Last week I attended the LGA conference in Nowra as one of Mosman’s official delegates., along with Anne Connon, Simon Menzies and Viv May. We were all disappointed by the fact that of the 160 motions submitted by councils across the state, only 50 were dealt with due to a failure to get a quorum on the last day. The earlier days were wasted debating politically motivated motions on issues that have only marginal relevance to local government.
Mosman had half a dozen motions on the agenda on topics covering graffiti, BASIX, certain parking issues, community energy consumption and local roads, There were interesting motions from other councils too. I was looking forward to debating those on on pets in rental properties, replacing parking signage by on-road colour coded markings, regulating Ausgrid boxes and many more.
All the motions that were not dealt with will now be handled by the executive.
But from my perspective at least, the conference was good value for money. There were two exceptional keynote addresses. Sandy Belford gave a great presentation on improving the image of local government, reporting on extensive research on what communities expected and wanted from their local councils and the language that councils need to use if they are to communicate effectively with their communities. While the talk was pitched at councils, it was equally applicable to councillors. I learned a lot.
The second keynote was from demographer and author Bernard Salt on ‘Envisioning a better way to live in the 21st century’. Bernard has a magic way of flipping between grand visions, illustrative anecdotes and hard nosed-data in a way that keeps is audience fully and enthusiastically engaged. You can find the power point of both keynotes here they are worth reading and digesting.
And as always with conferences, it was the opportunity to meet and talk informally with other councillors, from SHOROC and that represented the real pay-off
