What will Jon do for my area?
Open Door Policy
I value your ideas and your feedback and as your Councillor I’ll always do my best to be available for you when you need me. If you call me I will return your call. If you want a meeting I will make time for you - or better yet I'll visit your home.
Community Engagement
Last term I was one of the most active Councillors for engaging with the community that I represented. Whether that was for park upgrades, traffic calming, safety cameras or intersection upgrades I always took the time to consult residents and I used your feedback to improve the projects so that they met your expectations.
I’ll keep doing exactly that if re-elected because I know that you appreciated the effort and it meant we by working together we got great results.
Bringing businesses and investment to Logan
Local jobs for local people has to be our top priority. Being able to work where you live and cutting on commuting costs and travel time so we can spend more time with our families is incredibly valuable.
How does a Council create jobs though? By encouraging businesses from interstate to relocate here and overseas businesses to invest here.
We do that through having the right planning settings to encourage businesses that employ people to establish themselves here. Council has incentives for particular businesses that makes it more attractive to invest in Logan than it is with neighbouring cities.
It also means knocking on doors, and taking the time to go on trade missions either with the State and Federal Government or on our own to pitch Logan to businesses across Australia and even the world. Google has already invested in Logan ahead of the rest of the world with it’s Wing drone delivery project. Who can we land next?
I will push for Economic Development targets that are orientated around how many jobs those investments and developments create.
Rates and the cost of living
I have been a strong advocate for keeping rates as low as possible for the last term. The last three consecutive rate rate rises in Logan have been lower than the inflation and they’ve been the lowest increases of any Council in Queensland.
2017/18: 1.7% (CPI of 1.8%)
2018/19: 1.48% (CPI of 1.7%)
2019/20: 1.49% (CPI of 1.5%)
But Council can still do better, in a city with such significant growth and development happening we need to keep a close eye on costs and make sure the Council only charges what it needs to maintain the high quality services our residents have come to expect.
I will work with the new Mayor and Council to keep downward pressure on rates. I want to see this done by increasing Council revenue through smart investments that generate wealth as well as making savings by eliminating waste within Council. I've gone through this process within my own business to make it more efficient and I am confident I can drive the same process in Council.
Improving Council’s Data (Better Systems for Better Service)
Council’s data management systems are in dire need of update, review and improvement. This work began during the last term but there is still so much more to do because previous Council’s haven’t seen the value in maintaining and upgrading the systems.
There is no single point of truth in Council’s systems. Which means residents often encounter frustrating and contradictory information and advice from different branches, or sometimes even staff in the same team! This can waste or time, or worse.. cost you money.
If we want to be a modern Council and reap the productivity and efficiency benefits we have to invest in the systems that manage your information.
Council holds a wealth of data about the city, it’s people, the environment, traffic, energy use, water consumption, waste and economic activity. But all that information is useless if it’s fragmented and ignored.
The benefits to the community will include:
Better targeted, more efficient services
Improved customer service
Improved data security and privacy
Improved safety and collaboration with police to combat crime
Less waste (whether that’s water, energy, materials or time)
Better maintenance of roads and parks
Improved planning and development outcomes
Cost savings that can be reinvested in the city or returned to the public as savings on the rates notice
Transparency and Accountability
When I was first elected I was shocked at the lack of transparency and accountability in our Council. Council and Committee meetings were not recorded, the minutes were limited with nothing more than the public motions that were voted on and a record of Councillors who voted against specific items.
The public had no way of knowing how they were being represented by their Councillors and Mayor unless they could spare time in the middle of the work day to attend the meetings personally. Even then meetings were often closed to the public - sometimes this was necessarily for legal, privacy or commercial reasons. But often they meetings could have been left open if names and a figures were left out of the debate.
I pushed hard to get live streaming of meetings, or at the very least thorough minutes so that residents would know what was happening but my colleagues weren’t interested.
When we went into Administration one of my strongest recommendations to the Interim Administrator as a member of the Interim Management Committee was that we introduce live streaming of meetings so that residents can keep an eye on whats happening in Council from the comfort of their home if and when it suits them.
She changed the Meeting Procedures in December 2019 and now live streaming will be available for all Council meetings and Committee meetings will be audio recorded and published online.
Furthermore, the way Councillors vote will be recorded for every vote (not just when they vote against an item), so the public can hold their representatives accountable to the decisions that are made.
There’s still more to do:
Limit confidential meetings
Councillors are legally obligated to make decision in the public interest. I believe the public interest is served by keeping meetings open and only going into confidential when it is absolutely necessary.
Audio recordings of confidential meetings
Just because the meeting is closed to the public doesn’t mean it should be secret.
These recordings will be kept confidential for an appropriate amount of time and will be available to the public similar to Cabinet Documents which are released after 20 years.
Law enforcement agencies will be able to access these records with a warrant which will deter fraudulent and corrupt behaviour.
Governance Review
During the last term there were significant losses of senior governance staff for a variety of reasons. The organisation has done it’s best to recruit new staff to fill these gaps but there may still be issues and loopholes that need addressing.
A root and branch review of how the Corporate Governance branch is structured and funded needs to be undertaken to ensure it is resilient and capable of holding the organisation and elected members accountable.
The Interim Administrator has begun this process with a thorough policy review but much more is needed.
