Several recent posts have concentrated on delegations to officers and the differences between Glen Eira and other councils in the ‘conditions and limitations’ imposed on officers. Last Tuesday night the proposed delegations were voted in unanimously. In previous times, the item sailed through Council without any comment or murmur. It has repeatedly been referred to, as it was on Tuesday night by Hyams as simply ‘housekeeping’. This time was slightly different. Penhalluriack commented, Akehurst waffled about Glen Eira’s ‘superiority’, and Lipshutz resorted to bluff, bluster and hyperbole as he always does. Glen Eira Debates takes credit for this. It seems that our criticisms may have struck home.
True to form, Lipshutz stated that “some councils spend up to 1am in the morning’ looking at planning issues, and ‘we won’t do that, nor should we’. Such a claim deserves a response. We’ve analysed the Delegated Planning Committee meetings of two of our neighbouring councils – Bayside and Port Phillip to compare the workload of Glen Eira with others and to assess the veracity of Lipshutz’s claim. Two things require pointing out: Bayside and Port Phillip have scheduled 3 weekly meetings of this committee, where minutes and agendas are provided and made public. All councillors attend. This is on top of their regular schedule of full council meetings. We’ve looked at the last four meetings of these special committees and their hours. Results are:
Bayside
18th January Start: 7.00 Finish: 10.09pm (3 hrs and 9 minutes)
21st December Start: 7.00 Finish: 10.23pm (3 hours and 23 minutes)
7th December Start: 7.00 Finish: 11.11pm (4 hours and 11 minutes)
16th November Start: 7.00 – Finish: 9.50pm (2 hours and 50 minutes)
Port Phillip
15th December – Start: 6.09 – Finish: 9.31pm (3 hours and 22 minutes)
15th November – Start: 6.08 – Finish: 10.42pm (4 hours and 34 minutes)
19th October – Start: 6.05 – Finish: 9.38pm (3 hours and 33 minutes)
20th September – Start: 6.05 – Finish: 10.29pm (4 hours and 24 minutes)
In contrast, full Glen Eira Council meetings which cover everything from applications, to prizes, to budgets, to the really important stuff such as planning schemes, and council plans, have the following ‘hours of duty’ for the last few meetings:
December 14th, Start: 7.30 – Finish: 10.54 (3 hours and 24 minutes)(5 applications)
November 23rd – Start: 7.30 – Finish: 10.25 (2 hours and 55 minutes)(6 applications)
3rd November Start: 7.30 – Finish: 9.45 (2 hours and 15 minutes) (4 applications)
Planning conferences in Glen Eira are attended by one councillor (others if they wish): they are irregular, and details of Delegated Committees are never published.
We will let readers draw their own conclusions as to the ‘intellectual dishonesty’ of Lipshutz’s claims and whether our representatives are really putting in the hard yards for the community they were elected to not only represent – but as Magee stated, to ‘protect’.
Glen Eira Debates 
February 3, 2011 at 10:12 AM
When you’re getting paid over forty thousand bucks a year and over 70,000 as a mayor then you should keep your mouth shut and not complain about once in a blue moon having to stay up to 1am. The easy route is to hand everything over to the nameless men and let them do the job for you as this lot of councillors is very happy to do. The arrogance of Lipshutz, the fact that these words can even come out of his mouth is enough to make me puke. I just have to wonder if he spends more than 5 minutes reading any of the applications put before him. After all he is such a busy busy man running around in his law firm and organising little secret meetings of other councillors. That he’s got time for.
February 3, 2011 at 12:10 PM
I’ve been reading the past week’s postings and comments with great interest. Two things stand out. Glen Eira definitely works outside the mould that other councils entertain. Whether this method and process is superior is also open to question. And it needs to be questioned rather than continually fobbed off. Councillors need to ask: what are the benefits of this process for the community – not for themselves in the time they do, or do not spend, over applications. Secondly they need to honestly assess the planning scheme itself. I don’t like the continual arguments that emanate from Hyams and Lipshutz and now Pilling about enforcing planning law. It is councillors who are supposed to set the planning law and not vcat. If the outcomes aren’t what the community wants or expects, then it should be the responsibility of these 9 men and women to revisit the planning scheme and correct its inadequacies and failings. But this must be done in conjunction with what residents believe. It simply can’t be autocratic decision making as has happened before.
Again the bug bear is consultation – or its absence. If such platitudes as representation and protection is to have any real meaning, then there has to be a real effort to engage, listen and then act on community feelings. This has not happened and councillors need to have this message rammed home in the strongest possible terms.
The outrage of some councillors at people waving placards and shouting has as much to do with their failure in this regard, as it has to do with frustration on the part of residents. When you see your streets destroyed by greedy developments and traffic becomes unbearable and unsafe then life becomes a misery. I don’t blame VCAT for allowing such developments. I blame my 9 elected councillors who either haven’t done their homework via a planning scheme, or who are afraid to send a clear message to developers in rejecting most of these applications. Let them go to VCAT. Make it as hard and as difficult as possible. But also support your residents in any objections they might want to register. Instead of putting hurdles in objectors way, work with the community rather than against it. Bayside can do this. Glen Eira must as well.
February 3, 2011 at 12:44 PM
As a relatively recent and concerned Glen Eira Resident I have attended several Council Meetings and have struck by two things:
1. The volume of paperwork and topics
2. How much time is spent on relatively trivial topics (e.g. prizes) versus significant issues (e.g. planning, development applications).
