On April 28th I had the pleasure of chatting with the new CEO of South Gippsland Shire Council. It took us both a couple of minutes to grapple with the new zoom technologies but finally we managed to get connected. The interview was quite long so it will be broken up into around 20 parts put up over the next couple of weeks.
Administrator Zahra started by stating the main Strategies of the previous Councillor group. Then he went on to claim that the proposed plan was not just words. That it was a cleaner, clearer policy document and that it would provide greater direction to staff, the team, and the people.
Council has produced 4 “Strategies” to follow over the next 4 years.
Details on Council’s Proposed 4 Year Plan
Council has produced 4 “Strategies” to follow over the next 4 years.
This year’s Annual Budget, and Plan documents were approved by the Administrators for the usual s223 consultation exercise as mandated by the Local Government Act.
This initiative of Council is to provide support to residents and businesses in the Shire who may be affected by the Covid 19 pandemic. It aims to make allowances for those who need assistance with rates and charges.
Cutting links with the community groups like this in conjunction with restrictions placed on groups presenting to Council to (max 3 times per year) is making distance between them (Administrators) and the community. Often, Councillors are the contact points when the community have issues with Council (Staff and or Policies)
Councillors intend to represent the community and attend community events, meetings etc to be up to date and informed by being in the community, not supervising from outside the Shire only hearing from Officers what they need to know.
Making it harder for ratepayers to be “represented” by Councillors (Administrators)
This was the adopted motion.
UNDERTAKE ONLY NECESSARY MAINTENANCE TO CONTINUE THE OPERATION OF THE EXISTING KINDERGARTEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN TOORA AND WELSHPOOL FOR APPROXIMATELY FIVE YEARS PENDING THE OUTCOME OF THE PRIORITISED STRATEGIC ANALYSIS.
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