News & Discussion: Adelaide City Council

[whatstheirnamesmom]

I do think the council need to cut costs and find better revenue streams (parking and parking fine enforcement should not be their main source of income second to rates but it seems that this is the case). But I also think considering the unprecedented nature of COVID-19 and the fact that the ACC was always going to be the hardest hit because a lot of their rates come from small/medium sized business and also as the article points out the exemptions on universities, churches and schools paying rates which all three take up a sizeable chunk of CBD land; perhaps the state government should be considering a bail out (seeing as Team Adelaide are quasi-Liberal idiots, perhaps they should be brokering this)... Wouldn't necessarily need to be in the way of: "Hey, here's $100m, go nuts!" but more-so offsetting particular ACC expenses for the next financial year or taking certain capital projects off of the ACC's hands (for instance, the Grenfell/Currie Street(s) corridor or even laneway upgrades and activation)...

Completely agree Patrick. The State govt. should really step up to offset some of those major projects, if they aren't already. Things like the Torrens Weir (affects all LGAs along the river), the Adelaide Bridge (affects ability to build trams to Nth Adl + beyond), and the Grenfell/Currie corridor (affects commuters from all over Adelaide)... why is ACC being left to spearhead these projects on their own The CBD is the heart of the state, and we, population wise, live in a very capital city-concentrated state. The State govt. should really be nurturing and leveraging opportunities, that would bring city and state-wide benefits, hand-in-hand with ACC

[Nathan]

Completely agree Patrick. The State govt. should really step up to offset some of those major projects, if they aren't already. Things like the Torrens Weir (affects all LGAs along the river), the Adelaide Bridge (affects ability to build trams to Nth Adl + beyond), and the Grenfell/Currie corridor (affects commuters from all over Adelaide)... why is ACC being left to spearhead these projects on their own The CBD is the heart of the state, and we, population wise, live in a very capital city-concentrated state. The State govt. should really be nurturing and leveraging opportunities, that would bring city and state-wide benefits, hand-in-hand with ACC

I'd add the upkeep (and development) of the parklands to the list too. At the very least, the other inner city councils that border them should be contributing.

[rogue]

Or we could merge all metropolitan councils into a single entity so there is no buck-passing or blame shifting

[SBD]

Or we could merge all metropolitan councils into a single entity so there is no buck-passing or blame shifting

Would "we" (the voters) be competent to pick the good ones, or would we end up with a mega-council of the likes who make the headlines from Adelaide, Onkaparinga and Tea Tree Gully Councils?

Whatever you think are the best bits of your local council area, would it improve if Ann Moran and her colleagues were running it? Would it be politicised along party lines, Team Adelaide vs Team Suburbs, or Leafy Eastern Suburbs against Western Blue Collars? That last one sounds like an annual footy match!

City of Brisbane has 26 single-member wards. According to Wikipedia they are presently 19 Liberal National Party of Queensland, 5 Labor, 1 Greens and 1 Independent. I have no idea if it works any better than our system.

[rogue]

Political ideologies are present regardless of the level of government and size. Are you insinuating that "we" are more competent in electing a good council because it is smaller?

I have lived in Brisbane and Adelaide over the last 10 years and from a ratepayer point of view, noticed no difference in the frontline service offering. I've heard people in the past suggest that smaller councils are "local" and therefore should know the immediate area and constituents better, but the reality is that this notion is a cop out.

What is noticeable, is the level of consistancy applied to a broader region and the ability to deal with larger scale issues without the need for cross border bickering and / or higher level government handouts. Specific locations or suburbs still retain their uniqueness and services are delivered more cost effectively.

[SBD]

Political ideologies are present regardless of the level of government and size. Are you insinuating that "we" are more competent in electing a good council because it is smaller?

I have lived in Brisbane and Adelaide over the last 10 years and from a ratepayer point of view, noticed no difference in the frontline service offering. I've heard people in the past suggest that smaller councils are "local" and therefore should know the immediate area and constituents better, but the reality is that this notion is a cop out.

