War of the wards heats up

A GEELONG councillor wants changes to the municipality’s ward structure to be fast-tracked in time for this year’s election.

Windermere Ward councillor Kylie Grzybek has called for smaller, single-member wards to be reintroduced at the City of Greater Geelong’s October poll.

The contentious system was this month endorsed by state parliament, but was not expected to be implemented this year.

The more likely time frame had the 11-councillors/11-wards system coming in at the following election, in 2024.

It would replace the current system of four wards — three with three councillors and one with two.

But Cr Grzybek has put a notice of motion for her fellow councillors to vote on at tomorrow night’s meeting that will propose asking Local Government Minister Adem Somyurek to make the changes for this year’s election.

Single-councillor wards was the system in Greater Geelong for more than a decade before 2016, when the council was sacked by state parliament and replaced by paid administrators for 18 months. The independent Commission of Inquiry report into the workings of CoGG at that time found the ward system was partly to blame for the dysfunction and poor culture at city hall.

It found councillors too often became consumed by looking after their “own patch” rather than the greater good of the municipality.

This led to poor governance and decision-making in the chamber, highlighted by the ward funding fiasco, where councillors arbitrarily spent $60 million of ratepayers’ money on projects in their electorates without using a proper selection process.

“The single-ward councillor system has not served the city well,” the Commission of Inquiry found. “There should be multi-councillor wards to share representative responsibilities.”

But the State Government’s decision earlier this month to endorse single-councillor wards ignores that advice.

In Geelong it is likely to result in 11 wards, each with their own councillor.

Cr Grzybek is particularly aggrieved at the inequity of the current system, pointing out that her ward — which represents Geelong’s disadvantaged north — has one less councillor than the other three wards.

She said the council had asked the minister to increase its chamber from 11 to 12 to allow for three members in each ward, but this idea had been rejected.

The request she wants CoGG to send to Mr Somyurek would also call for the city to have 12 elected representatives. The Victorian Electoral Commission is also reviewing the ward boundaries in the Surf Coast Shire.