Stacey Lee: Councillors and executive staff at local councils have a clear responsibility to ratepayers in their areas

WE need a serious conversation about reducing the number of local councils. There are 68 of them – 19 in metropolitan Adelaide. It’s an outrageous waste, writes Stacey Lee.

• Residents rally in front of Onkaparinga Council
• Onkaparinga councillors say ratepayers deserve answers

WE need to have a serious conversation about reducing the number of local councils we have in our state. There are 68 of them – 19 in metropolitan Adelaide. It’s an outrageous waste of money, time and resources.

Sure, local governing bodies are an important part of society and they have their place. Someone needs to be in charge of emptying bins, prettying streets and parks and running the local library or community centre. But apart from that, the rest is taken care of.

Schools, hospitals, policing and transport are all the responsibility of the state and federal governments. And that’s how it should stay.

There’s an unnecessary amount of bureaucracy that comes with having 68 local councils in the one state. It’s why some councillors and executives have managed to get away with misusing ratepayer funds for so long.

On Tuesday night at least 50 residents rallied at Onkaparinga Council threatening to stop paying their rates until they get more transparency as to where their money is being spent. And rightly so.

The council’s chief executive, Mark Dowd, has finally paid back the $6818 that ratepayers forked out for his annual membership to an exclusive Adelaide golf. It was revealed a year ago that the council, in Adelaide’s south, decided to pay for the membership as part of a strategy to attract Chinese investment to the area.

It’s not the job of councillors or executives to be drawing in overseas investment. That’s for state government and corporate entities. Leave it to them. What about the fact that it took him a year to pay the money back? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The same council, which is one of the state’s largest, has also come under scrutiny over unnecessary credit card expenditure. Onkaparinga ratepayers paid for gifts and electronics including thousands of dollars worth of Apple products. This comprised of an Apple watch for, you guessed it, the chief executive.

As well as that, ratepayer funds were used to pay for an Adelaide Oval roof climb, which has been called a “team-building exercise” and overnight accommodation in the city following functions attended by councillors and executives. It’s self-entitlement at its best.

Onkaparinga Council is less than 40 minutes from the CBD. A quick search on Uber says it costs around $60 to get there from the city, probably slightly more in a taxi. No doubt that’s significantly less than the money that was paid for hotel accommodation.

Councillors, and the executive staff that work at local councils, have a clear responsibility to ratepayers in their areas. Not a right to use their money for personal frivolity.

If we consolidated the copious number of local councils not only would it reduce the bureaucracy but it would also mean we could reduce the number of offices, and in turn, bring down costs.

It’s the 21st century and we live in a digital age. Most of the services offered at local council offices could and should be streamlined and accessible online. Sure, Adelaide City Council needs to remain on its own. The one dedicated body should maintain the parklands, manage major city events and take care of the rigmarole that comes with managing a CBD.

The Adelaide Hills Council should also be solo mainly due to the sheer size of the council area and the specific and similar needs of community groups in the region. But the other 17 metropolitan local councils could be merged into four local government areas very easily:

North – Prospect, Salisbury, Tea Tree Gully, Playford, Gawler; South – Mitcham, Marion and Onkaparinga; Eas t – Unley, Burnside, Campbelltown, Walkerville and Norwood, Payneham and St Peters; West – Port Adelaide Enfield, West Torrens, Holdfast Bay and Charles Sturt

Then we could consolidate the other 49 regional, rural and outback councils too. At the end of the day the only way to ensure accountability, efficiency and effectiveness is to limit the dead weight. And it appears there’s a lot of dead weight in our councils.