As in many other matters, public questions at Glen Eira have steadily become a bureaucratic tour de force. You ask, and pray, that you receive a decent reply. It is no coincidence that the Mayor’s signed letter uses the words ‘council’s response’ since on far too many occasions the ‘response’ is certainly not an ‘answer’! If anything, council’s ‘responses’ often become a game of semantics, evasion, and pure doublespeak.
Glen Eira is also in the minority when it comes to the timing of public questions – at the end of often tedious and excruciatingly boring council meetings, when most of the gallery have left so that there are very few ‘witnesses’ left to the responses and the mumbled and hurried performance by Mr. Burke.
Residents should also note that two public questions taken ‘on notice’ at the December 13th Council Meeting are still to be tabled. That’s two months to receive a reply when residents are told that ‘responses’ will be available within 10 working days and tabled at the next ‘appropriate’ meeting.
By way of contrast, we’ve taken the following from The Mayne Report. Not included are the handful of councils that still have their public question time at the end of meetings. What should be carefully noted are the number of oral and unscripted questions allowed by various councils and that questions may be directed to officers. None of this is permissible in Glen Eira!
Banyule – 15 minutes of oral questions are permitted before the formal commencement of each council meeting with a limit of 3 minutes per resident.
Darebin – unscripted oral public questions are permitted for up to 30 minutes during the formal meeting at the start after councillors have reported back on their activities
Moreland – Ordinary Council meetings include a Public Question Time segment at the beginning which provides an opportunity for individuals to have their say and discuss issues of interest to them
Nillumbik – Ordinary Council meetings include a Public Question Time segment at the beginning which provides an opportunity for individuals to have their say and discuss issues of interest to them
Ballarat – Ordinary Council meetings include a Public Question Time segment at the beginning of the meeting, which provides an opportunity for individuals to have their say
Bayside – Ordinary Council meetings include a Public Question Time segment at the beginning, which provides an opportunity for individuals to have their say and discuss issues of interest to them.
Boroondara – written questions are to be submitted in writing before the meeting, and are addressed at the beginning of the meeting.
Brimbank – The public have the opportunity to raise questions before an Ordinary Council Meeting, which are then answered in the Council Chamber at the beginning before general business. Questions must be submitted on a Council Public Question form
Casey – questions are allowed at the beginning, after confirmation of minutes, but the questioner must be present when the question is read, a maximum of two questions from any one person are allowed at each meeting.
Frankston – A Public Question Time is held at the beginning of each Ordinary Meeting where questions with and without notice are addressed. A maximum of three questions will be permitted per resident per meeting
Greater Bendigo – The public question time is held at the start of the meeting as close as practical to 6:00pm. A maximum of 30 minutes has been provided for registered and unregistered questions
Greater Geelong – Ordinary Council meetings include a Public Question Time segment at the beginning of the meeting, which provides an opportunity for individuals to have their say.
Knox – Council Meeting procedure includes public question time as a standard 3rd item on the Agenda in order to facilitate community participation in the meeting.
Maroondah – question time is the second order of business at every Ordinary Meeting, to enable the general public to submit questions to Councillors or members of Council staff. Up to fifteen minutes will be allowed for the answering of all questions. A person must not submit more than two questions to a Council Meeting and must be present
Melton – Persons present in the Public Gallery will be given the opportunity to present any questions to Council during the meeting at the beginning, before items of business. All questions must be in writing and placed in the facility available in the Council Chamber Foyer by 7 pm on the evening of the meeting. A limit of one question per person per meeting will apply
Moonee Valley – From 6pm to 6.45pm, there is public forum and question time, and covers listed presentations, issues raised by citizens and questions without notice, so therefore it is not listed in the minutes. Formal meeting begins at 7pm.
Stonnington – unscripted public questions are permitted during the formal meeting at the beginning
Yarra Ranges – They can be lodged until 5pm on the day of the Council Meeting. A maximum of 15 minutes each meeting will be allocated to Question Time at the beginning as the last item before business. A limit of one question per person per meeting will apply
Glen Eira Debates 
February 11, 2012 at 12:35 PM
My God. All hell would break loose if people could get up and ask questions of councillors and officers and expect them to answer without time to fabricate their bullshit. Christ you’d actually have some level of exchange with your councillors and make them more accountable – not the done thing in Glen Eira. Putting questions first also has to be a great ‘no-no’. Imagine questioning someone before they have to vote. Nah, this way they vote first so the question becomes irrelevant – that’s if anyone is asking something about what’s on the agenda. And just imagine what a catastrophe it would be if councillors could say what they liked without the intervention of the Burkes of this world. Maybe we’d even get to the stage where all councillors insist on writing their own ‘responses’ and that ‘responses’ would really and truly be answers to questions. Nah, that all smacks too much of open, democratic process and thus is totally verboten in Glen Eira.
