Trust isn’t something you pay a consultant for
Right now, if QLDC told us it was June, a significant number of people would either disagree outright, check their diary or wonder what the ulterior motive was for telling us in the first place.
And you don’t need a cynically manipulated consultants’ report to try to downplay the lack of trust residents have in the organisation that makes up “Council” to know we have a big problem.
Amongst other things, people don’t trust Council to:-
- tell the truth
- do the right thing
- to listen to community priorities
- to spend money on the right things
- to hold anyone accountable
- to spend our money competently
- to manage growth sustainably
- to be fair to tenants and licence holders.
We can fix this by Leading, Listening and Delivering.
Leading
New leadership is required to rebuild trust. A culture of respect for Councillors and the Community needs to replace the often heard belittling comments and on occasions downright disrespectful attitudes. All communications should be written with the expectation that the tone and language would bear public scrutiny.
Leadership needs to be inclusive, ensuring councillors are empowered, skilled and developed to be effective in doing their job - not marginalised or divided.
Leadership needs to bring our community with it. We’ll be a stronger district and able to achieve better outcomes when we are seen to have the support of the whole of the district.
Listening
Instead of cutting and pasting the last long term plan, let’s start with community workshops to set the direction rather than asking what we think at the last moment when everything is a done deal.
Remove the requirement to pre-register at public forum and then also give Councillors an extra couple of minutes to respond with any questions.
Remove the absurd requirement to appear in person at pubic forum or other meetings. Let’s make it easier for our community to have a say, not harder.
Delivering
Withholding meeting information to the very last second needs to end. Materials for workshops need to be available to all 2 days beforehand. For Council meetings, it should be 3-4 days in advance.
All meetings and workshops should be live-streamed, regardless of where they are held. Recordings should be readily available afterwards.
The inclusion of items that are discussed in ‘public excluded’ parts of meetings needs to be carefully reviewed and as much as possible of the item should be considered with the public present.
All in all, a few simple changes to make that will make a difference. Let’s face it, it’s not much fun for anyone right now, it’s costing time and money that we don’t have and providing an endless supply of reasons for the rest of the country to troll us mercilessly.
Time to change.
