LETTER: Local Govt. & Conscripted Investments

If Launceston’s entrepreneurs were playing on the proverbial ‘level playing field’ they would be able to conscript investment the same was as Launceston Council does.

However, to attract investors Launceston’s entrepreneurs need to offer the promise of a dividend or benefit.

On the other hand, Launceston City Council simply conscripts its required funding from its constituency on the promise of a punitive outcome if ratepayers fail to pay.

In the case of The Aquatic Centre expanding its operation on the strength of a ‘conscripted investment’ in order to grow the enterprise, from any vantage point, the playing field looks pretty dammed bumpy!

If LCC were to be crowdfunding this new uncompetitive and inequitable expansion at the Aquatic Centre there would need to be and rewards on offer to volunteer investors.

Currently however, all the dividends seem to go LCC management’s way in the form of salaries and benefits, and that’s outrageous.

It is time for some accountability.

Given LCC’s demonstrated and ongoing inclination to grow its cost centres for the benefit of management, it’s past the time for Minister Gutwein to call in the administrators to relieve ratepayers of their inequitable burden.
 
Ray Norman
Trevallyn

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“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” — Thomas Paine

GYM owners are expecting to suffer more losses following a plan by the Launceston City Council to open an outdoor gym at the Launceston Aquatic Centre.

The aquatic centre gym, LAfit, opened its doors in January 2014, much to the anger of Northern gym owners who feared unfair competition because of the ability of council to undercut them with ratepayers subsidising the real cost of the facility.

The $26.3 million aquatic centre opened in 2009 but continues to post an annual deficit of more than $1.5 million.

Launceston Aquatic and Leisure Centre manager Elise Frost said on Tuesday that public consultation on the $35,000 to be spent on the outdoor training area was sought as part of the council budget in April.
 
The council is set to spend a total of $275,000 on infrastructure at the centre this financial year.

KFM Fitness owner Brian Finch said a number of gyms had closed or were suffering since LAfit opened and the new outdoor area would only put further stress on their businesses.
‘‘It’s just getting out of hand and it’s only going to get worse,’’ Mr Finch said.

EFM Health Clubs franchisee and owner Mark Connelley said as a ratepayer, he was against the council establishing another outdoor gym area when it was continuing to fail to address the debt it already had at the facility.

Other gym operators spoken to raised the same concerns and questioned why the costings of the gym – which was opened to help cover the rising debt of the aquatic centre – have never been made public.

Ms Frost said the existing soft fall area outside the gym would be a training area and they plan to install some equipment in September.

‘‘Launceston Aquatic was always designed to host a gym and dry programs and the majority of council-owned aquatic centres across Australia have implemented these to provide revenue streams; this is one of the reasons aldermen voted to introduce health and fitness facilities at the centre at the council meeting on March 25, 2013,’’ Ms Frost said.

‘‘Our aim is to reduce operating deficits at the facility and the way similar facilities do this around the country is through their dry programs.’’

She said the works were important to respond to market trends.

LETTER: Local Govt. Reform

Minister Gutwein finally coming out and proactively declaring the importance of local government reform is both welcomed and overdue.

Clearly the efficiencies that the minister alludes to are there and furthermore, a  review of the Local Government Act is well and truly overdue.

Let us just get on with a review that will give us a 21st Century Local Government Act that fits the Tasmanian circumstance.

However, why wait?

We all know very well that we have too many councils costing too much with too many administrator achieving far too little.

The flagged “four regional council model” only has the conflicted interests of incumbent councilors, aldermen and bureaucrats to resist it.

The notion that such conflicted self interests should stand in the way of more effective, more equitable and more accountable local governance is unjustified.

Finding the way forward seems to be the inhibitor but bold and decisive action is called for.

In a matter of months four independent commissioners could be appointed and installed to oversea the transition from unsustainability to a new model devised in collaboration with the communities to be served by it.

What we need to do is begin to imagine the more effective service delivery and start work on it immediately.

Let the conversation begin immediately!

Ray Norman
Trevallyn

“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” — Thomas Paine

Local Government Reform

To: Peter Gutwein – Minister for Local Government: peter.gutwein@dpac.tas.gov.au;

I want to encourage you to keep advancing the idea of local government reform in Tasmania. Local government acts as a 'cut out' between the population and State government as well as a diverter of public monies.

Basically the combined direct and indirect costs of keeping 29 administrations going around the State is out of all proportion to any benefits.

Overall, Tasmania has too much money circulating in often unproductive government, and not enough circulating in the private sector. In some areas (e.g. Launceston) some 25% of Council's budget is for loss making entertainment and recreation activities (swimming pools, gym, football) all of which could be handled by the private sector.

Inexcusable is the fact that local governments can increase rates to cover their own losses and inefficiencies, which also forces private sector groups to fund competition from their local Council.

For a population the size of Tasmania between 1 and 3 groups dedicated to provide the essential services provided by Councils would suffice.

The mistake made by previous administrations was to allow Council's to specify what they do when it is ratepayers who must pay for Council excesses.

Monies collected by Councils are monies that could otherwise support key State initiatives, as well as investing and stimulating the private sector.

TASMANIAN councils are working on a basis of four regional models to begin negotiations around amalgamation and resource sharing.

The regions in discussion would be made up of the North, North-West, Greater Hobart or Greater South-Eastern councils and include 23 of the state’s 29 councils.

Regional model discussions were announced by Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein at the Local Government Association of Tasmania annual meeting in Launceston on Wednesday, and follow an independent survey that found 55 per cent of respondents believed reform was ‘‘very important’’.

