Logan City Council Interim Administrator Tamara O'Shea has committed to delivering three key pillars to the City of Logan - continuity of service, stable leadership and continued good governance.
Following her appointment by Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe last week, Ms O'Shea has hit the ground running in her first week at Council.
She has progressed the preparation of the 2019/20 Council Budget and today visited Council staff in key service areas across the city.
"Logan City Council has a strong reputation for delivering outstanding customer service and I look forward to working with Council officers to ensure the community continues to come first," Ms O'Shea said.
"One of the reasons I accepted this position was because I could see the incredible work this Council delivers day-in, day-out, on behalf of its 326,615 residents.
"My main focus since Tuesday has been the 2019/20 Budget – I want to ensure that we deliver a responsible budget that will help future-proof this growing city."
Ms O'Shea said the community could have full confidence that all Council services would continue to be delivered without disruption.
"Libraries are open, bins will be emptied, parks will be maintained and development applications will continue to be processed," she said.
"The residents of Logan can have every confidence that the 1800-strong staff at Council are continuing to serve them wholeheartedly.
"They are passionate about their work and community and I am very impressed with their professionalism – they are a credit to this city."
Ms O'Shea said her role as Interim Administrator gave her the powers and responsibilities of the mayor and councillors, but her role would not be the 'public face' of Council.
She said a process was underway to form an Interim Management Committee to provide advice on a range of Council-related matters.
"I feel honoured and privileged to have been asked to fulfil this role, and I am very excited about being part of such a vibrant, growing and multicultural city," she said.
Ms O'Shea also said Council would continue to engage and consult on a range of initiatives.
As an example Ms O'Shea cited this week's launch of Council's Access and Inclusion Plan 2019-22 which aims to create a more accessible and inclusive city for the 17,000 people in Logan who rely on daily assistance due to disability.
"More than 36,000 external and internal stakeholders were consulted in the formulation of the plan," Ms O'Shea said.
As examples that Council is continuing to deliver to Logan residents and businesses, Ms O'Shea said that in the last week Council had:
- Emptied 107,380 domestic wheelie rubbish bins
- Taken 6303 calls through our Customer Service Centre
- Had 25,171 visitors to our nine libraries and facilitated 41,108 loans
- Operated 11 free community influenza immunisation clinics
- Continued mowing 1498 hectares across 2595 sites
- Delivered 69 different fitness activities under the Live Well Logan program
- Treated 21 locations to remove pest plants
- Monitored or sprayed 59 areas for mosquito management
- And last month processed 104 Development Applications; 2528 Plumbing Inspections and 23 Operational Works applications
