Front Page – Whitehorse Leader – October 27th, 2010
City fails its people
Residents want independent audit
WHITEHORSE ratepayers have slammed the council over a lack of transparency, excessive rates and wasteful programs. At a heated public meeting last week residents demanded an independent audit into council conduct for ‘‘failing the community’’. The three-hour forum saw residents pack into Manchester Unity Hall in Blackburn.
Among issues raised were inappropriate developments, executive salaries, protection of open space and community consultation. All 10 councillors were invited to to present the council’s case but none attended. Whitehorse Ratepayers and Residents Association president Bill Bennett blasted the council’s performance.
‘‘A lot of people here feel they don’t have a voice and that’s a real shame in this so-called democracy,’’ he said.
‘‘The council is a stumbling block and they are not wanting to hear what the community has to say.’’
Mr Bennett attacked the rate rise of a set 6 per cent over five years as residents struggle with the soaring cost of living.
‘‘We looked long and hard as to why this rate increase was justified and we haven’t been able to find any reasons,’’ he said.
Blackburn resident Roy Lloyd said an independent review of CEO Noelene Duff’s performance and council’s management was crucial to restoring ratepayer trust. ‘‘It requires a total change in attitude – unless something like this happens we will just be hitting our heads against a brick wall,’’ he said.
Whitehorse Mayor Bill Pemberton said the association claims were unfounded.
‘‘We spend a lot of time providing detailed responses, which means officers are taken away from other roles,’’ he said. ‘‘We work very hard to make things available as required under law for us to be transparent when it comes to costings and accountings.’’
Cr Pemberton said Whitehorse had less general managers on high salaries than most of the neighbouring councils. He said the past two budgets had been the best deal struck for residents. ‘‘We try to engage the community as best as possible.’’
Glen Eira Debates 
November 6, 2010 at 2:05 PM
I’ve looked up Whitehorse and found the public’s submissions to their 2010/11 budget. If people have the time then they should read some of these – real eye openers, especially one by someone called Colin Carter. His points mirror exactly what is going on with Glen Eira. We also don’t seem to have any ‘problems’ – just ‘challenges’ and ‘disappointments’ as the Annual Report proudly tells us. Services are said to be ‘maintained’ but nowhere do we get any figures or calculations as to the millions that are wasted – as brought out in the Tucker Ward forum post and discussion. it’s all smoke and mirrors and councillors allow this to go on. The meeting for the Annual Report took all of 10 minutes – just shows how alert, how in control, and how competent these councillors are. They are simply rubber stamps for anything that the administration puts to paper. Check this out: http://www.whitehorse.vic.gov.au/IgnitionSuite/uploads/docs/Budget%20Submissions%207%20June%202010.pdf
November 6, 2010 at 5:54 PM
Wow! Deja Vu. That does sound very much like Glen Eira. I
wouldn’t describe our rates as excessive though, since they have
to subsidize all the development activity our Council is
promoting in their Housing Diversity Areas. [Even Development
Contributions Overlays have expired with no replacement.]
Transparency is one area I feel strongly about. The *reasons*
for a decision are just as important, or even more important,
than the decision itself. Making decisions behind closed doors
and then failing to publish the reasons is a vicious attack on
democracy. This extends to Officers acting with delegated
powers.
As an example, letters sent to advise the decisions of Delegated
Planning Committees should either contain the reasons, or at
least state that written reasons will be supplied on request.
[Assuming its true…they’re very reluctant to supply
information to demonstrate whether they have complied with
*their* Planning Scheme.]
I do acknowledge that Council’s Review of the Glen Eira Planning
Scheme mentions some of the issues that I and other residents
have raised. It didn’t make any recommendations for changes to
the Planning Scheme though [a document that is increasingly
becoming pointless]. If Council doesn’t like its Standards or
Policies then it should seek to change them rather than waste
everybody else’s time discovering they’re for show rather than
use. To do otherwise is disingenuous.
Planning is just the area I focus on. From the posts here it
seems there are myriad other examples where Glen Eira Council’s
behaviour lacks transparency.
Returning to Whitehorse Mayor Bill Pemberton’s comments, I
expect any Council to meet its statutory obligations around
costings and accountings, but that by no means is sufficient. I
hope nobody confuses “detailed responses” with answering
questions.