Streuth has posted a comment which we repeat as a separate post:
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.
Glen Eira Debates 
January 20, 2011 at 1:09 PM
If anyone wants clear evidence of how this administration operates and how councillors over the years have been oh so very helpful and compliant, then all you need to do is look at the so called Community Plan. In reality, and as written, the community plan is actually the Council Plan. Glen Eira does not have a community plan that is created from residents’ aspirations, values, and needs. Instead we get a document that represents Newton’s vision, not the community’s.
It’s of course all very legal, since community plans aren’t mandatory – only council plans. But, and a big but, any council worth it’s keep, ensures that first and foremost, a community plan is the foundation for everything else that follows. Not so in Glen Eira. Residents and councillors are completely shut out.
If you bother to actually read the Community/Council Plan, then what is amazing is that one of the objectives is ‘governance’! What a joke! This does not belong in any plan! It should be a given! I suspect that it’s there for show, and to keep councillors in line. Yes, keep hitting them over the head with such rubbish and they’ll cave in. The threat of legalese works wonders.
January 20, 2011 at 4:14 PM
Councils work well when there is absolute trust and faith between officers and councillors. This has never been the case in Glen Eira. Three investigatiions have simply shown that there is continuous division and distrust. Streuth’s view carries weight because Newton has been in the thick of every one of these investigatiions.
Part of his job specification is to advise and to ensure that there is harmony. In this alone he has failed. The result is poor governance, secrecy, disharmony and god knows what else. He must go!
January 20, 2011 at 10:51 PM
I don’t know who is behind this Site but this blog is a digrace. Whoever Streuth is you have attacked a person who you obviously don’t know and who cannot answer you.You are a coward.
January 21, 2011 at 1:08 PM
Yes, this site is a disgrace. And Streuth, you have absolutely nothing to do with truth, that is obvious. I got so incensed by your comments that I went to the Council Service Center to again assure myself that things are as I know them to be – excellent. Indeed, they are. You just need to see the amount of information provided by this Council for its residents or anybody else, who care to use it. I have picked up two documents, which in my mind refute anything that is being said on this blog: Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2010, and the Draft Annual Budget 2010-2011. What excellent work Officers have done and presented. No doubt in my mind they will get 2 more awards for reporting to the community. I don’t understand the bloggers of this site or residents that complain. Just have a look at those documents or any other once and tell me please what is wrong with them. Which parts are not right, and who is the guilty party if it is wrong. I say to ‘gleneira’, contributors and readers of this blog “put up or shut up”.
Just for the record, here are some quotes from the Environmental Sustainability Statement 2010:
“One of the most effective ways that Council has fostered improvements in environmental performance has been to encourage, support and recognise staff to investigate and suggest initiatives that will achieve Council’s objectives. This approach will continue.”
“Glen Eira City Council will provide municipal services and facilities at the highest level of sustainability at the best value for money and will work with the community and other level of government to protect and improve the environment for current and future generations. This vision is consistent with Council’s Communtiy Plan”
“Through the statutory controls of town planning, foster environmentally sensitive design and drought tolerant landscaping.”
The results are for all to see in our many parks, where you can walk with safety, ages 2 to 102, all protected from undesirables and enjoy the facilities and activities initiated and improved by Council staff. What more do you want?
I ask again ‘gleneira’ and any of Council detractors to tell readers what is wrong with such an outcome?
January 22, 2011 at 8:43 AM
Renegade, you are so out of touch and biased. How can you make a statement like, “The results are for all to see in our many parks, where you can walk with safety, ages 2 to 102, all protected from undesirables and enjoy the facilities and activities initiated and improved by Council staff. What more do you want?”
Let me bring to your attention and take you back to as recently as November last year.
In the Leader Newspaper dated November 17th 2010 and on this Blogging site under “Logic 101 Council Style” it was identified that, “McKINNON residents are outraged a man was attacked and robbed in Memorial Park after their calls for lighting to be installed in the park were ignored”.
Or the other issue at Victory Park where on the same Blogging site under “Logic 101 Council Style” where, “Victory Park in Tucker Ward. The girls don’t have the facilities they are entitled to and they have been asking council for 6 years”,
and also referred to in “Tucker Ward Forum” dated 28th October 2010 where, “Cr Magee and the other councilors were given the scenario of people having to, “walk young girls past changing boys and men only to then be faced with a urinal prior to getting to the cubical”. Only for Cr Magee to admit and I quote, “I am embarrassed, deeply embarrassed and so is the council about the situation of Victory Park,…” or where Cr Hyams asked with pretentious ignorance, “in 2007 when the Pavilion Report was established did you have any girls teams? Because if you did, you would have been higher in the priority list.” Or ”This brings up the next question, how thorough an analysis was performed by the then Cr Tang on the public that utilized these facilities that assisted him in creating this so called priority list?”
With all the councilors obviously being fully aware of these issues, most certainly Andrew Newton, Paul Bourke and the remaining heads of council would also be aware. What is their agenda? It’s definitely not transparent.
Dear Renegade, if these are the results we are all to see then we are in a lot of trouble.