15th August 2021 (#47)

Subscriber-only episode

Coming up on the Local Government News Roundup, episode 47… a Melbourne council to test community appetite for accepting commuter car park money; a planned employment precinct for Greater Bendigo takes a big step forward; Logan council’s concerns over inland rail supported by a Senate inquiry; and CEO news from Queensland and New South Wales.

Plus much more on the Roundup, brought to you by the Victorian local Governance Association.

Links:
Glen Eira commuter car parks to undergo consultation
Yarra Ranges calls for more federal government assistance with storm recovery
Dandenong South East Leisure appoints inaugural CEO
Bendigo employment precinct land purchase
New co-working space in Golden Plains Shire
University of Melbourne launches Indigenous business leadership centre
Logan receives support from Senate inquiry for inland rail position
Maranoa to part ways with CEO
Dubbo to press ahead with CEO recruitment process
LGNSW claims win on proposed new developer contribution laws
Fine for cutting down trees sends strong message in Byron Shire
Launceston to have e-scooters on streets this year

Victorian Local Governance Association
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The Local Government News Roundup is brought to you by the Victorian Local Governance Association, the national broadcaster on all things local government; with support from Davidson, the nationally recognised executive recruitment and business advisory service.

Links for stories referenced in the podcast can be found in the transcript, or by visiting the Roundup website.

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to the Local Government News Roundup for 15th August 2021. I’m Chris Eddy.

Coming up… a Melbourne council to test community appetite for accepting commuter car park money; a planned employment precinct for Greater Bendigo takes a big step forward; Logan council’s concerns over inland rail supported by a Senate inquiry; CEO news from Queensland and New South Wales

All that and much more coming up on this edition of the Roundup, which is brought to you by the Victorian Local Governance Association, home of the VLGA Connect series of interviews and panel discussions, including our milestone edition reflecting on 200 episodes. You can watch that now on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Glen Eira City Council has decided to test community appetite for accepting $20 million in federal government funding for two commuter car parks.

The Age reports that the Council commissioned an independent probity report into the funding, which recommended a probity firewall be established to insulate the council from the controversial federal department grant process.

At a Council meeting last week, the Councillors decided to conduct a community consultation process, which is likely to mean any construction of the car parks would not be complete before early 2024.

Yarra Ranges Council is calling for more support for communities impacted by the storms in early June, which have left a recovery bill conservatively estimated at $65 million.

The Council is seeking more Federal Government assistance with a huge financial gap in addressing widespread damage on roads, water, gas and telecommunications infrastructure. Mayor Fiona McAllister said the council continues to uncover new challenges and hurdles as the full impact of the storms becomes clearer, estimating that recovery could take up to three years.

The Council wants the federal government to prioritise telecommunications issues, after 34 communities lost mobile and NBN service during the storm, and NBN service yet to be reinstated in some parts of the shire.

The inaugural CEO of Greater Dandenong's new South East Leisure entity has been announced this week. John Clark, currently Manager of Brimbank Leisure Centres, has been appointed to lead the newly established company that will manage the four Council-owned leisure facilities.

Mr Clark has experience in startup aquatic facilities and has been leading the planning for a new St Albans Health and Wellbeing Hub to open next year. He takes up the position with South East Leisure next month.

Plans for a new employment precinct in Greater Bendigo are moving forward, with the Council announcing the purchase of 155 hectares in the preferred area along the Wimmera and Calder Alternative Highways near Marong township.

CEO Craig Niemann said the land purchase was a significant step towards developing the planned Bendigo Regional Employment Precinct, to support new and expanding businesses and attract longer term investment in Greater Bendigo.

He said the city needs more unconstrained and strategically located industrial land, with less than 10 years' supply of industrial land left in the city. 600 potential sites have been considered leading up to the purchase, and detailed  work will now commence to progress planning studies and rezoning requirements.

Golden Plains Shire’s first co-working space is now open in Smythesdale.

Minister for Regional Development Mary-Anne Thomas officially opened the Digital Hub last week, along with Golden Plains Shire Mayor Cr Helena Kirby and representatives of local businesses.

The new Digital Hub is a modern and accessible co-working space with fast and reliable NBN internet and strong mobile phone coverage. The Hub is located at the busy community facility in the north of Golden Plains Shire,  and was funded by the Victorian Government with a grant from the Regional Digital Fund.

As part of Council’s COVID-19 Business Support Program, Golden Plains Shire residents and businesses have free access to the Digital Hub for the first 12 months of operation.

The University of Melbourne and Melbourne Business School have launched an Australian-first Centre for Indigenous Business Leadership.

The centre will be a home for education, engagement and research to support self-determined growth of Indigenous businesspeople, companies, and communities around the country.

It aims to become a primary resource for governments and corporations, providing previously unavailable research and data to inform policy and provide insights into procurement and Indigenous engagement activities.

More local government news from around Australia in a moment, but first a reminder about the next global panel event, to be brought to you by the VLGA and LGIU.

We’ve assembled a high calibre panel to discuss the role of councils internationally in building community wealth. Pat Fensham, Principal and Partner with SGS Economics will join Monica Barone, CEO of the City of Sydney and Craig Hatton the CEO of Scotland’s North Ayrshire Council on our panel to discuss the growing movement of councils embedding community wealth building principles in their economic development plans and strategies.

This global panel event will take place online via Zoom on Thursday 19th August at 5.30pm AEST, 8.30am UK time. Go to vlga.org.au/events for more details and to register your place.