What is noticeable, is the level of consistancy applied to a broader region and the ability to deal with larger scale issues without the need for cross border bickering and / or higher level government handouts. Specific locations or suburbs still retain their uniqueness and services are delivered more cost effectively.

I think we are better off that in general, our councillors are not aligned to the state political parties.

Living in a council that merged in the 1990s with a neighbour, there was significant jostling for position between the two previous councils for some time. Each one had a key city centre, and t feels like the combined council has really only kept one main centre, and the other one has become less important.

"Consistency" is the opposite to "knowing the local community", so if knowing the local community matters, then there should be differences. Other things might benefit from "best of breed" - there might be one group of councils who do rubbish or recycling better than others, so combining might enable the leader's system to spread to the others, but then the larger council might stifle future innovation.

I wonder how a single metro council would deal with things like rubbish dumps, local road maintenance and upgrades, community facilities like halls and pools. One perspective would be that the larger council has more financial resources to do it well, but how would it prioritise between "local" roads like Grenfell Street (Adelaide) and Curtis Road (Munno Para) both of which are council roads carrying far more than just local traffic and barely coping.

[rogue]

In regards to your last paragraph, Brisbane has managed to address these issues. The vote of a ratepayer in the Brisbane equivalent of Munno Para is just as valid as a vote from the city centre.

I would question if the merge of yours and the neighbouring council is the root cause of the demise of a main centre. What other policy, commercial or social factors could have influenced this?

Just so im clear, is your position that the current form of local government around Adelaide remain as is?

[[Shuz]]

Whilst there may not be an "official" endorsement from polticial parties of councillors in local government, some are clearly affiliated. Robert Simms is an example, councillor of Adelaide City Council, now Greens State Parliment MP. The guy who was Prospect Mayor some time ago ran as a Labor candidate for State Government. Not to mention the notorious "Team Adelaide" *cough* Liberals *cough*.

[Patrick_27]

Whilst there may not be an "official" endorsement from polticial parties of councillors in local government, some are clearly affiliated. Robert Simms is an example, councillor of Adelaide City Council, now Greens State Parliment MP. The guy who was Prospect Mayor some time ago ran as a Labor candidate for State Government. Not to mention the notorious "Team Adelaide" *cough* Liberals *cough*.

Yes, but like you said and others have alluded to above compared to interstate, we don't have official party candidates running in local government in SA, I think this is a reflection of having smaller council districts and therefore local government have less $$$ and therefore less responsibility. I suspect the reason ACC has seen more major party linkage in recent years is due to the exponential growth of the CBD in recent years therefore a greater responsibility on ACC to deliver major capital works etc. However, on the mention of candidates like Robert Simms, obviously he's left-leaning and a now a sitting MLC for the Greens but it should be noted that aside from wanting to address issues like ACC's environmental strategy and other more utopian-type projects, I don't see his affiliation as having had any kind of negative repercussions. Whereas, Team Adelaide are evidentially strictly fiscally conservative, highly organised and therefore possessing a destructive percentage of power and on matters outside of the benefit of the corporate business sector, they don't actually seem to have any kind of socially progressive agenda representing the interests of average voters. Unfortunately with non-compulsory voting at local government level, the types of people putting these candidates into the council chamber are business owners and such who have little regard for the average Joe/Josephine. (I realise that this entire expose probably gives away my political POV but I think even centre-leaning conservatives can agree that Team Adelaide are a pack of vermin).

[SRW]

The council actually just closed the first round of consultation on its representation structure. Due to population growth, the present wards are becoming imbalanced and must be redistributed. The council sought input into whether wards should be maintained or rejigged; whether wards should be abolished (electing only area councillors); and whether council should be reduced in size. Excepting Brisbane as an entirely different beast of LGA, Adelaide actually has more councillors than all the other major capitals (most 8-10, we have 12 inc. Lord Mayor). You can see the representation options report here.

