The fourth meeting of the LIC Armadale/Murray/Serpentine Jarrahdale Local Implementation Committee (LIC) was held at the Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale on Tuesday 8 April 2014.
Chairperson of the LIC, Mayor Henry Zelones said “The recruitment process to hire a Project Officer to assist in LG Reform (to be based at the City of Armadale) is underway.
“Membership for each of the Working Groups has now been confirmed, and three of the Working Groups (Governance, Human Resources and Communications) have already met to work on reform priorities.
“An early priority will be establishing draft Ward maps, to guide the Local Government Advisory Board and show how the community would be represented under the proposed changes to boundaries.”
Mayor Henry Zelones noted “At the last meeting it was discussed that – ‘The City of Armadale and the Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale are 2 local governments in the metro area dealing with exponential growth, and the added pressure of reform matters is affecting customer service and overall service delivery. Government commitment on funding of personnel appointed solely to progress reform issues is urgently needed to expedite appointments and meet the Government’s critical deadlines.’ At this meeting it was reiterated that there is no capacity for any of the three LGs to provide (or fund) the appointment of a Project Coordinator. The Department/Minister will be made aware of the Councils’ budget constraints in funding such resources and seek urgent funding commitment. This matter will also be raised at the MetRIC meeting this week,” said Mayor Zelones.
Due to a number of public holidays in the next two weeks and the need for input from the Working Groups the next meeting of LIC will be held at the Shire of Murray on 6 May 2014.