It is clear from the way Councillor Brown, seconded by ALP Councillor Ann Martin, dealt with the issue of Precinct Committees at the first Council extraordinary meeting that active people, seeking real reforms of Wollongong City Council, have a real challenge on our hands.
Councillor Brown, a master of procedure, treated the issues raised at the Public Access Forum as a threat – not an opportunity – and dealt with them accordingly by ‘neutralisation’ – thanks, tabled and goodbye. No action.
In earlier versions of WCC, Councillor Brown was a key opponent of WCC Neighbourhood Committees and, in a rush of blood to the head, saw them unilaterally dissolved. The Precinct Committees which were to replace them (on the same Council report on agenda for that meeting) never saw light of day under the ALP.
Councillor Brown and the ALP preferred other means which concentrated power in the hands of a corruptible few. That is a failed approach and belongs in the past.
The speed with which that old approach has found its way into the position of Deputy Lord Mayor demonstrates the need for equally quick action by all those who embody a democratic spirit.
We need a brand new Council-Community model – and one designed by the real involvement of people in our communities.
People involved in community life at the grassroots level will have to continue to lobby the newly elected Councillors in order to realise their election promises to improve the Council-Community engagement process.
One of the constant themes in the election campaign was the need for Council to improve the community engagement process.
Now that the new Councillors are safely elected and settling in, they may consider that their presence in Council is all that is required for that to happen. Inertia sets in fairly fast, especially when Councillors are being lobbied and overloaded by interests and forces which are not representative of our communities.
No doubt, in the case of some Councillors, their presence will result in an improvement in Council’s connections with the wider community.
The need for real reform of the Council-Community consultation process goes much further than new faces in the Council chamber.
The deeper issues involved in effective Council-Community engagement are structural in origin. They are all about having a regular and clear two-way communication flow from Council to community and from community to Council.
NEED FOR A FORMAL COUNCIL RESOLUTION
Council needs to formally resolve to address the Community-Council engagement issue as a matter of urgency.
This could come by way of a resolution for a general review of the adequacy of the present Council community Engagement process – but the resolution also needs to include explicit reference to hosting a public forum (and/or workshop) to design a new process. We don’t want more of the same old same old when it comes to community engagement design decisions being made behind closed doors.
Such a resolution (for a public forum) was made by former Councillor David Martin and passed unopposed at the very last Council meeting in March 2008, by our hard working Councillors who were not subject to the ICAC inquiry.
As one of the old hands, the new Deputy Mayor, Councillor Brown, seems to have forgotten what that resolution was:
MINUTES – EXTRAORDINARY MEETING OF COUNCIL HELD ON MONDAY 3 MARCH 2008
60 RESOLVED on the motion of Councillor Martin seconded Councillor Cartan that in order to strengthen the links between Councillors, Council officers and communities that -
1 A forum be held within the next two weeks to discuss the most appropriate model for re-establishing a network of Community Advisory Groups that can effectively develop appropriate, harmonious and formal links with Council.
2 Council write to former Neighbourhood Committee Convenors and Convenors of Local Area Meetings, as part of an open public invitation, and ask them to send two representatives to the forum.
3. The forum be publicly advertised.
4 The operation of Community Advisory Groups be reviewed, along with the Community Engagement Policy, by the end of 2008.
Neither the General Manager nor Administrators implemented this formal Council resolution, nor the spirit of this resolution.
It is time for Council – as proof of good-faith and the new Councillors commitment to a truly democratic spirit – to deliver on the spirit of this formal resolution.
TIMETABLE
The timetable for a Council-Community engagement process review should be over the coming months (October and November) so a new process can be in place by the Council meeting in December 2011. The forum and/or workshop needs to be held in November.
COMMUNITY INVOLVED IN A GOOD-FAITH DESIGN
Over the years we have seen various experiments with this process – WCC Neighbourhood Committees (as committees of Council); Local Area Meetings, Neighbourhood Forums.
The WCC Neighbourhood Committees were part of Council’s committee system, had hard working members who attended each month, serious addressed issues – and were largely ignored by the ALP controlled Council and the Oxley led Council staff.
The last two – LAMS and NFs – were designed by Council to be toothless tigers and clearly marked as being “not part of Council”. How come? Bad-faith is the answer.
These bad-faith designs were foisted on our communities – in the name of community engagement – by politicians and bureaucrats – not designed in partnership with active and engaged members of our communities.
As a consequence of this long experiment over almost two decades now there has been a lot of experience gained by many everyday people in our communities who take a real interest in community affairs at the Council level.
Similarly there has been a variety of experiences at the Councillor and Council officer level.
BEST PRACTICE FOR 21st CENTURY
What is now required from the new Council – especially from those who have a real commitment to improving Council-Community engagement – is the need for Council to resolve to host a public forum (and/or workshop) – with all interested stakeholders – in order to come up with the next design for a best practice 21st century model.
Such as a fair dinkum Council-Community engagement process which has, as is key feature, properly constituted Precinct Committees as committees of Council. These need to be as democratic, open, transparent and accountable as Council itself.
CONSULTANT
Council should also resolve to engage an experience consultant to help them review and implement a new best-practice Council- Community Engagement process.
This would minimise the influence of party politics and Council bureaucrats in the process, and ensure an outcome in which we could all have some degree of confidence.
For a local example of the thinking of such a consultant (may need updating), see http://www.enablingchange.com.au/Open_Your_Council.pdf
WOLLONGONG SPRING
The Wollongong Spring is here. September 2011! All those people who campaigned in the WCC election for better community voices in Council’s decision-making processes, be aware now is the time to keep up your demands for the crucial reforms required to keep our Council on track for the next five years.
An informed, engaged and effective community is the best means of ensuring an end to corruption at Council level. It is also the means of doing community business.
With Europe and the USA in varying states of collapse – with steel no longer being exported from Port Kembla – we cannot pretend that the existing arrangements are sufficient to deal with present and emerging social and environmental problems. It’s “all hands on deck” – the long, lazy days of the 20th century are over – that means having engaged communities.
Become part of a peoples movement Wollongong Spring campaign to ensure the new Councillors take timely action to get the best community based design in place for our local government for the coming five years (and beyond).
How? Lobby your local Councillors to pass a resolution to review Council’s community engagement process to ensure best 21st century practice in contrast with the machiavellian methods favoured by Councillor Brown in the past.
Spring is here – and the sap is rising. It’s our city. Let’s make sure Wollongong shines in its true colours.
Let’s keep the healing power of the honest light of day – which only comes from effective community engagement – on all that takes place in our name at Wollongong City Council.
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