Decrease in Council decisions made behind closed doors  

Transparency continues to improve at the City of Ballarat, based on figures released in the latest Know Your Council report, produced by Local Government Victoria. 

The City of Ballarat made only 3.28 per cent of Council decisions behind closed doors in the 2020-2021 financial year, compared to 9.05 per cent for similar sized Victorian councils. 

This is a massive drop of 80.24 per cent for decisions made ‘in camera’ without the public present. 

The City of Ballarat also scored well across all governance measures, including 58 per cent community satisfaction with Council decisions, compared to 53 per cent for similar sized councils. 

The City of Ballarat has also ticked off 23 out of 24 items on the governance and management checklist, including: 

• A Community Engagement Policy 
• A Procurement Policy 
• A 10-year Financial Plan, adopted at the 27 October Council Meeting 
• A Revenue and Rating Plan 
• A Risk Management Framework 
• Performance Reporting 

The only item yet to be adopted is an Asset Plan, which is not due until 2022. 

City of Ballarat Mayor, Cr Daniel Moloney said there was a new era of transparency at Ballarat Town Hall, as evidenced by the large drop in items decided behind closed doors. 

“As Councillors, with the support of CEO Evan King, want to be more accountable to our ratepayers for our decision making,” Cr Moloney said. 

“That is why we have brought tenders into the public realm so it is obvious how we make our decisions around large contracts.” 

The City of Ballarat’s Average Rate Per Property Assessment is also less when compared with other similar sized Councils, with a median of $1869.82 compared to $1901.71. 

Cr Moloney said while there were some great key indicators for Council, there are still some areas of improvement, such as community satisfaction with sealed roads. 

“Roads are part of Council’s core business and there’s been a strong commitment to roads funding in our current 2020/21 Council budget and we will continue to strive for improvement in this area,” he said. 

“However, overall these indicators show the City of Ballarat is heading in the right direction to improve its service delivery, its governance and its transparency for its ratepayers.” 

Other key data for the City of Ballarat included a 100 per cent success rate for animal management prosecutions and for Council planning decisions upheld at VCAT. 

See the full Know Your Council report here.