At the first council meeting of the year, we anticipate that the deferred item on delegations will again be presented with the ‘conditions and limitations’ sections fully legible this time! The comments made here are limited to the planning area, but there are many other items of delegation being suggested, all of which require in-depth consideration by councillors before any rushed decisions are made.
Delegations are particularly vital in planning applications. We provide the following comparisons so that residents may see exactly how much Glen Eira cedes to Officers with the subsequent removal of decision making from councillors. These comments are not meant to decry the value of delegations per se – they are vital for any municipality to carry out its day to day operations. Whereas other councils delegate with strict limitations on the powers of officers, this does not appear to be the case here. Glen Eira delegates 97-98% of its planning to unelected council staff who, we believe, do not have guidelines from council as to what levels of development controls the councillors consider reasonable or appropriate. In many cases ‘political’ decisions and judgments must be made, but without councillors’ guidance on such matters the City Planners are at a loss to know what to do. Planners are competent to make many planning judgments, but are not ‘competent – in a technical sense – to make value judgments that require familiarity with wishes, needs, and opinions of the community. Councillors have this competence, for they are directly elected by the community to represent community values.
We ask readers to consider the following comparisons between Glen Eira and other councils in order to assess how little control our elected representatives have over planning in this municipality and how little decision making by officers is accessible, transparent and accountable to the community.
For instance:
- Kingston, Darebin, Moreland, Frankston, Banyule, Cardinia (amongst others) do not simply have a ‘delegated planning committee’ (DPC) – they have decreed that such committees are constituted as ‘Special Committees’. This means that agendas are published, meeting schedules are published, minutes are published, residents officially address committees (some allow 5 mins), and most importantly the committees consist of councillors – all chaired by the Mayor. The role of officers is simply to present and/or provide ‘advice’. This is a far cry from the manner in which DPC’s operate in Glen Eira
- Many councils provide monthly reports to full council meetings where information is provided on: how many applications; how many permits granted by officers, DPC’s; how many refused by the various officers, etc. In Glen Eira, the only report which is published is that which documents applications before VCAT. We doubt if councillors, and certainly not the public, have any idea as to the breakdown of applications and their acceptance or refusal.
There are many other differences as well –
- ‘Councillor call in’ – where a single councillor has the power to ‘call in’ any application for decision at a full council meeting (Port Phillip; Cardinia; Bayside; Kingston; Banyule; Casey; Frankston to name but a few!)
- Number of objections clearly specified as the trigger for panel or full council determination (often 5, some 10 – In Glen Eira we find the phrase ‘significant number’!)
- Height levels that determine whether applications go to DCP, Council or officers. In Glen Eira two storey to be determined by officers alone)
- Parking restrictions – ie. if a development intends to waive parking restrictions whether or not this should go to council or DCP (Port Phillip)
Glen Eira’s Delegations under the Planning and Environment Act clearly cede enormous power to select individuals. We maintain that these delegations limit councillors’ input and lack the transparency and accountability that is evident in the processes adopted by other councils. Councillors should not be simply ‘rubber stamping’ these staff suggestions. In short, Councillors are elected, of the Community, by the Community, for the Community. Council staff, on the other hand, are not elected at all. It is certainly time that Councillors took the reins in running this Council as is their required duty and to ensure that decision making on something as important as planning is not left to unelected bureaucrats alone.
Glen Eira Debates 
January 17, 2011 at 7:16 PM
The fact that many other councils have decided to delegate their planning authority as special committees is very telling. It would suggest that they are far more open than Glen Eira. Perhaps this blog should compare how many Special Committees various councils have in contrast to Glen Eira. I know a friend from Booroondara tells me that his council has 3. Apart from the Racecourse one, does Glen Eira have any at all?
January 17, 2011 at 11:03 PM
Special committees are anathema to Newton. Too much has to be on record and hey, the public actually gets to know a little more of what’s going on via agendas, minutes, right to address council, and heaps of other legal restraints. You can’t keep things too secret if you have special committees. The answer? Get rid of them. The Roads Management committee used to be a special committee – not any more! And for good measure people should check out how many timees in a year our poor, useless advisory committees even bother to meet. The only ones that actually meet more than a couple of times a year are the super duper important ones such as ‘culture’ and ‘grants’! That’s how to run a council, shut up shop on everything that’s important and leave it all to officers – planning, transport, environment, blah, blah, blah.Delegate everything to the nameless few and you’re way ahead.
January 17, 2011 at 9:31 PM
a couple of years back there was a development overlooking our back yard. We didn’t get any notice, but another neighbour told us what was about to happen. when I rang up council there was very definitely a not so subtle attempt to try and put us off objecting. The spiel went – you won’t win, vcat will cost you time and money. There’s heaps wrong with this planning department that should be looked into. Their job should be to help people not protect developers.
January 18, 2011 at 9:14 AM
This blog is off this planet.The Council, that is the 9 Councillors agree to delegate their authority,within limits, to highly educated and experienced Staff. If this did not occur then all Councillors would spend all their time on Planning.
