11 May 2014

How Many Councillors?

How many Councillors does it take to make a good decision? This week Kay Mosley, electoral commissioner, suggested that she was about to suggest change to legislation so that the electoral commission   (or a body selected by them ) could be called upon to decide how many Councilors would be allowed in each Council. This comes directly after Unley Council going through an extensive process to decide if the 12 Councillors that we currently have should be retained. However, she is likely to have left her run too late and not be able to achieve any change befor the election later this year. If that is the case then one wonders why she would bother at this time. This comes after calls for Councillors to get increased pay and to try to increase voter turnout by doing everything except the obvious ( may voting compulsory). Currently Don and I represent about 6,000 voters living in about 2,500 homes in Goodwood South. The work load created by this is manageable within the 15-20 hours I give each week to Council. Any larger area represented logically would take mare time and require a higher remuneration. Can 6 people make as good a decision as 12, as suggested by Cr Saies this week? I don't think so: by the same token a Council with 15 or 21  members could take hours to make a decision on any one issue if everyone wanted to speak!

No comments:

Post a Comment