weeks of council election campaigning there have been various meet the candidate events where most candidates have been very vague about the policies they would like to implement. And, of course, the usual clichés have been bandied about. One classic – ‘get back to basics’ – has been particularly prominent. It seems to suggest that something extraordinary has been going on but I haven’t noticed that myself.
Some candidates have been saying the council should be run in a more business-like fashion. I agree entirely but again, where is the detail?
I would like to throw one of my favourite sayings into the ring – ‘the definition of insanity is expecting a different result, but doing things the same way’.
The ‘same old same old’ (another good one) from long term incumbent councillors is not good enough. We need fresh ideas and real change. One exception to the policy void has been the Tweed Respect Group led by Eddie Roberts. Eddie has outlined policies on rates, housing, water and eco-tourism and how to bring clean and high tech industries to the Tweed.
In relation to the council being more business like it’s not a matter of making cuts in costs or staffing levels just to satisfy a short term budgetary objective. Sure there may be some room for cuts.However I would like to see the new council implement policies and procedures aimed at creating the capacity to provide outstanding service to existing customers, and have the ability to provide additional services to existing and new customers.
For example the council could set a target for average DA processing times for alterations and additions to single dwellings to 35 days.Achieving such a target is a matter of applying business principles such as educating employees, empowering employees, defining employee roles, documenting procedures, setting KPIs and monitoring results.This is what I would call being more business-like and there are benefits for the business and customers should the target be achieved.
This is purely a hypothetical example however the point is that cutting services and/or staff is a short term fix and lacks vision. Applying process improvement makes a business more sustainable and requires long term strategic thinking. Something I think has been lacking among councilors of late.
Tim O’Hara
Tweed Respect Group
