n the City of Launceston's agenda papers released online today there is a response to the questions I posed were clearly addressed to "the Mayor and Councillors" – See City of Launceston COUNCIL AGENDA Page 26 for Thursday 23 January 2020 – and they have been responded to:
- By management; and
- Who have not, on available evidence, referred to Councillors in any way: and
- Who have dismissed the questions, and indeed the questioning too apparently, as inappropriate.
- 'Governance' – The Councillors – whose role it is to determine policy and strategic directions; and
- 'Management' – The CEO/GM et al – whose role it is to implement the policies and strategic directions, implemented/determined by governance.
As always, meaning is found in the context. All that said, it is rather interesting that Questions 20 (a)(b)&(c) went unanswered and they might have been addressed given that the information needed to do so falls within the CEO/GM's direct responsibility.
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FROM THE AGENDA PAPERS
FILE NO: SF6381
AUTHOR: Anthea Rooney (Committee Clerk)
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER: Michael Stretton
QUESTIONS and RESPONSES:
The following questions, submitted in writing to the Council on 7 January 2020 by Mr Ray Norman, have been answered by Tracy Puklowski (General Manager Creative Arts and Cultural Services), Nathan Williams (Manager Finance) and Leanne Purchase (Manager Governance). The questions as submitted by Mr Norman are attached to this Agenda Item. A number of recurrent themes have been identified in the submitted questions and the following statement addresses them.
Many of Mr Norman's questions seek an assessment of his views and a direct response is neither appropriate nor provided for by regulation 31 of the Local Government (Meeting Procedures) Regulations 2015.
Response:
Tracy Puklowski (General Manager Creative Arts and Cultural Services), Nathan Williams (Manager Finance) and Leanne Purchase (Manager Governance)
Currently QVMAG operates as a unit of the City of Launceston. The institution's strategic direction is currently determined by the Chief Executive Officer, the General Manager of QVMAG, and Councillors.
The individual and collective functions of Councillors are prescribed by section 28 of the Local Government Act 1993 (Tas). For convenience, this section of the legislation is reproduced here (in part):
28. Functions of councillors
(1) A councillor, in the capacity of an individual councillor, has the following functions:
(a) to represent the community;
(b) to act in the best interests of the community;
(c) to facilitate communication by the council with the community;
(d) to participate in the activities of the council;
(e) to undertake duties and responsibilities as authorised by the council. City of Launceston
COUNCIL AGENDA Page 19 Thursday 23 January 2020
8.1.5 Public Questions on Notice - Mr Ray Norman - 7 January 2019 …(Cont’d)
(2) The councillors of a council collectively have the following functions:
(a) to develop and monitor the implementation of strategic plans and budgets;
(b) to determine and monitor the application of policies, plans and programs for –
(i) the efficient and effective provision of services and facilities; and
(ii) the efficient and effective management of assets; and
(iii the fair and equitable treatment of employees of the council;
(c) to facilitate and encourage the planning and development of the municipal area in the best interests of the community;
(d) to appoint and monitor the performance of the general manager;
(e) to determine and review the council's resource allocation and expenditure activities;
(f) to monitor the manner in which services are provided by the council.
Section 65 of the Local Government Act 1993 (Tas) requires the General Manager (Chief Executive Officer) to ensure that any advice, information or recommendation given to the council is given by a person who has the qualifications or experience necessary to give such advice, information of recommendation.
City of Launceston's Register of Delegations consists of instruments of delegation and a summary list. In the lead up to the effective date for the organisational alignment project, the matter of delegated authority was given priority to ensure that the Council had the appropriate instruments of delegation in place by 9 December 2019 (the effective date of organisational change). The writer was provided with a copy of those instruments on 10 December 2019. The updated summary list was not available at close of business 2019. It will be completed and published online by 31 January 2020. Council Officers are aware of the requirements of section 22(4) of the Local Government Act 1993 (Tas).
Since late 2018 the General Manager (Director) and staff of QVMAG have been focused on improving a range of museum activities, commensurate with museum best practice and the role of a museum in the 21 st Century. This has included ensuring that museum policies and processes are up to date and fit for purpose, ensuring that museum storage spaces are clean and safe, that the museum's collections are well understood and that information about them is created and kept in a manner that is consistent, reliable and that supports the eventual digitisation of these assets.
