By Casey Neill
Greater Dandenong Councillors won’t take on portfolios, despite a push to trial the concept.
Councillor Matthew Kirwan requested a report on the idea at a council meeting last November.
He said other councils assigned portfolios to reflect councillors’ areas of interest, skill and experience.
“Portfolio holders become secondary spokespersons and first ports of call when the mayor is unavailable or delegates,” he said.
But on Monday 23 April, the council report back did not recommend portfolios.
Instead it suggested maximising the opportunities for councillors appointed to advisory committees and representative appointments.
The report said councillors already got involved in areas that interested them through these means.
It said several other councils did apply use portfolios and examined them, finding “little commonality between how and why they have developed and applied their portfolio framework”.
“The current situation keeps all 11 of us completely involved in what we do,” Cr Roz Blades said.
Cr Tim Dark said that portfolios would “create a layer of issues which we do not need” and Cr Sean O’Reilly said he couldn’t see the value in it.
“We have a fantastic system at the moment,” Cr Jim Memeti said.
“I think it would create division.
“I’m very, very worried about the negatives of having portfolios.”
Cr Kirwan unsuccessfully called for a 12-month trial of portfolios, only gaining support from Cr Maria Sampey.
“This report is far from completely negative about portfolios,” he said.
He said the report noted that they helped council officers to identify which councillors had special interests in topical issues, boosted engagement, and gave councillors a sense of ownership.
“The report does identify risks but they are risks that can be managed by putting a policy in place, just like we approach risks with other areas,” he said.
The negatives included a lack of clarity from portfolio holders that they had no formal power; the workload between portfolios was quite uneven; portfolio holders straying into areas that were really the domain of the administration; and increased officer workload to support the portfolio structure.
But Cr Kirwan said councillors were already unofficial spokespeople on topics of interest or expertise.
“Making them portfolio holders…would strengthen current practice and enable councillors to be more effective leaders for the community we serve,” he said.
Cr Sampey said: “We shouldn’t be scared to trial something for 12 months.”
“You can easily go back.
“It’s like saying to your child ‘don’t try because you might fail’.
“If you fail at least you’ve learnt from experience.
“To not even try, it doesn’t make sense.”
