Things are hotting up and becoming really interesting. With the mayoral election just around the corner we can lay bets that the phones have been running hot and little clandestine meetings going on all over the place, with lobbying at its most intensive. Promises are being made left right and centre; favours called in, and all kinds of pressures brought to bear. The way we read the situation, is that the race is well and truly on between Hyams and Magee. Speculating a little further, we believe that the gang will of course vote for Hyams (ie. Lipshutz, Tang, Esakoff and Hyams himself) whilst Magee will possibly have the votes of Forge, Pilling, Penhalluriack and himself. That leaves dear Oscar – the new ‘king maker’.

What a turn around from last year when Lobo nominated himself and got no support. His continual cry of ‘4 plus 1’ fell on deaf ears. Well, this year things are vastly different. Lobo is that pivotal ‘1’! The question of course is: will he succumb to the wiles of Hyams et al or the wiles of Magee et al? How will he vote? Will past animosity against ‘the gang’ suddenly be fresh in his memory, or will his current (inexplicable) embrace of the group remain firm? From last year’s ‘nowhere man’, Lobo is suddenly thrust into the limelight – the real ‘kingmaker’.

Hefty price rises hit family hard

Public Relations 

Service profile:

Public Relations provide a consistent, cohesive, positive and professional image of the Council to the community. It also imparts key messages about Council services and activities to the community.

Review outcomes:

Quality and cost standards

The quality and cost standards identified for Public Relations relate to customer satisfaction, communication effectiveness and responsiveness.

• Internal communications survey revealed that most clients felt the service had improved vastly in the past 12 months in terms of accessibility, approachability and responsiveness.

• Annual customer satisfaction survey indicated a high level of satisfaction.

Other standards met during 20010–11 include:

• Providing an annual report to the Minister for Local Government by 30 September.

• Issuing a minimum of one press release per week.

• Publishing 11 issues of Glen Eira News annually.

• Per hour service provision lower than external suppliers.

• Applying three quote processes to external project work valued at more than $3,000 to ensure best value service.

• Increasing printing on recycled and FSC approved paper stock, which is cost-comparable to non-recycled paper stocks.

Responsive:

Through consultation, the current needs of the community and service users are identified and, where appropriate, we make suggested changes to the service to ensure best ongoing use.

Accessible

The service is accessible to the community by:

• Regular communication including Glen Eira News, website updates, community resource guide and a fortnightly information column in local newspapers.

• Publishing materials in printed format and alternate formats where appropriate and promoting the availability of alternate formats in languages other than English.

• Providing appropriate distribution of communication materials.

• Promoting contact details in Glen Eira News, on the website and on all media releases.

Continuous improvement

Public Relations ensure continuous improvement of its services by:

• Testing the website for accessibility and useability, to ensure it meets community needs.

• Regularly reviewing Glen Eira News and other Council publications to ensure they deliver key messages to the community correctly and on time.

• Increasing the number of publications printed on recycled or FSC approved stock to make Council publications more environmentally friendly.

Regular consultation

Regular consultation includes periodic external stakeholder satisfaction surveys on key communication tools; ongoing internal consultation and formal feedback processes after major projects are completed; regular feedback from the senior management group and through PR staff appraisals; strategy meetings, weekly team meetings and service reviews.

From the Local Government Act: 208B. Best Value Principles

The Best Value Principles are-

(a)  all services provided by a Council must meet the quality and cost standards required by section 208D;

(b)  subject to sections 3C(2)(b) and 3C(2)(e), all services provided by a Council must be responsive to the needs of its community; 

(c)  each service provided by a Council must be accessible to those members of the community for whom the service is intended;

(d)  a Council must achieve continuous improvement in the provision of services for its community;

(e)  a Council must develop a program of regular consultation with its community in relation to the services it provides; 

   (f)  a Council must report regularly to its community on its achievements in relation to the principles set out in paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e).

208G. Report on Best Value Principles compliance – At least once every year a Council must report to its community on what it has done to ensure that it has given effect to the Best Value Principles.”

Thus sayeth the law! How Council responds to the law via its compulsory ‘Best Value Report’ is another matter. We’ve uploaded the full document here and note that it is again well hidden on council’s website – so much for ‘reporting to the community’!!!

There are many services included. We’ve decided to highlight the ‘Traffic Management’ section and ask readers to contemplate whether the intent of the Local Government Act is indeed fulfilled via the following –

Service profile:

The Traffic Management Unit manages the Council’s traffic and parking responsibilities. This includes developing policies/strategies on traffic management planning; investigating concerns/issues relating to road safety, traffic efficiency, parking allocation, etc. and managing the capital works program.

Review outcomes:

Quality and cost standards    

The major quality standard set for the service is customer satisfaction, in accordance with the Annual Community Satisfaction Survey conducted by the State Government.

• The service achieved a rating of 58%. Whilst this result is lower than last year, it is in the top bracket of scores for “all Councils”, which ranged from 53% to 61%.
• All capital works projects completed improved identified safety issues.
• The service has met all cost standards except for the amount for the Traffic Engineering contract which was reflective of extra resources being employed for projects such as the C60 Amendment (MRC), and the preparation of Council’s Towards Sustainable Transport Strategy.  

Responsive

The Service has been responsive to community needs by:

• Meeting with external stakeholders e.g. Municipal Association Victoria, Department of Justice, Department of Transport and Department of Planning and Community Development.
• Implementing the Road Safety Strategy to achieve safety outcomes.
• Implementing the capital works program to achieve safety outcomes.
• Conducting regular meetings with internal and external stakeholders to respond to emerging issues.
• Reviewing the Annual Community Satisfaction Survey conducted by the State Government to understand community views.
• Efficiently  responding to complaints and enquiries.
• Involvement  with Metropolitan Transport Forum to tackle transport issues.
• Preparing Council’s Towards Sustainable Transport Strategy.

The above measures enhanced service delivery in the following ways:

• Improved residential amenity and safety in local streets.
• Educating drivers about speeding, by using the speed advisory trailer.
• Improved shopping centre safety (Elsternwick).
• Improved  school safety through the employment of 63 school crossing supervisors assisting approximately 15,000 school children per day.
• Improved  road safety under the capital works program.
• Application of Council policy restricting the issue of residential parking permits to residents in new developments in high parking activity locations.
• Resolving residents’ parking concerns through careful readjustment of the critical balance between parking supply and demand.

Accessible

The service is available Monday to Friday 8.30am–5pm at the Council offices.

Continuous improvement

Regular consultation

Consultation during the year included the Annual Community Satisfaction Survey; surveys of interested parties on specific issues; feedback via Council’s Customer Tracking System, highlighting issues and concerns raised by the community; regular meetings with internal and external stakeholders, and meetings with shop owners in local shopping centres.

*In order to deliver the Transport Strategy a three day a week staff member was increased to full time to ensure delivery of all Strategy actions.