February 11, 2012 at 1:57 PM
Public questions are an “endangered species” at Glen Eira. They can be termed as “harassment” even though you might have 20 people asking questions about one issue. Penhalluriack did make the point that “harassment” should not be about the topic or issue, but this point has fallen by the wayside.
As chair of the Local Laws Committee, Lipshutz has again engineered the prospect that the public questions policy will be removed from the existing local law and will now only be a separate policy that can be changed repeatedly whenever the whim takes the ruling group. This smacks of opportunism to me and an attempt to further limit public participation and rights. It’s bad enough that most questions are given very short shrift, but I envisage that the new “policy” will first of all limit the number of questions any individual may ask and permit a very loose interpretation of what might come under the heading of “harassment”.
It’s even more disappointing to discover that in the entire last year there was only one set of minutes provided by the Local Laws Committee. Either this committee doesn’t meet as often as it should and as is specified in its terms of reference, or meetings are held and the minutes are never made public. Whatever the answer is, the public is being sold short. It goes without saying that the “unauthorised sporting group” matter has been lingering for over 5 years and it still hasn’t been resolved. Lipshutz and the others are quite prepared to adopt the ostrich in the sand position rather than confront the problem head on and in the open. The “open” question is the sticking point. When you limit public involvement via public questions as will undoubtedly happen, then more goes on in secret and accountability is just a word.
The history of Glen Eira is marked by continual removal of the public’s rights to question and be informed. Once upon a time people could address council meetings; they could also direct questions to individuals and be assured of an answer. Whilst it’s true that this can still happen with the Chairperson’s approval I’ve no doubt that if enough people started exercising this right to speak, the answer would be a definite and resolute “no” from the Chairperson. All we’ve got is the possibility of such an event taking place with no surety that it ever will. Most of the time “responses” have been totally inadequate both in terms of tone and in the information they contain.
I’m worried that things are about to get worse so I’m speaking out now because I think that people should start thinking about what’s going on and what is the likely future scenario that will remove even more of our dwindling rights.
February 11, 2012 at 2:32 PM
There are many questions to be asked of the City of Glen Eira but when the answer is limited to one word ‘No’ or a nondescript jumbled reply that rarely addresses the question being asked, why even try?
February 11, 2012 at 3:22 PM
Brendan, that’s exactly what they want you to do. Give up and you make their life that much easier. No questions means they never have to explain themselves and they get away with blue murder. The only thing that makes them sit up and take notice is rotten publicity and public comments. That’s why this blog is a real pain in the arse to them. People get to say what they think and what they don’t like. Its also spreading the word about their lousy ways of doing things.
February 11, 2012 at 3:54 PM
I hereby baptise Paul Burke from this time onward to known far & wide as “Mumbles”
Any person or persons or entity both large or small, important or just annoying, along-side the many so called anonymous that inhabit this Blogosphere, will from this time forthwith desist from any such callings as the Paul Burke, Mr. Burke, Mr. P Burke, Burkie, PB or the Manager of City Services, or in fact any such other perversions that maybe suitably intended but is not mentioned or outlined in the aforesaid.
Any utterance of the aforesaid either by, will-full use or by the neglect will be punished by banishment from the land currently know as Glen Eira Debates
Such punishment and banishing shall be carried without notice by the Moderators at its discretion. No explanation or recourse or payment shall be deemed possible for such actions ensured by the Mods.
After-utterances from any entities both true or false, or anonymous or real, bearing the names of Andrew Newton or any of its aliases such as, CEO, Boss or Sir, or that B that should have been be sacked along time back, will be deemed as harassment and hostile and will be post-haste refereed to the Ombudsman.
Shit …. I am sorry you’ve heard it all before somewhere else.
February 11, 2012 at 5:19 PM
I stand to be corrected, but I’m reasonably sure there was a time when residents could ask questions of councillors. I even think that it was on the agenda sometime during the present council’s term but was cruelled by the usual suspects. Even Magee was opposed to questions without notice if my memory serves me correctly.
I
It will be too much to expect this council to change their ways. As an entity they have no genuine commitment to truthful and accurate communication which in practice implies avoidance of deception.
