Today is my last day in my current role as the Director Infrastructure and Environment at Renmark Paringa Council as I have decided to end my tenure in Local Government to take a gap year (or two) to write my book, I have no idea where this decision will take me, but I am looking forward to the journey ahead. Whilst this decision has invoked an array of emotions from absolute excitement to complete trepidation it has also caused me to pause and reflect on my time in Local Government. So I thought I should put these reflections down on a page and share them with you.

If you had told me 20 odd years ago that I would have enjoyed a 20-year career working in Local Government I would have told you that you were nuts. Prior to working in Local Government, I held the typical stereotypical view of Council workers, that they were lazy and generally were there to stifle development and progress through their bureaucracy. I recall thinking when I was studying for my planning degree that the last place I wanted to work was at a Council, my ambition was to enter the private sector … well, here I am, 20 years later and since completing my planning studies I have not worked anywhere else. Local Government certainly comes with its challenges and not everything about it is positive but overall, my experience has been great and by and large, the people who work in Local Government are hardworking, kind, caring and passionate about their profession as well as their community. Now I should point out here that my career in Local Government may not be over, I may well end up working in the sector again, but there is no guarantee of that, so my reflections are based on the possibility that my days working in Local Government are now numbered.

My first sojourn into Local Government came in October 1999. Donna Ferretti who was one of my university lecturers at the time, had been contacted by Peter Hall who was working at Victor Harbor and was looking for students to do some work experience. I am forever grateful to both Donna and Peter for facilitating the opportunity to work at Victor Harbor as it set me on the path I have been on for the last 20 years. I have considered Donna a mentor of mine ever since that time and whilst we haven’t caught up very often in recent years, I will always value her opinion and advice. She in one person I am keen to bounce some ideas off once I get into my book.

The first project I worked on for Peter was developing an Outdoor Dining Policy and I also had the opportunity to contribute towards developing a Disability Access Plan. It was a great first foray into Local Government and gave me my first inkling that maybe it is a workplace worth being a part of and somewhere where you can do good for others and the community. In conjunction with volunteering my time at the Council, I was able to earn an income helping Peter with renovating his house. I enjoyed both jobs, but the renovation work did give me a healthy distain for wallpaper, whatever they used to stick it on the wall was like super glue and I have since vowed never to put wallpaper up in any home that I own, anyway, I digress.

My work experience at Victor Harbor led to me being employed as a part time General Inspector over the summer of 1999/2000 which then led me to act as their Principal Planner when that role became vacant early in 2000 which then led me to gain my first full time permanent role as a Development Assessment Officer at Alexandrina Council later that year. Not long after that I bought my first home in Middleton and loved the lifestyle that the Fleurieu Peninsula had to offer.

In those first years in Local Government I learned as much as I could from the experienced people around me. I was an inexperienced young Planning Officer who was prone to make the odd error, but it was the likes of Fred Flemming at Victor Harbor and Ian Riches at Alexandrina who I learned from the most. They were Building Officers and I will be forever grateful for their experience and level headed advice. Especially Fred, one instance I remember is he picked up that I approved a house in Encounter Bay with a finished floor level about 2 metres above ground level. It was a rookie oversight of mine and he saved me much embarrassment, and probably my job, had the approval gone out at that height. I also need to shout out Sally Roberts who was the Senior Planner at Alexandrina at the time who I also learnt much from.

