At the 2010 Local Government Managers Australia National Congress in Adelaide, Local Government FOCUS invited delegates to nominate individuals or teams from their councils who are
improving operations or enhancing service delivery for their local community.
In this edition, we showcase the last two of our high achievers for 2010.
Anne Hammond, Manager Strategy and Outcomes, Darwin City Council, NT
Originally from South Australia, Anne Hammond worked for and with a number of councils across Australia, including Adelaide City Council, before making the move to Darwin.
Prior to commencing work with Darwin City Council two years ago, she was working as a private consultant to Northern Territory councils, addressing many of the issues that came with amalgamation and assisting councils to develop their business plans.
But Anne was attracted to the more personal side of Local Government and felt that she could be more effective and create greater change working for the one organisation.
“Darwin City Council is a lovely place to work,” she said. “People are genuinely happy to be there, and it really shines through in the workplace environment.”
As one of the smaller capital city councils, Anne’s role incorporates a broad range of activities – from developing strategic plans and business plans, monitoring organisational performance and producing the annual report, to attracting grants and awards and providing strategic input to various committees such as the Darwin Capital City Committee and the Council of Capital City Lord Mayors.
This variety is one of the things that makes the job most enjoyable for Anne.
“It has been a real bonus to be exposed to many things that I wouldn’t be able to in a larger organisation,” she said. “I have been part of making Darwin City Council’s submissions to the Australian Local Government Association Conferences, and Council’s review of electoral representation,” she said. “But I’m particularly proud of the level of Federal Government grant funding that I attracted for Council last year.
“A number of significant projects have been able to proceed, which will benefit the community without putting an additional financial burden on our ratepayers.
“Working for a smaller organisation really does give you the opportunity to do so much more.”
While Anne sees herself ultimately returning to South Australia, she has a clear vision of what she wants to achieve in Darwin.
“I want to leave the organisation in a better place than when
I got here, and key to this is ensuring that systems and processes are in place to improve organisational performance,” she said.
Manager Climate Change and Environment Pam Robinson nominated Anne to appear in FOCUS for her professionalism and effectiveness in implementing Council’s Interplan software, which stores plans and enables reporting and assessment.
Having also implemented the software at Adelaide City Council, Anne was very much aware that the process was more than just implementing software, but was a culture change project.
“It’s about people understanding how their work achieves the organisation’s goals and how that aligns with the strategic plan,” she said. “Staff also needed to see that the software is a fundamental tool to achieve efficiencies.
“The main challenge was getting people to recognise the importance of regular reporting and the benefits of keeping plans up to date. We needed to achieve a culture shift and help people realise that they wouldn’t get into trouble if their department was not on track, it would just highlight the issue to management so that they could get on top of it quickly, before it became a major issue. We needed to turn the negatives into positives.”
Pam Robinson said Anne’s professional expertise and ability to engage management at all levels through the introduction of Interplan and other important initiatives has provided Council staff and elected members with a contemporary and important way to view the organisation’s progress and achievements.
“This will also enable the community to see more clearly how their Council operates,” Pam Robinson said.
Anne is now looking forward to commencing service efficiency reviews in the near future, which she believes will value add to Council’s existing activities.
Community Planning Team, Redland City Council, Queensland
To describe the Redland City Council Community Planning Team, think of a nucleus of committed council officers attracting and coordinating many larger groups to achieve a rich and quality result. Think of pebbles thrown into a pool, causing multiple ripples, waves and patterns. Think of network theory – ever increasing numbers of people involved, sharing information, skills and tasks.
Redland’s General Manager Governance Nick Clarke nominated the team to appear in FOCUS for its work on the Redlands 2030 Community Plan.
This was the first community plan to be completed under the new Queensland Local Government Act 2009, which has made community planning the basis of all long term Local Government planning in Queensland.
Redlands 2030 has been acclaimed for the quality of its community planning process, its broad, rich and deep community engagement, its ambitious vision and practical priorities in the context of complex global, national and local challenges.
The Community Planning Team was well aware of the seriousness of the leadership role it was taking within both Council and the community, but what struck Nick Clarke was the combination of fun and focus that the team injected into the whole process, especially the community engagement.
“With over 40 different engagement activities and thousands of contributions from local residents, businesses and organisations, the final plan reflects the voices of the Redland community in all their wisdom and vitality,” he said.
The Community Planning Team is made up of eight to ten people, but was supported throughout the Redlands 2030 project by a smaller project management working group and a larger project control group. Its core members include Roberta Bonnin, Colette Torrance, Judy Spokes, Bernard Houston, Frank Pearce, Angela Howe, Fay Jackson, Kathy Petrik, Paula Weston, and Jo Jones.
Manager of Community and Social Planning Roberta Bonnin was responsible for the development of Redlands 2030 and ultimately became the Team Manager.
She said a creative arts team, volunteers, a writing team, corporate indicators team, marketing and communications staff and community members who provided direct input and feedback into the development of the community plan, were also vital.
“The role of the Community Planning Team was to provide leadership, technical knowledge, creative skills and performance management of the total community planning process to bring together all its parts into a coherent quality result,” she said. “When the team first started work on the community plan, the Local Government Act and guidelines had not yet been written, so we looked at community plans from other councils around Australia and internationally and worked out what was needed in Redland.
“The whole process, from initiation to completion and adoption by Council in May 2010 was lengthy – maintaining political support, goal orientation and organisational energy was critical.”
Roberta said she enjoyed observing and taking part in the exceptional teamwork displayed across the project’s development, as well as seeing the great ideas generated by everyone involved coming to fruition.
“The shared sense of accomplishment by everyone in the team was extraordinary,” she said. “The professionalism and skill levels of all members of the team were very high so there was real respect between members of the team for the different roles that they were all performing. The administration officers in the team were as highly valued as the project manager, the creative director and the team leader.”
The Community Planning Team took on the Redlands 2030 project as part of their regular council workload.
Team members are now incorporating their learnings from the community planning processes, as well as the clear directions that the community have given about what they want Redland to be like in their new projects.