Sad thing is most will probably get back at the next election such is the apathy in the municipality. After all, enough voted Esakoff and Hyams back despite both being part of a council sacked for incompetence. 🙄
February 12, 2012 at 10:29 AM
Putting public questions first wouldn’t make any difference in Glen Eira. It’s not where the questions come but how they’re answered. You can change the policy as much as you like but if the hidden objective is to cover up then nothing is going to change unless you change the culprits.
February 12, 2012 at 4:52 PM
Well! It would provide us with a recognised public forum where we can put our concerns and simultaneously focus the spotlight on those who wilfully dissemble. It would also focus attention on those who lack competency. I’m all for it as should those who value democracy and its constituent parts of openness, transparency and accountability.
February 12, 2012 at 10:19 PM
We’re about to have 6 stage managed public forums. People should show up and speak their mind. Wonder if his highness, Lipshutz, will even bother to show up to one or for that matter his other holiness Newton.
February 12, 2012 at 5:11 PM
I certainly support Glen Eira opening up public question time to allow community input. Like I suspect most other Crs i wasn’t fully aware of the extend that GE is out of kilter with other benchmark councils. I intend to request a report (only way available) that will bring this issue to a council meeting.
I suppose the premise of many of the commentary here is that Crs are full time politicians and should be acting as such – The reality at $27k pa is different in that Crs are part time community ‘laypeople’ so to speak which can be both a strength and a weakness depending on the situation! As I’ve said before the harsh critisism needs to tempered with an understanding of this.
February 12, 2012 at 6:14 PM
I don’t know if you’re a councillor or not – it doesn’t matter. I don’t reckon that people expect you as councillor to do everything. That’s why there are 1000 plus staff. But if I was councillor I would make sure that every time something was shoved under my nose and probably on short notice I would demand full answers to these basic questions-
1. How does this compare with what’s going on in other councils? Why aren’t we doing what they’re doing?
2. Why do you recommend this? Where are the full facts and figures to support your recommendation?
3. What alternatives have you looked at and why did you reject them? Where are these facts and figures?
4. Who wrote this report and who okay’d it?
5. How much will it cost in total? Where’s the money coming from?
If you get bulldust answers then keep asking and send the stuff back until you’re satisfied. Maybe even do a little bit of homework yourslef and show them up once or twice. Bet you they won’t try the bullshit again if you do that!
February 12, 2012 at 7:33 PM
I could quibble with the above comment by saying that I don’t accept the excuse that councillors are not aware of what is happening in other councils – especially on something as important as public questions. This comes under the Local Law and that’s come up before council on numerous occasions over the past few years. If councillors don’t know the procedures of other councils, then irrespective of whether they are part time and only earning $27,000 – they should make it their business to know. Or, as someone has already said, a simple question such as “what’s happening in other councils” would suffice.
The second part of the comment about “harsh criticism” and how unwarranted it is I would also reject. I’ve been following this blog for nearly 18 months now. There has been post after post comparing Glen Eira with other councils and how out of step they are. Many comments have endorsed the views here. Councillors and administrators obviously read the blog – if they didn’t, then there wouldn’t be the threats and the surreptitous attempts to “answer” the criticisms presented. The blog is a thorn in the side of all those who would prefer that issues weren’t raised and that residents were kept uninformed. This however should not be the position of councillors.
Unfortunately the law does not permit councillors to opt out by claiming that they are not “full time politicians”. In terms of liability, it is councillors who are responsible for everything. In such circumstances it is very fool hardy to claim “I did not know” since this is not an excuse. If knowledge is the major drawback to proficient government, then councillors need to insist that the information that is provided to them by Newton and his directors is spot on, timely, accurate, and unbiased. If this doesn’t happen then councillors have no-one else to blame except themselves.
February 12, 2012 at 11:38 PM
Pleading I’m a “lay person” is a lousy argument. Everyone can read and should be able to think for themselves. The officers report on the Balaclava property at the last council meeting was a disgrace. As a councillor why did not one of you pick up the stuff about inadequate ventilation for example or sunlight. This stuff is supposed to be written by professionals and when its below par it should be questioned. I’m a lay person and I picked this up. I also work, run a family, and look after an ageing father. If I can see what’s wrong without the benefit of assemblies and master planners then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t – that’s if you bother to read this stuff. Not one councillor said a word. Your silence is condoning what goes on and the whole place needs a thorough clean out. Accepting pathetic work and spin from officers isn’t part of your job description and it sure doesn’t help the people who are affected by your decisions.