Reflecting on the influence these older heads had on me in those early years of my Local Government career makes me think of some of the best advice I have been given along the way. I recall when I first took on the acting CEO role at Naracoorte Lucindale in late 2006, I attended a Limestone Coast CEOs meeting and appreciated the support I got from the experienced CEO’s that were there at the time. One piece of advice I received at that meeting was from Greg Muller, who was the CEO at Mount Gambier. He told me that the secret to being a successful CEO was to be a ‘common sense practitioner’. I think to be successful in any role in Local Government you need to be a common sense practitioner. It is very easy to be caught up in the bureaucracy of Local Government and to be pulled from one extreme to the other by members of the community, Elected Members, as well as staff, testing your resolve and decision-making processes. Thanks to Greg, I have always tried to influence my decisions and actions by examining them through the lens of common sense, ensuring a pragmatic approach that results in consistently good decisions. This has sometimes been a challenge and I can’t say I have always got it right, but I am forever grateful for that advice. Many of us lament that common sense doesn’t seem to be that common anymore but if most of us strive to keep true to that lens then perhaps it will become more prevalent in our community and organisations.

Another great piece of advice I received was from John Coombe who was my CEO at Alexandrina. Back then I was still inexperienced and somewhat idealistic and needed to be reminded to pull my head in occasionally which John had to do after I made a presentation to the Elected Members which didn’t go down too well. When I think back now, I am shaking my head and saying to myself, ‘what were you thinking?’, but we are all geniuses with hindsight. Anyway, as part of my dressing down John did talk to me about maintaining professional relationships with the Elected Members and making sure you don’t have favourites. He taught me that it is imperative that we treat them all the same despite if you think one or more of them may be an idiot or not. Essentially, to maintain your professionalism with your relationships with Elected Members was paramount and this advice has served me well.

As mentioned earlier I had the opportunity to be the acting CEO at Naracoorte Lucindale and filled that role for 8 months. I would never have been given that opportunity had I not maintained professional relationships with all Elected Members at the time. It is fair to say that the Council chamber leading up to the election in November 2006 was divided and that other members of our Executive Leadership Team had sided with the group of Elected Members who held the balance of power. After the election, the balance of power had swayed to the other side. I guess some of my colleagues saw this coming and found other roles leading up to the election which opened the opportunity to take on the acting CEO role. Had I not kept professional relationships with all elected members I would never have got that opportunity and had I sided with one side of the chamber, I suspect my time at Naracoorte Lucindale would have been much shorter than it was. I am forever grateful for that advice from John and I have tried to exhibit it at all times.

I think successfully acting in the CEO role at Naracoorte was one of my greatest achievements. We had a new Council with quite a large turnover of Elected members, a new Mayor and a decimated Executive Leadership Team where I was acting CEO with an Executive Leadership team consisting of an acting Manager Corporate Services, Fiona Stringer, an acting Manager Infrastructure Services, David Leahy and Daryl Smith our experienced Manager Governance. Actually, Daryl was the instigator to giving me the opportunity, he was the obvious choice to act as the CEO but as he said to the Elected Members at the time, something like ‘why give me the job, I’m about to retire, give the young fellow a go!’ And they did. We were very much stretched as far as staffing was concerned as we were all stepping up into new roles, the election was not a pleasant time given the amount of negative publicity we were receiving, most of which was not deserved, so that impacted the staff, and we had to build a positive rapport with the new Council and Mayor. I think that time was one of the most hectic periods of my career but gave me the confidence that I can take on anything and succeed. I am very much grateful for all my colleagues at Naracoorte Lucindale, in particular Daryl, David and Fiona, as without their support it may have been a different story.

My other greatest achievement during my career was completing my MBA which unfortunately coincided with possibly the worst period of my career, and that was my last couple of years at Coorong Council. I had left Naracoorte Lucindale in July 2007 after missing out on getting the CEO role, the Council chose a much more experienced candidate who also had experience with saleyards, and we were in the process of upgrading ours at Naracoorte so it was a reasonable decision from my point of view. I was only 32 at the time and was still pretty green as a budding CEO. I left Naracoorte to become the Manager Environmental Services at Coorong. I recall the interview I had with Tim Drew the CEO and all I banged on about was my ambition to be a CEO. I had just been acting in the role at Naracoorte and just before this interview I had got down to the last 2 candidates for the CEO role at Southern Mallee but that Council went with the more experienced candidate, alas, this has been a bit of a theme in my career. I walked out of the interview with Tim thinking he would never give me the role as he’d think I just wanted to take his job off him.

