A DANGEROUS RADICAL ON THE LOOSE

Town of Vincent Mayor John Carey’s outrageous proposals for the reform of local government in WA

Some of you may have read a report by Kate Emery, headlined ‘WA Councils urged to embrace reforms and let ratepayers speak’, in Tuesday’s West Australian.

If you missed it, you can find the report online at https://t.co/NFLw7ZCyNa .

The person doing the urging was John Carey, the redoubtable mayor of Vincent.  On 22 August last year, under the heading ‘Message from a distant galaxy—a glimpse of the world to come?’, I posted reports of his attempt to persuade delegates to the annual WALGA conference to agree to various reforms.

 Among them was that councils should publish online details of all gifts, travel concessions and hospitality received by councillors and all contacts with developers.

He also argued that ratepayers had an unqualified right to information about how municipal funds are spent.

Needless to say, the conference decisively rejected Mayor Carey’s proposals, which would have enforced openness, honesty and accountability on everyone involved in local government in WA. 

No doubt the majority of delegates, determined not to be dragged feet-first into the current century, regarded him as a dangerous radical with undesirable revolutionary views which if put into practice would set tumbrils rattling through the streets and heads rolling along them.

Nothing daunted, Mayor Carey has now put forward a raft of progressive reforms he desires to introduce in his own bailiwick of Vincent and to see adopted by councils throughout the state. 

In summary, those reforms include:

1. Councils to permit ratepayers to speak more freely at meetings  (and presumably, in York’s case to take up more time in asking questions than the stingy absolute legal minimum of 15 minutes which is all that’s currently allowed). 

2. CEO positions to be re-advertised after their incumbents have enjoyed three consecutive terms in office.

3. Council meetings to be recorded and the audio put on line. 

4. The role of the Auditor General to be expanded to include financial and compliance audits of councils (this is in line with state government intentions). 

5. Councils to register impartiality interests online.

6. Councils to make public online full details of official travel undertaken by councillors and council staff, not just contributions to travel.

Mayor Carey said that his proposed reforms would empower ratepayers, while making some CEOs and Mayors (and I suppose by extension some shire presidents) ‘very uncomfortable’. 

What would be the implications of such reforms for the Shire of York? 

Obviously, the reforms tend in the direction of greater transparency.  This is not something the Shire currently favours, as witness the suppression of the Fitz Gerald Report, former councillor Pat Hooper’s so-called ‘minority report’—both nevertheless illicitly available for all time online—and most recently the Major Fraud Squad report, apparently on the grounds that individuals are named in it at whom we might be tempted to throw stones if it got out.

I’m sure Mayor Carey would agree with me that protecting already sullied reputations, and worse, concealing issues and anomalies for which those individuals were responsible, is no way to inspire confidence in our elected representatives and the staff employed to give effect to their decisions and handle municipal funds. 

Vincent's  mayor John Carey and friend

POSTSCRIPT

‘I know that’s a secret, for ‘tis whispered everywhere.’

William Congreve, The Double Dealer, Act III Sc. 3

Rumour has it that at 5 pm this day, Friday 22 March 2016, our councillors will meet in secret session to discuss…well, I honestly don’t know, but we’ll find out soon enough.

One of my informants opined that the meeting’s purpose is to discuss a letter from a certain former CEO demanding that Council maintain its resolve to bury the Major Fraud Squad report as deep as the spade will go, and threatening fire and brimstone if the report should ever leak into the public domain.

Another said that the meeting would deal with the thorny question of what and how much information the Shire might be prepared to share with the people who elect the Council and pay for the wages, salaries and emoluments of its employees.

A third suggested that Council will consider ways to shut down or tame the blogs—not so much this one, which they probably regard as a vehicle for the lucubrations of a harmless crank, and very likely don’t read, but the other one, which tends to proclaim more ferociously its views on issues of the day. 

I doubt that any of those prognostications holds water.  I think the meeting may simply have been called to give councillors the chance to get to know socially the Shire’s new CEO, Paul Martin, who starts work on Tuesday.  As to what will be discussed, your guess is as good as mine, and probably better.

It would be a nice gesture for Council to organise a social occasion allowing us humble ratepayers to meet Mr. Martin and discuss with him informally our wishes and concerns regarding future directions for the Shire of York.

We might then be able to raise with him the need to downsize and restructure staffing arrangements, exercise more stringent control over the management of Shire assets, and impose a moratorium on further rate increases.  

Readers, if you had the chance to meet Mr. Martin socially, what topics would you want to chat about with him?  Answers, please, in a sealed brown envelope, and don’t forget the stamp.