I recently attended a community engagement event hosted by the City of Port Phillip on Armstrong Street in Middle Park. Whilst the notion of community consultation is positive, the implementation was not. I got referred between the various Council employees for raising fundamental operational issues that didn’t gel with their agenda of soliciting approval for their narrowly presented consultation items. And after feeling as I usually do when interacting with Council, I decided to put this letter together with constructive intent. Below are the broad themes that need to be addressed for real improvement.  

Consultation Manipulation: The event on Saturday was a fine example, as is the current proposed Dog Off-Leash Guidelines consultation. The questions asked are almost always too vague and intentionally designed to elicit an 'agree' response. At the same time, there was no context or supporting information, such as the data to justify the changes, the costs in implementing the changes, where this initiative sits on Council's list of priorities, detailed proposed changes and how success will be measured. All too often I see community consultation processes that are designed to secure the Council an open-ended mandate to build more bureaucracy, rather than treat the community with respect by informing them properly of the background and implications of any proposal before seeking their support.

Operate within the Economy: We’re living in a cost-of-living crisis where people are barely hanging on, businesses are shutting down and employees are losing their jobs. Council should get in the trenches with us. Don't hike rates when we're copping increases everywhere - show us that you're cutting costs at an organisational level the same way we are at a household level. Show us that you're making the hard decisions that we are, not just making our problem worse to protect yourselves from the economy we're not insulated from, the way you are.

Accountability: If Council was more accountable, it’d have greater customer satisfaction. This could be demonstrated to the public through process reciprocity. For example, if Council requires a permit for an application, then it should outline a balanced set of responsibilities between the applicant and the Council. This could be in the form of mandated response times, refunds on applications that are unfairly rejected and consequences when staff don't properly engage and assist applicants towards a successful outcome.

Productivity: One of the officers who I met on Saturday stated they worked at Council for over 30 years. And when I suggested Council needed to be more productive, she said that's why they need to increase rates - the implication being that Council needs more money to do more. I am sure the officer’s intentions were good, but this is a complete failure of Council because it demonstrates a lack of basic economics. Productivity is about doing more with less. It's a measure of efficiency, the difference between input versus output, and ensuring value for expenditure. Ensuring productivity is at the forefront of all decisions is paramount, and all staff should understand this.

Financial Responsibility: It’s fine to have robust debates about budgets, but the best way to convince the public that you need more money is to first prove where and how you're trying to save costs. And the irony is that Council will probably prove to itself that it can find enough money to fund its priorities if it was prudent. Yes, sometimes this means redundancies and initiatives being shelved or canned - but in most cases, it likely just means trimming around the edges for the flowers to grow.

Broader Community Alignment: Whilst Council's role is to represent the interests of its community, it should be acknowledged that the current community is not the future community - and that sometimes the current community can cause immense damage to the broader community. So, to avoid this, Council should commit to helping resolve (or at least not make worse) the broader issues at play - the housing crisis is the obvious, most widespread and intense example of this. I understand it's highly political, but we need leadership that can inspire the next generation of residents, not keep them out.

Perception: There are countless examples of Council creating a perception that it is either focused on issues outside of its remit and/or that its employees are more important than its constituents. There is nothing wrong with people being passionate about social causes, but Councillors and officers must focus on getting the basics right and not using Council resources for personal agendas. Council resources are paid for by ratepayers - most of whom respect your views and just want you to respect theirs in return.

Public Service Pride: There is an evident culture of us versus them. Residents may on occasion be demanding and rude, but Council employees do not have the right to turn against its community. There needs to be cultural alignment with every single staff member. It may be hard to hire and retain staff in a tight labour market, but a small, passionate, and effective workforce is better than a bloated one with varying agendas. Attract talent because they can achieve more public good than in a private organisation, rather than because they can get better personal benefits. But more than structural changes, this just requires strong leadership to constantly reinforce that the ratepayers give the staff a job.

Finally, I believe that the COPP should provide rates relief for all ratepayers in this cost-of living crisis and I encourage you to provide feedback on the Council Plan and Budget using the Have Your Say survey which closes on 13th May. Click on Link to have your say!