Local Government CEOs put on notice

Sunday Times 12 May 2019 EXCLUSIVE by Josh Zimmerman, page 26

A GROWING number of councils are revolting against an ongoing review of the Local Government Act over concerns it will hand more power to chief executives and bureaucrats.

The councils of Cambridge, Subiaco, South Perth, Nedlands, Stirling, Cottesloe, Mundaring and Augusta-Margaret River have all passed motions calling for any proposed changes to first be referred to a parliamentary committee for consideration.

Some councillors fear the powerful Western Australian Local Government Association has hijacked the ongoing review of the Act to push its own agenda at the expense of what is is actually best for residents and ratepayers.

Opposition local government spokesman Tony Krsticevic said councillors were sending a strong protest against what they perceived as the “empire building” tendencies of some CEOs.

“In a lot of cases administrations aren’t keeping councillors informed and instead are putting in submissions to this review to try and improve their own position,” Mr Krsticevic said.

Cambridge Mayor Keri Shannon said a CCC investigation into the Shire of Exmouth in 2017 — which described former shire chief executive Bill Price as “a law unto himself” — highlighted the dangers when a council did not hold its CEO to account.

“I thought the reform would deal with issues raised by the CCC, including confusion about when a councillor can make inquiries of administrative staff and a lack of adequate oversight by councillors,” she said.

“Instead of dealing with those things the ideas being floated are basically a WALGA wish list that I think gives even more power to the CEO.”

Subiaco councillor Julie Matheson said council CEOs salaries were partly determined by the number of people they employed, creating an incentive to constantly increase staff numbers — which resulted in a corresponding increase to rates.

Stirling councillor Elizabeth Re said councillors who publicly questioned the information provided by CEOs or administrative officers put themselves at risk of being referred to standards panels, where they were left to foot their own legal costs.

While anybody is free to make a submission to the review, a reference group set up by Local Government Minister David Templeman to consider the feedback is dominated by industry groups like WALGA.

WALGA president Lynne Craigie said the organisation had consulted widely to formulate its policy positions, which were unanimously endorsed by its State Council.

Mr Templeman stressed the reference group, to which he has recently added a representative from the WA Residents and Ratepayers Association, was only an advisory body.