The following is my end of term address which I delivered to the last Monash Council meeting of the 2012-16 term on Wednesday, 19 October 2016.
Given this is the last Council meeting for this term of Council, I would like to make a few comments looking back over the past four years.
Reflecting on these four years this afternoon, it occurred to me that I don’t think there has ever been a period of such rapid change and new initiatives in the 22 year history of Monash Council.
The election of most us in October 2012 now seems much further away than simply the progression of time from one Olympics to the next.
Of course, the Council looked quite different back then.
It is appropriate to acknowledge our colleagues who started this term with us but who don’t finish it now with us. We remember fondly Tom Morrissey who sadly passed away early in this Council term. And we recognise the contributions of councillors who resigned along the way to focus on serving the community in other capacities – Stephen Dimopoulos, Stefanie Perri and Paul Klisaris.
For a Council which prior to this term had not had a single replacement councillor mid-term, this represents a quite unprecedented period of change.
Indeed, I cannot think of another instance in another council where such experience and talent has been lost between elections. To put it into context, these four councillors collectively represent 47 years of Council experience – not far off the 58 years of experience which the 11 of us who now remain collectively comprise.
I have been a part of all but one of the council terms which have spanned elected councillors at Monash.
I think I am well placed to observe that never has there been more achieved around this table than over the course of this four year term.
This has been a term of Council characterised by action, many decisions and achievements as well as robust and assertive advocacy across a range of issues and causes. Sometimes we have been united in our positions while other times there has been bitter division.
But this has been a Council which has been prepared to make tough decisions.
Sale of nursing homes
No decision was tougher than the one to divest Council’s two residential aged care facilities. While our decision to sell was made with the objective of securing certainty and the best long term quality of care for the 165 residents at the two facilities, this decision has also produced significant financial benefits for all Monash ratepayers.
As well as net sale proceeds of $14.5 million, ratepayers have saved more than $1 million every year in operating costs because these facilities had been incurring significant financial losses for some time.
So this decision means that as well as residents at the facilities receiving the highest quality care possible from a not-for-profit provider, which has been caring for older residents for more than 150 years, Monash ratepayers have also saved around $3 million in the last 30 months alone. That’s $3 million more which can be invested back into our community for the benefit of all people in Monash while at the same time the 165 residents of these facilities continue to remain in the same place, pay the same fees and be attended to by many of the same staff. They have also been able to access new services and can look forward to an increased level of asset renewal at the facilities than was previously possible under Council’s operation of the two facilities.
But that wasn’t the only tough decision.
Vacation Care
Around the same time, Council also decided to exit its vacation care service.
Council’s vacation care service provided child minding to some families during school holiday periods.
But it was a very inefficient service for Council to offer – alongside 19 other vacation care providers within Monash which in most cases operate on a year round basis rather than Council’s service being limited to just school holidays.
The operation of this service cost Monash ratepayers more than $200,000 each year while the families accessing the service were paying the same fees as were being charged on average at each of these other providers.
Our decision to exit this service meant that Council’s vacation care programs were able to be transitioned seamlessly to host schools so there was no disruption of service to those accessing the programs, while ensuring that ratepayer funds were able to be redirected to higher priority areas.
Family Day Care
Yet, our rigorous efficiency reviews of Council services did not always result in closure or sale.
In the case of Council’s Family Day Care service, Council decided against ceasing this service and instead worked collaboratively with our staff, carers and parents to achieve a new fee regime to run the service on a cost neutral basis. This eliminated the significant ratepayer subsidy for the operation of this service which had developed and which was forecast to increase significantly with the Federal Government’s changes to how it funds Family Day Care. Since the implementation of our plan, our Family Day Care service has been successfully run on a break even basis to the benefit of families, carers and the Monash ratepayer.
Tough decisions
These decisions are important for councils to make and are difficult ones because they are always accompanied by significant community concern and opposition.
They are decisions often shunned and avoided by other councils. However, any council providing 150 plus services and looking to evolve with the times to remain relevant to its changing community – while keeping rates as low as possible – must be prepared to have these conversations and make these decisions.
Monash Council has the lowest council rates in the state because we are prepared to tackle these matters and because we carefully scrutinise all new spending.
