Caleb Bond: Onkaparinga Mayor Lorraine Rosenberg must apologise to ratepayers or resign from the LGA — preferably both

LORRAINE Rosenberg has tarnished councils in SA. She won’t take responsibility, has treated ratepayers and the council sector like mugs — and it is time for her to go, writes Caleb Bond.

• Onkaparinga Council paid CEO’s fees for golf course 40km away
• Then it spent $22,000 to keep golf membership payment a secret
• CEO pays back golf fees, says overhaul on staff credit cards is coming
• Council to introduce new credit card rules after backlash
• ... Then scraps independent inquiry into its credit card spending

IS it any wonder Anne Moran wants the Adelaide City Council to leave the Local Government Association?

The council lobby group has turned into a shambles. It spent $175,000 of ratepayer money on an anti-rate capping campaign — the point of which, of course, is that they need more of your money.

And the president of the outfit, Lorraine Rosenberg, has been caught up in all manner of scandals at Onkaparinga Council, from golf fees to lavish credit card spending which they don’t think needs investigation.

It would be fair to say the perception of councils in South Australia has hit rock bottom. Even Ms Rosenberg admits that. In a wide-ranging profile piece, she told the Sunday Mail the $6800 Kooyonga membership joining fee Onkaparinga paid for chief executive Mark Dowd has “tainted local government, it has weakened the respect for local government across the state”.

Onkaparinga mayor and LGA president Lorraine Rosenberg with Onkaparinga chief executive Mark Dowd, left, and magistrate Su Jingwen, right, at the McLaren Vale visitor centre. Photo: Naomi Jellicoe

Too right it has. But Ms Rosenberg refuses to take responsibility for anything. She complains about “people with their funny little Facebook posts”. She says the decision on the golf club membership was delegated to a committee and her job as mayor was to back the decision.

Even better, she puts it back on her advisers. She claims she wanted to get on the front foot and apologise for the mistake but everyone told her not to.

“I was told ‘No, no, you can’t do that, you’ve got to defend the decision to the death’,” she told the Sunday Mail. “I think that’s where we went wrong. Then I get accused of not being able to say I’m sorry.”

That’s because you didn’t say sorry, Ms Rosenberg.

So these media advisers are paid, at ratepayers’ expense, to give the mayor and councillors good direction on how to deal with the media. In this case, Ms Rosenberg contends she had a better idea of how to handle things than they did, yet she still took their advice.

In that case, why were they hired in the first place; have they since been sacked for being less than competent at their jobs and if not, why not? Surely an adviser’s job is to give you good advice?

Onkaparinga is currently advertising for an internal communications officer — on $92,000 a year, by the way — a condition of which is you must adhere to the council’s “values and behaviours”.

Like buying Apple Watches on council credit cards, perhaps? Or liking golf? Perhaps calling your colleagues “gutless wonders” as Ms Rosenberg did on Facebook? She also claims her role as mayor does not provide her “major influence”, which is clearly another folly.

Having covered local government for a while, I can attest that the culture of a council begins with its mayor. He or she might not vote, but they certainly influence votes. They have significant oversight over the chief executive and, by extension, the rest of the staff. They set the tune by which councillors dance.

The culture that has festered at Onkaparinga, and appears to be leaking into the LGA, is clearly broken. Did the council take a step back to ask what ratepayers would think of Mr Dowd’s golf membership?

“There was none of that,” Ms Rosenberg concedes.

Lorraine Rosenberg with cattle at her Willunga Hill farm. Photo: Matt Turner

She is given $86,569 a year by Onkaparinga, as well as a car and personal assistant.

The LGA gives her another $47,982 for being its president. That’s a grand total of $134,578 ratepayer dollars. I think a woman on that kind of money can withstand a few “funny little Facebook posts”. And I think we ought to expect a little better.

There has been a fair amount of consternation about Ms Rosenberg’s role at the LGA for some time.

Walkerville Council urged her to stay away from the anti-rate capping campaign. Many mayors have privately questioned whether her position as head of the state’s top local government body is a blight on the sector.

Ms Rosenberg needs to categorically apologise for her role in the incidents she says have “weakened” respect for local government, or step down from the LGA, preferably both.

Until she has been expunged, the scent of scandal will linger.

Follow @TheCalebBond