The Logan City Regional Council discussed the approval of the new Governance Framework at its monthly meeting, and Deputy Mayor Jon Raven didn’t hold back from expressing his views on the matter.
This came about as Logan City Mayor Darren Power went over what was discussed at the previous City Governance Committee’s meeting.
Cr Raven and Cr Jacob Heremaia were absent from the October 21 meeting. They were representing Council at the Local Government Association of Queensland Conference instead.
The agenda appeared at the meeting as “That the Governance Framework, as attached to the report of the Corporate Governance Manager dated 21 October 2020, be endorsed.”
All Councillors voted for this, however in his absence Cr Raven expressed his honest thoughts at this week’s general meeting.
“I’d like to begin by quoting something from the report that says ‘good governance is necessary in local government.’ Mr Mayor I couldn’t agree more that this framework is helpful and brings together the responsibilities of councillors and staff so that policies that manage our ethical and legal obligations are all in one document,” Cr Raven said.
“This would have been a fantastic starting point for a new cohort of councillors to learn from during their induction. If only it hadn’t been 18 months in the making.
“Thirty pages over 18 months. That’s about one page a week. There’s some good pages in there but I don’t know if it needed that much time to deliver.”
Cr Raven explicitly pointed to section 7 of the framework.
“There’s something that’s conspicuous for it’s absence,” he said.
“Nowhere in this section is anything about the democratically elected members of this council, their role in any of the headings, or their communities right to access and contact us.
“Which is an ongoing challenge that my colleagues have been facing since administration.
“The report says that council currently has a system of informal governance in place.”
Cr Raven asked the acting CEO, Silvio Trinca, which one of the five local government principals did informal systems fall under.
Acting CEO Trinca was unable to answer Cr Raven’s question.
“During last term when this council and staff were tested and strained under the events that lead to charges of official corruption, perjury, and fraud it saddens me to think this organisation is relying on informal systems of governance to hold the line against these sorts of situations,” Cr Raven said.
Cr Raven finished by saying he didn’t think the new framework gave councillors the tools they needed, despite taking 18 months to put together.
Acting CEO Trinca disagreed with Cr Raven.
“It needs to be actively upheld and implemented by everyone,” he said.
“Good governance is not an end to itself.
“It is not the Governance Framework that ensures good governance.”