Indeed we have done many things during the course of this Council term to keep Monash rates as low as possible. These have included:
- Introduction of a differential rate on commercial and industrial ratepayers to recover more rates from business ratepayers in favour of residential ratepayers;
- Introduction of a Council funded pensioner rate rebate of $50.00;
- Development of a Financial Hardship Policy to provide assistance to ratepayers in financial hardship with the payment of their rates;
- Allowing pensioners to defer their rates interest free and other ratepayers experiencing financial hardship to defer with only a 2.5% interest rate;
- The Insertion of a new Key Performance Indicator in the CEO’s contract for her to achieve $500K+ of efficiency and productivity savings on an annual basis;
- Reduced the number of effective full time employees at Council over the course of this Council term and capped this number so it no longer automatically grows from year to year;
- Instigated a state-wide campaign for rate reform urging the State Government to give councils the flexibility to smooth fluctuations in rates from year to year due to property revaluations;
- Resolved in-principle to introduce a separate waste charge to provide financial relief to ratepayers who do not receive a waste collection service from Council; and
- Set a target of a 40% reduction in Council’s annual $1 million plus spend on legal services.
These measures have made it possible to eliminate Monash Council’s $15 million of debt which had accumulated since Monash Council’s amalgamation in the mid-1990s.
Monash is now debt free for the first time in its history.
Achievements and improvements
But low rates and effective financial management of Council is only half the story of this Council.
On the environment, we have rolled out energy efficient street lighting across Monash which will save an estimated $14.1 million in energy costs through to 2031 and cut our carbon emissions by 18%.
On sporting reserves we upgraded a number of our sporting facilities including developing our first new synthetic sports field at Jack Edwards Reserve.
We delivered the most significant playground ever seen in Monash with the construction of the Valley Reserve Play Space – a regional playground which draws people everyday from all over Melbourne to this idyllic bush haven in Mount Waverley.
We have transformed our approach to maintaining our footpaths with more prompt processing of footpath repairs and annual proactive inspections of overhanging branches where officers literally walk every street in Monash to make sure our footpaths are unimpeded.
We have developed significant new strategies like a new and comprehensive plan for managing street trees and for supporting and improving sustainable transport in Monash.
We significantly increased funding for bike paths and we built the Eastern Innovation Centre in Mulgrave to sit alongside the existing Monash Enterprise Centre which we fittingly renamed the Tom Morrissey Building.
On advocacy we have been particularly active – sticking up for our community in relation to poker machines, police stations, mental health services for young people, improvements to the Huntingdale Station precinct, vacant former school sites, domestic violence, gender equality, smoking in outdoor dining areas, Waverley Park powerlines and rates.
Planning
Planning has consumed much focus over the course of this Council term – particularly the past two years with the development of the draft new residential zones in Monash. This was the subject of the most hotly contested public consultation ever seen in Monash with very strong opinions expressed on either side of the debate.
The changes we are now progressing to the Monash Planning Scheme will protect our existing neighbourhoods from unreasonable development and protect our garden character more effectively than the current scheme does.
While we haven’t pleased everyone with where we have struck the balance on planning, I do believe that with the extra attention we gave to this issue that we have neutralised a lot of the initial anger on either side of the issue and we have brokered sensible compromises which are supported and backed by the overwhelming majority of Monash residents.
In a Council like ours, you can’t protect neighbourhood areas without channelling growth somewhere. We have done that with our activity centres and around main roads and train stations. This helps to relieve pressure from residential areas and also adds to the vibrancy and excitement of our activity centres such as here in Glen Waverley.
Our Activity Centres
Indeed, improving our Activity Centres has been a key focus over this entire term. We have a new car park under construction at Atkinson Street in Oakleigh which will solve car parking difficulties in Oakleigh.
While here in Glen Waverley there has been constant work, firstly on developing the Glen Waverley Activity Centre Master Plan, then the Glen Waverley Activity Centre Transport Plan, then the Glen Waverley Activity Centre Structure Plan and then on further public consultation around the Central Car Park and the commencement of an Expression of Interest and now Request for Proposal for that site. More recently there have been the development of a bold new plan to transform Kingsway with 800 to 1,200 car parks in the precinct and the proposed removal of kerbside parking along Kingsway to create Melbourne’s best outdoor dining precinct.
Core services
I haven’t mentioned many of the things that we spend our most of our time on – the everyday services like waste management, drainage, local road construction, Home and Community Care, Maternal and Child Health and so on. These things, of course, have continued to be very well managed and delivered in a high quality and effective way day in and day out.
