Timing matters in politics.

There are moments when governments can afford to spend money on projects that simply make a community a nicer place to live. Public art has a role. Murals have a role. Beautification has a role.

This wasn’t one of those moments.

Only days before Ballina Shire councillors gathered for their July meeting, ratepayers had received their annual rate notices and many were coming to terms with the first year of the council’s Special Rate Variation. For households already grappling with massive winter power bills, rising insurance premiums, mortgage repayments and ever-increasing supermarket prices, it came as another unwelcome hit to the family budget.

Against that backdrop, councillors spent half an hour debating whether $50,000 from the Water Fund should be spent painting a mural on the Lennox Head water reservoir on North Creek Road. Rather than discussing replacing ageing pipes, improving water quality or increasing storage capacity, the debate centred on whether public money should be spent decorating a water tank.

In the end, it took the Mayor’s casting vote to stop the proposal, with councillors instead agreeing the reservoir should undergo the required maintenance work while any artwork should wait until funding becomes available through the Public Art Fund.

That was the right outcome.

The debate itself, however, raises a broader question. How did this proposal reach the point where it was seriously being considered for funding from water reserves in the first place?

Supporters have compared the proposal with the spectacular murals painted on towering wheat silos across regional Australia and even the imposing painted water tower in Casino. Those projects work because the structures dominate the landscape, are visible for kilometres and have become landmarks in their own right.

The Lennox Head reservoir is no such landmark.

It sits behind a security fence and is partly obscured by an embankment and established trees. It is difficult to imagine it ever becoming a destination or defining piece of public art, no matter how talented the artist.

As this year’s Local Government Week reminds us of the important contribution councils make to our communities, it’s also an appropriate time to reflect on the decisions our elected representatives make on our behalf.

As a former councillor myself, I am more than happy to acknowledge that contribution.

Ballina Shire Council is, by most measures, one of the better-performing councils in New South Wales. Its staff deliver an extraordinary range of services with finite resources, and local government remains the level of government closest to the people it serves.

Above: the Casino water tower mural (photo: Tourism NSW)

Main image: How the North Creek Road tower could look with a coat of green paint (digital image)

Our Mayor often reminds people that local government is the poor cousin of the three levels of government. Canberra has the money. Macquarie Street has much of the legislative power. Councils are left to deliver many of the services residents rely upon with comparatively limited resources.

She is right.

The same applies to councillors themselves.

In recent weeks, neighbouring Lismore Labor councillor Harper Dalton-Earls has continued his campaign against annual increases in councillor remuneration, suggesting elected representatives should effectively forgo even modest adjustments.

I disagree.

The public often underestimates the workload involved. Council meetings are only the visible tip of the iceberg. Behind them are committee meetings, briefings, community events, constituent phone calls, site inspections and countless hours spent reading reports running into hundreds of pages.

For most councillors, the allowance falls well short of compensating for the time they contribute. Few people enter local government for financial reward because there simply isn’t much of a one really, unless you’re the Lord Mayor of Sydney.

But recognising that reality also means recognising the responsibility that comes with spending other people’s money.

Ratepayers are entitled to expect their elected representatives understand the financial pressures households are facing and reflect those pressures in the priorities they set.

When families are tightening their belts, councils should be doing the same.

Public confidence is built not only through major decisions, but through the smaller signals councils send about what they consider important.

The debate over the Lennox Head mural sent the wrong signal.

Nor does the answer lie in simply shifting the cost to the Public Art Fund. That is still public money, there for the the same ratepayers who rightly expect every dollar to deliver genuine value.

There is a far stronger argument for simply painting the reservoir a dark green so it blends into its surroundings and quietly does the job it was built to do. Water reservoirs exist to provide reliable drinking water, not to become tourist attractions.

Besides, Lennox Head hardly needs another attraction. It already boasts one of Australia’s most spectacular coastal views, just a short distance away, and the council is about to invest significantly in upgrading the Pat Morton lookout precinct.

If the shire genuinely has another $50,000 available for beautification projects, perhaps it’s time to ask whether some of that investment should find its way to communities that haven’t enjoyed the same level of streetscape improvements in recent years.

Residents of C Ward, which includes the Plateau, could be forgiven for wondering whether it’s their turn. Ironically, it was their representative, Cr Therese Crollick, who successfully moved the amendment that put the brakes on this expenditure.

Ballina Shire Council does many things exceptionally well. That is precisely why this debate stood out.

Councillors ultimately made the right decision. But the fact it required a tied vote and the Mayor’s casting vote should serve as a timely reminder that community expectations are changing.

People aren’t asking councils to stop investing in their communities.

They’re simply asking councils to remember whose money they’re spending.

Related story: $50,000 Lennox Head water tower mural put on hold