Staff, councillors and external stakeholders to be survey for organisational review

Councillors, staff and external stakeholders will be interviewed as part of an organisational review of Moreton Bay Regional Council.

Mayor Allan Sutherland and Cr Adrian Raedel during a Moreton Bay Regional Council meeting last year. The council has appointed an external company to carry out an organisational review of its inner workings. Picture: Bradley Cooper.

COUNCILLORS, staff and external stakeholders will be interviewed as part of an organisational review of Moreton Bay Regional Council.

The council today appointed Grassroots Connections to carry out the review which will be overseen by its managing director Greg Hoffman.

It is not yet known whether the review will be made public upon completion.

Councillors at their February 19 meeting voted to do the internal review after councillor and mayoral candidate Adrian Raedel brought forward the motion.

“We need to continually look at how we improve this organisation,” he said.

“This is about the organisations practices. Have we got an appropriate HR complaints process and policies in place?

“Are we a family friendly organisation with the corresponding policies?

“Is there bullying in Council? What do we have in place to stamp it out?”

Mayor Allan Sutherland said Grassroots Connections had significant first-hand experience in local government management, finance, planning, strategy, policy and intergovernmental relations.

“It will conduct an initial scoping exercise of Moreton Bay Regional Council, to identify the matters pertinent to a comprehensive review,” he said.

“This process will involve interviewing councillors, a wide variety of staff and external stakeholders.

“The local government experts will also undertake a council-wide survey of all staff to evaluate the culture and leadership strategies within our workforce.”

Grassroots Connections was procured through the Local Buy Contract.

“It’s been eleven years since council amalgamations, now is an appropriate time to look at what we have done and what more we can do,” Cr Sutherland said.

“But to stand still is to fall behind and, as a council, we aren’t resting on our laurels.”

A council spokesman said the review would begin as soon as possible and would take up to six months.

Mayor candidate Dean Teasdale, who, along with Meldale resident Eric Shields, is the only other confirmed candidate at this stage, said he felt Cr Raedel’s motion was an early election stunt.

“Let’s hope it’s a comprehensive review that starts out with looking at the example that councillors have set themselves in the community,” he said.

“Where’s the transparency too? Any report/review must be made public.”