Performance Transparency for Council Executives
A host of new transparency measures have been introduced by the State Government to improve transparency and accountability for Councillors which I support 100%.
The same high standards should be applied to the Managers, Directors and CEO at Council;
These staff are all paid much more than your Councillors and are often directly responsible for managing large budgets and making critical decisions
Their performance reviews are not public, neither are their KPIs, salary package or bonuses
They work for you, but they aren’t accountable to you. You deserve better.
These executives and managers are on generous contracts but the public has no way to monitor what value they return to the ratepayer.
Councillor salary, benefits, performance and complaints are all made public. But senior executives are not held to the same standard - this has to change.
The performance of these staff makes a huge difference to the cost of your rates, and the delivery of your services. It is only fair that you can keep an eye on how they’re performing and the kind of awards and complaints they receive.
Local upgrades and improvements
I’ve knocked on thousands of doors in the lead up to this election and I’m not done yet. People have shared what’s important to them and what they want to see done, but a few issues keep recurring all over the Division.
Public Transport
In Logan Council does not directly run or control bus routes. There are improvements that Council is responsible for and I will work on these immediately if I am re-elected. There are a number of bus stops without shelters in very high use areas. The two major routes are on Muchow Road near Marsden SHS and on Chambers Flat Road from the Rose Garden Park down to the roundabout at Browns Plains Road.
Other suburbs don’t have adequate bus services. With a State Election coming later this year I will advocate for new bus routes through Berrinba and at the Bumstead Rd end of Crestmead.
Hooning and speeding
This is a tough issue for every part of our city and the suburbs of Division 5 are no different. I will continue to work closely with police, Neighbourhood Watch Groups and other concerned residents to increase police awareness of trouble spots – because many of you have given me very detailed information about timing and location of hooning behaviour, and I want to use your on the ground knowledge to support police enforcement activities.
Many of you have suggested lowering speed limits, installing traffic calming, and improving signal timing. I’m keeping a detailed list of the trouble spots so if re-elected I can hit the ground running and keep the Council traffic engineers busy.
I know how important safe and peaceful local roads are for our community which is why I made it a priority in the last term. It’s one of the most common issues people are raising with me on the door step, so I’ll keep working to make improvements where ever I can starting with the areas that have the worst speeding issues.
Upgrades to neighbourhood parks
You've spoken to me about extra parking, more BBQs, better lighting, amenities, new play equipment, more shade, more bubblers, free WIFI and new safety features. The list is long and full of great ideas, but these all have prices tag associated with them so I'll need a little time to look into what these costs are and prioritise the most cost effective improvements while keeping in mind the most popular ideas.
I know how important it is to get this right, because safe and enjoyable green spaces will allow our community to spend time enjoying each others company.
Crestmead Park Skate Area
The skate bowl around Crestmead Park is very popular, but it’s also quite dated. The other equipment in the park has been upgraded recently and I’d like to carry on that good work by improving the skate area.
I’ve spoken to the young people who use this section of the park and they’ve asked for some additional equipment that will challenge the more advanced skaters and riders as well as improving the surface of the existing bowl for safety reasons.
I will push for these changes to be made through the Divisional Infrastructure Budget Process and then do further consultation with the community about further changes and improvements.
Pauline Park (Marsden)
Pauline Park is very popular and last term I intended on upgrading it further, unfortunately Administration interrupted those plans.
If re-elected I will have lights installed on the basketball court, add a grass volley ball court and look into improvements to the skate bowl. By keeping young people interested in our parks we keep them active and engaged with positive activities instead of letting them get bored and looking for their own entertainment.
Marsden Park (Third Avenue)
This park has a small community hall, public toilets and dog off leash areas. While door knocking the community has told me they’d like to see the hall replaced and some more active sports spaces for young people.
Prior to Administration I had begun working with staff to develop plans for improving this park. Because I have already done this ground work I can commit to investigating basketball courts with solar lighting, as well as volleyball courts and BBQs at this park.
Freshwater Park (Berrinba)
This is a very popular park for local residents and I know the community would like to see basketball courts as well as more CCTV camera coverage in the area.
I will investigate both these options, and work with the community to get the outcomes they’re looking for.
Rubbish and litter
Rubbish is best treated at the source. If elected I’ll continue to increase the number and size of bins at bus stops and parks and make sure they are regularly serviced.
If you know of a particular trouble spot please let me know and I’ll look into it further.
Illegal dumping
The areas where illegal dumping occurs are often blind spots in our suburbs, where illegal activities other than dumping can also occur. I will restrict access to these areas where ever possible with bollards, and I’d like to see the Park Rangers issued with covert security cameras that can be moved around the city to address hot spots.
Since the introduction of the State Government Waste Levy illegal dumping has gotten worse. Council does have staff that investigate illegal dumping and they do a great job. They are very motivated and issue a great deal of fines (you’d be amazed how many culprits leave identifying evidence in the rubbish they dump). I believe they could do more if they were better resourced along with our Park Rangers.
And much more...
I'll keep knocking on doors and making myself available at shopping centres and community events all the way up to the election and beyond. If you've got an idea you're passionate about I'd love to hear it, because the best ideas for improving our suburbs come from our locals.
Please call me direct on 0499 560 995, email me at jon@ravenformayor.com.au or send me a message on Facebook.