Anyway, despite me only talking about being a CEO, Tim gave me the job and I loved it, the first 5 or so years working at Coorong was brilliant and was probably my most enjoyable time in Local Government. I loved our team and gained great satisfaction from what I was able to achieve. Initially, I had only planned to work at Coorong for 2, maybe 3 years maximum, do some good things and then move onto something better, like being a CEO. As it turned out I loved it, so I had no intentions of moving on, I also loved living in Murray Bridge where I now have several lifelong friends and where I also had the privilege of becoming the President of the Wanderers Cricket Club. However, after Tim had left Coorong, I encountered bullying and narcissism in the workplace for the first time. I’m not going to dwell on this experience too long, other than to say I had never experienced this before, so it was foreign to me and a bit of a shock once I realised what was happening. I could go on for hours with examples of malicious and incomprehensible behaviour directed towards me but to sum it up the whole experience dented my confidence and left me in a very depressed state of mind. The one thing that kept me sane during this time was studying for my MBA and I am extremely proud that I was able to complete it in 14 months through the Australian Institute of Business. My thesis was based on organisational development and culture, and I used Coorong as the case study, it makes for some interesting reading and is a piece of work I am proud of. Sometimes the best learning experiences are those that come from adversity and my last couple of years at Coorong is testament to this. As an aside, one of my colleagues at Renmark Paringa is currently studying for their MBA and I love the fact they are bringing their learnings into work, initiating some excellent discussions as well as sharing some interesting articles. I love this and is something I also tried to do when I was studying for my MBA as I was excited to share what I was learning; however, believe it or not, I was essentially prohibited from sharing my learnings with the staff at Coorong, just makes me shake my head now at the pettiness of it all.

With the passage of time, I now put my experience at Coorong down as a learning experience of everything I don’t want to be as a leader or person and one thing that I have tried to uphold since that experience is to never tolerate any form of bullying in the workplace.

Anyway, it was obvious that I could not stay at Coorong so with the encouragement of Matt Hobby, who was at McArthur’s at the time, I applied for the Director Infrastructure Services role at Loxton Waikerie Council. I am indebted to Matt for believing in me as I needed that support and I am eternally grateful to Peter Ackland for offering me that opportunity, which was a big call given I am a planner and had little experience leading an infrastructure team. But as luck would have it, I walked into an organisation that had two very experienced Works Managers in Tom Murch and Rick Noble and with their support and experience I was able to successfully make the transition to lead a completely different team than I had before. Both Tom and Rick are retired now but I regard them both as personal friends and two people I hold in the highest regard. They are the quintessential examples of the traditional works manager, both having a great work ethic coupled with experience and loads of practical knowledge. Another Works Manager I’d like to mention is Ron Downs who worked at Coorong for over 40 years, another example of those great loyal, dependable and ‘salt of the earth’ type people that are found throughout Local Government.

Transitioning into the infrastructure sphere enabled me to experience the satisfaction of building community infrastructure. Upgrading a main street, a sporting precinct or developing a new riverfront precinct as we have recently completed in Renmark with the Taylor Riverfront Precinct, brings enormous job satisfaction and it is a privilege to be involved in projects such as these. Whilst I have been involved in several major projects worth millions of dollars the project I am most proud of is the ‘Loxton’ sign at the top of East Terrace. The original plan for East Terrace included several water features including one at the top of East Terrace. This didn’t make a lot of sense to me given the need for water conservation in our semi-arid climate. I was inspired by the ‘I amsterdam’ signs in Amsterdam and thought that we could do something similar in Loxton and thankfully the Council agreed. It always warms my heart when I see people taking photos of the sign or when kids are climbing on it, and I guess I regard it as my little mark on the town where I live and it makes me very proud.

