The usual sales pitch that constitutes the Annual Report is now available on Council’s website. Once again readers will require a magnifying glass to read the very fine print that is practically on every single page! We’ve only had a very cursory glance at the contents, but these figures leapt out at us:
- Staff increase – in 2010/11 the total no. was 980. In 2011/12 this figure hit 1,204!!
- Drains cleaned – in 2010/11 the total was 32km. In 2011/12 a bare 10.93km!!!!
We must also wonder why on earth Council has Advisory Committees. The following lists the number of times these committees met throughout the year –
Roads Special Committee – No meetings
Caulfield Racecourse Precinct Special Committee – 1 meeting
Animal Management Advisory Committee – No meetings
Caulfield Racecourse Reserve Advisory Committee – No meetings
Local Laws Advisory Committee – 1 meeting
Sport and Recreation Advisory Committee – No meetings
Pools Steering Committee – 8 meetings
The only committees that seemed to get a regular guernsey were the Audit Committee (4 – legislative requirement); Arts and Culture Advisory Committee (7 meetings); Environment 4 meetings and Community Grants – 4 meetings. Hence we have a situation where the most important committees exist in name only – or that this council sees no need to report on any such meetings (ie Local Law Committee meetings which in the past have been called ‘workshops’ rather than formal meetings. This of course provides the excuse of not having to table minutes of any such ‘workshops’).
Then there’s this on the GESAC saga: “Glen Eira Sports and Aquatic Centre (GESAC) construction contract was awarded for the sum of $41.2m. As at end June 2012, Council had paid $36.99m. Council officers are still assessing contractor’s claims for variations and the contractor is still attending to minor defects and omissions. The defects liability period is due to end in May 2013.
Council has deducted $2,355,000 in liquidated damage against the contract. Recently, Hansen Yuncken applied for an adjudication pursuant to the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Vic) for $4,207,478.21.
It has also reserved its right to seek a further $950,950.06 (plus GST). Council has engaged legal advisors to prepare a response to Hansen Yuncken’s application. Regardless of the outcome of the adjudication, either party is still entitled to pursue damages and cost recovery through civil proceedings.”
We urge readers to cut through the cant and really analyse the figures. Then they should ask themselves:
- Are services being cut, maintained or improved?
- Are the ‘measures’ really indicative of performance as set out in the so called community plan?
- Are residents getting real value for money?
Glen Eira Debates 
October 10, 2012 at 12:43 PM
From a previous post –
Very interesting that Lipshutz has to pay people to hand out how-to-vote cards. A bit surprising if he can’t find enough supporters to volunteer.
But what would be more interesting would be whether they are being employed to hand out his cards or those of his “running mates”.
With attendance voting there is really no value in running “stooges” unless they have how-to-vote cards. And I’d imagine that it would be very difficult to get people to volunteer to hand out for “stooges”.
So if anyone is doing pre-poll voting at the town hall, can you please ask those handing out cards if they are being paid.
October 10, 2012 at 1:42 PM
From the VEC website as at 1.30pm on the 10th October –
http://www.vec.vic.gov.au/current/GlenEiraHTVC.html
Camden Ward (3 vacancies)TopTotal number of cards registered: 10
Submitted by On behalf of
Michael Lipshutz
Michael Lipshutz
Paul Caine Australian Greens, Victoria. Thomas Sounness
Paul Caine Australian Greens, Victoria. Thomas Sounness
Bernard Stanley Kuran
Bernard Stanley Kuran
Frank Penhalluriack
James Steedman
James Steedman
Frank Penhalluriack
Rosstown Ward (3 vacancies)TopTotal number of cards registered: 7
Submitted by On behalf of
Paul Caine Australian Greens, Victoria. Wilmars Mikelsons
Paul Caine Australian Greens, Victoria. Neil Pilling
Paul Caine Australian Greens, Victoria. Neil Pilling
Paul Caine Australian Greens, Victoria. Neill Pilling
Paul Caine Australian Greens, Victoria – Wilmars Mikelsons
Margaret Cheryl Esakoff
Ryan Hsu
Tucker Ward (3 vacancies)TopTotal number of cards registered: 9
Submitted by On behalf of
Oscar Lobo
Paul Caine Australian Greens Victoria – Rose Read
Paul Caine Australian Greens Victoria, Brett Hedger
Paul Caine Australian Greens, Victoria. Rose Read
Paul Caine Australian Greens, Victoria. Brett Hedger
Phil Blair De’Ath
Jamie Hyams
Newton Gatoff Trudy Pilcher
Newton Mark Gatoff
A phone call also confirmed the following:
VEC WILL NOT BE PUTTING UP CANDIDATE STATEMENTS AS THIS IS ATTENDANCE VOTING RATHER THAN POSTAL VOTING.
VEC WILL NOT BE PUTTING UP CANDIDATE PREFERENCES AS THIS WILL BE AVAILABLE VIA THE VOTING CARDS AT ELECTION BOOTHS OR IF CANDIDATES WISH TO DISCLOSE PREVIOUSLY.
October 10, 2012 at 3:26 PM
I’d also be interested to find out how Lipshutz is paying those people to hand out how-to-vote cards for him. If it is cash in hand, it could raise some serious tax questions.
October 10, 2012 at 2:02 PM
Hours of home help and footpath replacement has also gone down from last year. The only thing going up is rates and pavilions.
