Glen Eira Debates

Lipshutz in his tirade again Whiteside claimed:

“all Councillors without exception and whether or not agreeing with each other have concentrated on the issues and have not allowed any personal differences to impinge upon their work as Councillors. This is clearly reflected in the voting pattern inasmuch as there is no voting pattern.”

‘No voting pattern’ – you’ve got to be kidding. Residents have been repeatedly told that councillors engage in ‘robust’ and ‘vigorous’ debate. Pity is, that this does not occur in the Council chambers – only behind the veil of secrecy of councillor briefings. Councillor briefing meetings are meant to ‘inform’, not to orchestrate voting patterns that will later be performed for the gallery in the council chambers.

As evidence of the above, we ask readers to consider the following table. We have gone through the minutes of every council meeting since the election of the current crop of councillors and added up the number of resolutions put to the vote, and the actual number that were passed unanimously. The results are staggering – just on 90% of resolutions/recommendations have been passed unanimously. The vast majority that were merely ‘carried’, involved planning applications. Even here, the ‘carried’ vote overwhelmingly supported the officer recommendations. Paltry amendments came into play only when there were plenty of objectors!

The stuff that really mattered, such as major policies, and shoddy/misleading reports by council officers, were to an incredible degree accepted fully and generally without amendment. The last council meeting which was jam packed with important strategies that will determine future directions were all passed unanimously with some innocuous amendments such as ‘advocating’ to state and federal governments.

Please note that in the numbers provided we did not count such votes as leave of absence, confirmation of previous minutes, etc. 

The table is a sad indictment on the gross failure of Glen Eira Council to conduct itself with integrity. Add to the table the even more startling fact that most votes are taken with little or no debate, then the whole governance process reeks with repetitive breaches, over an extended period of time, of the provisions of the Local Government Act for open, transparent, and honest conduct of Council meetings. Clearly the whole council should be sacked.