VCAT LAW LIST FOR 15TH MARCH
Room 1.3 – Senior Member J. Smithers
11:00 AM G657/2011 Cr Frank Penhalluriack v Glen Eira CC
Tomorrow will feature Cr Penhalluriack’s FOI application to VCAT for documents related to the closure of the mulch facility in Glen Huntly Park. From previous articles in the Leader we understand that the basis of this FOI application is to gain access to some incredibly important materials related to the scientific consultant’s report – such as, the very first version of their report that went to Senior Officers, rather than councillors. Readers will remember that the final public document was not the first version of the report, but subsequent ones.
This entire saga has done nothing except cost ratepayers money and will continue to do so. We ask:
- Why is this administration denying a councillor documents which are integral to councillors’ decision making
- Why is council willing to spend mega-bucks on barristers/lawyers to fight this application?
- Why is council running the risk of having all costs awarded against them?
- By not producing these documents is there possibly a major cover up?
- If released would such documents reveal ‘interference’ by administrators?
- Is it mere coincidence that the Leader has just this week run another story on the mulch facility?
- By not dismantling the mulch shed immediately following the 7 to 2 council resolution how much has the hire of steel fencing for nearly one year cost residents?
We conclude that this issue is far broader than a mere mulch heap. It again goes to the heart of good governance. Councillors are elected to make decisions based on the information provided to them. If this information is skewed, incomplete, ‘doctored’, or simply withheld, then the decisions must inevitably also be flawed. Administrators should be nothing more than a conduit for such information. We also maintain that councillors have every right to ask for documents that pertain to issues that they are required to decide upon. It is extraordinary that an elected councillor has to go through an FOI process in an attempt to secure the complete information. The refusal by administrators to accede to this request, and to fight it at ratepayers’ expense is simply beyond belief. If there’s absolutely nothing to hide then why take up the cudgels as this administration has so obviously done? In the public interest it is essential that all versions of this report, as well as other documents, are available for close scrutiny.
Glen Eira Debates 
March 14, 2012 at 6:55 PM
Here goes another 4 or 5 thousand. This has got to stop. It’s all very well to use lawyers to fight legitimate cases but not when you use lawyers to either shut up a councillor who you don’t like, or try and stop him getting his hands on information which might not look so good for you. I just want to know where are the rest of these councillors and why don’t they put a stop to all this? Newton doesn’t own the bank and they’re responsible for the way it’s used. I hope that Penhalluriack wins this and gets his hands on all the dirty linen that’s been going on for ages.
March 14, 2012 at 6:56 PM
still waiting for my free mulch!
March 14, 2012 at 11:31 PM
The expenditure on lawyers hired to fight Penhalluriack is totally obscene. Whatever the rights or wrongs of the mulch issue (and the minutes reveal that councillors did not feel that Penhalluriack has a conflict of interest) all the information should be freely available to councillors. I’d even go so far as to say that councillors are entitled to have whatever information they ask for if they are expected to make prudent and sensible decisions for the betterment of the community. If Newton is holding back documents which either support or negate the vote that was taken on the mulch facility, then he is interfering and certainly exceeding his role as CEO. His function is not to interfere with the political process. It sounds like he has usurped his role here in determining what information councillors will have access to.
Once we get to the stage that officers believe they are the gatekeepers of all information then we are in terrible trouble. To my mind we have been at this stage in Glen Eira from the moment Newton stepped into the place.
March 14, 2012 at 11:47 PM
There is a common thread to all the legals and that is Frank.He loves spending ratepayers money.
March 14, 2012 at 11:55 PM
Yup, it’s Frank who refused to give himself these documents and it’s Frank who hired O’Neill to investigate himself and it’s Frank who hired the zillions of lawyers to fight himself every step of the way and it’s Frank who is the rotten bully and poor old Andrew who is always the one being bullied. In fact the whole rotten council is Frank’s fault.
March 18, 2012 at 8:12 AM
Is there an update available for this? Now that the matter has appeared at VCAT, we should at least have an idea of the argument(s) used by Council to justify refusing the FOI application. What are they? How many SCs and instructing solicitors does it take to intimidate a Member into ignoring what the FOI Act actually says? Curiously there was yet another article in The Leader about the Mulch facility, including quotes from a person who appears not to have read the Consultant’s report. That’s in line with the Chairperson of the Audit Committee, who didn’t want the public to be well-informed either.