Steve McGrath has been Interim General Manager since the beginning of the year. He came to the position on the understanding that he would have a role in the de-merger of the two previously independent councils.
There was much more to the job than that. People have a limited understanding of what the council does. There are the obvious, practical activities, often summed up under the heading, ‘roads, rates and rubbish’.
Taking in the big picture, I prefer to think of our ‘creating place’ as our primary task.’Steve has worked for forty fiveyears in local government. Hehas had four General Managerpositions, nine years at Young,eight at Singleton and in ex-cess of eleven years at CoffsHarbour.
The idea of ‘creating place’ has come out of these years of experience. There is much talk these days about infrastructure and economic development. When Steve spoke about ‘creating place’ he was talking more about a quality of living, a safe and human environment.
We talked about development in this council area and tourism and business were certainly discussed. However, Steve also talked about the imminent appointment of a youth worker and of his enjoyment of working with people as important.
Care for particular groups in the community is important; care for the council staff is also critical. Steve discovered that in 2020 there had been a project begun on the development of key values in the workplace. This project had not been completed and Steve saw an opportunity here.
The key values highlighted were obvious ones, as Steve put it: Respect, Accountability and Team Work.
The process of exploration and acceptance of these values sounded practical and realistic.
With each value, we noted behaviour that expressed and promoted the value, of Re-spect, etc. and behaviour that was inconsistent or damaging to the value. This brought the discussion down to obvious and observable actions or attitudes. In the various departments, we could see what worked and what didn’t in our relationships and situations.
’The ‘place created’ by this project was one where staff would benefit and this would flow over into their service in the community. Attention to values, the creation of place, is not as obvious to the general public as the activities of men and women in hi-vis out and about or being served in council offices.
For Steve, values are essential to the way things are done, an important part of what council does. Steve told a story that illustrated that respect, for example, involved being respected as well as showing respect.
He related an incident in a council area between Wagga and Albury, now dissolved into a merger process. Steve was in the office, with people out at lunch. It was a particularly hot, Summer day.
The phone rang and he answered it. The person spoke angrily for several minutes about seeing a council truck, parked under a tree and a council worker sitting around drinking.
Steve looked at his watch, waiting for an opportunity and asked the person the time this happened. He then politely pointed out that it was a very hot day, these workers had been out in the sun and this stop was midway through their lunch break.
There was a twenty-second pause and the person quietly apologised. Steve has spent time overseas.
In the US, Steve noted that public officials, council workers, were treated with more respect than they are here.
We did not talk more about this, but it was another example of how growth in values help ‘create place’.Experience in local government led Steve for a time in consultancy work.
He returned to working in a temporaryGM position because he had a greater opportunity to see a project from start to finish. Steve was referring to the de-merger process. I suggestedhe might not be in at the end inthis case.The demerger is taking longerthan everyone would havehoped, Steve said.
There is a new State Government and a new minister. This is the first exercise in demerger in the State. The new Minister for Local Government wants it to work! Steve was optimistic about the outcome.
In the meantime, he encouraged the staff to address all the requirements of council business as conscientiously as they have been doing. The decision will come when it will come.
Richard White