VOTE MICHELLE RICH
FOR SJ SHIRE PRESIDENT

A.  I have been an elected member for 8 years and active in the community with School, sporting and community groups for 30 years.

A.  I have always been a believer of “put up or shut up” and I had some serious concerns over a number of years about the economic management and lack of transparency of the shire and felt I had something to offer in this space.
In addition, I have a broad range of interests across the community that covers all age groups , gender , interests and cultural backgrounds and thought that would be a great asset to be able to represent the community’s broad requirements.

A.  Population / Shire growth / supply of infrastructure
Planning in time to keep pace with growth
Availability of water / water cost
Cost of waste disposal
Tree canopy protection/retention of natural environmental spaces
Staff – Attraction & Retention

A.  Through partnerships. As a council or shire we cannot deal with these challenges alone. We need to work with our community, stakeholders, state and federal goverments.

A.   Strong commitment to community, willingness, and ability to serve full term (4 years)
I am certainly here for the full term and not a steppingstone and don’t have state or federal political ambitions.
Sound Economic Management – we own our own small business – we totally understand income in versus expenditure out.
The ability to say No. Sometimes the answer is a firm no, with a clear explanation.
The ability to build strong connections and partnerships and a belief in our community.

A.  One of my proudest achievements is the culture change with Serpentine Jarrahdale becoming a "dry" shire. The boozy culture was removed soon after I became President in 2017.

The implementation of Town Planning Scheme No 3 – Our old planning framework was over 35 years old and made the job of managing the growth extremely hard.

Kiernan Park – obtaining land and funding through the state government for the development of stage 1A of the sporting precinct for our growing community.

Effective Advocacy for;

• Committed funding to build health hub Byford
• Committed funding Metronet Rail into Byford
• Committed funding Tonkin Hwy extension
• Committed funding Career fire station - Byford
• Committed funding Thomas Rd duplication South Western Hwy to Kargotich Rd
• Hand over to Main Roads full responsibility of Thomas Rd from Tonkin Hwy to SW Hwy
• Self supporting loan for the construction of Oakford Fire Station
• More than 50% increase in road funding into the shire since 2019

A.  Rates will always be a contentious issue. Rates must be fair and equitable for everyone. It is ALWAYS MY LAST choice to increase them. However, the current financial pressures that exist in 2023 that are making it a struggle for the young family or pensioner or new homewower also carry over to the Shire.

A.  Well it’s easy to make promises to get elected but any basic maths will tell you that can’t do more with less.
They key to softening the blow for ratepayers is to gain as much funding as possible from external sources to the shire e.g Federal, State Government and Developers.
Keeping in mind the shire needs to have the planning work/business case completed and in the majority of cases be able to commit a percentage of funding towards the project.
The other difficulty we face is that to provide the best services, you need to employ the best people. To do that we need to be able to match salarys/work life balance and work place culture.
Our Executive Team is the strongest its been in years and we need to ensure they view Shire of SJ as a workplace of choice and they have the capacity to surround themselves with the right people.

A.  Without the 2023/24 rate increase we would have seen a large reduction in service levels across the shire and the loss of some services altogether.
Let's have a look where every $100 of ratepayers money goes within the Shire – which one’s would YOU cut first ?

A.  Because we have such a vast shire to maintain with the smallest population, it does create and extra burden of ratepayers purely by weight of numbers. For example if you take a taxi from Mundijong to Perth airport it might cost you $100. If 4 people are in that taxi it will only cost $25 each – so lets look at the numbers;

So to go back to the taxi analogy – SJ Shire residents would collectively pay $2.60 each for the shared taxi – Rockingham would pay 9.5 cents each!

A.  That is actually a great success story for the Shire under my leadership. The State Govt provided the land and 22 million in funding to build stage 1A.   The remaining 2 million that is the responsibility of the shire will be covered by developer contributions.

A.  The shire has spent limited shire funds on this project (under 1 million).

A.  Rates for this years budget will bring in just under $30 million.

A.

• Consumption of alcohol has stopped in the councillor dining room.
• Credit cards have been reduced to 1 and credit card usage published every month as part of the creditor’s payment report.
• Risk register has been introduced through the Audit risk and governance committee to identify/manage the shire's risks.
• Project management framework has been implemented to better manage projects and costs undertaken by the shire.
• Community Engagement is at an all-time high.
• The draft budget is proved to councillors in full through the budget workshops to enable informed decision making to take place.

Under our energetic Director of Community Engagement and his professional team, we have never had so many avenues or activities to engage the community in keeping council accountable and visible in all decisions. From social media to workshops to community breakfasts and feedback sessions, we offer more than our other local govt body in our region. In addition, after such an excellent response to our ratepayer survey, the top 5 issues that came out of the survey are the Top 5 issues that have been addressed by council.

A.  I have worked hard in this area to find a solution to a complex issue that has many moving parts and conflicting views.

Earlier this year I was appointed by the Minister Local Government to the Control of Vehicles (Off-road Areas) Act Advisory Committee (ORV Advisory Committee). I am one of two Local Government representatives on this committee who are tasked with considering and investigating submissions from the public and local governments in relation to the use of land by off-road vehicles, and to make recommendations to the Minister. With your support in electing me as your Shire President we can continue this important work for the responsible Off Road Trail Riding Community. #trailbikesneedtrails