Eight months into this current four year term of local government and finally there is some spirit and councillor engagement in Open Council from at least two councillors at the Huon Valley Council.

At the HVC Ordinary meeting of Council 28 June 2023 there were seven members of the public in the gallery and there have been 226 who have since viewed the meeting video online.

They will have witnessed a firm dialogue initiated by Councillors Temby and Cambers-Smith when they used their allocated councillor question time to bring Mayor Sally Doyle and General Manager Jason Browne to account over the issue of the 12% rate rise.

It was a robust exchange where the Mayor and General Manager attempted to speak over the councillors. The body language of other councillors – crossing arms, heads in their hands, looking elsewhere, fiddling with a diary and looking at their laptop, … anywhere but looking at the action in play – was very evident.

Earlier in the meeting during public question time, Pat Synge, Secretary of the Huon Valley Residents and Ratepayers Association (HVVRA), referred  to the very sudden appearance of six million dollars in Council’s finances. This sum had raised the ‘cash held’ budget item from $12,000,000 to $18,000,000. He asked if councillors had been aware of this sudden windfall at their 7 June budget meeting and if so, would they still have agreed to the 12% rate rise? (More on that in a later article)

Councillor Temby’s first and second questions were asking the Mayor to explain why correspondence between HVRRA and councillors, going back to 13 June and 18 June, was not made available to all councillors until 20 June; and why the actual response was not sent to HVRRA until 27 June, after asking councillors to leave the response with her.

Cr Temby also asked why none of this was put on Huon Valley Council’s intranet for all to read.

Mayor Doyle responded

“…but you must also understand that there is a lot of emails that are going backwards and forwards, and that was possibly my error in not making sure that went there.”

The Mayor’s stated reason for not sending the response compiled 20 June to HVVRA until 27 June, was because Council was still making sure their response was correct, but meantime wanted to keep all councillors across the status of the response.

The third question related to the reputational risk to Council by not conveying the reasons for the 12% rate increase.

On responding to question three, which was directed to the General Manager, Mayor Doyle cut in and said:

Mayor Doyle

“Okay, before we go to the general manager, I can honestly say that the ABC once they had our answers to that, came back and said to us, they were sorry for wasting our time. So that I don’t know what reputation, you know like you’re saying that that reputation umm so anyway, I will now pass (awkward laugh) it over to the General Manager.”

GM Jason Browne

“Yeah, look, I’d I’d echo that comment.

“We had the media inquire and, and we very happy with our responses umm that we provided back umm in a sense of reputational risk umm, we considered obviously, the risks sitting around the table with you Councillor Temby as to what it was putting it up and not putting it up.”

Tasmanian Times made contact with the producers at ABC 936 and wrote to the Mayor and General Manager for more information about the apology from the ABC.

Mayor Doyle formally responded:

“Upon reflection, I have realised that I misinterpreted the information at hand, and I was mistaken in my response. I apologise for this, and I will take this as a learning going forward.”

The ABC also responded:

“We had no knowledge of being contacted or an apology.”

A second question to the Mayor and GM was around Browne’s further comment asking for him to elaborate on his statement that “And many members of the public were very impressed.”

“So, I think umm, we considered very well the risks as we made our way through the budget process over six workshops, we discussed it…umm, I was very impressed with the robust discussion we had through the workshop … and I know staff were very impressed. And many members of the public were very impressed about the robust conversation we had on the seventh of June.”

The formal response from Mayor Doyle was:

“The General Manager was noting feedback received via casual conversation with some community members following the meeting.”

As previously noted, at the 7 June 2023 Council meeting there were seven members of the public in the gallery, many or whom, going on past meetings, would not likely have stayed around in the foyer following the meeting to have a casual conversation with the GM.

Portion of Councillor question time is enclosed with a transcript below. (A portion of the audio is missing when Cr Cambers-Smith failed to turn on her microphone.)

 

COUNCILLOR TEMBY: General Manager throughout this process, I have highlighted the reputational risk to council of not clearly conveying the reasons for the rate increase, and how we plan to serve the best interests of the community. The lack of a timely response to respond to criticism of the council’s 12% rate increase has attracted local and capital media coverage. This represents a reputational risk on Council’s own risk matrix. What level of risk was identified as part of this process? What was the mitigation, and what lessons have been learned?

MAYOR DOYLE: Okay, I’ll go back to number one. That was umm why didn’t we reply and put it in the intranet? Is that correct?

(Mayor … deep audible breath)

Look, umm, in indsight (sic) probably should have been put on the internet, but you must also understand that there is a lot of emails that are going backwards and forwards, and that was possibly my error in not making sure that went there. Number two on, umm … the … what was the next one?

COUNCILLOR TEMBY: The 20th of June?

MAYOR DOYLE: Yep.