‘‘What this should be able to do for those councils involved is to improve the benefits and services to ratepayers by delivering them at a lower cost,’’ Mr Gutwein said.

‘‘I think there are a range of efficiencies that can be achieved as a result of this.’’

The Northern region, which met for the first time on Tuesday and is made up of Launceston, Meander Valley, Northern Midlands, West Tamar, George Town, Dorset, Break O’Day and Flinders councils, will look at resource sharing and continue discussions from there.

The North-West region of Circular Head, King Island, Waratah-Wynyard, Burnie, Central Coast, Kentish, Latrobe and West Coast councils will do the same.

Yet, Devonport City Council wants to also consider amalgamations.

In the South, there is discussion around amalgamations that would see a Greater Hobart council made up of Hobart, Kingborough, Clarence and possibly Glenorchy or a Greater South-Eastern council with Sorell, Clarence, Tasman and Glamorgan-Spring Bay.

Mr Gutwein also announced a review of the Local Government Act, which would focus on roles and responsibilities of elected and non-elected staff, administration and financial management.

FW: examiner letter

Sirs,

Hobart shows the way when it comes to lighting up people’s imagination when they build great fires.

If you want to light a fire in the middle of winter, Hobart Council is inclined to say YES!

Launceston however, well you’ll probably need seven kinds of permits from disinclined bureaucrats and then it’ll be NO anyway.

Hobart’s had a couple of good fires recently and the last was spectacular at the Festival Of The Voices.

Apparently, 5,000 people turned out!

Launcestonians need to know why the naysayers get their way all the time and where the dangers are actually perceived to be.

We have the SES to militate against all kinds of threats. Why not a CFB (Cultural Facilitation Brigade) with a licence to say YES?

We could even have a multifaceted ‘Festival of Fires’ but someone needs to be able to say “YES YOU CAN!”

Who was it in the USA who said something like that?

Ray Norman
Trevallyn

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 GO2 ... http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-10/thousands-huddle-around-bonfire-for-hobarts-festival/6611650

Call to reshape Launceston municipality

Councillor Woinarski’s proposal for Launceston has a great deal of merit and it should to be taken much more seriously than it has been.

Intriguingly, Cr Woinarski is thinking outside the box just as LGAT’s ex-CEO, Allan Garcia, has in his call for “an overhaul of [the Local Government] sector.”

A reimagining of Launceston as a regional cum urban centre is much needed given that current planning and administration is unquestionably driven by an unsustainable management model and antiquated thinking.

Cr Woinarski’s proposal actually needs to be pushed much further but he does offer a foundation upon which to build a sustaining 21st Century regional and urban entity unfettered from archaic operational modelling.

Tasmania’s Local Government Act is unsophisticated, outdated and dysfunctional, designed as it is for a different economy, another time and a rapidly disappearing past.

Under the ‘Woinarski model’ adjoining administrations might well come together in a new form of cooperative and productive governance – 21st Century governance.

The current ‘Launceston model’ mitigates against any such a thing.

With the LGAT ‘think in’ about to happen, local government functionaries could do well to look up from their navels and look ahead for a more sustaining future.

Ray Norman
Trevallyn

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Call to reshape Launceston municipality
By ROSITA GALLASCH  July 7, 2015, 11:03 p.m.

West Tamar Councillor Tim Woinarski proposes reducing Launceston Council to a central district with the surrounding areas transferring to other Northern councils.

The Launceston municipality could be reduced in size to a core central district, similar to the City of London, if people agree with a proposal put forward by West Tamar Councillor Tim Woinarski.

As part of ongoing amalgamation talks, Cr Woinarski's proposal would see the Launceston municipality reduced to an area bordered by the North Esk to the north, Boland, Dowling and High streets to the east, Howick Street in the south and Bathurst Street in the west.

The rest of the Launceston municipality would be divided in four and taken on by George Town, Northern Midlands, Meander Valley and West Tamar councils.

The existing Launceston council could be abolished and the new one made up of two councillors from each of the four surrounding councils, with possibly the inclusion of a representative from the University of Tasmania, Cityprom and the Launceston Chamber of Commerce.

Cr Woinarski said he based his idea on the City of London model, which he believed was doing very well.

"All we hear about the amalgamation debate is that we need to be bigger and redraw the lines," he said. "I'm sick and tired of hearing this - I have not heard a legitimate, well-thought-out, financially costed, beneficial argument for amalgamation in the North.

"I'm not saying 29 councils is a perfect number - and if bigger is better, then Launceston should be the best-performing council, but according to the Auditor-General's report, this is not the case."

He said the benefits would be that the four surrounding councils would pick up more ratepayers and they would also take on an equal quarter share of the funding and decision-making of facilities such as Aurora Stadium, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery and Launceston Aquatic Centre.

Launceston council's debt would be divided between the five councils.

Launceston mayor Albert van Zetten said it sounded a "tad fanciful" and questioned if it was just someone trying to protect their own position, as the proposal also lacked research rigour to substantiate it.

"We would consider that the first step would be to follow the request from the [Local Government] Minister and enter discussions on how we as councils can provide more cost-effective services to the community without jumping immediately to models that seek to protect vested interests," he said.

A spokesman for Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein said Mr Gutwein had written to councils seeking confirmation of all the proposals put to them, and any "final decision will be up to local

councils and their ratepayers".

West Tamar mayor Christina Holmdahl said the views were purely those of Cr Woinarski.

Both Meander Valley mayor Craig Perkins and Northern Midlands mayor David Downie raised concerns about the idea.

END

“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” — Thomas Paine


CLICK HERE: http://www.launceston.tas.gov.au/lcc/index.php?c=69