Mayor John Glover: response to Crux survey on QLDC accountability.

Crux asked Mayor John Glover to respond to our community survey, and over 300 comments, that showed 90% support for an external investigation to enforce not only lessons to be learned from significant QLDC project failures but the accountability of senior QLDC managers, including the current CEO. Here is Mayor Glover’s response in full.

“The feedback received through the Crux survey demonstrates a significant number of strongly expressed views in relation to past actions and decisions of Council. Concerns have been raised about the scope of delegations, the adequacy of information provided to elected members, and the effectiveness of oversight and assurance arrangements for high-risk, high-value decisions. I see this as an indication that governance systems (specifically oversight and accountability) have not performed adequately.

While operational decisions are the responsibility of management, governance requires that elected members retain sufficient visibility, control, and assurance to discharge their statutory duties. Where that balance is lost — through excessive delegation, incomplete information, or weak escalation — governance effectiveness is potentially compromised.

One role of the newly re-constituted Risk & Assurance Committee will be to examine whether governance structures, decision pathways, and accountability mechanisms are fit for purpose, and whether they enable the Council to properly fulfil its obligations under the Local Government Act.

The Council, as the body responsible for governance oversight, retains ultimate accountability for the performance of the organisation and we will be held to account for this in under 3 years’ time. And as leader, I carry a responsibility to set culture and direction.

I believe that public trust requires more than identifying what went wrong. It requires ensuring that future governance arrangements provide clearer guardrails, stronger assurance, and a more transparent relationship between elected members, management, and the community.

Councillors will have the opportunity to bring this discussion front and centre as they discuss the skills and attributes required of our next substantive Chief Executive.

As the collective employer of the CE, Councillors will not make any public comment on the performance of the CE or any other staff working for QLDC. Likewise, we consider it is inappropriate for media to target individual Council staff who are unable to make their own response in public.

I am concerned that the messaging around local government sent out from central government, along with what are at times personal attacks published by Crux risks good people walking away from public service - either as staff or representatives - which will weaken the very democracy that Crux wants to see operate.

Whilst I have knowingly put my head above the parapet and expect the scrutiny that accompanies my role, Crux should not underestimate the impact it has on the everyday members of our community who make up the QLDC workforce. People who are doing a job, often very well, but in an environment where it now seems increasingly permissible to demean the work that they do.

So, I repeat the point that I have previously made to Crux, that whilst it is appropriate and often supports a healthy democracy to discuss, agree or disagree around issues and outcomes, we need to move past the personalities, or we risk ending up with a defensive, less open, local authority.

It is early days for this council. We need to work through things together with the understanding that trust is something that doesn’t happen overnight.”