Happy to serve

I WAS recently reading about the experiences of Geelong Advertiser columnist Eve Fisher as a councillor down at the Surf Coast Shire and her reflections on that period of time.

And while I sympathised with her on some points I have a different perspective on some of the things she said.

Councils by their very nature are always going to be a melting pot of the community.

You’ll get some people in the community with the same expectations, aspirations and desires and just as many people with the exact opposite sentiment.

What’s important is how the council of the day is managed as a collective group while responding to all of their constituents’ competing interests.

An added challenge to the melting pot we represent is the party politics, and I agree with Eve that this is a feature at the local government level that can be distracting at times.

Councillors overtly displaying a political alliance can risk independent, unbiased debate on a community topic.

I think some of the challenges of being a councillor Eve reflected on in her article can also be pinpointed to the structure of local government — many different ideas and backgrounds coming together but not necessarily in unison.

Only a very committed and respectful council can overcome this often tricky circumstance.

This is what I think Eve was referring to — it can take just one councillor to destabilise a debate.

Unlike our state and federal counterparts, councillors often juggle their local government role with another job.

This limits the opportunities we have to build relationships with one another and understand the political landscape we’re working in.

Our core time spent together is once a week on a Tuesday evening where there are hours of briefings from various internal and external personnel.

Briefing topics are on any one of the hundred-plus services the City offers the community and often includes other external factors we’ll need to consider in the future such as proposed developments or funding opportunities for the region.

The point being we don’t get to spend a lot of time just as a council group of 11 councillors. But it does take time to build relationships, understand each other’s interests and what has motivated us to become councillors.

Electing the mayor and deputy mayor each year can also be quite a distraction to momentum, especially when there is a level of goodwill and harmony within the councillor group.

If the community is happy with the council of the day and have a general acceptance that their council is getting on with the job of advocating on their behalf, then changing the leadership on such a regular basis can certainly unbalance the ship.

Ideally all councillors would do at least two terms as this allows the relationship building to properly take place and there is continuity for the vision of the council.

A potential better system for local government could be to retain half the council every two years to allow for experienced councillors to mentor new ones.

But then again the community’s appetite for regular council elections on top of the federal and state government cycle might be more than they are willing to bear.

Then we have the annual budget process, which can cause all sorts of challenges for the councillor group as important community issues are thrashed out with vigorous and robust debate on what should be in and unfortunately what may miss out.

This is a time when solid relationships make a huge difference in terms of the ability to respectfully debate issues.

So I agree with Eve that being a councillor is hard work. But I disagree that there is little reward.

I think the reward is significant. You get the opportunity to represent your community and voice your arguments for what you and your community believe in.

As a councillor the wins and losses — if they are seen in that light — probably does balance out over time. But time, respect and patience is the key.