2018 Launceston Facts And Questions

Launceston City Council as a ‘civic operation’ is designed as a ‘cost centre’, without the slightest hint of an imperative ‘to turn a buck’, it is nonetheless expected to deliver a suite of services. 

Here is a range of overlooked facts and considerations that are in need of articulation:

1.  The council’s annual conscripted recurrent income is the order of $100Million plus;
2. The Council in its current term has conscripted something in the order of $500Million plus from the city’s ratepayers and residents;.
3. The city’s rate demand is reportedly well over $500 per property, on average, more than any other local government jurisdiction in Tasmania;
4. The city’s debt is in the order $20Million with most being taken on in the last 2 years and all to be repaid via the city’s rate demand rather than from income generated;
5. The council employs something in the order of 580 people to run the operation and deliver services;
6. While council employees have a broad set of skills there is no incentive to deliver more for less and especially so as you go down the hierarchical corporate structure; 
7. There are approximately 50 employees for every rateable property being serviced by ‘the city’;
8. There are reportedly 45 committees of one kind or another providing advice and context to council planning and operational determinations – some apparently meeting infrequently, rarely even;
9. There are three ’cost centres’ that together cost individual ratepayers on average $350 per year in their rates for each property they own.

In the context of all this, some of the question’s that ratepayers might well be asking. so too might the Mayor, his Deputy and all the individual alderpeople be asking them.

These are questions that all the incumbent alderpeople might well be asking themselves in front of their household mirrors:

1.  Has the Mayor and all the aldermen delivered on Council’s declared values – integrity, stewardship, inclusion, initiative, teamwork and accountability  – https://www.launceston.tas.gov.au/Council/Our-Vision-Mission-and-Values ?
2. Specifically, has the Mayor in his leadership role maintained a record of accountability and transparency in all council decision making and policy determination?.
3. Has the Mayor and the incumbent alderpeople ensured that due diligence has been maintained and that all the ‘expert advice’ council has relied upon was provided was indeed provided by the most relevant and appropriate experts?
4. What policy and/or planning initiatives did the Mayor, or indeed the incumbent alderpeople individually, initiate during his/their time in office – how when and where?
5. In what ways did the Mayor, or indeed the incumbent alderpeople individually, consult with and engage with the broad spectrum of their constituency during his/their time in office – how when and where?.
6. What business acumen, professional experience and/or expertise in any field did the Mayor, or indeed the incumbent alderpeople individually, bring to what policy initiatives and planning decisions and to what success?
7. To what extent did the Mayor in concert with the incumbent alderpeople hold the operational wing of council truly to account – how when and where? 
8. What policy initiatives did the Mayor and the incumbent alderpeople individually bring to the Council operation and champion – what, when and how? 
9. In the context of the shifts in, and the realignment of, social dynamics relative to civic planning, what has the Mayor, and the incumbent alderpeople, contributed to that discourse within the community and beyond?