2018 Council Next Practice Showcase & LGA OGM | Rate capping | New LGA Constitution | Years of Service Awards | Public Health Awards | Value of LGA membership No Images? Click here Special weekly update from the LGA President Vol 3: Issue 14 - Monday 16 April 2018 As promised...LGA President Mayor Lorraine Rosenberg 2018 Council Next Practice Showcase & LGA Ordinary General MeetingThank you to all of you who attended our 2018 Council Next Practice and Ordinary General Meeting at Adelaide Town Hall last Thursday and Friday. We had a fantastic turn out, and enjoyed some insightful presentations from council members and staff during Thursday’s Showcase event. I personally found the discussions around sustainable population growth towards the end of the day particularly engaging and relevant. Presentations from Thursday will be available on our website later this week. In addition to adopting a new LGA Constitution, some of the outcomes from Friday’s OGM included members asking the LGA to:
The full draft minutes from the Ordinary General Meeting will be uploaded to the LGA’s website soon. I would like to once again thank the City of Adelaide for working closely with the LGA to make this event a success, and I hope we can collaborate on more of these events in the future. The LGA’s 2018 Conference and Annual General Meeting will be held at Adelaide Entertainment Centre on 25-26 October. Rate cappingSpeaking during our OGM on Friday morning, Minister Knoll reaffirmed his intention to introduce rate capping legislation into the Parliament during the new government’s first 100 days. While individual perspectives on this topic vary, as a sector we remain opposed to rate capping. It hasn’t worked interstate, and won’t deliver significant savings to ratepayers. For example, a 2.5% rate cap would have saved Adelaide metropolitan ratepayers a mere $6 on average this year. I think local democracy is worth far more that. Last week former Liberal and now independent MP Troy Bell said he would be voting against rate capping in Parliament, and Labor MPs Stephen Mullighan and Tom Koutsantonis also reaffirmed their opposition to the policy. The LGA CEO has already met with new Shadow Minister Tony Piccolo to discuss rate capping and other sector issues. As a former Mayor, Tony understands that rate capping does not work, and he spoke passionately against the policy during the debate on the former Opposition’s Local Government (Rates Increases) Amendment Bill. The LGA will continue its strong advocacy on this issue, but we need the support of members. If you have followed the evidence and have concerns about the impact of rate capping in your community, we need councils to continue to advocate for their democratic right to set service levels and budgets in consultation with their communities. Please also continue to encourage your local MPs to either rethink their position on rate capping, or reconfirm that they stand with councils and their communities on this issue. During the Showcase keynote address we heard from Chris Richardson – one of Australia’s best known economists – that municipal rates and land tax are the least harmful tax to the economy, so capping council rates won’t deliver lasting benefits for SA. He described rate capping as ‘economically dumb’ – it doesn’t get more simple than that. There are better options for unlocking local government efficiencies, and it is encouraging that Minister Knoll has indicated he wants to work with us on a range of reforms, including benchmarking for the sector. New LGA ConstitutionSpeaking before our OGM Friday morning I promised rain for SA if members would vote to endorse our new Constitution. I’m pleased to report that – after some spirited discussion – this document was endorsed with amendments by the meeting with 80% of the vote. Several hours later, our State received a much needed shower! A huge amount of work has gone into developing the LGA’s new Constitution over the past two years, and I am confident it will serve our sector well for many years to come. We’ve produced a video that explains what the changes to the Constitution mean, which you can watch below. We have made a commitment to work closely with member councils on the development of the ancillary documents that support the Constitution, and will shortly provide more information about how you can be involved in this process. Years of Service AwardsIt was a pleasure to once again present the years of service awards at our Showcase and OGM Dinner last Thursday. Congratulations to all of the mayors and councillors recognised on the night. Our sector is lucky to have such a committed group of elected members, who give so generously of their time and energy in serving their communities. 19 years Val sadly passed away earlier this year, and the award was received by her husband who gave a moving tribute to Val’s contribution to her community. 20 Years of Service (left to right) 25 years 30 years 35 years 40 years 45 years 2018 Minister for Health & Wellbeing Excellence in Public Health AwardsOur Showcase and OGM event concluded with the 2018 Minister for Health & Wellbeing Excellence in Public Health Awards. Presented by the Member for Waite Sam Duluk MP and Chief Public Health Officer Professor Paddy Phillips, these awards highlight the significant contribution councils make to public health and the ongoing wellbeing of their communities. The City of Marion and City of Onkaparinga shared the metropolitan award for their event Feeling Hot Hot Hot! Dealing with Heatwaves in Southern Adelaide (above). The regional award was won by the Barossa, Light and Lower Northern Ageing in Style Expo Regional Roadshow, which was a joint initiative between Barossa Council, Light Regional Council, the Town of Gawler and Adelaide Plains Council (above). Other councils highly commended included the Cities of Holdfast Bay, Marion and Salisbury for their Inspiring Health project, and Wudinna Council for the Wudinna Memory Walk for Dementia. Congratulations to this all of this year’s winners and nominees, and thank you to all of you for the tremendous work your councils are doing to improve public health in your communities. The value of LGA membershipLast week we released our 2018 LGA Value of Membership report, which confirms that the average estimated annual benefit to members is just over $2 million per council. This work was undertaken by UHY Haines Norton, and will now be reviewed every year to ensure that the LGA is continuing to deliver value to its members. You can download the LGA Value of Membership report from our website, and I would encourage you to read this document and let me know if you have any questions. For further information or to submit |