Ask hard questions about 2020 vision
OUR next election on the Gold Coast will be for the council in March next year.
With the federal poll finished, local government candidates will start surfacing.
Beyond cruise ships and casinos, the city’s next big debate is about rates.
In the councillor ranks, Gary Baildon in Surfers Paradise has announced he will retire. Dawn Crichlow in Southport and Paul Taylor in Broadbeach could call it quits.
The speculation continues about Deputy Mayor Donna Gates in the far north of the city, and some council watchers suggest Ashmore’s Bob La Castra might end a lengthy local government career.
Cameron Caldwell and Kristyn Boulton will probably fight it out for the same northern division under a boundary change, which opens up space for another new councillor.
So there will almost certainly be four new councillors, possibly six – almost half the council.
Ratepayers need to get some honest responses from the candidates.
At the last full council meeting, many councillors were shocked when, without consultation, they received a midlife review report on the City Transport Strategy.
What emerged were 10 years of specific road projects – about 53 are outlined in the booklet – with many being brought forward to fit into a fouryear capital works program.
This is a good news story. It was achieved after lobbying by several councillors on their Facebook pages to increase the proportion of funding given to roads to bust traffic gridlock, which was reported by this newspaper and supported by residents.
Councillors are gathering behind closed doors at special budget meetings to discuss how to fund this program.
For the next 12 months, the money is likely to be from funding reserves, meaning no rate increase.
After officers had spoken at the transport review briefing, Mayor Tom Tate invited councillors to ask questions.
Cr Gates, who represents the fastest-growing suburbs, made an important statement.
“I’m quite confident that we’re quite good at planning. I just don’t think we started early enough to address many of the problems in some locations. I get it, it takes time, and we need to start delivering,” she said.
A council insider said new councillors elected along with the fresh administration in 2020 would face a rates reality shock if the council were to “start delivering”.
The next council will need to either increase rates, increase borrowing from debt, introduce a transport levy or take more infrastructure fees from developers.
Ask all the candidates to tick any of the above. Better still, get them to explain how it is possible not to increase rates above CPI.
If they are advocating to stop light rail to Coolangatta, ask them how they will convince a majority of councillors, including the mayor, to change the current council transport plan.
Ask the same question if they want to change the council’s policy on an Oceanway.
Ask them how they intend to fill an art gallery 20 times bigger than the existing one, and promote and attract acts for HOTA now that it exists.
Ask them how the council will find the funds to maintain the big spaces created by Commonwealth Games facilities and at the same time upgrade the smaller community centres needed by suburban sporting groups.
“There will be a change in the dynamic of the council (in the councillor ranks),” a council insider said. “The other thing is what happens to the mayor. What happens if there is a caucus outside the mayor’s influence?”
This election will not be so much about the mayoralty, but the new councillors.
The past council was about delivering the Commonwealth Games. The future council will be about how to deliver on roads, culture and the Games legacy without increasing rates.