On September 14 we all need to make two important decisions to ensure our future council is the best possible fit for our community.
Firstly, with the referendum we need to choose to reduce the number of councillors from 15 down to nine and the number of wards from five down to three.
If the referendum is passed to reduce the number of councillors, this will not come into effect until the next council election in 2028.
Fewer councillors mean quicker decisions will be made as there are less councillors required to reach a consensus to move the Central Coast forward.
The new division of wards into three means each councillor will have to be aware of the issues that affect the three types of residential areas on the coast – rural, inner-suburb and coastal, all with a range of socio-economic demographics instead of some wards having an elite demographic and others having a majority of very low socio-economic demographic.
However, the success of a reduced number of councillors relies on selecting quality councillors now and the upcoming election is our opportunity to start to choose the right people for this term and future terms in council.
It is important to recognise that a larger number of councillors does not provide us with better representation, as the role of a councillor is not to make decisions purely for their ‘elected ward’ but for the greater good of the entire Central Coast.
The purpose of a ‘ward’ is just to elect a range of councillors from across all areas the Coast, however once the councillors are elected – the wards are irrelevant, as every councillor must represent and is responsible and accountable for the entire Central Coast not just their elected ward.
This was one of the problems identified with the previous council, they concentrated too much on their ‘own backyard’ instead of the interest of community as a whole.
Every councillor should bring a skill set to the table, hence having the right councillors with the right mix of skills and professional qualifications will achieve more than a larger number of councillors who are only interested in their own personal singular issue activism.
Secondly, we need to elect the next four-year term of councillors.
These councillors need to have the aptitude to understand governance to hold the CEO accountable and examine financial information presented to them allowing for prudent decisions to ensure viability.
They need to understand the social and financial needs of ratepayers to make decisions that bring the best outcome for all residents not just minority groups.
The success of a new council will depend partly on the ability for all the councillors to co-operate, negotiate and verbalise capably their views to make a change for the greater good of the community.
We need to choose quality candidates with a range of professional qualifications and experience, who can leave their political allegiances at the door to make sound decisions for our community and recognise that sometimes they will have to make hard decisions that will disappoint people.
I wish all our future councillors well because it affects my lifestyle moving forward.
Email, July 23,
Alan Pappas, West Gosford
Its a false fallacy that less numbers of councilors will result in a more efficient council this is a completely baseless claim, all this means is less representation for the residents of the Central Coast. If we move to 9 councilors the Central Coast will be the least represented council in NSW when it comes to councilors to population ratio.