Addressing this important work has required the following:
A clean up of storage spaces at the museum. This resulted in the disposal of some old and damaged exhibition furniture. Any exhibition furniture that was in usable condition but surplus to requirements was offered to other museums, as is best industry practice. At no stage have any other museum assets (particularly collection assets) been disposed of, contrary to the writer's assertion. The writer would be aware that best collection management practice encourages the regular appraisal of collections and allows for occasional deaccessioning of material deemed no longer in line with the collection policy. However, this should in no way be confused with any disposal of non-collection assets. City of Launceston
COUNCIL AGENDA Page 20 Thursday 23 January 2020
8.1.5 Public Questions on Notice - Mr Ray Norman - 7 January 2019 …(Cont’d)
The audit of QVMAG collections, which is a necessary and overdue project. Information relating to the collections has been captured in varying ways over the years. It is vital that all data relating to museum collections is captured in a manner that is consistent and accurate. 'Clean' data will allow for the eventual digitisation of the collections, which supports greater access. Digital access to the collections has far-reaching benefits for the general public and the research community alike.
The collection audit is a significant project which has required spaces at the Art Gallery to be used in different ways. Rather than undertaking this work behind closed doors, QVMAG is making it public. This innovative approach is again geared towards enhanced access and understanding of the collections. It also enables staff to plan for a rehang of the museum's galleries, another project that is well overdue. Static collection hangs framed by 'colonial' and 'federation' purviews might resonate with some segments of society, but the museum has a responsibility to reflect more experiences and voices. Change is necessary.
It has been acknowledged that having a museum as a unit of a local authority does bring some constraints and that the size and scope of QVMAG places an uneven burden on the City of Launceston and its ratepayers. It is therefore, timely and necessary, to consider what governance structure will best position QVMAG to grow and develop, to operate in a more commercially positive manner and to draw on skills and knowledge held in the community. Community consultation and working with the museum's existing and various advisory groups will be an important aspect of this process. This is an important body of work and the City of Launceston is committed to undertaking it in a rigorous manner.
In relation to the funding that QVMAG derives from Council, there is not an undisclosed levy/charge specifically directed towards the QVMAG. QVMAG is funded through the Council's documented and disclosed rate, fees and charges and operational grant funding revenue. A total of $2.35m of revenue resulted from QVMAG's recurrent operational budget in the 2019 financial year. These figures are derived from the publicly available QVMAG Annual Report on the Council's website.
As part of the current funding agreement, the QVMAG is working with the State government to develop a new set of performance indicators. Information about grants is detailed in the QVMAG Annual Report. City of Launceston
COUNCIL AGENDA Page 21 Thursday 23 January 2020
8.1.5 Public Questions on Notice - Mr Ray Norman - 7 January 2019 …(Cont’d)
Questions:
1. Is it acknowledged and recognised that there is a perception that the City of Launceston’s ‘Councillors’ are the QVMAG’s Trustees/Councillors/Governors by default and as a consequence all materials - objects, works of art, specimens, cultural and intellectual property, historic material, etc. - held in the QVMAG’s collections are under the Councillor’s/Trustee’s custody in both ‘law’ and ‘lore’ and that you are not delivering on the trust invested in you?
2(a) Consequent to this, is it acknowledged that the determination of QVMAG policies is an ‘obligation’ that falls to Trustees/Councillors/Governors?
2(b) Do you acknowledge that QVMAG policies are outdated, outmoded and fail to meet current ‘best practice’ standards?
3(a) Consequent to these considerations, is it acknowledged that the determination of QVMAG ‘strategic directions’ is a matter that falls exclusively to Trustees/Councillors/Governors?
3(b) That this is so albeit that ‘management’ may provide logistic support and ‘expert
advice’ under section 65 of the Local Government Act, nevertheless, do you acknowledge any ‘lack of adequacy’ you are receiving and have received, in regard to advice relevant to the QVMAG’s strategic directions and policies?
4. Is it acknowledged that the determination of QVMAG ‘policies strategic directions’ are matters that the GM/CEO, beyond providing/facilitating ‘expert advice’ under section 65 of the Act, has no role to play?
