To whom it may concern,
The question below I submitted to the mayor and councillors, and I believe that it has been inappropriately answered by management. Given that it addressed a strategic and policy matter, management is clearly exceeding its authority in making the assertions offered in response to the question unless of course the councillors have delegated that authority to management.
If councillors have in fact done so, no evidence has been provided to establish that as being the fact. Indeed, if that authority has in fact been delegated it is inappropriate that it might be the case.
If it is the case, then it signals that all councillors – and all without dissent – have abdicated their governance role, the role they were elected to fulfil in all good faith by the municipality’s citizens and ratepayers. That would be a serious matter that Council’s constituency and the Minister of Local Government needs to be advised of – and sooner rather than later.
Maintaining a register of Delegated Authorities, in compliance with SECTION 64(2) of the Local Government Act 1993 (Tas) albeit a legislative requirement, is nothing short of Machiavellian bureaucratic humbug in this instance if the ‘delegation’ is buried there.
Concerningly, management asserts that Council already has a “number of appropriately qualified personnel” but how many of them have:
• ... Completed an appropriate and accredited master’s degree; and then
• ... Gained industry experience, and
• ... Then passed a three-part assessment, and as a consequence;
• ... How many are now registered with the local Architect Registration Board like all 330 qualified practicing architects in Tasmania?
All 330 were required to do all the above in order that they might practice as an ‘indemnified architect’.
Interestingly, in The Examiner – May 27, 2023, … see below – there are two items that point to a series of bureaucratic failings that an experienced and competent City Architect would have been able to help avoid, thus saving the city’s constituency a great deal while maximising the opportunities open to them.
Clearly, the response that management has provide here is self-serving and clearly it is offered in support of the status quo. Metaphorically, the response is somewhat the equivalent to asserting that a hospital can function “appropriately” with nurses and administrators but without doctors. Likewise, doctors and administrators could not possibly deliver all that needs to be delivered without nursing staff and that is entirely the point.
Charles Darwin discovered that to ‘survive’ those who collaborate and innovate survived the best and then go on to be the most effective, the most fit. In the end, they are those who prevail – and as often as not against considerable odds.
In bureaucratic terms, “appropriate” is typically used to sanction the questionable in much the same way as “inappropriate” has become the new ‘bureaucratic illegal’. It turns out that surveillance, censorship, and propaganda are the tools of authoritarianism. Likewise, information, organization and leverage are the tools available to citizens to empower themselves. It also turns out that the Internet provides the ‘appropriate’ infrastructure to strengthen authoritarianism. However, this new technology, plus the social media it supports, also offers ‘a balance factor’ when it empowers ratepayers, voters, the press, and others much to the annoyance of those wedded to the status quo.
Moreover, if the Council’s “appropriately qualified personnel” are “involved in strategic planning that incorporates place making, heritage and culture considerations” and are not a registered architects they may do so but not as a qualified architect. This in no way intended to diminish the service and advice that they can and do offer.
it is just the case that it is questionable that their advice would necessarily satisfy the purpose and intent of SECTION 65 of the Local Govt Act 1993.
Furthermore, management’s assertion that “the engagement of a City Architect is not being considered at this point” lacks veracity given that it is a strategic ‘governance determination’ made by ‘management’ that demonstrably has not been endorsed by the city’s Councillors yet.
Artist, Metalsmith, Networker, Independent Researcher, Launcestonian, Cultural Theorist, Cultural Geographer and a hunter of Deep Histories.
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