Councils are regularly dealing with contentious planning proposals. Often caught between cashed up developers and irate local residents wanting to protect their local amenity, finding the balance between the lure of progress and additional jobs to the other end of the scale of the inevitable ‘not in my back yard’, it is never an easy task for councils. Even low scale residential developments or extensions to existing premises can take up much time and be taxing on planning staff. Often a frustrating, drawn out, no win situations for all parties, if you add to this the major shortage across Local Government of planning professionals, the situation is worsening.
The shortage of planners is very evident as complaints about the lengthy time to get approvals mount. To help address this, some Councils have become proactive streamlining the process through introducing online applications. But for other councils already short staffed, having the resources to establish such processes is a catch-22 situation. To help address this, the Australian Local Government Association has recently announced that it will work with the Planning Institute of Australia to encourage more students to enter town planning courses, have planners included on the list of migration occupations in demand and look at sharing planners across councils.
Once new graduates or experienced staff are employed by councils, whether this be as town planners or any of the many Local Government professions, it is vital that these people are not later lost to the sector. As recent graduates build their careers, the lure of promotions and other inducements from the private sector, and other areas of the public sector, can lead to the loss of good staff. When this occurs, Councils not only loose the investment they have made in training and nurturing of these people, but untold levels of intellectual property and potential future leaders.
It is vital that all Councils have in place programs enabling their staff to map out a career path within Local Government and, in particular, assisting them to develop their leadership skills.
Building links across the various professions, and a strong mentoring system is vital. Programs across councils, providing opportunities for exchanges are very beneficial for both participating staff and their councils.
In Victoria, Local Government Professionals Inc (LGPro) has set up an Emerging Leaders Program. Taking participants from across the range of professions, gender, ages, locations and level of their organisation, this program’s clear objective is to ensure that emerging leaders are retained within the industry. President of LGPro, Gavin Cator, is correct when he said recently that historically Local Government has not been a trendy industry, but this is starting to change. He believes Local Government needs to market itself more in schools and universities. Youth Councils are an excellent way to expose the role of Councils and range of job opportunities for young people. Local Government is also excellent in offering a good work/family life balance and this also needs to be promoted widely.
Within individual councils, the professional associations and at state and national Local Government Association level, attracting, nurturing and retaining good people, be that officers or elected members, is absolutely paramount to the future wellbeing of local communities.