Whilst I have always gained job satisfaction from assisting community members with building a new business or building a new home through my planning role there is something special about being part of improving the public realm for all the community to enjoy. There is also a great satisfaction in how we present our towns, and this is something that the Riverland Councils are very good at, and I am very proud of the staff doing this work. I have recently been told by one of my colleagues that the primary job of Council office staff and Elected members should be to support the depot and the work they do, I find much wisdom in this approach as the depot staff are those that are out and about in the community every day and they are also the staff doing the jobs that are most important for our community, such as making sure our road network is maintained, our sporting facilities, parks, reserves and towns are presented in a manner to be proud of and ensuring that when we flush the toilet our waste finds itself at a treatment plant and not running down the street. It has not been lost on me since being involved in the infrastructure side of Council that the depot is not always afforded the same consideration as the office and the staff at the depot certainly notice when this is the case. Perhaps if those of us based in the office approached our roles with the primary intent of assisting the depot so those staff can do the best they can by having appropriate support, resources and machinery then this will ensure we are all serving our community, at least at the most practical and visible to the community level. Anyway, this is a thought that I have pondered over the last few days and I’d like to think I have done my part for the depot staff I have worked with by trying to provide them with the support, machinery and equipment they need to do their roles effectively. I just wish I was able to get a new depot over the line for the team at Loxton, hopefully they will get one soon as it is long overdue.

At the other end of the spectrum, a task that has also brought me great satisfaction is developing strategies and plans and I have been fortunate to deliver the organisational Strategic Plans for three of the Councils that I have worked for. I am particularly proud of the work we did at Loxton Waikerie with our LW 2020 initiative and the creation of LW Future, the Strategic Plan that was adopted in 2016. Strategic planning is probably my happy place and where I feel most comfortable and invigorated and is work that I was more than happy to do in my own time given the enjoyment I got from it.

However, the most job satisfaction I have gained from Local Government is the ability to positively influence others and to assist people to fulfil their potential. It is a great privilege to lead others and the roles I have filled in Local Government have given me the opportunity to trust my gut instinct and take a punt on a new employee or to provide a staff member the opportunity to take a promotion or to provide opportunities to enable a staff member to seek more responsibility or a better role at another organisation. It gives me so much satisfaction and I’m sitting here with a huge smile on my face as I reflect on the people I have helped along the way. I don’t take credit for their achievements, which is something they have done themselves, I am just content in the knowledge that I have played a part in providing opportunities to enable others to fulfil their potential and to realise their ambitions. I believe this is something Local Government can be very good at, and it is essential for those of us in regional locations to develop our own staff as it is not always easy to recruit experienced and/or qualified staff to your organisation and if you do, it is sometimes hard to keep them for the long term.

I must mention that one of the roles I have thoroughly enjoyed which has enabled me to positively influence other people has been mentoring Management Challenge teams which I have done on five occasions, culminating in the last team I mentored from Renmark Paringa winning the Rural Management Challenge in 2019. This was another very proud moment for me.

Whilst I have reflected on some of the positive aspects of my experience of working in Local Government, I must mention a few of the things that I will not miss. I will not miss the bureaucracy that sometimes stifles our ability to be efficient and effective. Sometimes we get too caught up with the policies and procedures and forget about the outcomes we should be striving for. I will not miss the Workplace Health and Safety aspects of the job. Now I need to say from the outset, I have no issue with the staff working in WHS, nor the need for a safe working environment, which is paramount. I just think that we have created a cumbersome WHS system through our self-insurance requirements and the cost to meet these requirements seems to be increasing exponentially due to the time and resources WHS now consumes. For me, WHS should be simple, make sure your plant and equipment is safe, use them as they are designed to be used, assess risks and hazards when you start a job and always look out for yourself, your colleagues and the community. Use some common sense and don’t take any unnecessary risks. However, I feel we have created a minefield of paperwork, bureaucracy, audits and checklists which does my head in and certainly isn’t helpful for the labourer or plant operator who is more attuned to physical work. I believe Local Government in SA should consider its self-insurance status and undertake a cost benefit analysis to determine if it actually is beneficial for the sector as from my perspective, we have set the bar impractically high and the way we are being forced to approach WHS is not actually making a safer workplace for our staff.