COUNCILLOR TEMBY: You provided councillors?

MAYOR DOYLE: Oh, that’s correct. Yes, I understand that. That’s because we were still making sure that the response back to the uon (sic) valley ratepayers was right. So sharing that information, at that time, was something that we didn’t need you to do. We needed to make sure that the information we gave umm was correct and it hadn’t been … but I wanted to keep you in the loop. So that’s why that email came to you … or came to councillors. And number three was …

COUNCILLOR TEMBY: … was directed to the general manager throughout this process I have highlighted the reputational risk, what level of risk was identified as part of this process? What mitigation and what lessons have been learned.

MAYOR DOYLE: Okay, before we go to the general manager, I can honestly say that the ABC once they had our answers to that, came back and said to us, they were sorry for wasting our time. So that I don’t know what reputation, you know like you’re saying that that reputation umm so anyway, I will now pass (laugh) it over to the General Manager.

GM JASON BROWNE: Yeah, look, I’d I’d echo that comment. We had the media inquire and, and we very happy with our responses umm that we provided back umm in a sense of reputational risk umm, we considered obviously, the risks sitting around the table with you Councillor Temby as to what it was putting it up and not putting it up. Umm we reflected on the price indexes increasing at an accelerated rate. We talked about the deficits. We talked about the cash balances. We talked about the service that we can’t continue to provide without adequate resources. So there’s many elements of the risk that we’ve considered umm in a sense, the reputation is compounded by the fact that we’re not delivering good quality services. So, I think umm, we considered very well the risks as we made our way through the budget process over six workshops, we discussed it…umm, I was very impressed with the robust discussion we had through the workshop … and I know staff were very impressed. And many members of the public were very impressed about the robust conversation we had on the seventh of June.

COUNCILLOR TEMBY: I understand that the question was about communication. And I think you may well remember that I actually raised that it wasn’t just that we should be ready at the very beginning to have a timely, umm good communication, umm coverage about, about the story about what we’re trying to achieve here. Rather than just, you know, we’re slugging this 12% … it’s more about what we’re trying to achieve as a as a Council, not only to have that initial story ready to go, straight away, but also to respond to criticisms when they arise. And I think that is a lesson that we can learn to be responding in a more timely way, to anticipate we would have anticipated what what what the questions were?

GM AND MAYOR: I’m not sure that’s the case.

COUNCILLOR TEMBY: Good communication is vital to restoring trust with the community.

MAYOR DOYLE: Yep, that’s fine.

COUNCILLOR TEMBY: This is not a criticism (Mayor interjecting … Cathy …) of the Comm’s team, but of leadership, important that in future, we respond to the community in a more timely and clear manner.

MAYOR DOYLE: Thank you for your comment, and that’s your umm interpretation of what went down. That is not necessarily the case. People have been replied to in accordingly and to the timeline. So I need to make that clear.

GM JASON BROWNE: Through you Mayor … I think what’s been lost here is the Huon Valley Ratepayers Association also had a conversation with our director. So …

COUNCILLOR TEMBY: we weren’t told about it. We weren’t informed.

GM JASON BROWNE: I’m sharing with you that that conversation was had … so we’ve been nothing but open, as we’ve made our way through the process of responding. (Mayor Doyle …Okay) And I think that was in my letter. today. Back to the the association.

MAYOR DOYLE: Yes, yes. I had. Yes. …

COUNCILLOR CAMBERS-SMITH: … sorry, I just wanted to it was it was on. I want to second some of what Cathy said, I do think we were very slow in responding to the inquiries. There’s a lot of misunderstanding in the community about the accounting policies of Council. And the fact that we allowed that speculation to run for a week, when we could have nipped that in the bud, I think was was negligent.

MAYOR DOYLE: I don’t know whether that’s actually correct, because some of that information was given and known, but not transferred, and didn’t go back into the community. So I’m sorry about that, Jenny, that you think that happened? But that’s not necessarily the case.

COUNCILLOR CAMBERS-SMITH: I think this was a case where the general manager should have been on the front foot and answering the questions that came up, because we had just umm shocked the ratepayers of the 12% rate rise and we did that on … as councillors on trust, that we would be able to respond to the queries and explain all the reasoning behind that umm and the fact that we didn’t do that in a timely fashion I am very concerned about

GM JASON BROWNE:  Aarh well, we responded within our charter requirements. And again, Jenny, it’s about getting it right as it is about fast …

COUNCILLOR CAMBERS-SMITH: sorry the charter the charter didn’t count. In this case. This was an exceptional case where we were talking about a 12% rate rise and we should have answered when the information was with you. That should have gone straight out.

MAYOR DOYLE: Jenny, can I just let you know that the uon (sic) Valley Ratepayers did speak did speak to David. Yes.

MAYOR DOYLE: Councillor Thorpe.