October 10, 2012 at 2:16 PM
There are no meetings of the racecourse and sports advisory committees because then they’d have to discuss and provide minutes about giving gesac to the warriors and giving the racecourse over entirely to the mrc. The lack of meetings is in keeping with the secrecy and failure of governance that charactertises this council and its bunch of lackey councillors.
October 10, 2012 at 2:27 PM
And a couple of amusing observations from the council website.
There is just one item under “Latest News” on the home page – the ombudsman’s report on bullying (i.e. Penhalluriack). But if you go to it you find the statement “The Ombudsman’s Report has been removed during the election caretaker period in accordance with s55D of the Local Government Act.” But have no fear – you can still find it in the minutes of the 3 April meeting. Officers must have overlooked that one.
Also, in minutes of last meeting, Cr Tang was appointed a councillor rep on the Citizen of the Year committee. That will probably be the shortest committee membership on record.
October 10, 2012 at 2:55 PM
Probably more significant is the inclusion of the Penhalluriack business in the Annual Report, under the heading of “governance”. Not once, mind you, but several times. We always thought that the Annual Report was meant to be “non-political” given this is the election period. From memory we certainly don’t recall a similar notation in the Annual Reports following the 3 municipal inspectors’ investigations!
October 10, 2012 at 3:29 PM
Newton is a master of double speak. There are plenty of examples in the report. I’ve been reading parts of it and chuckling all the way through. The classic paragraph went like this –
“Net operating result
Council’s net operating result for 2011–12
was a deficit of $0.66 million and is due to the
recognition of the defined benefits call of $7.12
million. The net result (adjusted for the defined
super of $7.12 million) is $6.46 million (surplus),
which is favourable to the budgeted surplus of
$3.02 million by $3.44 million”.
A few bullet points later there’s this –
“The adjusted net surplus of Council after removing
defined superannuation, asset sales/disposals, nonrecurrent
government funding and accounting for
associated entities is a surplus of $5.55 million”.
Either people will need a phd in accounting to decipher the camouflage that’s going on, or they just won’t read it much less follow the gist. My take is that we’re out of money! Anyone else want to have a go at explaining what this really means?
October 10, 2012 at 4:14 PM
All of this is double dutch to me. I don’t understand how you can remove asset sales, which is income, and grants, which is also income and then claim that you’ve got a surplus of over 5m. Then just before theres the claim that there’s a surplus of 3.44. I’d appreciate someone explaining all this.
October 10, 2012 at 4:22 PM
8 meetings only for gesac. That’s a real joke when they’ve had all these problems with opening and lawyers. Lipshutz and Magee were both probably too busy to attend and were happy with taking reassurances from Newton that all was going swimmingly -pun intended. Pathetic performance. I would have insisted on a meeting every two weeks at least.
October 10, 2012 at 6:47 PM
If you compare 8 meetings for gesac, with the 2 that occurred when GESAC was in real construction trouble and suffered a 5 month opening delay (Sept. 2011 to May 2012) I’d say 8 was going way over the top.
By the way don’t forget how Council handled the GESAC delay – SILENCE
October 10, 2012 at 4:50 PM
No meetings at all for the Caulfield Racecourse Reserve? No wonder the MRC haven’t adhered to the Caulfield Racecourse Agreement signed by Pilling, Lipshutz, Esakoff and Hyams. Very irresponsible of these Councillors.
October 10, 2012 at 7:16 PM
Waited almost an hour on Normandy Rd coming home to Murrumbeena tonight. It’s a disgrace that the roads works on Sir John Monash Drive is happening at a time of Spring Carnival and exams. Sack the idiot who approved this mess. While you are at it sack whoever can’t trim the trees along Queens Avenue.
October 10, 2012 at 7:24 PM
This may not be the reason, but there was a fatality tonight at McKinnon Station that created chaos on the Frankston line. Another fatality at Edithvale an hour earlier. Caulfield station thus had hundreds of people lined up waiting for buses. General chaos all round!
October 10, 2012 at 11:25 PM
Whilst not directly relevant, the Auditor General tabled his report on Major Projects in parliament today and we can see some connection with GESAC in the comments and flaws highlighted in the report. For those interested enough you’ll find the full report at: http://www.audit.vic.gov.au/publications/20121010-Major-Projects/20121010-Major-Projects.html#s44
Below are a few paragraphs on reporting and accountability. Since GESAC also involved the expenditure of public monies, we believe these comments are most pertinent to what has transpired.
4.1 Introduction
Monitoring and reporting performance is a key element of effective governance and public sector accountability. Public sector entities have a responsibility to monitor and report whether they use public funds efficiently and economically to achieve intended outcomes and objectives. Effective performance monitoring and reporting should also enable an agency’s management to track performance and act to address underperformance when detected.
4.2 Conclusion
Major Projects Victoria (MPV) has deficient systems and processes in place to monitor performance and demonstrate at an organisational level whether it is effective, efficient and economical, and whether it provides Victoria’s tax payers with value‑for‑money.
While it has performance indicators to assess its performance, MPV does not assess its performance against them, and it does not know how it is performing. The Department of Business and Innovation (DBI) has consistently reported to Parliament that it has achieved 100 per cent performance over a 14-year period, even though its performance cannot be reliably determined. This casts doubt on the veracity of information it has provided. These issues also highlight further fundamental failings in MPV’s and the DBI’s governance.