POLL: do you think Baw Baw should look to lead with new policies that might not have been tried elsewhere in the state?
Baw Baw Polls
By Emily Kulich // 08:25, Friday 12 December 2014
no no no
I’m making these comments as a former Mayor and Councillor who is somewhat confused about what this current council actually stands for after reading the recent comments in the Warragul and Baw Baw Citizen.
It is often said “Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right things”. As ratepayers we aim to elect leaders; not bureaucrats.
‘Advocating for the community’ at various forums should be a part of the job of Councillors/Mayor but not the main focus, as it’s also something that the Council CEO and Directors do as part of their normal, everyday work. Surely we as ratepayers aim to elect LEADERS not bureaucrats?
By definition, if current councillors just “follow the lead” of other innovative councils then they are not leading, just managing and our well-paid Council staff can do that.
Ideally, leaders should inspire us, as a community, with a vision to take us from point A to point B. And then, take us as the community along with them. That’s how the Baw Baw 2050/Shaping the Future vision was established five years ago. With extensive community consultation, a strategic plan was developed to take us into a future, designed by our citizens. That plan is bearing fruit as Warragul and Drouin face a growing building boom and development. Without it, now we would ‘just be another Pakenham’ as so many people feared.
The previous council was Progressive, because things had to be done. As a member of that 2009 – 2012 council I make no apologies for having a vision of what this community could be. An example of our innovative planning was making it a requirement that Active by Design guidelines were built into all new housing estate developments to assist people being active; an important thing to do when obesity rates are climbing. This initiative won Baw Baw a national award from the Heart Foundation along with many other programs Baw Baw used to show leadership in. Other initiatives such as the Youth Council set up in 2009 to prepare tomorrow’s young to be leaders have now been scrapped by the current council.
So, I’m confused – do we want ‘followers’ in the chamber or do we want ‘leaders’? I guess the next election will demonstrate the community’s wishes now that the (in)actions of this council are becoming obvious.
Well what a poor state of affairs we find ourselves in when our current and former Mayor appear to be proud of the fact that they only want to follow other municipalities and refuse to be innovative in their own region (as reported in the recent story in The Warragul Citizen).
This Council has been elected by the community to provide guidance, set direction and ensure suitable governance for our municipality and the organisation of employees assigned to administer these roles.
What an uninspiring place it must be to work at Baw Baw Shire if this is the philosophy driving the organisation. And how embarrassing will it be to explain to others that we live in an area that is afraid to try anything new.
If it is not Council’s role to set policy, then who should do it?
I am confident our region continues to improve and maybe this is despite our current Councillors stance to block change rather than because of it. Is it any wonder the community feels Council is sometimes working against them rather than with them. Local Government is the only level of Government where the community has an opportunity to suggest fresh ideas and improvements to the way we do things.
So as ludicrous as this sounds, if you have an idea on how to improve something in our community, suggest it to a neighbouring council, get them to implement it and gain the benefits, then (and only then) will the Baw Baw Flat Earth Society take it seriously!
I was intrigued to read your headline that said Follow the Leader but became so disappointed to read the Mayors comments. Why cant council take the lead in retaining the unique character of this area? We moved here because of its country feel and friendliness. We don’t want it to become just another outer suburb of Melbourne with relentless development for the sake of progress. If I wanted that I’d have bought in Officer. True leadership takes guts and courage to stand out from what everyone else is doing, when it is needed by your community. Sadly, it seems that genuine leadership is missing with this council.