Local Government Association of South Australia (LGASA) President, Mayor Felicity-ann Lewis, has reaffirmed the commitment of the State’s
68 councils to target excellence.
Addressing the association’s half yearly General Meeting in April, Mayor Lewis also summarised the outcomes of the first round of council governance assessments as “a good effort, but we can do better.”
Independent governance assessments for 11 South Australian councils have been completed as part of a five year program to assess all councils’ governance performances.
A further 14 councils will be assessed this year.
Mayor Lewis said the independent assessments were part of the association’s Good Governance Assessment Program (GGAP), which was developed as a key response to heightened community and government expectation for councils to enhance their governance performance.
Councils are rated over three themes:
- ethics, values and council members
- risk management and internal controls
- decisionmaking.
“Councils have been undertaking internal governance self assessments and these are then reviewed by a panel of independent validators to provide councils with an independent perspective on governance performances and to provide recommendations for improvement,” Mayor Lewis said.
“The great thing about having a structured program across Local Government looking at improving governance is that it provides specific feedback to each council on where it needs to improve. It also provides an aggregate feedback to the association so we know where more support is required.”
Mayor Lewis also urged councils to take heed of advice from three primary school students who addressed the conference.
The students suggested that councils need to do more to help people understand what they do and to interest them in council elections.
Mayor Lewis said councils couldn’t rely solely on their services and works to promote their role, noting that few sporting ovals and facilities are adequately signed to recognise councils as the biggest funder of sport and recreation.
She said councils needed to do more to communicate, including looking at social media.
