Administrator to train would-be Councillors

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The next 15 councillors elected to local government on the NSW Central Coast in September 2024 will inherit around $250 million in debt and diminishing surpluses, according to Administrator Rik Hart.

Central Coast Council Administrator Rik Hart

By Jacquelene Pearson

Mr Hart’s comments about contracting surpluses and debt were made in the context of his proposal to invite community members interested in standing for office in the September 2024 council election to attend transition training.

The Administrator presented a Minute to the July 25 ordinary Central Coast Council meeting which recommended that a “Councillor return pathway will include a series of training sessions to be provided to the Central Coast community and in particular, those interested in running for election, beginning with an introductory session in October 2023.”

What will Mr Hart be telling would-be candidates about the financial position they will inherit?

“I will be able to tell them the background, where we have come from, which we are very familiar with, to where we are now,” Mr Hart said.

“Whilst the numbers aren’t finite we will be recording a reasonably substantial surplus. Our long-term financial plan will be out. I haven’t seen that yet so I can’t tell you exactly what it will show.”

Mr Hart was quite clear that the Councillors elected in September 2024 will be facing “surpluses deteriorating and requirement into the future for more revenue. You are going to see that impact.

“As far as debt is concerned, the last substantial loan we drew down, which was $100 million which funded all the redundancies and repaid some of the externally restricted funds. I am hoping that by December this year when that loan is repayable we will be able to repay a very large part of it.”

Mr Hart said that based on the total debt claimed by Mr Persson, of around $550 million, he hoped the new Council would be carrying less than half of that amount.

Hark back to September 2017 when the first Administrator of the Central Coast Council, Mr Ian Reynolds, said his achievements included putting “good governance arrangements in place across council, the fully funded record capital works program rolling out across the Central Coast and the enhanced service delivery and community infrastructure delivered by staff…The priority of this administration period has been to build a solid foundation for the newly elected council and I believe that has been achieved,” Mr Reynolds said.

“The community can have confidence our finances are sound and strong – everything in this Plan is costed and is on track for delivery,” he told the public in June 2017 when adopting the operational plan put in place for the first year of elected councillors. No mention of debt or the change to accounting practices which saw almost $200 million in restricted funds appear as unrestricted cash.

Administrator’s role

The next local government election for Central Coast Council will be held on Saturday, 14 September 2024, and will be conducted by the NSW Electoral Commission along with local government elections across NSW.

“I have been discussing the Councillor return pathway with the Office of Local Government (OLG) and the Administrators of Balranald and Wingecarribee councils, with a view to developing a program for candidates which is distinct from elected Councillor induction (which is a matter for Council’s Chief Executive Officer [CEO]),” Mr Hart stated in his Minute.

“Central Coast Council, Balranald, and Wingecarribee councils were all subject to independent Public Inquiries with recommendations from Commissioners that all public offices be declared vacant, among other recommendations, including upfront and ongoing mandatory training relating to financial management and specific to local government,” he said.

“The OLG has explicitly indicated that Administrators must play a key role in supporting their Council to transition back to elected leadership.

“The OLG sees the participation of Administrators in candidate information sessions to talk about the leadership failures of the former Councillors and Executive Management that led to the previous Council’s dismissal and the steps taken to address these failures while under Administration as something that will contribute to the success of that transition back to an elected body, and ultimately, the successful future of the region.

“As prescribed in the Local Government Act 1993 (the Act), Councillors are the elected representatives who make up the governing body, and it is the governing body’s role to provide effective civic leadership to the whole community.

“It is important to note that once a Councillor is elected, they immediately become part of the Council’s governing body.

“The Act states that the role of a Councillor is (in part): to be an active and contributing member of the governing body to make considered and well-informed decisions as a member of the governing body, and to represent the collective interests of residents, ratepayers and the local community.

“Once elected, the Act states that the Councillor must make an oath (or affirmation) which reads as follows: ‘I [name of Councillor] swear that I will undertake the duties of the office of Councillor in the best interests of the people of the Central Coast and the Central Coast Council and that I will faithfully and impartially carry out the functions, powers, authorities and discretions vested in me under the Local Government Act 1993 or any other Act to the best of my ability and judgment’.

“As evidenced above, governance in local government does not operate with a ‘representative’ model wherein the Councillor is elected to represent the ward in which they were elected. Instead, good governance in local government is about representing the whole region and being a contributing and active member of the governing body,” Mr Hart said.

Referendum

Mr Hart’s minute to the July meeting said the community will be asked a constitutional referendum question at the 14 September 2024 local government election.

“Between 1 March and 15 March 2021 Central Coast Council’s then Administrator, Mr Dick Persson AM, sought community feedback on a constitutional referendum for the reduction of Councillors (from 15 to nine) in conjunction with the next local government election,” Mr Hart said.

“This consultation provided an opportunity for the community to submit feedback on the options proposed, which would help Council understand community sentiment on this matter.

“Community members were presented with an information package and invited to participate in an online poll.

“Participants were asked if they would like Councillors reduced from 15 to nine.

“78 percent of respondents said ‘yes’ (613 participants total). Those who responded ‘yes’ to a reduction in Councillors were then asked to provide their preferences for ward structure.

“45 percent of respondents preferred five wards reduced to three wards, and 55 percent of respondents preferred to abolish the wards and instead have nine Councillors for the whole Central Coast.

“This consultation informed what question would be asked at the constitutional referendum on 14 September 2024.

