By Natalie Kent*
Community engagement is the new priority for Councils as they come to grips with balancing increasing demands and services with limited resources. There has been a move from pure representative democracy to increased participatory democracy styles as communities continue to demand more from Local Government.
Councils have become more savvy about community opinion, are more responsive to the needs and are endeavouring to live by the front page test. The days of political backflips created by uninformed decisions or lack of effective engagement are numbered. A broader and more refined set of stakeholders is being identified to try to give a local voice to the aged, young, disenchanted, disempowered and disenfranchised. No longer is the squeaky wheel being the only one to get some oil.
Councils are identifying the different service needs of generations such as traditionalists, babyboomers, and generation X and Y. They are aware that the community wants a high level service and they want it now.
The new age of community engagement reduced the need for Councils to defend positions, hose down public opinion or backflip on a decision. Council are working to increase the amount of information, effective consultation, involvement and collaboration provided to the community. In some instances a Council has been brave enough to give the community the power to make the decisions. One excellent example is where a Council allowed a group of young people to design and paint a mural on the local toilet block without further approval of Council. The Council agreed that no matter what the young people placed on the wall it would stay for 12 months unless it was defamatory, explicit or offensive. Although some of the community were not overly happy with the design Council kept its word and after 12 months have undertaken the project for a second time.
The benefits of Councils undertaking improved community engagement processes have spin offs in social capital, trust and community connectiveness. There may also be cost savings as a result of informed communities identifying solutions that might not have been considered.
No longer is decision making simply about jumping through a set of hoops but a process that has many communication inputs and outputs that can quickly improve decisions and communities.
*Natalie Kent is Manager Finance Governance and Community at the Local Government Association of Queensland. The above is an abridged version of her presentation on community engagement at the recent Local Government Association of Tasmania’s annual conference.
