Harden Shire Councillors deliberated on various options for the future of the Harden Shire regarding amalgamation at the February Business meeting on February 18. The ‘Fit for the Future’ (FFTF) reforms dominated discussion in what became a drawn-out meeting.
The initial four recommendations before Council ballooned to eight as Councillors debated the merits of a possible amalgamation with Young and Boorowa, or with Cootamundra.
The first recommendation passed was an official expression of disdain at the findings of the ‘Hilltops Region Governance and Service Delivery Report’ prepared by the LKS Quaero consultancy firm, which explored the possibility of an amalgamated Hilltops Shire consisting of Harden, Boorowa and Young. The report is currently on display at the Harden Shire Council Chambers until March 27th, 2015 in accordance with the second recommendation agreed upon by Council
“Council does not support the findings of the LKS Quaero report,” said Harden Mayor John Horton. “The LKS Quaero report lacked detailed analysis and evidence to support its findings. Graphs showing a miraculous improvement in the financial position of an amalgamated council with Harden, Boorowa and Young had nothing to support them whatsoever.”
Council also moved to inform the community that it was seeking to develop a merger proposal with the Cootamundra Shire. This development was the result of a meeting between the Cootamundra and Harden Shires that took place in Jugiong on February 16th. In addition, Council acquiesced to consultative community meetings in Harden, Jugiong, Wombat and Galong to discuss merger proposals with Young & Boorowa, and Cootamundra. Harden Shire Council have yet to set dates for these meetings.
Additional options were floated such as the idea of an amalgamation as part of a ‘super council’ including the Young, Boorowa, Cootamundra and Harden Shires. The benefit of this was seen in counteracting the size and influence of Young Shire Council, as well as meeting the scale and capacity requirements set out by the FFTF reforms.
Council also endorsed the Joint Working Party recommendation, which was made at the 16th of February Cootamundra and Harden Shire Councils meeting, authorising the Cootamundra and Harden Shire Council General Managers to develop merger proposals for Harden and Cootamundra. The General Managers must then report back to Council before the March business meeting to allow for the required 28 day public exhibition before it is formally adopted by Council. As the deadline for the FFTF proposals from Councils is June 30th, time is of the essence.
Although the option of a merger with Cootamundra received a more positive response from Councillors than a merger involving Young, concerns were raised by Councillor Flanery about not fully meeting the scale and capacity requirements if an amalgamation with Cootamundra was to take place. The combined populations of Cootamundra and Harden would be approximately 11,000 – 7,000 short of the 18,000 set by the NSW Independent Local Government Review Panel report, from which the FFTF reform criteria are based.
In addition, an unemotional, empirical approach was identified by Councillors Flanery and Chris Manchester as the best way to evaluate the potential amalgamation options. It was identified that the NSW State Government may not look favourably on amalgamation decisions that are based on patterns of amity and enmity (i.e. friendliness and rivalry), and may indeed force an amalgamation that could be unfavourable to the Shire. Thus, an evaluation with a recommendation based on statistical evidence was seen as the most appropriate approach to take to gain a favourable amalgamation option and process. Infrastructure backlog figures from each shire were cited as a priority to ascertain, given that a higher infrastructure backlog may result in higher rates being charged to service it.
Recommendation 7 was subsequently formulated and passed by Council, which authorised the General Manager “to obtain an evaluation of comparative data from both Young and Boorowa Councils in the same form as the comparative information being obtained from Cootamundra.”
Councillor Flanery also called for Councillor-to-Councillor discussions to take place between the different shires, to sound out the opinions of Councillors in other shires without input from paid staff. This formed recommendation number 8 that was passed by Council.
The outcome of the February Business meeting shows that, despite many efforts, Harden Shire Council’s amalgamation path is not paved yet.
