Return to single-councillor wards proposed

suggested the abolition of single-councillor wards would strengthen council leadership, corporate behaviour and decision making.

“Single-councillor wards have had the effect of undermining good governance, compromising decision-making by trading off decisions for the common good in favour of ward interests and distorting resource allocation and rational priorities,” the report noted.

“This has led to councillor and senior management relationships that have been destructive of frank advice and ingrained second-guessing by council officers of future council decisions.”

Deakin University politics expert Geoff Robinson said the proposed reform was “odd”.

“We had this whole review of local government in Geelong and one of the conclusions was the single member ward system encouraged provincialism, it discouraged councillors from taking an ‘all of council’ focus and just look after their patch, so I’m a bit surprised to see it suddenly rear its head again,” Dr Robinson said. “Maybe it’s just an example of government lacking a sense of corporate memory or remembering what’s been discussed previously. It’s strange … it just seems odd to me. I’d like to know more about what the thinking behind it is.”

The remaining proposed reforms include: SIMPLIFYING and clarifying enrolments for voters in council elections; INTRODUCING mandatory training for council election candidates and councillors; CAPPING electoral campaign donations and gifts; ALLOWING for the dismissal of a councillor after a community-initiated Commission of Inquiry; and, DEFINING standards of conduct to guide behaviour and make dealing with conduct issues faster and easier