At the National General Assembly of Local Government held in Canberra, 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 two more of our high achievers for 2011.
Lesley Howell Secretary to the Perth Airport Municipalities Group, Belmont City Council, Western Australia
Perth Airport plays a big part in the life of the Belmont City Council as it covers about one third of the area of the city.
Administration Officer in Technical Services Lesley Howell has a key role to play in improving community relations between the airport and Belmont as well as ten other neighbouring councils.
She was jointly nominated by Belmont CEO Stuart Cole and Mayor Glenys Godfrey for her key duties as Secretary of the Perth Airports Municipalities Group Inc (PAMG) as well as the City of Belmont/Town of Victoria Park Local Emergency Management Committee.
Her work at PAMG is particularly complex. Its membership comprises 11 Local Governments who are either directly or indirectly impacted by international and domestic airports. They are the City of Armadale, the Town of Bassendean, City of Bayswater, City of Belmont, City of Cockburn, City of Gosnells, Shire of Kalamunda, the City of Melville, the Shire of Mundaring, City of South Perth and the City of Swan.
The combined population of these 11 councils is over 700,000 residents, which is just under half the population of metropolitan Perth.
Belmont Council CEO Stuart Cole said just organising one Local Government was hard enough, but Lesley had to deal with elected Councillors and officers from 11 councils.
"Despite these challenges, everything is highly organised and works extremely efficiently," he said.
"She is exceptional in ensuring nothing falls between the cracks. All the minutes, all the submissions, all the correspondence are done extremely well and she is highly efficient."
Lesley has been in this role for five years after working in private enterprise and the State Government. She said working in Local Government is quite different to both these areas as it involves working closely with the community.
"State Government can be a bit remote," she said.
Lesley gets great satisfaction from doing things right and ensuring that everything works like clockwork.
"I like to see good outcomes," she said.
She has also been highly successful in her main role as Administration Officer in Technical Services recently preparing a successful submission for a $1.9 million State Emergency Services headquarters to be built in the municipality.
Stuart Cole said her role had grown over recent years to encompass emergency management.
"This is a vital role if an emergency happened at the airport, it would have massive flow on effects for the community," he said.
Lesley also faces new challenges as she prepares to support the new Federal Government initiative of Community Aviation Consultative Groups. Working with an independent chair, Lesley will also provide secretarial services.
Stuart Cole said with this additional responsibility, we are reviewing Lesley’s position to enable her to concentrate on Airport and Emergency Management issues.
 Darebin Council’s Disability Access Team outside the ‘Connections’ public art work in Preston,Janet Bailie, Darebin Mayor Diana Asmar, Tennille Bradley, Christine Mulholland, Clinton Fullgrabe and Natalie McGlone. |
Community Planning, Partnerships and Performance Team, Darebin City Council, Victoria
When people come to Bundoora Park in Darebin, they are greeted with a fantastic all abilities playground. When they attend the highly popular Community and Kite Festival, people with a disability have access to care attendants, a recharge stall, accessible signage and Auslan interpreters.
These are examples of the work of the Darebin City Council Disability Access Team in implementing an extensive Disability Access and Inclusion Plan. The team includes Disability Planner Natalie McGlone and MetroAccess Project Officer Christine Mulholland.
Darebin is an inner urban municipality in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and Mayor Diana Asmar who also chairs Darebin’s Disability Advisory Committee, nominated the Disability Access Team for their work in improving disability access.
Councillor Diana Asmar said one in five people in Darebin have a disability, which may include a physical or intellectual disability.
"The team has worked extremely well to enhance disability access and make Darebin a more socially inclusive city," she said.
Darebin Council adopted a new Disability Access and Inclusion Plan 2009-2013 to improve disability access to Council facilities and in the wider community. The plan was launched as part of International Day of People with a Disability celebrations in 2009.
Disability Planner Natalie McGlone said the unit was proud of its work, particularly the emphasis on providing a whole of Council and community approach to enhancing disability access.
"The priority areas of the plan are complemented by internal action plans that are incorporated into Council’s corporate planning systems," she said. "This helps ensure a ‘whole of organisation’ approach to implementation."
MetroAccess Project Officer Christine Mulholland said it is important to make the entire Council and the wider community aware of its role in ensuring access to people.
"Our key role is to implement a range of proactive strategies which recognise and protect the rights and dignity of people with a disability," she said.
Some key features include:
- developing an All Abilities Playground at Bundoora Park
- providing a ‘Good Access is Good Business’ project with local traders to promote making businesses more accessible to people with a disability;
- distributing materials including a DVD for community groups on how to make community events more accessible to people with a disability.
The team had a particular focus on people with a disability from culturally and linguistically diverse communities following research that showed that slightly more than half of people with a disability spoke a language other than English at home.
Group Manager People and Performance Fred Warner said the unit was well respected and was approached by other Local Governments for advice and direction.