My feedback was to support reducing the size of council and to either abolish wards or, failing that, reduce ward representation in favour of increasing area representation. My reason being that too many councillors and too small wards makes the threshold for election too low and thus reduces electoral competition. I understand the argument that democracy should remain accessible, but participation in municipal elections is marginal at best and the consequence is a very low bar. When candidates can be elected with merely a couple hundred or so votes, you end up with the kind of swill in the current council. I would hope that requiring candidates to compete across the whole of the City of Adelaide would lead to a better calibre of candidate less vulnerable to capture by special interests and a council more focused on the city's future as a whole.

As to whether LGA representation should remain non-partisan, I'm neither here nor there. I don't really see a place for political parties in local government as the issues it deals with are properly non-ideological. But I also expect transparency and think political interests should be disclosed so we don't have to do the pantomime around whether councillors are truly 'independent'. In any event, it's beyond the scope of the above consultation (as is the issue of the legitimacy of business electors).

[SBD]

In regards to your last paragraph, Brisbane has managed to address these issues. The vote of a ratepayer in the Brisbane equivalent of Munno Para is just as valid as a vote from the city centre.

I would question if the merge of yours and the neighbouring council is the root cause of the demise of a main centre. What other policy, commercial or social factors could have influenced this?

Just so im clear, is your position that the current form of local government around Adelaide remain as is?

I think the current form of government is likely preferable to having a single metropolis-wide "local government area" with a budget and council larger than the ACT. That doesn't mean there couldn't be improvements.

There are areas where councils can work together - for example NAWMA (Northern Adelaide Waste Management Authority) handles waste and recycling for three councils but also provides contract services for rural councils. The processing and sorting facility may not scale down to a smaller council, but isn't necessarily an indication that all other services should be combined from Salisbury to Gawler, coast to hills.

I definitely think it is better that local government is driven by local people not party platforms. I don't know if this is purely a function of size.

[floplo]

Adelaide will never have a metropolitan mayor, as for all practical purposes we already have one.... the job is grandiosely called state premier, but for all practical purposes it's pretty much being mayor of Adelaide and some handholding of a lot of empty bushland and desert.
I mean when the question whether a tram can make a right turn is a notable election issue or when they deal with the exact number of food trucks in the CBD, it shows who runs the city and how parochial state government in SA actually is....

About the composition of city council, I am originally from a countryside parish overseas and we have 12 councillors for a parish of 1500 people, a local town of 20k inhabitants has 30. I do find that substantially more representative than the minuscle numbers here (and don't get me started about who actually has the right to vote, the whole 'ratepayer' thing isn't exactly a highlight of democracy either). And that links in with that supposed non-partisan nature of the council. I am sorry, but if you have such small numbers then 'non-partisan' gets you highly personal politics, vulnerable to decisions based on personal rivalry and animosities (as the current council amply demonstrates....). Partisan structures at least get you some form of discipline, and just because you can't stand the current majority group (and yes, I don't like some of their decisions either) doesn't mean that this actually leads to less focus on the whole. Do you really believe if you boil it down to even smaller councils, that they will actually care about the whole and not go to even more pork-barreling and serving their own interests??? (no, trash collection can't be on Wednesdays, because that is when the councillor's husband has his bridge evening and can't be bothered to put the bin out.....)

[1NEEDS2POST]

Adelaide City Council should be chosen by all South Australians, not only the few people living in the CBD and businesses. It's too important to leave these decisions that affect the whole city to a small group of people.

[Patrick_27]

Adelaide City Council should be chosen by all South Australians, not only the few people living in the CBD and businesses. It's too important to leave these decisions that affect the whole city to a small group of people.

Sure, let's just ignore the political structure of Australia so that all South Australian's can have a say on the ACC by-election, just wondering, can I vote in your local council election? Who knows when it might impact on my livelihood.

[gnrc_louis]

Can someone please post The Advertiser article about the ACC selling airspace above its buildings, cheers.