Chris Cowley is CEO of the City of Burnside, a suburban Adelaide municipality stretching from parklands to the foothills, with a mix of older residents and young families.

We have introduced several initiatives to maintain vital services, especially to our older community members and those accessing aged care packages.

Under our Books for Burnside program, people can go online, browse the library catalogue, order books, or ask our librarians for recommendations from a genre, and we will home deliver them.
We used to take our aged care clients shopping at the supermarket – now our staff go shopping on their behalf, so our most vulnerable people don’t have to leave home and put themselves at risk.
These are great examples of our community services team thinking outside the box and responding to the needs of our residents.

As a city, we have deferred rate payments for at least six months and waived fines and interest for late payment. We looked at how we could stimulate the local economy and committed to paying all creditors within seven days instead of 30. We were particularly focused on getting as much cash flowing back to small businesses within our community, but also outside the municipality.

We also made a commitment to our staff that no one would be financially disadvantaged by COVID-19, and so far we have kept all council employees fully engaged, even our casuals. For example, some theatre and pool attendants are now doing personal shopping and delivering library books.
Local government really is an essential service and every service we deliver is essential, too.

Local government is an essential service, and Burnside City Council is proudly supporting its community during these difficult times.

Chris Cowley
Chief Executive Officer
City of Burnside