In many ways 2010 has been a tumultuous year for Glen Eira. We review the standouts and offer our reflections.
- The reappointment of Newton for a two year period highlighted the obvious divisions within council and, we suspect, led to the third Municipal Inspector’s investigation of the past 12 years. It has also led to the resignation of Whiteside. This is obviously not a ‘positive’. As far as we know, no other council in the state has undergone three interrogations in such a short space of time. And once again, no serious ‘breaches’ were uncovered. As has been pointed out numerous times, and by several commentators, the constant in all of these investigations has been Newton himself. Councillors’ decision to therefore reappoint him for a further two years has not resolved anything. As far as we can tell the mistrust between councillors and administration, and within the councillor group itself, still remains. If Glen Eira is to have a really ‘fresh start’ then this will only be achieved with a new CEO, and a new set of directors. We note again that Glen Eira is the only council in the area to have 5 individuals sitting on over $200,000pa! The ‘fat cat’ syndrome has been maintained.
- The C60, and planning issues in general, were dominant throughout the year. Glen Eira abdicated its responsibilities to its residents by conferring upon the MRC the power to create its own Master Plan. This should have been the role of council – not the MRC. The result is utter control to the MRC and the winky popping of several councillors and the sidelining of two others on the pretext of ‘conflict of interest’. When we consider that this ‘development’ involves over 100 hectares of land, and has the potential value of billions and billions, Council’s failure to adequately plan and advocate for the community is inexcusable.
- In general planning terms, local papers contained story after story of residents protesting about ‘inappropriate development’. Sadly, council has not done anything to ensure that residents are adequately protected. Unlike every other council in the state Glen Eira, following its appalling Planning Scheme Review, has again disowned structure plans, levies on development, height controls, and much more. In contrast to neighbouring municipalities there has been no concerted effort to oppose ten storey developments. Instead the consistent argument put forward by council has largely been ‘blame VCAT’, ‘blame the state Government’, blame anyone and everyone else, except their own planning scheme shortcomings. We have asked the same question over and over again: if other councils can do something about Melbourne 2030, if they can have mandatory height controls, if they can have structure plans, transport plans, public realm policies – then why is Glen Eira always the odd man out? Our conclusion has to be that Glen Eira is a pro-development council, rather than a pro community council.
- Community consultation and communication is still far from adequate, although there have been several signs of marginal improvement such as the ‘Have Your Say’ online options. Yet, even here the ‘consultation’ is skewed via the questions asked and the simple fact that residents still experience a top down approach in all issues. Instead of asking the community their thoughts about Packer Park, Marlborough Reserve, residents are presented with ‘concept plans’ that many feel have already been set in concrete – without prior discussion and debate. Another significant failure throughout this past year has been councillors’ refusal to open up its advisory committees to community representatives – or to publish agendas and insist that meetings be open to the public. Secrecy remains the dominant ethos of this council.
So what can we look forward to in the coming year? We believe that the dynamics of this council will change with the departure of Tang and the selection of a new councillor. We also believe that Newton is slowly having his wings clipped and that more officer reports will have to be more thorough, more detailed before they are rubber stamped by council. But on a far more optimistic note, it has become increasingly obvious that the community is finally saying ‘enough is enough’. Local groups that are organised, efficient, and vocal are springing up everywhere. This year has seen the evolution of the Save Local Childcare Committee, various SOS groups, the ‘No 10 Storey development for Elsternwick’, and countless others. Most importantly, these groups are talking to each other and through unified action there is the real possibility of concrete solutions.
Glen Eira Debates has been another ‘success story’. Our stats are continuing to go through the roof – which means that not only are we serving a need, but we have the potential to become the conduit for many of these groups. From this aspect, the future does look bright – residents’ voices can and will be heard.
Glen Eira Debates 
December 19, 2010 at 6:11 PM
Residents should also remember that before we know it, the next election will be upon us. Then it will really be out with the old and in with the new!
December 19, 2010 at 9:40 PM
gleneira i like this review. but why stop at 1 year? since the last council election we had ‘conflict of interest’ issue being sorted by the labor government with the result that many councillors and party aparatchik people resigned. in glen eira we had nick staikos disappear to be replaced by oscar lobo, oscar who? then we had the helen whitesisde affair, who got her mayoralty as a reward for supporting the ‘clique’ (you scratch my back i scratch your back). somehow the mayoralty became a noose on her neck, so she freed herself from the ‘strangle’ and resigned after contributing to the investigation. who do we get? cheryl forge! do we really know what she is on about? after all her preference elected helen whiteside! now if tang goes who are we going to get? another nobody that we know very little about? with the new liberal government i wonder how they will handle this ‘thorny’ conflict of interest issue?
a democratic government, whatever level, is supposed to be open, transparent and accountable to the public. glen eira obviously is not that. the more changes are being made to local laws , the more secret, opaque and more dubious accountability processes are being put in place. quite strange as the words do not match the deeds!
we are being managed and mismanaged by the mandarins of this council, the top bureaucrats, who we know even less about than about our councillors. gleneira, if glen eirans are to take back glen eira to its residents and ratepayers, surely we must know who is managing our city, who is developing our city, and are they doing it for our benefits, the way we see it? please, please let us know more about who is newton, burke, akehurst, jones, waits, swabey, etc? are they capable to do the job of running this big and growing city? or are they doing it to hold on to their lucrative contracts? are they being held accountable for what they propose and what they do? councillors vote, so they are held accountable for that. but can they be held accountable for somebody else proposal even if they are misleading or stupid? we must know who is running the joint and we must know who we are voting in as councillors!
great reporting so far gleneira! but much more needs to be revealed. good luck. i am looking forward to next year’s incisive reporting and sharing of comments!
December 20, 2010 at 2:20 PM
Good review but one thing’s missing – a review of councillors and their lacklustre performance. This is what I think. Lipshutz is the outright failure of the year. With his inflated sense of importance his view is always ‘right’. He is guilty of all he accuses residents of and more. Tang runs a very close second. Perhaps not as abusive Tang works on the principle of gobbledy gook – just keep talking and talking and talking. If you say enough you will drown out opposition but he must also realise that with all this waffle there’s enough rope there for him to hang himself. Hyams is interesting. The sidekick of Lipshutz, hyams sticks to ‘the law’. Just makes we wonder what’s in it for him. Esakoff is another who always sits on the fence until she fathoms where the numbers are and then rolls over to that side. Magee is all for Magee. Pity he won’t be cutting the GESAC ribbon this coming year. Must be a real blow to this ego. Pilling is a real worry. He’s gone to water and swum over to the Lipshutz gang. That’s a real pity cos at the start he promised so much only to have it all fizzle out. Just wish his vocab would improve. Lobo is loco many times and hard to figure out. Fair enough he’s learning the ropes and tried to make some waves recently, but he goes about it all the wrong way. Forge after a faltering start may perhaps bring home the goodies. Time will tell though. That leaves Penhalluriack. Lately he gets full marks from me. He’s been willing to speak up strongly and demand more from the mandarins who run the show. Let’s hope this continues. All in all a pretty poor performance from the vast majority of these people. Would love them to get up and tell us all what they have achieved for the community. Reckon they’d all be stuck for words, ideas, and accomplishments.