“The result of this referendum is binding, meaning that whatever the majority decides must be enacted. The outcome (either a reduction or no change) is not immediate, instead it will be applied from following the local government elections in 2028, onwards.”

The Public Inquiry into Central Coast Council’s cashflow crisis of 2020 recommended upfront and ongoing mandatory training, including training relating to financial management specific to local government, should be implemented for Councillors to ensure that they are adequately prepared for the obligations and responsibilities they are bound by can be upheld to an appropriate standard.

According to Rik Hart, “Since Council has been under administration, tighter budget management controls, financial governance and financial reporting have been implemented to return Central Coast Council to a state of stability.

“I have passionately and consistently advocated for these changes both during my interim appointment as CEO of Central Coast Council, and now as Administrator, to ensure that the organisation is in a sound position for the elected governing body (Councillors) to take over once elected in September 2024.

“In the lead up to the September 2024 elections, I urge the Central Coast community to think seriously about the type of Councillor they want to elect to form part of their new governing body.

“The ideal candidate is someone who is ready and willing to represent the whole Central Coast community – not just their patch or ward (as outlined by the Act), to work together with the balance of the governing body to uphold their responsibilities as outlined in the Act, and to serve the Central Coast community to the best of their ability.”

Following the July council meeting, Mr Hart told The Point he had been concerned for some time about providing a transition for potential Councillors which he had shared with the Administrator of Wingecarribee, Mr Viv May, who he has known for some time.

“We approached the OLG because, in our view, it is almost too late after the election to give councillors an idea of their role. There are a number of mistakes which the Commissioner of the Public Inquiry pointed out. There needs to be a transfer from the administrator to the elected body. That cannot occur after the election,” he said.

Mr Hart said he believed his role was to provide upfront education to potential candidates about what their role would be.

Wards are not electorates

“Future Councillors are not to believe they are there to do the whims of their ward. The moment they are elected, from that point onwards, their role according to the Act is to govern for everyone.”

When asked if he truly believed too much emphasis on representing wards was the major problem with the previous council, Mr Hart said, “It was one of the problems.”

Mr Hart said he had been told by a facilitator who had attempted to help Councillors reduce costs before the October 2021 cashflow crisis that “not one of those Councillors present was willing to give up a project in their ward.”

He said anyone considering running for council would need to understand that they could not promise things for their wards.

“Do not make promises because the organisation is not going to have the capacity to do much more than it is doing now,” he said.

Mr Hart said the timeframe for staff to respond to an inquiry from an elected Councillor would be the same as the timeframe for staff to respond to a member of the public.

“For example, if you have a pot hole, you lose time by going through a Councillor because we will be putting in place timeframes for responding to a councillor that will be the same time as for a member of the public. You need to go through the customer portal or to a service centre and put your request there because that way it is handled through the staff.

“A Councillor should only try to get involved if the member of the public is not getting satisfaction and ask a question,” he said.

The Point quizzed Mr Hart about the fact that, even with 15 Councillors, the Central Coast has one of the lowest levels of per capital local government representation in NSW. Why would the community want less elected representatives in Hely St?

It’s all about having the systems in place to make sure staff can effectively deal with resident problems.

“If you take that out of the play, and at other councils those systems are so good that the Councillors don’t have to do any of that work which means time is reduced and hopefully you get better and higher calibre of people.”

Mr Hart is on a mission to make sure people thinking of standing for council know it is “not a profession you are entering into… we need to start getting that message out.”

Of course there is no guarantee that people thinking of running will attend the Administrator’s transition programs.

“Hopefully people will come. I will have ex mayors from other areas who have stood in the past to talk about how they were elected. There will be living examples,” he said.

He agreed there are no guarantees any of the political parties will have preselected their candidates by the time Mr Hart hopes to start his transition process in October.

“There are no guarantees at all. One would hope that anyone in a party, if they thought they were interested and they would obviously be interested, one would hope they would come along.”

Mr Hart said the sessions would “without fear or favour” tell those thinking of standing for election “how the position works”.

Why have wards?

If wards make Councillors behave like politicians with electorates to serve why not abolish them altogether? The Point asked Mr Hart.

“That is a good question. When Dick [Persson, Interim Administrator 2020-21] and I discussed this way back and Dick with staff put out an online poll. There was a small majority of people who did in fact favour no wards.

“I am sticking with the original decision not to go down that track. My ideal would be a popularly elected Mayor and no wards but I think both Dick and I felt that would be a bridge too far for the community to accept at this stage.”

According to Mr Hart the best way forward would be to reduce the number of councillors from 15 to 9 and the number of wards to three – north, mid and south to break the old Wyong v Gosford north-south nexus.

“Three wards would mean the Councillors would be more likely to work together.” That could have something to do with the fact that the size of each ward would be bigger than a state electorate making it impossible for Councillors to effectively look after their constituents.

“They are not there to be at the beck and call of the community. They are there to make decisions about the whole of the community.

“A good example would be an LEP [Local Environmental Plan], look at how it works for the whole of the Central Coast. It is not done on a ward basis.”

Mr Hart used the example of a local MP as opposed to a Minister to clarify his point. A local MP (state or federal) can represent or argue for their own patch, according to Mr Hart.

“But you take a minister and as soon as you are appointed a minister to the cabinet your role is different. You cannot look after your patch and you get in trouble if you do. That ministerial role applies as soon as you are elected.”