Hard disagree here.
It depends what you mean by "real responsibility". Our local council is responsible for implementing and maintaining all of our recreational facilities. I'm pretty stoked with what we have here in Albany and I think it's taken real vision over the last several decades to achieve it. It's a slow, methodical, and unsexy, but it's real public service.
I'm also not really sure what change you expect candidates to seek. I want candidates to represent their constituents. The only "change" should match contemporary society.
I do agree that there certainly are some self interested and vain people on local councils, and that's all the more reason to consider carefully who is elected. It's a position that state and federal politicians use to get exposure, and in that regard it really works. In this regard I think it's really important to vote for sensible candidates and compulsory voting would mitigate the risk that the nutty right wing candidates don't get up.