I think (or hope) most Councillors are putting in the hard hours (not just at Council meetings). However, it seems to me they are drowning in paperwork (a well known distraction strategy), political manoeuvring and have lost focus of the important issues. In my opinion, it’s time Councillors, without the dominance of the Administration, collectively sat back and objectively reviewed
– The important issues facing Glen Eira
– What are the appropriate goals and strategies to address the issues (quantified goals and strategies – not just motherhood statements which currently abound)
– What performance measures are applicable (current performance measures are few and far between)
– Where issues are to be delegated to Advisory Committees, what are the Committee’s authorities and responsibilities and what are the reporting requirements of those committees to both Council and the community. Explicit policies and stringent rules are required to provide the decision making framework and appropriate reporting requirements.
– How to achieve true (not sham) community consultation.
– How to communicate to the community the reasoning and criteria behind decisions.
Only when Council has done the above will Glen Eira Council (Councillors and Administration) be able to operate as it should and as other Council’s do. The current angst of residents will continue to grow unless such steps are taken.
February 3, 2011 at 1:07 PM
Ben, this is all good sense. I’d just like to add that if other council can spend 3 to 4 hours just on planning decisions, apart from council meetings, then we need to ask what kind of debating actually goes on in Glen Eira Council chambers, when their average time for a meeting is two and a half hours. My suspicion, and I suspect the suspicions of many others, is that the actual council meeting is nothing but a facade for the decisions that have already been made. There can be no debate of substance when each item barely takes 10 minutes.
February 3, 2011 at 6:49 PM
As to the success or otherwise of the current planning scheme with its objectives of driving development primarily into ‘housing diversity areas’ we refer readers to the 2009/10 Annual Report (Page 71). It states under ‘Dwellings Approved” –
Minimal Change Areas – 139
Minimal Change Areas (unique sites) – 469
Housing diversity areas – 355
February 3, 2011 at 11:57 PM
Yep, these figures appear as stated – but what do the classifications mean and where are the various areas located?
I suggest residents read the Planning Section of the Annual Report – pages 64-71.
I particularly note on page 71 –
“The State Government placed its proposal for new residential zones across Victoria — substantial
change zone, incremental change zone and limited change zone — on hold. Translating these zones into our existing framework will be a challenge,as will managing community expectations given the new zones reduce community involvement.
Although the State Government has not indicated when the new zones will be implemented, Council has already undertaken extensive preliminary work
in readiness for the changes”.
Given the growing dissatisfaction with Council, I’d suggest that the challenge of managing community expections has been underestimated by Council, particularly as Council already undertaken extensive preliminary work without community consultation. Since the designations will reduce community involvement in the development application approvals process surely the designations should involve some community consultation.
When does Council propose to do so.
February 4, 2011 at 6:50 PM
Ben, stop holding out for ‘consultation’. This will never happen under this administration and the lackey councillors currently ensconced. Oh yes, they may call it ‘consultation’, but residents know only too well what the reality is.
There were 35 submissions made in response to the Planning Scheme Review (according to the Annual Report). For Glen Eira this is an enormous response. These have never been published; the ‘summary’ was abysmal and I’m sure bent in favour of the autocrats. Yes, I can go down and ask to read them, but then that would mean going through the Burke’s of this world, giving names, reasons, and god knows what else. The secret police in action there – keeping tabs on all us nosey parkers. So why bother? But the point I’m making is that when other ridiculous submissions are included in agenda and minutes, then why weren’t any of the submissions to the planning scheme review made public. I’ll lay anyone odds, that 99 percent of these submissions slammed the planning scheme and its recommendations.
February 5, 2011 at 3:26 PM
Streuth Ben, you have hit the nail on the head when you question the way the mandarins are going about “the challenge of managing community expectation”! Yes, they admit it openly and for many years now that the community expectations are to be managed and manipulated in a secret way, hiding the irresponsible and unsatisfactory outcomes that may result from negotiations between the Bureaucrats and Developers.
Here is the most recent example of manipulation from the latest Glen Eira News “VicRoads has also advised Council that the new Government’s policy includes planning for grade separation projects including North Road, Ormond (project cost $150 million, $12 million allocated in the first term)”. What they did not tell you, which is common knowledge among Ormond traders is that IKEA is planning a store near Ormond station. This proposal was already last year with the Council and VicRoads and the State Government. If it goes ahead it will totally transform Ormond in ways unknown to Glen Eira.
IKEA is a world giant worth $36 billion. “Each store sells close to 10,000 individual items.” Each store is located within a large complex of stores. IKEA stores rely heavily on car traffic. “IKEA Tempe will be the largest IKEA store in Australia, featuring a total gross area of 39,000m2 and 1,775 parking spaces.” “IKEA Springvale 917 Princes Highway SPRINGVALE VIC 3171. IKEA Springvale is scheduled to open in late 2011! Keep your eye on this page for regular updates!” What about IKEA Ormond? How big and when?
Here is the confirmation that IKEA Ormond has got the go ahead by the powers that be, but we the bunnies know absolutely nothing – “2011- A new attitude, great goals & THE JOB!! Are you what we need? … Customer Services Manager IKEA Tue 01 Feb: Melbourne Bayside & South Eastern Suburbs … Ormond Location” from SEEK.
Do all Councillors know about it? If so, who and how many? Do any of those in the know possibly just happen to have property in the area? Certainly, the bureaucrats knew about it first. Do they have properties in Ormond? Isn’t time for the Public to know as well? When Councillors and Directors did got the wind of the IKEA proposal? After all, this will be a huge development affecting amenities of residential areas and the Public Realm.