Tom Sharp's
Blog
14-12-2023
Pathway to Stop the Council’s “Toxic Culture”
Evidence:
· We have seen the organisation run amok, with council officers using the OIA to make anonymous, unsubstantiated complaints against elected members to suit their Mayor's and leadership's political agenda. It may be lawful, but it is a pointer to poor culture.
· The Mayor recently suspended the CEO indefinitely on full pay. The CEO was nowhere to be found, and Council press releases made flimsy excuses about why he was away. Sources say the Mayor used bogus human resource reasons without the Councillors' agreement or a meeting resolution. Five councillors called a Council Special Meeting only last week to overturn the Mayor's alleged illegal suspension. How this behaviour has not brought the Council into disrepute and broken every code of conduct is bewildering. It seemed even the State’s appointed Advisor for nearly six months, which cost ratepayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, could not change the culture in Scenic Rim.
· We have seen the Mayor, Councillors and Senior staff, weaponise the OIA process because they can't accept contrary viewpoints, or lack professionalism, and revert to personal attacks.
· We evidence a very high staff turnover, with some resigning within just a week of commencing.
· Alleged staff surveys within the Council in 2020 showed a toxic culture, but follow-up surveys seem to have been abandoned instead of addressing the issues.
· Some 70 vacant positions existed during early 2023, as staff resigned in droves.
· There are reports from whistleblowers of poor executive management leadership, micro-management, bullying and belittlement, bias, and harassment of professional staff to change reports to reflect political views and not professional opinions. Insiders allege one senior general manager has been off work for over a month on Workcover for alleged bullying.
· An extensive sentiment survey by consultants, conducted in 2020 – and which allegedly cost in excess of $100,000 – described the organisation as a ‘medieval castle’ that locked out its customers, and the public’s sentiment of the whole organisation's performance was (negative) -22%. The Council's response seemed to ensure that the company that produced the report was never to set foot in the building again, and would never be invited back to follow it up to measure any improvement.
· Instead, the customer sentiment process was changed to a digital platform called BANG THE TABLE, requiring a survey of only those people prepared to register with the Council. It could never survey customers' views again in any meaningful way and, therefore, was highly suited to the Council's purpose.
· A Tamborine Mountain resident petitioned the Queensland Parliament to remove the Mayor to “Stop the ROT”. Over one thousand residents signed the petition.
Solution:
· Hold the CEO responsible for the organisation's culture, and use the level of OIA complaints as an indicator of a poor organisational culture.
· Provide the CEO with more transparent and precise performance criteria to be measured annually by the MAYOR in conjunction with elected councillors.
· Resolve that the CEO conducts staff surveys annually, make the results known to the Council and ratepayers in the operational plan, and ensure the CEO conducts complete 360-degree surveys to monitor his performance and culture-setting.
· Conduct broad-based surveys of ratepayers, and make it easy for them to have a say on Council performance.
· Reduce the executive management team to reflect the organisation's size, making it more responsive and qualified and in keeping with management best practices, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
· Promote more team building and open communication between the public, elected councillors, the media, and members of the public.
· Look at more modern reward and recognition practices within the organisation.
· Ensure that those in leadership positions are better qualified, that dealings with staff are fair and reasonable, and that they can lead by example and hold subordinate staff to high performance.
· Elect a fresh new Mayor and Councillors in March next year, ending the constant Council dysfunction, poor performance, irresponsible financial management, high rates and low customer satisfaction.
Please ask all candidates in the upcoming elections where they stand on this policy.
Get in touch – Send me an email:
contact@tomsharp.com.au or call me: 0409 670 170
and let’s talk about your Council.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Fresh Start
for the New Year!
· We have seen the organisation run amok, with council officers using the OIA to make anonymous, unsubstantiated complaints against elected members to suit their Mayor's and leadership's political agenda. It may be lawful, but it is a pointer to poor culture.
· The Mayor recently suspended the CEO indefinitely on full pay. The CEO was nowhere to be found, and Council press releases made flimsy excuses about why he was away. Sources say the Mayor used bogus human resource reasons without the Councillors' agreement or a meeting resolution. Five councillors called a Council Special Meeting only last week to overturn the Mayor's alleged illegal suspension. How this behaviour has not brought the Council into disrepute and broken every code of conduct is bewildering. It seemed even the State’s appointed Advisor for nearly six months, which cost ratepayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, could not change the culture in Scenic Rim.
· We have seen the Mayor, Councillors and Senior staff, weaponise the OIA process because they can't accept contrary viewpoints, or lack professionalism, and revert to personal attacks.
· We evidence a very high staff turnover, with some resigning within just a week of commencing.
· Alleged staff surveys within the Council in 2020 showed a toxic culture, but follow-up surveys seem to have been abandoned instead of addressing the issues.
· Some 70 vacant positions existed during early 2023, as staff resigned in droves.
· There are reports from whistleblowers of poor executive management leadership, micro-management, bullying and belittlement, bias, and harassment of professional staff to change reports to reflect political views and not professional opinions. Insiders allege one senior general manager has been off work for over a month on Workcover for alleged bullying.
· An extensive sentiment survey by consultants, conducted in 2020 – and which allegedly cost in excess of $100,000 – described the organisation as a ‘medieval castle’ that locked out its customers, and the public’s sentiment of the whole organisation's performance was (negative) -22%. The Council's response seemed to ensure that the company that produced the report was never to set foot in the building again, and would never be invited back to follow it up to measure any improvement.
· Instead, the customer sentiment process was changed to a digital platform called BANG THE TABLE, requiring a survey of only those people prepared to register with the Council. It could never survey customers' views again in any meaningful way and, therefore, was highly suited to the Council's purpose.
· A Tamborine Mountain resident petitioned the Queensland Parliament to remove the Mayor to “Stop the ROT”. Over one thousand residents signed the petition.
Solution:
· Hold the CEO responsible for the organisation's culture, and use the level of OIA complaints as an indicator of a poor organisational culture.
· Provide the CEO with more transparent and precise performance criteria to be measured annually by the MAYOR in conjunction with elected councillors.
· Resolve that the CEO conducts staff surveys annually, make the results known to the Council and ratepayers in the operational plan, and ensure the CEO conducts complete 360-degree surveys to monitor his performance and culture-setting.
· Conduct broad-based surveys of ratepayers, and make it easy for them to have a say on Council performance.
· Reduce the executive management team to reflect the organisation's size, making it more responsive and qualified and in keeping with management best practices, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
· Promote more team building and open communication between the public, elected councillors, the media, and members of the public.
· Look at more modern reward and recognition practices within the organisation.
· Ensure that those in leadership positions are better qualified, that dealings with staff are fair and reasonable, and that they can lead by example and hold subordinate staff to high performance.
· Elect a fresh new Mayor and Councillors in March next year, ending the constant Council dysfunction, poor performance, irresponsible financial management, high rates and low customer satisfaction.
Please ask all candidates in the upcoming elections where they stand on this policy.
Get in touch – Send me an email:
contact@tomsharp.com.au or call me: 0409 670 170
and let’s talk about your Council.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Fresh Start
for the New Year!