Poor old Glen Eira! They’re really having such a bad trot at the moment with ‘clerical error’ after ‘clerical error’. First there was the failure to accurately account for all bookings at Allnutt Park. Next, another ‘error’ with the report on public questions. Now, the most sacrosanct document of all – the much touted and award winning Annual Report – has also succumbed to the disease of ‘clerical error’! It’s an epidemic!
Page 54 of the 2010/11 Annual Report claims that council cleaned 30km of drains in 2008/9 and last year – 2009/10. This year the total has literally leapt into the stratosphere with the mind boggling 32km. However, we invite all residents to go back to last year’s Annual Report and there they will find in black and white (on page 32) that ONLY 25KM were stated as the total number of drains cleaned.
Now this may all sound trivial, inconsequential, nit picking, etc. However, when thousands and thousands of dollars are spent in producing this opus, one should expect 100% accuracy and reliability. Or is it that by stating a consistent 30km of drains cleaned, the record looks better than a drop of 5 k in 2009/10? This then leads on to the more serious questions of:
- how many other ‘clerical errors’ are in this report and elsewhere?
- how much faith should residents put in any figures that are published?
We’re still digesting the spin and waffle. More to come!
Glen Eira Debates 
October 30, 2011 at 9:05 PM
Let’s hope the disease is fatal.
October 30, 2011 at 10:03 PM
By themselves, all these mistakes are pretty minor. When they’re lumped together they tell me a lot about the professionalism of this mob or even worse, how they’ll try and present themselves in the best light regardless of whether they have to fabricate a few figures along the way. Even when they’re caught out as here the escape clause is “clerical error” and the blame is laid at the feet of some poor unimportant shmuck and not the supervisors whose fault it really is. I’m just glad that there are enough alert people out their who take the trouble to strip away the lies and let us see what is really going on. I’m positive that councillors don’t bother!
October 30, 2011 at 10:12 PM
Havn’t you got something better to do.
October 30, 2011 at 10:31 PM
What’s wrong Anon? don’t like seeing your buddies with egg all over their face?
October 30, 2011 at 11:08 PM
The yearly stats make me want answers to what really happened on Feb 4th this year. 5km less drainage cleaning in 2009/10 might have contributed to the impact of the floods. After the floods and the mass of debris that was let into the drainage system it’s also pretty poor that the increase in cleaning over an entire year only amounted to 2km of drains. We’re told that there are over 400 km of drains in Glen Eira. That’s barely a half percent increase in cleaning when major parts of the city have been swamped. All we need is another torrential downpour and we’re in the same mess again.
October 31, 2011 at 10:15 AM
Funny observation but in all my years on this earth I have never cleaned my home drains untill they appear to require attention which is hardly ever.According to Colin we have to employ 200 times the Crews and their equipment because he feels that all the drains should be cleaned annually. This does not happen in any other Council and is frankly a stupid expectation.
October 31, 2011 at 10:51 AM
If you insist on paraphrasing what I wrote, then please make sure that you don’t misrepresent me. I wrote that an increase of 2km of cleaning in a year that has had the kind of rains we’ve had, and are still having is not enough. I stand by that statement. If there is a necessity to employ more crews then so be it. People’s houses have been ruined and their lives put on hold. That should be enough justification to invest quite a bit more in proper drainage control. If we wait until they flood as you want to do we’ll only be in the same situation. There’s no point in being reactive. Council should be proactive and not wait for disasters but ensure that the conditions which make things a lot worse aren’t there to begin with.
October 31, 2011 at 11:18 AM
We live on a declared flood plain. In the 31 years we’ve lived here the drains have only been inspected (I’m not sure they were even cleaned) twice.