I will also not miss the sense of entitlement that seems to pervade some staff in Local Government. I don’t know if this is found in other sectors or industries, or whether this is just a society wide symptom caused by our affluence, but it certainly is found in Local Government. I don’t know if this sense comes from the excellent working conditions, above award wages and job security we enjoy but it is a mindset which I find extremely frustrating. From my perspective, the opportunity to work in Local Government is a privilege. It is a privilege to work on behalf of your community, it is a privilege to present our towns for all to enjoy and to implement projects that improve the public realm, it is a privilege to implement initiatives that aim to create a better future for the community. I have often wished that I could send staff off to work in the private sector, such as picking fruit up here in the Riverland, where things can be much more cutthroat and/or working conditions are not as good, so they might gain an appreciation for the privilege it is to work in Local Government.

I have spent much of my reflections focussed on the administration side of things as that is where I have been working. However, I should spend a little time reflecting on my experience with Elected Members. At every Council I have worked there has always been the perennial tension between Elected Members and Administration. From an administration viewpoint this tension generally comes from Elected Members wanting to get involved with the operation of Council and/or they assume they have expertise in areas that they really have no idea about. From an Elected Member viewpoint, I surmise that this tension is due the preconception they may have of people working for Councils, holding similar views that I had prior to working in Local Government that we are all lazy and/or incompetent and/or corrupt. I have witnessed on several occasions a new Elected Member being elected on the platform of criticising the Council due to a perception of corruption or incompetence. Thankfully, some of these Elected Members once they have worked with us for some time realise we are just as passionate as them about making the community a better place to live and over time a professional relationship develops whereby we strive for this to occur. As with any democracy, our methods and ideas may be different, but the intent is the same, and that is to improve our communities.

By and large, most Elected Members are good people and have put their hand up to serve their community with the best intentions at heart. I mentioned earlier that we shouldn’t have favourites in the chamber but I’m going to go against that and state that my favourites over the last 20 years have been Ross Copeland from Waikerie and Sharon Bland from Meningie, I have the utmost respect for these people. There are a bunch of other Elected Members that I have enjoyed working with, but Ross and Sharon are the stand outs for me. On the flip side I have also encountered some of the most narcissistic, stupid and/or incompetent people in the chamber and it has always confounded me how such people can be elected. Unfortunately, some of these people make it into the chamber by the fact they were the only person to put their hand up or got onto Council on the basis of a handful of votes. But Elected Members, just as ourselves in the administration, are drawn from our respective communities and there are good and bad of us wherever we go, I just take heart in my belief that most people are good and are not just out to fuel their own ego or for their own individual gain. Unfortunately, the egotists and selfish are amongst us wherever we go in life and occasionally they pop up as Elected Members and even as staff for that matter.

That perennial tension between the Elected Members and the Administration will likely always be there to some extent but it highlights that the most important relationship in a Council is the one between the CEO and the Mayor. I have been privileged to witness when that relationship has been very successful, the best CEO/Mayor combination I have worked under was Frank Brennan and Don Ferguson at Wattle Range. They were an awesome team and are two people I hold in the highest regard. Frank is also the CEO I enjoyed working for the most and I regret not working for him at Wattle Range for longer than I did. The other stand out CEO/Mayor team I worked under was John Coombe and Kym McHugh at Alexandrina.

