Questions asked by
the Bungendore Chamber of Commerce

Verbatum
Question:

Council needs more money to "make things happen".  How do you foresee this issue being addressed? What is your answer to the Shire’s dire financial situation?

Council isn’t unique in its economic situation either as a local government council or as an incorporated enterprise.  Tens of thousands of enterprises get into dire economic straits every year.  Many collapse and many are turned around.  The ones that collapse are assisted to that end by unimaginative and financially weak directors and administrators who are oriented to winding things down.  The ones that succeed in their turn-around are assisted to the outcome by innovative and financially confident leaders. 

The outcome to wind up in liquidation or succeed to greater things is a result of the enterprise’s leadership and not the circumstances.  Our council will be no different.  The one thing I can assure you, even take bets on it, is that as valuable as their professions are, office decorators, librarians, and failed café operators are not going to turn around this shire’s fortunes; rather if elected they would preside over its demise.

Every one of your writers so far (30 Aug. 08) has made three fundamental turnaround mistakes. 

• The first is that they hold a fixed prejudicial view on the outcome on rates. (i.e. “Rates will go up.” “They can’t go down.”)
• The second is that we have to cut back on expenditure and infrastructure development to, in effect, ‘live within our means and maintain the status quo’.
• And, the third is prioritising their personal lifestyle ambitions and worldview ahead of the whole community’s economic survival and the welfare of its member’s.

Simplistically put, I follow a 6 Step approach to leading a turnaround. These work in big and small business; they also work in peoples personal lives. The steps are:

1. Take Detailed Stock Of Your Position

This is not just your Balance Sheet position, but also your situational leverage, opportunities and limitations.

2. Conserve Current Resources

This is a temporary economic governor device and not a policy of economic withdrawal.

3. Keep Your Agreements

All successful enterprise turnarounds have as their foundation enterprise integrity. In its simplest expression, enterprise integrity exhibits itself by people keeping agreements, doing what has been committed to be done, gaining stakeholder consent if it cannot keep an agreement, and being very transparent in communications.

4. Plan For An Ideal Outcome

Financially naive councillors try to drive enterprise cars, not with their hands on the steering wheel, but with them on the rear-view mirror and cannot understand why they crash so much.

Part of what makes success materialise is that the stakeholders have some idea of what that is going to look like when it arrives.  That’s a case of driving to a destination with your hands on the steering wheel and with a road map.

In the case of our LGA, that would be a full blown financial assessment of what would it cost us to do all the fitting things that our residents would want.  For example, more frequent road grading, rural rubbish collection, remote area social spaces, improved public sport infrastructure, full village sidewalks and tree planting, and so on.

That exercise will yield a capital figure to establish such things and another figure to maintain them.   Already to hand is our current revenue figure, and the difference between the two is:

• firstly, the price for an ideal outcome, and 

• secondly, the challenge for innovative large-enterprise leadership problem solving and the personal commitment of councillors, management, community and other stakeholders, to rise to the challenge.

The outcome of accepting and meeting this challenge will be a strategic and tactical business plan with short and medium term goals, milestones and objectives.

5. Invest In and Execute The Plan.

This is as it suggests.

6. Tune the Outcome And Reset Higher Goals.

While a well conceived and designed turnaround plan can get you where you want to go, as it gathers momentum new opportunities will gravitate to its mass.  Sharp strategist need to consider such new input and opportunities for the purpose of strengthening better and more sustainable future community outcomes.

Lastly, it’s one thing to achieve a successful turnaround and it’s another to make it ongoingly sustainable. 

The singular detrimental mistake that is made after achieving all of ones goals, is failing to make new and greater goals.

The universe as we know it operates in two modes – Expansion and Contraction. Every one of our human-level models and constructs operate in one of the same two modes.  Despite some people wishing to continuously live in the 1970s or 1950s, or 1880s that is simply not possible, because the universe doesn’t do ‘Hover’, it just does Expansion and Contraction. 

So once goals are achieved, contraction or regression automatically kicks in unless new expansive goals are established.  This is a critical objective of Step 6.

