ORION has been commissioned to prepare draft Guidelines on the Transfers of Employees, Assets and Liabilities on Boundary Change. David will also be available to assist Local Transition Committees in ensuring the transfers are fair and equitable to all parties.

Guidelines (to be attached when approved by the Government)

ORION has extensive experience in Governance reviews which will be necessary for the newly created Councils

• Governance Projects
  • Maroochy Shire Council Governance Review
  • Caboolture Shire Council - Cabwater Governence
  • Douglas Shire Council - Govervnance and performance monitoring to the Director-General and Minister
  • Johnstone Shire Council Review included Governance Review
  • Laidley Shire Council Organisational Reviw included a Governence Review
  • Northern Downs Amalgamation study included a governance component
  • Logan City Council - Logan City Enterprises Review included governance issues

ORION has conducted Policy and Procedure Reviews, including establishing a kit to assist in developing and reviewing policies and procedures. An example is the Policy and Procedures Kit prepared by ORION for Pine Rivers Shire Council.

• Policies and Procedures

ORION has conducetd numerous reviews into Council Rating policies and service charges (including water tariffs). David undertook his Master of Public Administration Thesis on Local Governemnt Revenue sources and was the principal researcher for the Chalk Inquiry into Rating and Valuation for the Brisbane City Council

ORION has undertaken numerous organisational reviews, including the landmark reviews into Johnstone Shire Council

• Organisational Reviews

ORION was commissioned to undertake a detailed analysis of the proposal to amalgamate Rosalie Shire Council and Crows Nest Shire Council. The report for public consultation is available on this link.

The analysis included a draft new orgainsation chart and outline of implementation issues.

ORION was commissioned by the LGAQ to examine any linkages between Council population and economies of scale, and any linkages between financial strength and population.This was used for a submission to the Local Government Reform Commission.

Economies of Scale:

The analysis showed that there appears to be some relationship between Council indoor staff levels for populations up to 50,000, with greater economies of scale and predictability in the first 5,000 to 10,000 population ranges. However, these trends only explain 50 to 60 percent of the variations in staff levels across the State. Above 50,000 population there is no statistical connection between indoor staff levels and population size. There also appears to be linkage between staff size and population growth and density.The Commission appeared to ignore this research and concluded that there were potential economies of scale in all degrees of amalgamation, based on the above research on Northern Downs (also by ORION using the same methodology) and Southern Downs (performed by AEC Group, but applying the same methodology).

Financial Sustainability:

The analysis shows that there appears to be a positive but small relationship between population size and financial sustainability. However, the relationship is only about 20 percent statistically accurate.
Increasing size possibly creates the opportunity to improve financial sustainability, but the evidence above indicates that there is only a one in five likelihood that this occurs in practice. This may be due to the continuing pressure on Local Government’s to do more with less which offsets any benefits of scale.

Improved financial sustainability is more likely to occur if there are economies of scale which can lead to reduced cost structures.there appears to be some relationship between population growth and the FSR score, with financial sustainability increasing gradually with increasing population growth. However, the regression of the individual scores only shows a 10 percent relationship between these factors. There also appears to be a small relationship between financial sustainability and population density, however it only explains 6 percent of the variations.

DLGPSR Local Government Reform website