Holiday celebrations will be on the backburner for the newly elected Douglas Shire Council, with the four councillors and Mayor-elect set to undertake a crash course in local government.

De-amalgamation Transfer Manager Jeff Tate said Councillors Terry Melchert, Abigail Noli, David Carey, and Bruce Clarke, plus Mayor-elect Julia Leu, will go through an overall induction as an elected member. 

The induction, run by the Department of Local Government, Community Resilience and Recovery, will cover relevant legal issues, relationships, roles, and responsibilities.

Mr Tate said their induction will also involve “a tailored component for Douglas, which will include meeting staff, inspecting key infrastructure sites, proposed meeting cycle after 1 January 2014, briefing on the de-amalgamation, and budget workshops.”

“Obviously things have changed with the new Council being elected, and the induction process will run in parallel with the remainder of the steps in the de-amalgamation,” he said.

Between now and December 31, Mr Tate said Council priorities will relate to:

• Considering the staff being transferred from CRC for positions in Douglas; and
• Advertising if any vacancies that remain after that process;
• Getting IT systems and business processes ready, including transfer of data from CRC;
• Setting up the Local Disaster Management Group and finalising the Local Disaster Management Plan; and
• Finalising the financial due diligence project, which includes an independent review by KPMG.