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Mayor's Message - 24 MayCommunicating with the community is vital to a healthy and successful relationship between Council and our ratepayers. By Bass Coast - 29th May 2013 - Back to News My fellow Councillors and I recently took part in a ‘Councillors only weekend’, giving us the chance as a new council to get to know each other better both personally and professionally, and focus on teamwork. Within Council, we don’t often find the time to debate as much as we’d like when making decisions and coming to an agreement can be quite hard, so having two whole days to intereact with one another was a fantastic opportunity.
The weekend also gave us the chance to discuss a wide range of topics. One thing we all agreed on was the need to find and adopt new approaches to communicating with our community. If the community feels there is a need for further interaction with, or would like an an opportunity to ask more questions to Councillors, we would be prepared to consider creating further opportunities for this to happen.
One thing we all want to improve is response time for any enquiries ratepayers raise to Council. Whether it’s an issue with a planning permit or a question about by-laws, we want to ensure everyone receives a prompt response. Often people who are putting questions to Council are frustrated with an issue, so it is very important we try and resolve these matters as quickly as possible. The use of new technologies such as social media may even be the solution – I recently had a community member send me a question through my Councillor Facebook page. I was then able to copy his enquiry, find the information he was after and give him a speedy response. Another great way to contact Council is through Twitter, by tagging ‘@BassCoast’. These technologies may just give us the ability to respond to queries more quickly.
Council is dedicated to working closely with our Directors to setting a benchmark and finding the best methods to communicate with the community. I’m interested to hear any ideas from our ratepayers on how we can streamline the process and how you would like to hear from us. Whilst people often give negative feedback to Council, it is also important people give us positive feedback so we know when we’re doing something right. Efficient and direct communication with ratepayers will move towards a happier Council and community.
Cr Clare Le Serve, Mayor
Bass Coast Shire Council
Source: www.gippsland.com Published by: news@gippsland.com
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