Community members have responded positively to the opportunity to share their views on what they want to see in their future Councillors.
The Independent members of the Port Macquarie Hastings Governance Review Consultation Panel says a wide range of responses were gathered via its recent consultation process.
Chair of the Panel, Liesa Davies, said, “We’ve been thrilled with the response from the community — both in terms of the volume of input and the specifications submitted.
“It’s obvious that people have put a lot of thought into their responses, and many respondents indicated they were keen to ensure the community’s wishes are clear to candidates standing for election.”
In calling for the input, the panel asked the community to consider that Councillors have a dual role as representatives of our community and members of the team that contributes effectively to Council decision making and governance.
The focus of the input was not on platforms or issues the community wish to be tackled by the new Council, but on the attributes, qualifications or experience, or ‘key specifications’ the community believe are required to be a quality Councillor.
“We’ve now reviewed all the responses and found that there were definitely some recurring themes,” Mrs Davies said.
“These included things like being honest and acting with integrity, consultative, a good communicator and being free from the influence of interest groups. Now that we have these most nominate specifications, we’d like the community to tell us which of these they believe are the most important to ensure we have Councillors who can deliver the best outcomes for our community.”
The 15 Councillor key specifications that were most commonly nominated and are now being presented to the public are as follows:
- Strategic and visionary thinker
- Honest and has integrity
- Consults with the community
- Good communicator and listener
- nFree from control of special interest groups
- Financially literate and fiscally responsible
- Democratic and transparent decision maker
- Represents all
- Not politically aligned, or if so, transparent in alignment
- Committed to sustainable development
- Committed to community service and priorities
- Good team member
- Capacity to devote time and expertise to the role
- Environmentally aware and responsible
- Has common sense.
The panel is welcoming the community’s views on which are the most important key Councillor specifications via a survey link on the Port Macquarie Hastings Council website www.hastings.nsw.gov.au by June 29.
