Rate capping | Electricity procurement | Vale Eddie Elleway No Images? Click here Update from the LGA President Vol 2: Issue 18 - Monday 28 August 2017 Dear Mayors and CouncillorsI had the opportunity to attend my first – yes repeat first – Roads and Works Conference last week. It was a terrific event and thanks must go to our sponsors and to staff at the LGA for the organisation. It was held in Port Pirie which also gave Mayor Rohde and CEO Dr Andrew Johnson an opportunity to promote good council initiatives that have come to fruition in the region. Please keep your contributions to the code of conduct consultation coming in. We are on a tight time frame but as this is an area we all have experience in I am sure you will all be able to quickly identify the way forward. LGA President Mayor Lorraine Rosenberg Rate capping Barossa Council recently resolved to support a campaign kicked off by Wattle Range Council, challenging the SA Liberal Party to commit to capping all future increases in State Government taxes, levies, fees and charges, not introduce any new taxes, and not cost shift to local government without a mutually agreed upon State Government contribution to councils. I understand Wattle Range Mayor Peter Gandolfi has written to all SA councils seeking their support for this campaign, and I encourage you to bring his correspondence before your councils for discussion and consideration. Cost shifting remains a very real concern for our sector, and is putting significant pressure on our budgets. West Torrens Mayor John Trainer recently explained on 5AA that his council’s 2.2% average rate rise this year would have been as low as 1.4% if not for massive increases in several State Government charges. The SA Liberal Party has claimed that if elected they will cut Government spending, but are yet to commit to capping their own revenue raising as they’ve proposed for our sector. We’ve prepared an information pack for elected members to help you confidently explain the multitude of flaws in this policy that you can download from our website. Electricity procurement One of the benefits of the size of our sector – 68 councils and associated entities, 11,000 employees, and recurrent expenditure of $2 billion – is the efficiencies we can achieve through working together. Earlier this year we held an Electricity Forum for councils where we discussed a range of opportunities for procuring electricity in the future. The resounding feedback from forum participants was that we would achieve the best outcome for all councils by aggregating load. LGA Procurement last week finalised the contracts for two years’ supply of electricity to most member councils and entities that are part of the national electricity grid. The three contracts, negotiated at a time where SA is suffering from significantly increased power prices, has shown the benefits of aggregated spend and a unified approach resulting in a saving of up to 30% off otherwise competitive alternative market approaches. As expected, the Below 160mWh supply contract price rose significantly due to the difference between current market conditions and the original price procured in 2014. The rise has been minimised with a contracted price estimated to be 30% less than market. We acknowledge that for some smaller regional councils, this has led to an increase but overall, smaller councils are still saving 30% on what could be achieved individually in the current national electricity market. This demonstrates the strength of our buying power when working together to achieve an aggregated outcome via leading professional procurement advice. The remaining two contracts (Above 160mWh and 12/24 Hour Unmetered) have been negotiated at effectively the same price as we did 12 months ago, which is a terrific outcome in this market for councils and communities. My Local Services The LGA developed the My Local Services app to help communities better connect with the facilities and services their councils provide. The app integrates seamlessly with the LGA’s Unity web platform, and allows users to report damage to infrastructure, get waste collection reminders, locate nearby council facilities, and find out about local events. It’s already being used by 45 councils in SA and five in Tasmania, and we’ve just signed up the City of Newcastle in NSW to roll out the app for their community. It’s great to see Newcastle recognise the value of a product we provide (predominantly) to SA councils along with the Unity platform at an extremely competitive price. We’re continuing to work with councils to improve the app and in the coming weeks an updated version with additional features will be released. Changes to RDA Committees The Federal Minister for Regional Development recently announced a number of changes to Regional Development Australia Committees to increase their focus on attracting investment and jobs to the regions. These changes include a new charter for Committees and a more rigorous, merit-based appointments process for Chairs and Committee members. A new role of Director of Regional Development will also be created for each Committee. More information can be found here. The partnership between councils and RDA Committees is an important one, and presents a valuable opportunity for councils to work as a partner in government and part of the solution in driving economic development in our communities. Unfortunately Regional Development Australia Adelaide will cease operations at the end of this calendar year, and we take the opportunity to thank Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Taplin for the commitment he has shown to working with metro councils. Fund My Neighbourhood The State Government’s Fund My Neighbourhood program appears to be progressing well, with hundreds of ideas already submitted. This is a great opportunity for us to work with our communities to help them secure funding for worthwhile local projects. The LGA is working with the Government to provide advice and linkages to councils, and the feedback I’m getting from our Secretariat is that they’ve been impressed by the positive “can do” attitude of the sector, especially considering the short timeframes involved. For more information visit the program’s website, or call the LGA’s Strategic Adviser Chris Russell on 8224 2030 or email chris.russell@lga.sa.gov.au Good news stories from our sector While the reveal of Port Augusta’s solar thermal power plant received too many media mentions to name, Port Augusta Mayor Sam Johnson’s local Transcontinental newspaper published a great photo of him celebrating the announcement. The regional coverage of the 2017 LGA Roads & Works Conference was fantastic. The event received regional TV as well as enthusiastic reporting by the local Recorder newspaper on the economic benefits it brought to the city. The Eastern Courier Messenger covered the unveiling of the City of Unley’s new $100,000 community playground, and the Westside Weekly Messenger featured City of West Torrens Mayor John Trainer’s call to save historic movie posters along Henley Beach Road. Barossa Council Mayor Bob Sloane was quoted in his local Barossa Herald paper on the potential for a local dog park via a Fund My Neighbourhood grant. Also, the West Coast Sentinel highlighted a number of upgrades to footpaths courtesy of Wudinna District Council. Over in the Coastal Leader paper, the District Council of Robe was praised for its support of a new camel milk dairy that’s opening locally. Finally, the Northern Argus covered the induction of Yorke Peninsula and Mid North participants in the Regional Youth Traineeship Program, which is administered by the LGA on behalf of the State Government. These articles back up our research that shows without a doubt that councils are doing a great job and we are the sector of government closest to communities. Please let me know if there’s exciting developments happening in your communities I may have missed! Vale Eddie Elleway Sadly another member of our local government family passed away last week. Eddie Elleway was an elected member at the District Council of Franklin Harbour for two decades (eight of them as mayor), and a Deputy LGA Board Member from 2011-2015. Eddie was also a delegate at our Roads and Works Conference in Port Pirie just days before his tragic and unexpected passing, and like many of you I had the chance to have a brief chat with him during the event. He was a great bloke, a local leader and he will be dearly missed by his friends and family, his local community, and those of us who were lucky to know and work with him. Photo supplied courtesy of District Council of Franklin Harbour. 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