I have been seeking to track various Council determinations and their outcomes. In doing so I’m finding the Council’s website less informative than has been the case in the past. I’m asking myself why might this be so?
My first somewhat surprising discovery was that, seemingly, Council stopped issuing media releases in March 2014. Consequently, it appears as if there is no archive of Council determinations nor a reliable contextualisation of them from Council’s perspective. The press all too often get it wrong if they pick up on an issue at all.
Was the move away from archiving media releases on the Website a policy determination of Council? If not, was it a management initiative? If so, why so?
Given Council’s, and yours too I understand, enthusiastic embrace of social media it appears as if Council is orchestrating and possibly recontextualising the ‘policy news’ in lieu of the orderly release of information as it becomes available and the consequent archiving of it.
It is a welcomed initiative for Council to be using social media but there needs to be effective communication when using it. For instance, the common critique of FACEbook is that serious information gets buried in trivia and that contextualizing information for the platform mitigates against the transmission of information of substance.
You’ve asked me to read the Local Govt. Act and specifically Section 62 something that I’ve become quite familiar with over time. I put it to you that your interpretation of the provision is managerial, as possibly it is ever likely to be.
Furthermore, my reading of it is that as General Manager you are tasked with implementing COUNCIL DETERMINATIONS under the provision – not the provision enabling the GM to initiate policy positions on the Council’s behalf.
Thus Section 62 allows you to “do anything necessary or convenient to perform her/his functions under the Act or any other Act” which, by my reading, is to implement Council Policy ... That is the ‘how and when’ of a policy NOT the ‘what and why’… which is the distinct governance role and the province of the Aldermen.
It seems to me that you might not concur here. If that’s the case I’d be more than interested in your argument to support your position. I’ve delved back through the DIGITALrecord and the collaged graphic below is a snapshot of some of the material that informs this critique.
Regards,
Ray
Ray Norman <zingHOUSEunlimited> PH: 03-6334 2176
EMAIL 1: raynorman7250@bigpond.com 40 Delamere Crescent Trevallyn TAS. 7250
WEBsite: http://www.raynorman7250.blogspot.com
“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody
ought not to be trusted by anybody.”
Thomas Paine
CLICK HERE: http://www.launceston.tas.gov.au/lcc/index.php?c=69
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