At the 2004 Local Government Managers Australia National Congress in Melbourne FOCUS invited delegates to nominate an individual or team from their Council who has excelled in meeting their Council’s and community’s needs. In this edition we showcase two more of our winners for 2004.
Carol Hodges, Executive Assistant, Eurobodalla Shire Council, New South Wales
When Carol Hodges began work at Eurobodalla Shire Council nearly 20 years ago, she was part of a typing pool who tapped away on wordprocessors producing Council papers, minutes and agendas. Carol had made the decision to shift from Canberra where she was personal assistant to a head of a Federal Government department.
She only stayed in the typing pool for a few months at Eurobodalla before taking on tasks more closely related to her previous work. She is now Executive Assistant for the Mayor and Councillors and also supports the General Manager, Jim Levy.
Carol describes herself as a ‘seachanger’ before it became trendy and moved to the Shire when her husband started a new business. She was also attracted to a lifestyle and an environment where her three sons could grow up away from the city.
Carol said she has enjoyed living and working in Eurobodalla and it has been the right decision to make the change.
Jim Levy said Carol has served the past six mayors with distinction.
“She provides great assistance and support to the Mayor and Councillors which is a challenging task requiring a great deal of skill,” he said. “Her work in the Federal Government gave her valuable skills for working in Local Government. She is highly regarded throughout the organisation and her work extends far beyond basic secretarial services.”
Carol supports a number of committees within and outside Council including the Local Government and Shires Association’s H Division where she provides secretarial services for a group of 16 councils. “I like to work with people with different personalities and Local Government provides plenty of that,” Carol Hodges said. “There is always something happening in Local Government, so it is always interesting.”
She continues to take the Council minutes by shorthand, but now has a laptop computer to help her out at the meetings.
She enjoys doing the ceremonial aspects of her job including citizenship functions. Carol is looking forward to working on the Shire’s centenary celebrations in 2006 when she will be involved in the organising for the community and working with the local community to make this a memorable event.
Councils Online Team at Parramatta City Council, New South Wales
Introducing a new online system is hard work, but to introduce it across five councils is a daunting task. The Council’s Online team in each of the five Local Governments have delivered a tremendous result for their communities.
As part of this wider team, Parramatta Council’s Online team was nominated by Council’s Group Manager Corporate Services, Cliff Haynes.
“The innovative business solution known as Councils Online is now real and working,” he said. “The team successfully educated and prepared staff to implement the new system.”
The first phase supports an improved way of how people work and is shaping how business operates in five New South Wales councils. Lake Macquarie, Wyong, Parramatta, Hornsby and Randwick Councils have a combined population of 750,000 and expenditure in excess of $500 million per annum. The councils formed a consortium in 2000 when they found themselves faced with the problem that their corporate information systems dated back to the 1980s.
A team leader at Parramatta, Information Systems Manager, Michael Absell, said the involvement of internal people has been the cornerstone to the project.
“It has involved Council staff at the coal face through to the General Managers of the five syndicate councils,” he said. “While all Councils worked hard, the effort put in by the Parramatta City Council team has been outstanding. Normally you would expect a dip in morale and a consequential lowering of standards to the community as a consequence of this type of staff effort.
“We, in Parramatta, have not experienced this trend. The huge effort put in by the team, is directly responsible for delivering this result. Councils Online has been backed by staff who have been continuing not only their own work but taken a pride in supporting their fellow workers’ introduction of a new management system and maintaining services to the highest level.”
The project commenced in earnest in 2002 with the syndicate engaging Capgemini to develop a comprehensive, end to end business solution. This would encompass all of the five councils’ core business functions and leverage a shared technology platform.
With more than 15 organisations involved – made up of the five Councils and nine vendors with Capgemini as consortium lead – the Councils Online project is complex and truly innovative.
The project is now moving into the final phase when an extensive range of services will be accessible by residents and ratepayers via a web portal. This will include payments, lodgement and tracking of development applications, requests for certificates, lodgement of customer requests, access to library catalogues and more.
Jan Richards, Program Director from Capgemini, said the key to its success has been the people.
“Councils Online has had a great team, with every single person contributing to the project in ways that I didn’t ever dare hope for,” she said. “There are more than 63 members of the functional and technical project team, a combination of Capgemini, Council and vendor employees.”
When the full system comes into effect, the flow on benefits to the communities will be significant. The Tier 1 solution type negotiated by Councils Online is a latest generation of web enabled sophisticated application software. For users this will mean a single log on and the use of the Internet for transactions.
Benefits will include accessibility, availability of information, improved services to the public, reduced use of paper, efficiency improvement, improved access of information and improved ability to take advantage of technological innovations.
The Councils Online solution provides wide ranging functionality including property management, financials, customer services, human resources and payroll, asset management, records management, libraries, events and facilities and occupational health and safety.