5. Is it acknowledged that the determination of QVMAG ‘policies strategic directions’ are matters that the GM/CEO, beyond garnering/providing/facilitating ‘expert advice’ under section 65 of the Act, has no direct personal expertise relevant to cultural and/or scientific institution and thus personally has no role to play in policy determination?
6(a) Do you, as QVMAG Trustees, acknowledge that as an ‘art gallery and museum’ the QVMAG is a complex multi-dimensional operation and thus the ‘expert advice’ provided under section 65 of the Act, has been proven to be less than ‘expert’ and over a rather long period of time?
6(b) Moreover, as ratepayers and taxpayers, Launcestonians/Tasmanians do you acknowledge that they are not receiving the cultural, social and economic dividends/rewards commensurate with their long-term investment? City of Launceston
COUNCIL AGENDA Page 22 Thursday 23 January 2020
8.1.5 Public Questions on Notice - Mr Ray Norman - 7 January 2019 …(Cont’d)
7(a) Do you, as QVMAG Trustees, acknowledge that the QVMAG has received
substantial gifts, donations and sponsorships over a very long period of time, from Launcestonians and others, all of whom have made their contributions on trust?
7(b) Moreover, as ’Trustees’ do you acknowledge that you are not meeting your
obligations to all those to whom you owe an obligation, given what they have invested in the institution? That is donors, sponsors, scholars, researchers, owners of cultural and intellectual property - the QVMAG’s Community of Ownership and Interest (CoL) see http://thequeensmusingplace.blogspot.com/p/definition.html and Reference 4.
8(a) Do you acknowledge that the Council’s GM/CEO compares the QVMAG with - the
TMAG, SAM, NTMAG, et al - that are all purposeful institutions that have standalone ‘governance bodies’ populated by appointed experts relevant to the institution’s ‘purpose and strategic direction’?
8(b) Do you acknowledge that as elected representatives in local governance you may
lack the appropriate ‘expertise’ and are likewise ill equipped to fulfil your ‘Trusteeship role’ for an institution such as the QVMAG?
8(c) Do you acknowledge that senior management in local governance is not inherently
qualified to provide a ‘governance function’ for an institution such as the QVMAG, or indeed a governance function of any kind, given that it would be fundamentally in conflict with their ‘management function’?
8(d) Furthermore, do you acknowledge that a GM/CEO cannot be held accountable for
their actions, her/his misdemeanours or those of her/his underlings given their capacity to use - misuse(?) - the self-preserving ‘emergency powers’ afforded them under Section 62 of the Act and also that you collectively and serially have failed, and serially, to hold management accountable?
9(a) Will you, in the cause of transparency, inform the QVMAG’s (CoL) what formal
representations you have made to the State Government and/or any other funding agency, public or private, towards improving the QVMAG’s performance outcomes and/or its ‘cultural tourism’ relevance?
9(b) Likewise, will/can you provide a timeframe within which these representations took place in the calendar year 2019 - or earlier?
10(a)Do you acknowledge that the Council conscripts recurrent funding for the QVMAG via an undisclosed levy/charge within each and every one of the City’s rate demands? City of Launceston
COUNCIL AGENDA Page 23 Thursday 23 January 2020
8.1.5 Public Questions on Notice - Mr Ray Norman - 7 January 2019 …(Cont’d)
10(b)Will you, provide an estimate of the average percentage of a rate demand that this ‘levy/charge’ represents?
11(a)Will you, in the cause of transparency, disclose what percentage of the QVMAG’s recurrent operational budget that is derived from ‘earned income’?
11(b)Will you disclose the number of, and the and size of, project grants the QVMAG sought and/or won in the past two calendar years?
12(a)Do you acknowledge that the ‘advice mechanism’ put in place by Council some time ago has been rendered dysfunctional by Council’s management in that for a range of reasons the ‘QVMAG Advisory Committee’ has not met sufficiently and consequently has not reported appropriate policy development despite the GM saying 2 January 2019 that ‘’[the QVMAG] strategy [is] the biggest and most influential things [council] is working on at the moment” and Council’s being promised that “a report [on a cultural policy being] due by the end of May 2018”? … [Ref 1] https://www.examiner.com.au/story/5831340/the-year-ahead-for-city-of-launcestoncouncil-to-be-big/ … [Ref 2] https://www.examiner.com.au/story/5267843/city-oflauncestons-cultural-policy-confusion.