January 18, 2011 at 1:02 PM
I don’t think that the post is ‘off this planet’. To my mind all its pointing out is that this council seems to work in ways which are opposite to many others. The result is that councillors have very little control over what happens and officers don’t have to report or be really accountable to the community. Why don’t you ask yourself anonymous why this is so common in Glen Eira?
January 18, 2011 at 3:26 PM
Two Points need to be made in response to Concerned Resident –
1. Accountability and transparency is, as we claim, a major casualty in Glen Eira. The Bayside Planning Scheme Register has for example the outcomes of permit applications, together with the decision making process included for general viewing. We are told if it has been a delegate’s decision. In Port Phillip, the actual name of the officer is attached to the outcome. Now that’s what you would call transparency and accountability. Glen Eira of course, has no such thing!
2. Councillors do delegate authority to officers. The problem is that they delegate away almost all of their power. In such important matters as planning, we see nothing wrong for councillors to spend most of their time on this area! They are well paid for this. Wouldn’t residents prefer their representatives working on proper planning schemes, applications, zoning, etc. rather than waltzing around cutting ribbons? And ensuring that there are open and proper processes in place that ensure that community views, values, and objectives are incorporated into all decision making.
January 19, 2011 at 10:09 PM
Streuth, reading ‘gleneira’ makes me sick in the stomach as so much wrong is happening in our Council compared to other Councils. Concerned Resident, you are right to suggest Councillors should delegate their authority to staff within limits. Since Andrew Newton came to Glen Eira, first as a Chief Financial Officer, then Director of Corporate Development, and finally as a CEO, he has usurped year by year the authority, power and full control over Council affairs. The result of that is now very clear. Newton has sold out Glen Eira in every possible way: population wise, land wise, service ways.
All this has happened under the watch of elected Councillors: Grossbard, Erlich, Martens, Kennedy, Neve, Longmuir, Marwick, Sapir, Goudge, Esakoff, Hyams, Bloom, Walsh, Bury, Lipshutz, Staikos, Whiteside, Robilliard, Spaulding, Feldman, and Ashmor. Newton ‘the Wizard of Oz’, once uncovered, is simply a manipulator, scaremonger and autocrat. And none of the Councillors mentioned could or can do anything about it as Newton intimidates, and in all probability threatens legal action if need be. He does not shirk from strong arm tactics, calling the police if necessary, and sacking staff he does not like or are not in line with his politics. It is not an accident that there were 3 investigations in Glen Eira since 1998. He has never been a passive participant in any of those investigations.
The new Councillors are ‘babes in the woods’ and signs are already there that they are going the same way as the previous lot. They cannot manage Andrew Newton, manage properly controlled and limited delegations, setting performance criteria for him, and assessing appropriately his performance. Barring a Royal Commission to find out the truth, or a Revolution to get rid of all the old Councillors and Newton – the long suffering Public will just have to cop it sweet.
Concerned Resident, (I’m assuming you’re the same individual who used to post to Mary Walsh’s old blog) you might know all that as you seem to have been there and you may still communicate with the top brass through the master ‘spin doctor’ Paul Burke, manipulator extraordinaire, who knows how to divide and rule. You should be concerned Concerned Resident, but your concern should be directed towards poor residents, poor ordinary staff, and poor Councillors, who are subjected to this regime of undemocratic, autocratic, and unethical behaviour of Newton and his henchman.
January 18, 2011 at 7:19 PM
The Community survey tells me that you have beat up an issue that is not a problem and never has been. Also on the odd occasion when disgruntled residents take issue with a Council Decision, the Resident almost never wins at VCAT. Finally any decision within Council, delegated or not is a Council decision.
January 18, 2011 at 7:47 PM
If you rely on the Community Satisfaction survey then God help you and us. The sample is minute and no questions directly address planning and overdevelopment. This is a useless and spurious example you’ve provided.
Perhaps in your eyes it hasn’t been a problem, but in plenty of other people’s eyes it is and continues to be so. If it isn’t, then how come in the past couple of years many local groups have sprung up throughout Glen Eira opposing what they consider to be inappropriate development.
Yes, I agree – decisions are council decisions. Just shows how stupid our councillors are to go along with whatever is put in front of them. No initiative, no insight, no real attempt to properly represent their community. Get rid of the whole damn lot – with suspended judgement over the new guys perhaps?
March 7, 2011 at 7:06 PM
There is not delegation when it suits them. In A’Beckett Street St Kilda East there is an illegal townhouse built at the end of the street which is seeking a retrospective planning permit. The applicant has informed the neighbours that Cr Lipshutz has promised him the application will be heard by the full council and approval shouldn’t be a problem eventhough there are only 2 objections. The reasoning for this retrospective planning permit application going to the full council is that “there are alot of problems in that street” however a planning permit application for a 3 storey apartment block 9 months ago in the same street did not go to full council with 7 objections it was refused by the DPC and went to VCAT. So what are the difference between the current application and the previous application in the same street to change the “significant number of objections” requirement before delegation? Could it be that the current applicate is Jewish and the previous applicant was not? Or is it that a single 2 storey townhouse is a bigger planning concern that a 3 storey 18 apartment complex?