The councillors who are elected on September 14 will have their performance monitored by the State Government, with 16 strict new conditions to be imposed on them for the first 12 months.
Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig is proposing to implement a Performance Improvement Order (PIO) on the new Council, which is currently under administration.
The PIO would stop them being able to change the CEO, restructure the Council or change its code of conduct unless the Office of Local Government (OLG) agreed.
The new Council must: implement the recommendations from the Public Inquiry; get approval from its audit risk and improvement committee for any changes in its priorities; and publicly disclose the impacts of any changes to its long-term financial plan.
Decisions cannot adversely impact its financial metrics as measured through the Office of Local Government’s financial indicators.
Administrator Rik Hart welcomes the PIO and has called an extraordinary meeting for Friday, September 6, to formally “note” the intention and adopt Council’s official submission.
“Council welcomes your intention to issue a PIO, setting clear expectations for the incoming Council,” he said in a reply to Hoenig.
“We concur with your view that the PIO will serve the purpose of ensuring that the good work undertaken over the last four years is not lost in the transition to an elected Council.
“It will be very important that incoming councillors are able to represent their constituents effectively and can do so without adversely impacting the position of the Council now, or into the future.”
Hoenig has invited Council to make submissions to him within seven days before he makes a final decision on whether or not to impose the PIO.
He said it was not a critique of the administrator’s work but to “ensure the process of improvement he had created would continue”.
Merilyn Vale
Why is this being imposed Supposedly we will have a fresh set of councillors (I hope)If we cant trust them to make decisions for the first year why even have an election They are being punished for the previous misadministration .Sounds like they will have absolutely no power to make decisions. Why isnt this being imposed on all local govt areas. This is geographical discrimination. This will make me vote informal. convince me otherwise
Central Coast Council should not be singled out by LGM Ron Hoenig.
Any new strict conditions imposed by State Govt should newly be applied to all Councils immediately following the elections this month.
The State Govt should also note that the elections will not be held democratically for electors, as AEC has refused to allow the Liberal Party candidates to be considered, under any conditions.
So, electors will be confined to consider only one side of political thinking which is not democratic.
So many Councils behave badly and they are left for far too long without intervention. The performance of all councils should be on notice ALL the time and they should be regularly audited and subject to performance improvement notices. The Office of Local Government is part of the problem and they should take a much more active stance in governance.
Some closer attention by the Minister for Local Government in an oversight role is welcomed as it would have been over the previously elected council but was sadly lacking. It may be, however, that the Central Coast Council will not be run by the newly elected councillors but by the NSW Labor Government.