Business has its say on City

Dave Clare, ATC Mid West general manager

The City is no different to any other business in the Mid West. We all need to re-imagine our businesses and be thinking of ways to thrive in this new normal economy. I don’t think there is one magic pill to cut costs or raise money.

I think a series of well thought out and well executed strategies aligned to the clear purpose of why the council exists is what’s needed. From a cost reduction perspective, there are bound to be some efficiency gains with an organisation of about 340 people.

Beyond that, I would question if there are services the City is providing that could be outsourced to a private sector organisation that could do it cheaper and possibly better.

There are a lot of businesses in the Mid West that could use more work right now.

Are there services the City is providing that it doesn’t need to anymore — or provide at a lesser level of service?

Also, I’m no bureaucrat, but do we need as many councillors as we have? From a raising money perspective, I think there is some opportunity to sell off some assets/infrastructure or find a better way to monetise them through developing other revenue streams.

The City has a lot of prime located assets that could be great for marketing and advertising space.

Quite often it’s hard enough to find a parking spot, I know I don’t want to pay more for parking, but if that’s an option, they should consider it.

Ian Wheatland, Ray White principal

Firstly, in this climate, there is no magic dust and it is a hard slog all round. The council needs to review all they are doing and how they do it, in line with the current financial climate. Nothing should remain unchallenged. Obviously that is happening at the moment.

Here is a radical, but not original idea. Where applicable, the council could consider a reduction to four days a week service for non-essential items.

This could account to a reduction in wages cost to a pre-determined figure. Simplistic in theory, but not easy in practice. This could be mixed with the selected redundancies already on the table and an easier stepping stone for debt reduction.

Secondly, review council’s current policy on land development and resales.

In good times, it may seem a great blueprint. However, as the late Geraldton developer Syd Hatch said, there were times when he needed to leave Geraldton to work in other areas when Geraldton was not prospering.

That led to him developing in Darwin, Kalgoorlie and Helena Vale in Perth, while the Geraldton economy recovered.

Unfortunately, apart from the excellent work done by Royalties for Regions, there is lip service to regional economies when the going gets tough.

Thirdly, the zoning of residential land in the Waggrakine/Glenfield precincts.

I am aware of the case in hand for possible rezoning of Waggrakine land to a higher density, particularly near the school precinct. That is a welcome move.

The structure plan for the Glenfield Beach area is in need of amendment. The current residential zoning of land east of Chapman Road at the northern end requires deep sewerage servicing. This total cost to be borne by future developers. The extension is an unfair burden on the developers and, as a result, prices of en globo land resale have plummeted to a very low figure.

Where a rezoning helps that if rezoned to R5, no sewerage is necessary, thereby releasing a large number of lots capable of earning consistently good rate income on a yearly basis.

Rob Jefferies CEO, MWCCI

As the key issue relates to generating enough income to adequately maintain the City’s capital assets, the first stage of approach being adopted includes reviewing the need and functions of these assets and options for retention, disposal or downgrading, as well as the different asset management options (e.g., if a public space is not being used should it be revegetated as bushland rather than maintained as a grassed area, or disposed of and funds used in alternative playground/public areas).

The other major areas of review include determining core, fundamental services, those that are non-mandatory, then considering what services could be discontinued, or operate at a reduced level.

In conjunction with that, they are reviewing staff structures.

The City is endeavouring to achieve all this within acceptable ratings parameters, in recognition the community generally is also doing it tough.

We are not in a position to speculate on just what the appropriate changes should entail, because we do not have the relevant detailed service delivery and cost information, but the above approach is reasonable and with the broad consultation process the City undertook as part of its long-term financial management planning some months back, it also has at its disposal some good information on community priorities.

Testing the marketplace for service delivery is a further mechanism for pursuing value for money.

One sound means of doing more with less is to partner with organisations with common objectives, to remove duplication and pursue synergistic outcomes (where the outcomes are greater than the sum of the individual inputs).

Such approaches can deliver amazing results, but are not necessarily easy to achieve as they require compatible values, organisational cultures and mutual trust, as well as common goals.

We share these problems in the business sector and right across as a community.

The way forward is to be found through a shared approach to pursuing the solutions.

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