[NB: For those who are keen on ‘heritage’, it can be quite a successful economic strategy, especially for tourism, but only if it operates in the context of Expansion. In a recent discussion I had with members of Braidwood and Villages Tourism, I exemplified the truth of this, by pointing out the difference to tourism and community pride if there was a volunteers project that did a quick ‘clean, neat and tidy-up’ of all the building facades in Braidwood. That would be an example of heritage being in expansion mode rather than regression. From community economic and esprit d’corp, Expansion and Contraction are as different as eating chalk or cheese.]

 This road-map formula is the answer to your question.

"Rate reduction, Rate Stabilisation, Rate Increases" … "How do you see these relating to service provision (ambulance, safety, education, aged care) and development (both commercial and residential growth) for Palerang’s future.

Firstly, when we see as in some of the responses already posted here (30 Aug. 08)  candidates and tickets simply ruling out any possibility of Rates reduction or stabilisation, the voters should rule out those same candidates and tickets without any further consideration or reservation.

In taking such a position, if Rate reduction or at the least Rate Stabilisation were an achievable goal, those people would not be able to find it, and if discovered by others would, with certainty, oppose it.  These are Department oriented people, trained in the behaviour of spending their entire budget by 30 June, so they can justify a bigger ask the following year. That may be OK if they are asking the Commonwealth for more money, but in this case they would be asking the ratepayers.  There is no room for such orientations on a ratepayer funded council.

 As for me, I fully and with confidence hold open the possibility of discovering the means of reducing or at the least stabilising Rates during the term of this next Council without adversely effecting services. This confidence would be buoyed provided other like minded and optimistic people are elected to council and we are not dragging a ball and chain of ill-focused, backward looking and fearful councillors.

If we are going to be a progressive LGA, and one which is presently increasing in age, then the mentioned services need to come into our communities; not just Bungendore but each of the major towns and villages in time. If elected to council, I would fully support establishing these new services, and would work with the other councillors and management, to find ways to do this with financially neutral or beneficial outcomes to the ratepayers.

In terms of commercial and residential growth what I’m hearing from the majority of the people who have spoken and written to me during this campaign is that they are happy to have necessary and appropriate new development, so long as it is sympathetically designed to fit in to its locality.

I know that there is a very vocal contingent which is anti everything and would just like to throw up walls around Palerang to keep everyone out.  For a long time I interpreted their aggression and volume as actually being the voice of the people, but as I’ve said the vast majority of my interactions with residents denotes a much more tolerant and welcoming tone for newcomers.  And, without a doubt, the message I’m getting from residents is that they want council to be hospitable to new and existing small business expansion, as they want more fulfilling local employment for themselves and for their children as they enter the workforce.

To expand on these two questions: The Chamber would like to know if, as a candidate, you will stand for (1) reducing rates, (2) maintaining rates at current levels, or (3) will you be open minded with regard to rate increases, if circumstances arise.

If you are for reducing rates, then do you think that can be done and avoid bankruptcy? And do you care if the Shire goes bankrupt? If we go bankrupt and an administrator is put in place, our rates will go up, to pay the bills. And if we amalgamate – anywhere – our rates will go up. Comment please. If you are for maintaining rates at current levels, and if a service is proposed, such as an ambulance station, or aged care services, will you be forthright to tell the community they cannot have that service because that will increase the rates? If you are pragmatic about rates, then you need to address the community to explain why a rate increase is needed, how it will benefit the community, and be worthwhile. How do you feel about that? ... No one ever said this was going to be easy. The candidates need to address these choices. The community needs to face these stark realities. We all do.

I think my position is already put in the answers above, but for completeness let me say the following:

• Re Rates:  I would work with the other councillors and management to rapidly stabilise rates without reducing current services to do that. That will no doubt require some innovative thinking and a solid, doable, medium-term economic strategic plan and adjustments where necessary to current management plans to achieve this. 

No one should underestimate the fiscal challenge that achieving such a goal will be, especially with the rising price of petroleum which is a major input cost to Council.  However, far greater challenges have been overcome, so why not this one too?  The first milestone will be to not need and thus stop a forth 10% rate rise for the 2010 financial year.

• Re Bankruptcy, etc…: It is not an option to lead Council into bankruptcy under any circumstances.  New services should be structured so as to have a financially neutral or beneficial outcome to the ratepayers.  Plain and simple.