First of all, there is no difference between an
Alderman and a Councillor – the distinction is simply that one is elected to a
city municipality, the other to a non-city municipality.
And no, it’ not Alderwoman although having a woman in the role does tend to bend some
people’s heads when our partners accompany us to receptions – just what do we
call the Lord Mayor’s partner these days when a woman is elected to the role –
somehow Lady Mayoress just doesn’t work when it’s a bloke. Neither is it Counsellor. That’s US for a legal eagle or someone good
at psychotherapy. Councillors help build community relationships, not fix marriages.
And yes, each municipality is distinctive in its
geography, people places and culture.
Yet there is a lot that each shares.
And one thing in common is what the elected members do in the community. We represent you. We’re the interface between local government
as bureaucracy and local government as community. Specifically, the Local Government Act 1993 states that:
28.Functions of councillors
(a) to represent the community;
(a) to develop and monitor the implementation of
strategic plans and budgets;
(i) the efficient and effective provision of
services and facilities; and
(c) to facilitate
and encourage the planning and development of the municipal area in the best
interests of the community;
(a) direct or attempt to direct an employee of
the council in relation to the discharge of the employee's duties; or
(4)
A councillor is to represent accurately the policies and decisions of the
council in performing the functions of councillor.
And how do we achieve all that? In all sorts of ways and meetings are a big
part of it. The newly elected people
will find that one of the first decisions they’ll have to make is choosing what
committees they’d like to be involved with.
For anyone new who is standing, a hint:
go and actually read the latest Annual Report of your Council, and then have a
chat with a sitting elected member on how the Council works. Once you are elected, your best friend is the
General Manager. Have a look at the Act
again. You’ll be surprised just how
powerful the GM is compared the Mayor – a real reversal from the pre-1993 days!
All elected members attend Council meetings. Then there are committee meetings (for
example, see http://www.hobartcity.com.au/Council/Council_Meetings
or go to the website for your local council and hunt around for a similar web
page) and lots of reading, digesting and cogitating and questioning of agendas
and minutes. And then we put our hands
up for other committees – local area traffic meetings or working groups for
particular projects. In Hobart, Alderman
are nominated to be Council’s representative on outside boards and organisations
– for a taste of this see http://www.hobartcity.com.au/Publications/Council_Reports/Annual_Report
and download to see the range of committees Aldermen get involved with.
Fortunately today most of Council’s paperwork can be
delivered via internal web pages and most Councils are able to do that. We’re lucky that the norm across all tiers of
government is now is for .pdf documentation, although a lot of folks still want
the printed page for ease of reading. It
does make it easy to have web pages that list out the myriad bits of
legislation that we have to be aware of.
First of all, the Local Government Act, and then the Local Government
Meeting Regulations.
Another hint to the new players: get the
meeting regulations and learn them off by heart. Some of the worst moments I’ve witnessed for
newly elected people are when they’ve assumed they know the rules, and then
find out they’ve made a complete hash of it and their reputations. Local government works to its own rules.
That’s an awful lot of meetings, and that is just the
start. What about all those going on in
the community? It’s likely as a
candidate for local government you’ve tilled the fertile voting soil by
becoming involved in your local community through single issue groups or
established charities or hall committees or bushcare/NRM groups or
similar. You’ll still be doing all that,
as well as Council. Life just becomes a
lot more organised around the Council schedule.
Keeping a diary is a must, as missing meetings brings its own penalties.
You’ll see also from Section 28(1) that, on carefully
reading what is there, and thinking about what is not there, that the function
of an elected person is very broad. So
if you get elected as a party person, not only do you bring your own particular
political philosophy into the room with you in representing a particular group
of people, but you’ll find that you’ll have to take a broader consideration, in
that you now represent the whole
community. And that whole community is
made up of all sorts of ideas and philosophies and demands and needs and wants.
So what does an Alderman actually do?
Sections 28 (2), (3), and (4) are pretty function
specific. There are a whole lot of other
things that Aldermen/Councillors do and you’ll get to learn them on the job and
through various induction programs, seminars and workshops.
It’s Section 28(1) that, personally speaking, I feel matters
the most in what an Alderman actually does.
Nothing really prepares you for serving in local
government. It may appear that life will
become a long series of meetings over the next four years, but in between, in
the quiet moments before the next election is called in 2018, consider
this. If you think you acted in the best
interests of the whole community, and kept the conversations going between the
ratepayers and Council, as well as participated in activities that supported
you, the Council and the community to get on, to make things better, then you’ve
worked it out that an Alderman is the link in a series of events and
conversations, in joining the dots and getting the people listening to each
other and talking about what matters. It’s
a different style of leadership compared to State and Federal Government. Being closer to the community, you can do a
lot of good things in local government.
PS: As an example of what I put my hand up for on
Hobart City Council, below is an extract from the Annual Report 2012-2013. The
Antarctic/Southern Ocean industry lobbying for goes through the Strategic
Governance Committee as well as the relationship between Hobart and Launceston. Being on all the local traffic management
groups (the outcomes of which reported to the Infrastructure Service Committee)
gave me an overview of traffic problems across the city.
Committee Memberships:
Strategic Governance Committee (Chairman); Development and Environmental
Services Committee; Finance and Corporate Services Committee; Heritage Account
Special Committee; Infrastructure Services Committee
Representations:
• City of Hobart Eisteddfod Society Inc. (proxy)
• Coming Out Proud – Greater Hobart Community Liaison Committee (proxy)
• Glebe Residents’ Traffic Committee
• Hobart Cenotaph Reference Group (proxy)
• Hobart City Council/Launceston City Council - Memorandum of Understanding
Joint Working Party – from 27/8/2012
• Inner City Action Plan – Project AP01 – Trader Advisory Group (proxy)
• Lenah Valley Residents’ Traffic Committee
• Mt Stuart Residents’ Traffic Committee
• Sandy Bay Residents’ and Traders’ Traffic Committee
• South Hobart Residents’ Traffic Committee
• Southern Tasmanian Councils Authority (Lord Mayor’s nominee)
• Tasmanian Polar Network
• West Hobart Local Area Traffic Management Committee.
Authorised by Eva
Ruzicka, 10 Congress Street, South Hobart.
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