REDLAND City Council will hire an external firm to comb through its finances and operations – from staffing levels to service delivery – in a bid to uncover savings.
At a time when every dollar counts, this Council somehow managed to turn an “efficiency review” into a masterclass in inefficiency.
While I applaud the Mayor’s sentiments, what began as a straightforward exercise to identify cost savings sadly turned into more political gamesmanship.
Councillors had already agreed the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, CEO and a senior general manager would oversee the process.
Yet unnecessary time was wasted debating the agreed four-member advisory group after Mayor Jos Mitchell, Cr Wendy Boglary and Cr Paul Bishop suddenly sought to exclude the Deputy Mayor Julie Talty – prompting accusations of backroom manoeuvring.
The General Manager of People and Culture also faced the cut, leaving just the Mayor and CEO Louise Rusan to steer the process with an external advisor.
Cr Rowanne McKenzie accused the trio of orchestrating an attempted ousting of Cr Talty, whose apparent offence was her initial scepticism of the review.
Mayor Mitchell spoke of wanting “fresh eyes” and a lean process, but her message was undercut by a muddled and poorly explained admendment from Cr Bishop.
Cr Jason Colley questioned the absurdity of changing the terms of reference of a review already costing $400,000 (and likely to blow out to at least $2 million).
Cr Paul Golle reminded the Mayor that this was a victory for both her and the community – a chance to sharpen operations and deliver value for money – and she should take the win.
Instead, what should have been a clean, focused debate dissolved into more political point-scoring.
The failed bid to shrink the steering committee to just two members derailed progress, forcing an adjournment of more than an hour while legal advice was sought.
The item later came back and passed under Urgent Business after the original amendment from Cr Bishop predictably came unstuck.
So, at the very moment councillors were meant to prove they could run Council more efficiently; some succeeded only in showing the very opposite.