Council staff
I would like to thank the hard working Monash Council staff.
They are a very dedicated and talented bunch. Very much so in the case of the ones in this room tonight who lead the organisation and set a very good example. But just as importantly, the hundreds of others who they lead and who are typically the main point of contact which a Monash resident has with their council.
I am sure I speak on behalf of all councillors when I say we very much appreciate their commitment to customer service and their dedication to assisting people and improving how Council serves our community.
Customer service
And I need to say some things about customer service.
Our approach to customer service has been transformed over the course of the past four years. JarrodDoake has led the overhaul of our customer service team which now sits across all of
Council’s operations rather than the previous silo approach. We developed a charter of customer service standards and guarantees which every resident of Monash can expect to be met whenever they deal with us.
Council’s staff at the depot led by Ossie Martinz instigated and pioneered the Monash Pride Crew concept which has significantly improved the look and feel of our activity centres whilst providing local traders and other stakeholders with one point of contact for all Council related enquires. This has improved our relationship with local traders and instilled a sense of common partnership in all of us working together to present the best possible public areas in Monash.
Community satisfaction results
These initiatives all help to explain why earlier this year we achieved such a fantastic result in the State Government’s annual state-wide Community Satisfaction Survey.
The thing I found particularly pleasing about these results was that it demonstrated clear and significant improvement over the past two years in areas like customer service, consultation and engagement and informing the community which have been key organisational priorities for everyone across Council.
I particularly want to recognise all of the staff who have participated in the listening posts held over the last two years to inform residents about Council services and hear feedback from the community. This had been a new initiative led by our Manager of Communications, Ainslie Gowan, and has undoubtedly been an important contributor to these results.
Our ‘community consultation and engagement’ performance has increased by eight points since 2014. Similarly, on ‘informing the community’ we also improved eight points during this period.
On overall performance we are a staggering 11 points above the average across the state. On overall Council direction we are 10 points above the state average.
Indeed, there is not one single Council service area in which we have declined in the last 12 months which shows all parts of the organisation are firing on all cylinders.
CEO
I would like to thank our Chief Executive Officer, Andi Diamond, for her leadership of the organisation. She has personally championed many of the things that Council has focused on over the past four years. She has led significant cultural change to this organisation, pushed all of us to be more innovative and customer focused and gone well beyond what any of us could ever reasonably expect from a CEO – such as literally being available on a 24 hour rolling basis.
She has personally attended most listening posts as well as many Council events and this shows her commitment to the organisation she leads and to our community. It is appropriate that these talents were also recognised by the State Government when it appointed her as president of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade 18 months ago.
Retiring councillors
Before I finish, I would like to spend a few moments reflecting on the contributions of those around this table who we know will not be coming back.
That is, Katrina Nolan, Micaela Drieberg and Jieh-Yung Lo who are not contesting the elections taking place as we meet.
There is something satisfying about choosing the time of your departure after years of dedicated public service.
You have each contributed much to this Council and to our community. You leave a better Council behind than the one you were each originally elected to.
If there is something which characterises your contributions to Council it is the way you have each developed and grown over the course of your respective terms and the way you have taken a measured, effective and influential approach to shaping decisions around this table. I am sure that your time as councillors at Monash will serve you well with the rest of the long careers ahead of you and I wish you each the very best.
Monash community
To our community and particularly the stalwarts who are regular attendees at our meetings, thank you for the privilege to make decisions on your behalf.
I know you do not always agree with what we decide or how we decide things but that is the nature of government – and long may it remain so. We should all be thankful that we represent a community that is diverse, has many points of view and which enjoys a contest of ideas.
The mayoralty
Finally, I would like to thank everyone for the opportunity to serve us mayor for these short past five and a half months.
As I said when I was elected, it was not something I had any great desire to do again but I must say I have very much enjoyed most of this period. I am pleased that I have been able to play a part in fixing our meetings which had unfortunately become dysfunctional and unpleasant, in assisting Council to effectively work through difficult issues and in making our meetings much more efficient and effective.
I have also appreciated the opportunity that the mayoralty provides to advocate as loudly and effectively as I can on issues I feel passionate about such as improving the rates system and transforming Kingsway.
I wish everyone the very best for whatever lies ahead following the completion of this Council term.
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