A message from the Mayor - Know your Council
Published on 11 April 2016
I generally don’t use this column to attempt to reply to Letters to the Editor, but I think it’s important to clear up some misinformation circulating through the community.
As a Council, we’re more than happy to take constructive, informed criticism. We want to listen to new ideas and find better ways of doing business. Better business doesn’t necessarily mean spending less money, but spending the money we do have in a way that reaps the best rewards.
So it’s frustrating to constantly see groups, who promote themselves as wanting the best for our community, using throw away lines about our “highest rates” in the state and our “wasteful” management systems without any real figures to back up their claims.
By real figures, I’m specifically commenting on the use of comparative data from other municipalities that actually don’t compare at all to our community. If you want to compare our finances, staffing levels and other issues to other Council’s, at least do it with those who are subject to the same governing, funding and auditing bodies as we are and not interstate Councils. Or at the very least, compare us to Council’s with a similar area and population, rather comparing us to Councils with 5,000 or 300,000 people.
I saw our rates being compared to Brunswick, a suburb of Moreland City Council in Melbourne. They have 11 Councillors compared to our 9, their population sits at over 170,000 compared to our 53,000 and they have an area of 50.9 square kilometres compared to our 22,330 square kilometres. How can you compare the issues they face as an inner city metropolitan Council with the challenges faced by our community? Apparently according to some, it’s fair game.
Last year, the Victorian State Government launched their “Know Your Council” website, a website where anyone can go and see comparative information about all 79 Victorian Councils and can compare “like” Councils in our state.
So let’s consider some of the information out in the public and compare it to the independent data on “Know your Council”.
When it comes to rates, contrary to what some would have you think, “Know your Council” shows we’re only slightly above the overall state average. Mildura’s average residential rates notice is $1,436.85 compared with $1,467.60 for similar Victorian Councils. Horsham’s average residential rate is $1,594.44, Wangaratta’s sits at $1,646.39, while Ballarat is slightly lower at $1,398.30.
We’ve been criticised for paying so-called exorbitant amounts to Councillors. But the data on this website shows the Cost of Governance per Councillor for Mildura was $42,162.09pa, compared with $55,195.51 for similar Councils and an average of $47,565.03 across all Councils.
We’ve been also criticised for having services that cost a lot more to run than other Councils. The “Know your Council” website shows clearly we have only 10.32 residents per length of road, verses 52.17 residents in other "like" Councils and 101.20 residents as the overall average of Councils, it’s pretty clear that distance is a major issue for us, whichever service you’re talking about.
Apparently we also spend more on wages than we bring in in rates, which is probably true. Except that we’ve always said rates only fund a small percentage of our wage bill. Lots of positions at Council are funded through other State and Federal Government programs and provide essential services that otherwise wouldn’t be available locally.
Regarding money spent on wages, those wages go back into the community, because that’s what the staff are – part of the community. Their wages are spent in shops, restaurants, at Farmer’s markets, purchasing homes and supporting local events.
You can rest assured Council is consistently looking at ways to cuts cost and provide the best value possible for ratepayers. It is not easy and it will never satisfy everyone but never the less, it is what is actually happening and will continue to happen into the future. We are residents too and we want to not just be sustainable, but to see this region grow and flourish.
Check out more of the State Governments comparative data at www.knowyourcouncil.vic.gov.au
Cr Glenn Milne
Mayor