I have been privileged to work alongside and learn from some brilliant people over the last 20 years, there are so many I could mention. I think of the likes of David Altmann from Development Answers who is now probably the preeminent planner in the state with regard to the new planning system, I have worked with David from back in my days at Coorong through to today at Renmark. John Comrie who I’ve learned so much from about financial management and he was always able to distil a financial problem or issue to simple, practical terms which is important for non-finance people like me. I think of Taryn Sexton who was the CEO of LG Professionals SA for many years and she led that organisation with distinction, growing it from strength to strength. Taryn also advocated for the creation of the Executive Leaders Program (XLP) which I attended in 2018 and it was this experience that really made me realise that my passion was to write a book. XLP was facilitated by Andrew Stevens from Unchartered Leadership and he is someone I am very grateful to now know and he has been a great influence on me in recent years. It was also at XLP where I became friends with Deb Richardson (previously at Port Adelaide Enfield) and Darren Birbeck (previously at Charles Sturt and now CEO of Resthaven) and I have loved the support and fellowship they have given me. I encourage everyone in leadership roles in Local Government to attend XLP, it is an amazing transformative experience.

It has been a privilege to work in Local Government, to meet so many amazing, passionate and inspiring people and to work on behalf of the communities that I have served over the last 20 years. Before I finish up though, I must also mention that I have observed that each community or town has its own collective personality. Some are easier to work with than others but the two communities that stand out for me are Tintinara and Loxton. Both communities just get in and get things done and the role of the Council for these communities is to just to assist, advocate and encourage and essentially get out of their way. However, I have also found some communities to be collectively apathetic and others are just hard work and it doesn’t matter what you do for them it will never be good enough. I will not miss working for those communities.

For what it’s worth, to my fellow colleagues in the sector I offer the following advice … focus on your ‘priorities and perspective’. It is easy to get swamped by trying to do too much or try to take too much on, it’s OK to say no. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake, being too risk adverse is an easy mindset to fall into. Keep your intent true and stick to your guns even in the face of criticism, if you know what you are doing is right then don’t let the vocal minority put you off. Always regard working for Local Government as a privilege. We are here to serve our communities and to continuously improve to make them better. Don’t get sucked into the negativity that is directed at Local Government. Sometimes the bad press is warranted as some of our colleagues and Elected Members let our sector down, but in essence, for the most part, we are all doing great work for our communities, and this must continue. Learn from the old heads and experienced people around you and conversely, learn from the new and younger members of your team. In recent times I have recognised that I used to have the enthusiasm, energy and the discretionary effort that is the cornerstone to a successful culture, that some of the staff in my team have but it has been lost somewhat for me which tells me that it really is time to try something new as I do not want to become that negative and cynical person that brings everyone around them down. Don’t become one of those people. And finally, never stop learning and don’t let your ego get in the way of enlightenment.

If you don’t work in the sector and are looking for a career path, consider giving Local Government a go. Local Government is filled with a diverse array of professionals from accountants to engineers, plant operators to librarians, planners to environmental health officers, customer service staff to gardeners, records officers to project managers. You name it, Local Government will likely employ it and it can be a very rewarding place to work.

So, it is with some sadness that I will be leaving Local Government, albeit it may just be temporary. Reflecting on my experiences as well as the great people I’ve worked with and encountered over the years really makes me realise just how privileged I have been and how grateful I am for the opportunities I have had. However, I also feel as though I have run my race for now as far as Local Government is concerned, and it is now time to try my hand at something new and that is to write my book. To that end, I have recently been offered the opportunity to be a ‘thinker in residence’ at Part of Things which is a creative gathering place and ideas hub based in Barmera. I am looking forward to learning from the other writers and creative types who frequent this space and I am sure this will help inspire and motivate me through the next chapter of my life.

I am so proud, privileged and grateful to have spent 20 years in Local Government and thank you to all the people who have inspired and supported me along the way. Especially the people I have worked alongside at Victor Harbor, Alexandrina, Wattle Range, Naracoorte Lucindale, Coorong, Loxton Waikerie and most recently the amazing team at Renmark Paringa.

Much love to you all.

Thanks for reading my reflections.

All the best.