not achieve as much alone as we do as a group working together with staff and you, our community. I to look forward to any opportunity to communicate the things that we do to the wider community although I detest having to try and score myself via achievements. Rather I like to think that I contribute to robust discussion express my thoughts and opinions clearly and try very hard to keep in mind what our community expects of me.
I can rattle on however so I hope I haven’t bored you to sleep!
Sue,
I have to agree with just about everything Brian Canute has written. He makes a lot of sense, if only
more people spoke up we might get things done.
My only disagreement with Brian is his use of the term “democracy”, we might have a vote, but this
is far from a “democracy”. I am surprised at you Brian.
Sadman