LGA Board fees | Boundary adjustment reform | LG elections reform | Thank you Mayor Spear | Planning & Design Code | Council member allowances No Images? Click here Vol 3: Issue 21 - Monday 4 June 2018 We continue to make approaches to government ministers and shadows to promote our case for local government reform and support. While we continue work with the State, we also need to have one eye on the federal arena and when an election may be called. To that end, many members will be taking advantage of the National General Assembly (NGA) in Canberra to push for projects and policy positions. I look forward to hearing about these and what we can do via ALGA to help. LGA President Mayor Lorraine Rosenberg Board fees reviewYou may have read last week that the LGA is reviewing its board fees. This is part of a review of the Association’s governance arrangements that has been in process since 2015, and resulted in a new Constitution that was endorsed at our 2018 Ordinary General Meeting. In 2015, the previous Board requested that the Secretariat incorporate a review of board member allowances and sitting fees into the governance review. I would like to reinforce that at this stage the Board has only agreed to an independent review of the fees and the provision only of additional funds in 2018/19 Budget to accommodate a potential increase in fees for the next Board from October 2018. Any increase in fees that will apply to future board members is subject to an independent review, and will be looked at by the LGA’s independent Audit Committee before coming back to the Board. However, as President I will be strongly recommending that any options for board fee increases for the next Board are presented to members for consideration at our AGM on 26 October for greater transparency and to provide all members with the opportunity to participate in this decision. Boundary adjustment reformThe LGA worked closely with the previous Government on boundary adjustment reform legislation, to provide councils and communities that want to investigate changes to their boundaries with a clear process. This legislation will come into effect on 1 January 2019. Under the new system the Local Government Grants Commission (LGGC) will be responsible for receiving, assessing and progressing council boundary reform proposals, and the Commission is now seeking feedback from the sector on draft guidelines that will guide this process. The draft Guidelines are available from the Office of Local Government’s website. The LGA will prepare a submission on behalf of the sector, and if you would like to provide feedback to help inform the LGA submission please send this to Director Governance and Legislation Alicia Stewart at alicia.stewart@lga.sa.gov.au by 5pm Wednesday 25 July. Alternatively, if you wish to provide feedback directly to the LGGC, submissions can be emailed to DPTI.OfficeofLocalGovernment@sa.gov.au by Friday 3 August. Local government elections reformNominations for council elections open three months from today, and The Advertiser ran a large piece over the weekend asking current mayors and deputy mayors whether they intend to run. This story also highlighted a number of potential reforms for council elections, including several ideas proposed by current mayors. No one knows local government like the people who have dedicated their time to the sector, and it’s great to see mayors sharing their ideas about opportunities for reform. The LGA is already advocating for changes to the Local Government (Elections) Act 1999 that would – amongst other things – see the introduction of electronic voting, expand disclosure requirements and ensure that all candidates have access to electronic copies of the voters roll. However, if you have further ideas on how to improve council elections – or any area of local government reform - please bring them as motions to our AGM in October, so we can consider and vote on the adoption of new ideas for improving the sector and work collectively to bring about positive change. Thank you Mayor SpearLast Wednesday Mayor Spear advised me of his resignation from the LGA Board. I would like to thank Glenn for his contributions as a Board member, and I look forward to continuing to work with him as Mayor of the City of Mitcham. Glenn’s resignation created a vacancy on the Board which his Deputy - Adelaide Hills Council Deputy Mayor Jan-Claire Wisdom - has agreed to fill in line with our Constitution. Thank you Jan-Claire for your willingness to step up and serve as a full voting member. As a result, we now have a casual vacancy in the position of Deputy Board Member, which will be referred to MLGG to address in accordance with the Constitution. Planning and Design CodeThe State Government recently released a Planning and Design Code discussion paper for public consultation. This technical paper outlines how South Australia’s new Planning and Design Code will operate in practice and has been written with planning practitioners in mind. It sets out the proposed functional framework for the Code, including what is and isn’t included. DPTI is seeking feedback on paper through their Have Your Say portal by Sunday 22 July 2018. Planning is consistently ranked in member surveys as an important issue for the sector and there is likely to be strong interest in the development of the Planning and Design Code, which will ultimately replace Development Plans. If you would like a strong response from the LGA on this discussion paper, please let me know. The LGA ran a really strong public media campaign on planning during the development of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act (PDI Act) around the message of “keep planning local” and “no voice, no choice”. This campaign and our advocacy resulted in many amendments to the Act which benefited councils and their communities – but there are still many issues of concern to councils. As the PDI Act was progressing through Parliament we often said the devil would be in the details, and now is our chance to consider the details and to speak up about the importance and value of local input in shaping local environments. Remuneration Tribunal review of council member allowancesOnce every four years the Remuneration Tribunal makes a determination on council member allowances for the coming term. The Tribunal is required provide an opportunity for interested parties to provide submissions, and the LGA recently forwarded a letter to council CEOs inviting submissions on the 2018 review of allowances. Written submissions must be received by the Tribunal by 5pm Friday 6 July 2018 and can be emailed to RemunerationTribunal@sa.gov.au. A guideline for the preparation of written submissions is available on the Tribunal’s website here. We would appreciate receiving a copy of any submissions provided by councils – these can be sent to Alicia Stewart at alicia.stewart@lga.sa.gov.au. For further information or to submit |