12(b)Moreover, do you acknowledge that the QVMAG’s CoL - ratepayers, taxpayers,
donors, scholars et al - have been poorly serviced and less than adequately rewarded, despite rate and tax payers ‘conscripted investment’ in the institution over time?
13. Do you acknowledge that as the QVMAG’s ‘default trustees’ by-and-large you have been disengaged for all practical purposes and that you have functionally abdicated, and thus have put aside your obligations as trustees and exposed the institution to risk at many levels?
14. Do you acknowledge that as the QVMAG’s ‘default trustees’ you have failed to appropriately protect the cultural, social and economic assets invested in the QVMAG as an institution, its collections and the ‘property’ - cultural, intellectual, economic – held in trust, invested in, the institution on trust?
15(a)Do you acknowledge that as the QVMAG’s ‘default trustees’ you have made no
discernible attempt to address the clear and obvious QVMAG ‘policy shortfalls’ in 2019 and indeed over many years?
15(b)Moreover, do you acknowledge that, collectively and individually, you have
sanctioned management usurping your governance role in regard to ‘policy and strategic directions’ relative to the QVMAG? City of Launceston
COUNCIL AGENDA Page 24 Thursday 23 January 2020
8.1.5 Public Questions on Notice - Mr Ray Norman - 7 January 2019 …(Cont’d)
15(c) And furthermore, do you acknowledge that as a consequence of your serial
disengagement as ‘trustees’ you have deliberately, or inadvertently, underwritten the institution’s ‘purposelessness’?
15(d)And similarly, do you acknowledge the possibility that you are exposing, and have exposed, the institution and its collections to serious but avoidable risks?
16(a)Do you acknowledge that for the life of this Council, you as the QVMAG’s ‘default trustees’ have failed to ensure that the QVMAG as an institution has a ‘purposeful strategic direction’ in place that articulates ‘performance indicators’ relevant to community investments in the institution?
16(b)Moreover, as trustees, do you understand that there is trust that is invested in you that you and that have failed to acknowledge that and deliver upon it?
16(c) Do you acknowledge that your actions, past and present, have mitigated against being the ‘research facilitator’ it might and could be?
17(a)Do you acknowledge that you are seen as being oblivious to QVMAG asset disposals and careless of where any income coming from it might be directed?
17(b)Likewise, do you acknowledge that such ‘asset disposals’ might happen without your knowledge and approval?
17(c) Indeed, do you acknowledge that this is a dereliction of trust that falls to you?
18. Do you acknowledge that you have commissioned serval consultants and that you have not shared their ‘expert advice’ with either your constituency or the institution’s CoL - ratepayers, taxpayers, donors, scholars et al?
19(a)Do you acknowledge that GM/CEO Stretton’s ‘Strategic Realignment Pan’ has by-and-large been devised and implemented in isolation from the community and youselves as the City’s ‘governors’?
19(b)Likewise, do you acknowledge that ‘the plan’, as reported in the press, flags changes to the QVMAG’s “governance” and that too appears to have been developed in isolation from the community and yourselves as the QVMAG’s Trustees/Governors?
19(c) Moreover, do you acknowledge that ratepayers, taxpayers, donors and others with
‘investments’ in the institution - social, cultural and economic - have largely been excluded from whatever planning processes that have been employed and that have led to, a ‘strategic position’ being arrived at notwithstanding the fact that ‘policy and strategic positioning’ is wholly the business of governance - yourselves - and is not within management’s purpose or raison d’etre? City of Launceston
COUNCIL AGENDA Page 25 Thursday 23 January 2020
8.1.5 Public Questions on Notice - Mr Ray Norman - 7 January 2019 …(Cont’d)
20(a)Do you acknowledge that at the close of business 2019 the City of Launceston did not have, and concerningly could not provide, a ‘Register of Delegated Authorities’ as required by the Local Government Act?
20(b)Likewise, do you acknowledge that this is not a matter of bureaucratic discretion?
20(c) Given the facts, what actions are you proposing and in what timeframe?
21. Do you acknowledge that as ‘Trustees’ you have aimed at positioning yourselves, collectively and individually, beyond criticism and critique and thus by-and-large you have positioned yourselves beyond accountability?
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