‘Bigger council’ bid

KIM WATERS
Queenscliff’s council has cited the “increased stress” of its workload in a call for funding to elect two extra councillors, according to a document.
The council document said Borough of Queenscliffe wanted $35,000 from Municipal Assoc-iation of Victoria to pay for an increase from five to seven councillors after the next election in late 2012. Victorian Electoral Commis-sion slashed the borough’s council from seven to five members at the last election in 2008 as part of a state-wide review.
The document said Queenscliff and the six other municipalities where the commission cut the number of councillors had struggled ever since.
“Enquiries have shown that these small councils find it difficult to operate effectively with only five councillors.”
Borough of Queenscliff’s “main criticisms” of the cuts included reduced community representation on council, increased workloads for remaining councillors, limits on “succession planning” for council and problems with conflicts of interest.
The document said Queenscliff councillors voted last week to request a minimum of seven councillors in each of the state’s 79 municipalities.
“In Queenscliff’s case the additional cost of the extra two councillors is estimated at $35,000 commencing in 2013.
“The Borough of Queenscliff requests the MAV to make representation to both the Minister for Local Government and the Victorian Electoral Commission for the establishment of a minimum number of councillors in each council across the state of Victoria and that number to be set at seven.
“The MAV be further requested to advocate that this minimum number be introduced prior to the 2012 local government election.”
A Queenscliff council spokes-person said councillors had “too much of a workload”.
“It’s not until you actually go through the process that you see there is quite a bit of workload and there needs to be more councillors to do the job properly,” the spokesperson said.
“We’ve also had a situation recently where a couple of councillors have had the flu at the same time and with only five councillors it doesn’t leave you much of an alternative when someone is sick.”