City of Albany to plan implementation of local government reforms which will remove at least four councillors

The City of Albany has a month to plan how to implement sweeping local government reforms that will reduce its council by at least four elected members. Local Government Minister John Carey has written to all 138 WA local governments outlining a voluntary pathway to enact the reforms. In the letter, Mr Carey asked the local governments to indicate by the end of October how they planned to implement the reforms. As part of the reforms, finalised in July, all local government authorities with a population between 5000 and 75,000 — including Albany — will be restricted to between five and nine councillors, including their mayor or president. The City of Albany council has 12 members, representing six different wards, as well as the mayor. One seat that has been left vacant after the death of long-time councillor Alison Goode last month. The City is one of 48 local governments required to remove at least one councillor. A smaller council will require the City to rethink its ward allocations, with two members from each — West, Frederickstown, Yakamia, Breaksea, Vancouver and Kalgan — currently at the table. Mr Carey said if local governments were unable to agree on a plan or opted out of the voluntary process, a “reform election pathway” could be enacted. Under the reform election pathway, all council positions could be vacated ahead of next year’s local government elections, with the size set by default. Elected members would then be split between two and four-year terms to re-establish an ordinary election cycle. City chief executive Andrew Sharpe said the City would fully co-operate with the reform process. “City staff will be liaising with elected members to determine the specific requirements for the City of Albany and work through a process to implement the changes required,” he said. As a band three local government, the Shire of Denmark will need to assess how it will adopt the reforms as one of 11 local governments required to do away with wards. Under the reforms, only band one and two local governments will be allowed to retain wards, which have traditionally been viewed as a way of ensuring fair representation for different sections of communities. The shires of Kent, Gnowangerup, Cranbrook and Kojonup will also need to make decisions about the size of their councils as they each exceed the seven-councillor limit to be imposed on areas with a population under 5000. During a consultation period earlier this year, several local governments and councillors in the Great Southern voiced concerns about the size of councils being determined by population. Some argued areas with smaller populations often covered much larger areas, which meant a greater diversity of issues. In its submission, the Shire of Cranbrook said it “strongly opposed” being forced to reduce the size of its council. At the time, Shire president Phil Horrocks said the reforms would not allow for adequate representation of the Shire’s wide range of agribusinesses and diverse demographic. He said the Shire’s council elections generated strong interest from the community. “When we, like some other shires, receive no surplus of nominations or, in fact, no nominations at all for a position on council, then we will have to consider a reduction of numbers,” he said. Cranbrook councillors will revisit the issue at their October meeting to determine whether they still do not intend to fall in line with the reforms voluntarily. Feedback during the consultation period led the State Government to allow local government areas with fewer than 5000 people to have five to seven elected members, rather than its original proposal of five. The reforms will also make optional preferential voting mandatory for all local government elections, bringing the contests more in line with the system used in State and Federal elections. “Our reform agenda is clear — we are strengthening the transparency, accountability and efficiency of local governments, and this set of electoral reforms will enable stronger local democracy and community engagement,” Mr Carey said. “I’ve written to every local government in WA about their transition requirements and look forward to seeing these reforms enacted. “Local governments can decide on the best pathway forward for them, whether it makes sense to phase in changes or implement them all in 2023.”