We start the national roundup in Queensland, and concerns that thousands of City of Logan residents will be negatively impacted by the Inland Rail project have been confirmed in a Senate inquiry report tabled in the Senate last week.

City of Logan Mayor Darren Power said the Senate Committee had supported the Logan community by recommending a “rigorous, transparent and consultative impact assessment of the Kagaru and Acacia Ridge to Bromelton project (K2ARB)”.

Cr Power said the council and community have long been vocal about the impacts of the project, with the route selected without consultation and no opportunity for residents to offer alternatives.

The Senate inquiry report noted the potential adverse impacts of a 24-hour journey time requirement between Melbourne and Brisbane and recommended there be no adverse impacts on passenger rail networks including the Salisbury to Beaudesert project.

The report also makes several recommendations regarding the need for thorough consideration of alternative routes from Toowoomba to the Port of Gladstone.

Cr Power said Council would formally consider the report’s recommendations during its September meeting round.

Maranoa Regional Council has voted to part ways with its CEO Julie Reitano when her contract runs out next May.

The Courier Mail reports that the councillors discussed the matter at the commencement of last Wednesday's Council Meeting, with two councillors including the Mayor absenting themselves due to a declared conflict of interest.

A motion to provide formal advice that the Council would not be entering into a new contract with the CEO was supported by a majority of councillors present. The reason for the decision has not been disclosed.

Meanwhile, Dubbo Regional Council in NSW has held an extraordinary meeting to commence the recruitment process for a permanent CEO.

The Mayor, Cr Stephen Lawrence, said the deferral of the Council elections until December means the Council can commence the process now, and have it finalised before the caretaker period commences in early November.

Local government NSW is claiming a win after controversial new planning laws expected to slash developer contributions to local community infrastructure were rejected by a Parliamentary Committee this week.

LGNSW President Linda Scott said the Committee recommended a hold on the proposed changes, which would have deferred and reduced the critical developer payments used by councils to deliver increased infrastructure to support new developments.

The committee report recommended the Bill's proposed changes to infrastructure contributions not be processed until the draft regulations have been developed and released for consultation.

Cr Scott has called on the NSW Government to withdraw the Bill and to rewrite it completely.

In Byron Shire, a property owner has been convicted and fined $30,000 for cutting down three mature trees and ordered to pay the Council’s costs of $5,500.

Two of the trees were mature coastal cypress pines which formed part of an endangered ecological community.

In September 2020, the Council received a development application for a swimming pool and when staff inspected the site of the proposed pool they noticed that three trees had been cut down.

The property owner was issued with three $3,000 on-the-spot fines but the property owner elected to have the matter dealt with in the Local Court.

The Council's legal counsel said the significance of the fine sends a message that removing trees without approval is not acceptable.

To Tasmania now, and the City of Launceston expects e-scooters will be operating on the city's streets by the end of the year.

The Tasmanian Government has identified amendments to transport regulations that would allow electric scooters to be introduced to Tasmania.

The proposed changes to the regulatory framework would allow both commercial ‘hire and ride’ operators and private e-scooter use at certain speeds on most local roads, footpaths, shared paths and bicycle paths. 

To capitalise on the new regulations, the City of Launceston and City of Hobart are undertaking a joint Expressions of Interest Expressions process to find a suitable supplier and operator for a trial of 'hire and ride' e-scooter technology. 

Now let’s see where our international spotlight lands today…. 

In Texas, where the state's governor has banned mask mandates, an increasing number of local authorities and school boards are taking to the courts in an attempt to override the ban.

The Associated Press reports that Harris County in Houston, the most populous county in the state, is the latest to obtain a court order allowing them to issue an order for masks to be worn inside schools and child care centres.

At least four other counties have been granted restraining orders to let them put mask mandates in place.

COVID-19 hospitalisations are on the rise in Texas, with numbers returning to levels last seen in February, and hospitalisations up by 343 per cent in the past month.

Latest figures estimate 45% of the population in Texas is fully vaccinated.

In England, local authorities now have access to a series of detailed reports demonstrating the local impacts of COVID-19. Researchers at the University of Liverpool have produced the reports from 12 months of local level public sector data to create a resource for informing local pandemic responses in the short and long terms.

The reports use de-identified data from the national test and trace programme, along with health and administrative data from the Office of National Statistics and local authorities to build an understanding of the spread of the pandemic in each local area, and its impact on communities.

The themes of the reports include demographic and occupational inequalities, excess mortality and economic vulnerabilities. The data allow comparisons for local areas against national figures, and it's hoped it will be used to help better inform local pandemic responses.

And finally, I recommend to you a story out of Florida, where the city manager of the City of Niceville has just clocked up 50 years on the job - 49 of those in the top position.

Lannie Corbin is believed to be the longest-service city manager in Florida by a margin of ten years. In his time, the town's population has grown from just over 4,000 residents to 15,000 today.

He has been honoured with the unveiling of a clock tower in the courtyard of the Niceville Senior Center. And even at 79 years old, he has no plans to retire any time soon.

And that’s it for this edition of the roundup.  Visit www.lgnewsroundup.com for more on each episode, including show notes, links to the stories referenced and extra features.

The Local Government News Roundup is brought to you by the Victorian Local Governance Association, the home of the VLGA Connect series of interviews and panel discussions. There’s a new edition of the Governance Update now available with Stephen Cooper. Catch up now on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Join me next time for more local government news. Until then, thanks for listening and bye for now.