May 16, 2012
Councillor Portfolios
Today’s statutory Post Election meeting of the South Burnett Regional Council ushered in not only the new Mayor and Councillors, but also several changes to the way the Council will operate in the future.
One of the biggest of these is the allocation of portfolios to all serving Councillors. Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said this was designed to help them resist parochialism and promote a more regional, strategic view.
The new portfolios were decided jointly between the Mayor and Councillors prior to today’s meeting and will be as follows:
- Governance – Cr Wayne Kratzmann
- Finance and Information Services – Cr Keith Campbell
- Community and Cultural Services – Cr Debra Palmer
- Economic Development – Cr Damien Tessmann
- Roads – Cr Wayne Kratzmann
- Water and Wastewater – Cr Barry Green
- Planning, Land Management and Waste – Cr Cheryl Dalton
- Natural Resources, Parks and Environment – Cr Kathy Duff
Crs Green, Duff, Tessmann and Dalton spoke in favour of the new system, although Cr Tessmann noted that he had little experience with some of his new areas of responsibility and expected to face “a bit of a learning curve”.
The new system was adopted unanimously.
Monthly Council Meetings
Another change announced today was to Council meeting times. In future, meetings will be held on the third Wednesday of each month at 9:00am at the Glendon Street Council Chambers in Kingaroy, beginning with the May 23 meeting next Wednesday.
Explaining the change, Mayor Kratzmann said the Council’s previous system of holding meetings every three weeks had become unworkable and produced poor quality outcomes.
He said the short interval between meetings and the need to close off agenda items a week beforehand often left Council officers with too little time to prepare reports. This had resulted in some reports not being delivered to meetings, simply because there was nothing new to report in such a short space of time.
However, he said the biggest flaw in three-weekly meetings was the delivery of Council’s financial reports.
Cr Kratzmann said it was common practice to process and report on any month’s transactions one to three weeks after that month had concluded. But rolling three-weekly meetings meant that financial reports could fall in any part of the month, which in turn meant that many financial reports given to Council under the former system were inadequate.
“Given the importance of keeping a tight rein on Council’s finances, it’s much more important that we get consistent and reliable reports every month,” he said.
“I believe this change will result in much higher quality meetings, better quality decisions and better outcomes for the ratepayers. And it will be much fairer to our staff as well.”
Cr Keith Campbell agreed with the change, noting that prior to becoming a Councillor he’d worked for a large local company.
“That company’s board found monthly meetings were an effective way to operate the business for precisely the reasons the Mayor has outlined,” he said.
Crs Green and Dalton also agreed with the change.
And while Cr Tessmann said that he was concerned that some matters might have to wait as long as five weeks to be heard if the Council changed to holding only 12 meetings a year, he voted along with all others to accept the new schedule when Cr Dalton explained that the normal business operations of Council would continue regardless of the meeting schedule and few if any ratepayers would be disadvantaged by a slightly longer cycle.
A Birthday Surprise!
The formalities of the day were enlivened during the morning tea break when a surprise birthday cake was presented to Cr Barry Green (who’ll be celebrating his 65th birthday on Thursday) and long-time Council meeting attendee Esmee Chalmers (who’ll be celebrating her 80th the same day).
The pair were presented with the cake under marquees set up for the tea break in the Glendon Street forecourt.
Cr Green said he was “surprised and delighted” and Esmee echoed his sentiments.
Mayor Kratzmann said that his only regret was that Council staff were unable to find enough candles to put on the cake.
But the pair were presented with a knife to slice it up, after which the cake was distributed to guests and the odd passer-by.
Campbell Returned As Deputy Mayor
Cr Keith Campbell was voted in unopposed for a second term as Deputy Mayor at today’s meeting.
Cr Campbell said he appreciated the faith other Councillors had shown in him and promised he’d continue to focus all his attention on the role.
The Deputy Mayor becomes Acting Mayor whenever the elected Mayor is out of the Shire.
Councillors Accept New Mandatory Pay Scales
Councillors also voted today to accept the new mandatory pay scales set by the State’s Local Government Remuneration and Discipline Tribunal in December 2011.
Under the new scale, their salaries will be as follows:
- Mayor – $109,719.00 (80% of the rate payable to a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly)
- Deputy Mayor – $68,575.00 (50%)
- Councillor – $58,288.00 (42.5%)
Mayor Kratzmann noted than unlike the salary scales that were offered to previous Councils, the new scale was a fixed rate rather than a range with upper and lower boundaries where individual Councils could set their pay rates within those limits.
He said he welcomed the new fixed rate because it removed the opportunity for the public to criticise Councils that had opted for the higher end of the pay scale, and also provided more certainty for candidates seeking local government office.
