Orange City Council - love them or hate them, we simply can't avoid them. Are they doing a good job? Maybe. Can they do better? Probably. Should we be doing more to help them serve us better? Most definitely.

So how do we go about doing that? We may now have just the right person to help us do that.

Orange City Life is about to introduce a brand new column into our magazine, one I am confident could help make Orange an even better place than we all know it to be now, and at the same time, help bring our Community and our Council both onto the same page over important issues more often. What a lovely thought that is.

By way of a bit of background, I think it's fair to say that a great deal of what we call local news each day involves our local Council in one way or another. Council plays a vital role in virtually all city affairs and there's not too much that happens without them being involved in some way.

More often than not however, Council and certain parts of the Community are often on different pages so to speak. In many cases, this is probably due to one or both parties not having all the facts or information about a particular issue, and then firing off through the media, on social media or through some other means that simply stirs people up unnecessarily and divides our community. That's hardly appropriate or helpful in most cases.

What if there was a person in Orange who had the necessary experience and skills to help us not only understand Council workings better, but who was also willing to share their knowledge and experience with us to help us achieve some of the outcomes mentioned above?

I feel that person could be a lady named Amanda Spalding. Let me introduce her….

Amanda came to live in Orange 6 years ago, as this is the home town of her husband, former International Cricket Umpire, Darrell Hair.  She is a Chartered Accountant and has had a career of over 25 years in Executive management of a variety of organisations including the NSW State Government and Local Government, in northern England and NSW. 

She has been Chief Executive of 4 businesses (including the Local Government professional body Local Government Managers Australia (LGMA) NSW); an Executive Director and Chief Information Officer in the NSW Government: a NSW Council General Manager and Deputy General Manager/Director of North Lincolnshire Council in England and Parramatta, Manly, Rockdale and Fairfield City Councils in Sydney.

Amanda has been a leader in local government reform in NSW.  In 2018 the Mayor of Hay Shire Council nominated Amanda, their Council General Manager, for the inaugural NSW Top 50 Public Sector Women Award.  The Award recognises women’s inspirational leadership within the public sector and outstanding leadership in building high performing teams and transforming communities. 

Amanda is also the Treasurer of Arts OutWest and Orange Community Broadcasting (FM 107.5), a member of Put Orange First and the Central West Women’s Forum.

With such formidable credentials, I have asked Amanda to write a series of columns for OC Life readers on a range of topics that will help us all understand the workings of local government better. Amanda will also write on important and helpful subjects such as best practice local government and how to hold your council accountable.

Amanda's first column will appear next week in OC life.