Community planning services in Glenelg Shire Council : 1998-2005 ...

112 Did the council effectively manage its outsourced planning services?
Liaise with developers, ratepayers and government departments. While the
planning contractor liaised with developers in assessing applications, at
times applications involving key planning matters were not referred to
government agencies such as the Department of Sustainability and
Environment and Heritage Victoria, as required by the Planning and
Environment Act 1987.
Liaise with the council’s heritage adviser. Liaison about whether a planning
proposal did or did not have heritage implications rarely occurred
between the planning contractor and the adviser.
Attend council meetings. Despite being required to attend 90 per cent of
meetings, the planning contractor attended only 9 meetings (from a total
of 85 meetings) over a 5-year period from 2000 to 2004. Planning reports
prepared by the planning contractor were, however, submitted to
council in 39 of the meetings. We were advised by council staff that
some councillors had direct discussions with the planning contractor
about specific planning issues. This practice may have resulted in some
significant planning issues by-passing council’s senior management and
the full scrutiny of the council.
Develop town planning policies, guidelines and strategies. The planning
contractor’s work in this area was limited. He produced an information
brochure of the service the community could expect to receive from the
council on planning matters. Information was also provided on the
council’s website. Council staff have only recently developed procedural
information to support the town planning function (August 2004).
Initiate at least one seminar or workshop per year on town planning or urban
design. This was not done.
Prepare a continuous improvement program and a works schedule with
performance targets. The planning contractor prepared a performance
program, schedule and performance indicators. There is no evidence
that the contract manager assessed the appropriateness or quality of the
information prepared, or that the actions proposed in the program were
undertaken by the planning contractor.
Provide fortnightly time sheets. The planning contractor did submit
fortnightly time sheets to the council (as a council employee), but the
time sheets did not record the specific activities performed by him and
decisions he made, while in the role of council employee. This was
required under his employment contract.
The contract for planning services provides for the council to take action
against the contractor for non-performance. Our review disclosed that
despite the contractor’s failure to meet some of the service standards
outlined in his contract, the council had not specifically raised issues of
non-performance with him until around July 2004.