Launceston's new General Manager, Robert Dobrzynski, has used Launceston City Council's Quarterly Newsletter to tell ratepayers who he is and provide them with some benchmarks. It is always refreshing when new people on the scene do this. Congratulations Robert!The trouble with this kind of thing however is that these newsletters appear in ratepayers' mailboxes along with the Junk Mail. Many ratepayers never read these newsletters and more than a few rail against them charactorising them as "yet another waste of ratepayers' money."
In the 21st Century we might expect Local Government to be more sophisticated, and cost effective, in their marketing strategies and communication methods. Yes a great many ratepayers do not have easy access to many of the contemporary 'communication platforms' but many do.
For those outside the loop, well Councils still have snail mail at their disposal and regular rate mail-outs via which to deliver 'the news' to ratepayers. It has been said that the disadvantage in communicating in this way is that "ratepayers are more likely to read any information that comes with their rate notices." For some that is not always a good thing.
However, with this newsletter there is a rare entry. A General Manager has put on the record his goals and likewise has identified the challenges he needs to address. At last there are some documented benchmarks to work with. We are documenting this rare event here so that ratepayers have some benchmarks to measure performance against.
Click on the image to enlarge it and read the GM's goals.
1 comment:
Apparently Robert has said that he is “keen on local government amalgamations.” Well at Delatite Shire, where he was before moving to Moorabool in 2002, the amalgamated Shire was in fact divorced! What does this tell us?
Post a Comment