COUNCIL chief exec Bill Taylor's video blog this week brings up some interesting topics following his trip to shadow local government in Australia.
Of particular note was that Down Under, they have directly elected mayors, fewer councillors and chief executives on 5 year fixed term contracts with a six month notice period on whether you need to clear out your desk.
Food for thought eh?
Check out Bill's blog here
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The Sniper wrote...
I checked out William Taylor's webcast. Very slick.
It was interesting that he talked about Aussie councils having around a quarter the number of the elected councillors
for presumably the same size of population.
Why do we need so many councillors serving relatively small areas?
Perhaps we could have one elected councillor (i.e. a political representative) and maybe one or two civil servants with infinitely more expertise to serve each ward, picking up grass roots issues and getting them sorted.
It would eradicate the petty politics which can obstruct progress.
Yeah, let's get rid of two thirds of our councillors and replace them with people who know what they're talking about. I guess that's what I'm saying.
Posted by: The Sniper | October 10, 2007 11:18 PM