We have literally had a gut full of the way this council treats its residents in terms of their responses to public questions. Whilst falling legally short of outright lies, each response is deliberately vague, misleading, irrelevant to what was asked, and totally non-informative. Residents have to read between the lines in order to come within cooee of the truth.
What is even more offensive is that 9 councillors sit there in total silence and accept these carefully crafted works of fiction without anyone questioning the content of the responses. That is not what these people were elected to do. They have a legal and moral responsibility to provide sound oversight of council operations. That includes ensuring that everything that goes out in their name is accurate and bona fide. Moreover, it is their responsibility to ensure that what residents were promised over a year ago is delivered. They are also responsible for ensuring that council resolutions are in fact carried out! (more on this in a moment)
In this post we will examine several of the public questions asked at the last council meeting and illustrate why residents should be outraged at the duplicity of the responses and the failure of these councillors to ensure that open and transparent government occurs at Glen Eira.
QUESTION 1 & 2 ON GESAC BASKETBALL COURT ALLOCATIONS
There were 2 different questions demanding answers on what was promised in December 2011 – namely that the GESAC court allocations would be ‘reviewed’ in a year’s time. Pilling on his blogsite had this to say when the decision to award the WARRIORS the contract was made 15 months ago – “This allocation is for twelve months – There needs to be a far better process in place next year to prevent this unfortunate situation occurring again”. (December 15th, 2011) We’re now well past 12 months. Not a murmer from council about reviewing anything or undertaking a new season’s allocation!
Below are the questions and to save space we will only include one of the ‘answers’ SINCE THE SECOND RESPONSE WAS A VERBATIM REPEAT OF THE RESPONSE TO THE FIRST QUESTION MINUS THE FINAL PARAGRAPH REGARDING FEMALE PARTICIPATION. We therefore have the totally farcical situation where two different questions are asked but they each receive an almost IDENTICAL ANSWER!
QUESTION 1 –
“With limited basketball courts available throughout Glen Eira can Council tell ratepayers when the seasonal allocation process, spoken of in the December13, 2011 minutes, will begin for the 3 court GESAC facility. If not why then are girls not given the opportunity to play domestic basketball at GESAC?”
QUESTION 2 –
“Can council please inform me of why the twelve month seasonal allocation for the use of GESAC basketball courts is no longer a process being adopted. In the minutes dated 13/12/2011 seasonal allocation is referred to as the on-going process for future allocation. Further to this question , who has made this decision and can an accurate audit be done on the finances of the basketball operation as per the contract originally agreed to with the occupying basketball association.”
THE ‘RESPONSE’
“As advised at the Council Meeting on 24 July 2012, the indoor courts at GESAC are multi-use. They cater for netball, basketball, indoor soccer, badminton, development programs, all-abilities programs, gym classes and more.
GESAC opened at short notice. The builder advised of Practical Completion on 3 May 2012 and GESAC opened to the public on 7 May 2012.
Most sports played in the indoor stadium are team sports which are played in Seasons. As it was, GESAC opened mid-season. The agreements with sports recognised that full utilisation would arise from the start of the Season after GESAC opened.
The seasonal allocation process for GESAC based sports will be undertaken in a similar manner to the allocation process that is undertaken for other sports with seasonal allocations in Glen Eira.
Girls are given the opportunity to play domestic basketball at GESAC. I have been advised that there are currently 120 girls of various ages in the Warriors Basketball Program. GESAC has more than 10,000 members. A majority of members are female.”
COMMENTS: Sifting through the meaningless verbage of this answer, we find the truth! It is contained in this single sentence –“ The seasonal allocation process for GESAC based sports will be undertaken in a similar manner to the allocation process that is undertaken for other sports with seasonal allocations in Glen Eira.” In other words, the promises made over a year ago will not be acted upon, much less fulfilled. The Warriors will have permanent allocations – unless they fold! Our questions then become:
- Who made this decision? When was it made? And why is this not ratified by council?
- Why is there still no definitive answer as to whether ratepayers are in fact subsidising the current court usage or, whether the current occupiers of the courts are fulfilling the complete terms of their contract?
- It is entirely disingenuous to compare the GESAC basketball courts and other sporting ground allocations in the same breath. They are NOT IDENTICAL. GESAC allocations represents a formal contract involving the payment of monies on a regular and weekly/monthly basis. Other sporting allocations we believe simply require a ‘permit’ and money is handed over at the start.
- Much of question 1 and 2 remains unanswered. Not a word about financial audits, and not even one single word about ‘when’ the new allocations for anything will start! And not a single word about who is responsible for deciding that GESAC and a game of ‘organised’ frisbee are identical and will be treated identically!
- Under what precise piece of legislation are officers granted the right to make such unilateral decisions? Where in the delegations is this signing over of authority documented?
- Why are councillors so incapable of simply moving a motion that states clearly that GESAC basketball court allocations will be decided by council resolution!
- And why oh why do these 9 councillors allow such garbage to go out in their name without the semblance of public protest?
Glen Eira Debates 
March 2, 2013 at 11:30 AM
Maccabi gets racecourse. Next gesac
March 2, 2013 at 2:32 PM
Letters concerningf unsafe or inaqccessable footpaths over the yeqars are answered in parrot fashion too. THE POOR WORKERS WQALKING TO THE STATION SKID OVER MUD,STONES AND SLUSH EVEN THOUGH TWO COUNCILORS HQAVE EXAMINED THE SITUATION, tHE ANSWERE OF FALSE PROMISES STILL KEEP POURING OUT BUT NO REPARAQTRION WORK TAQKES PLACE.
March 2, 2013 at 4:02 PM
At the very least there must be some upfront reporting on the Gesac allocations. Like everything else, there is secrecy and decision making behind those firmly shut doors. I would also agree with the authors of the post that when 95% of an answer to a public question is either a public relations exercise or a regurgitation of what has previously been stated, and which completely ignores the question, that councillors owe it to their constituents to call a halt to such proceedings. It is time that they remembered who they were elected to serve and it is not a handful of officers sitting in the well fitted out rooms paid for by residents.
March 2, 2013 at 5:15 PM
Very disappointed with response to my question and will follow it up with officers and council. Certainly not hopeful of any further comment. Just note GlenEira council that the 3rd season of domestic basketball is commencing after Easter. Let’s see what the next excuse is.
March 10, 2013 at 6:22 PM
MODERATORS: comment deleted
This comment contained personal attacks on one individual and included what we regard as unsubstantiated claims. We will reiterate our position on the MBA versus Warriors position and invite some direct answers from this contributor and/or Council spokespeople:
1. Are the Warriors fulfilling the COMPLETE FINANCIAL TERMS of their agreement?
2. Why is Council refusing to offer an open and transparent EOI process after promising to do so at the conclusion of 12 months in 2011?
3. What percentage of Warriors and MBA members reside in Glen Eira?
4. Are Glen Eira ratepayers subsidising the Warriors for court hire if this is even for 1 hour per week?
5. Why is the GESAC court allocation treated as identical to other sporting ground allocations when it clearly is vastly different.
Until these questions are satisfactorily answered (with corroborating evidence) we will continue to hold serious doubts as to the probity and transparent and accountable governance at Glen Eira City Council.
March 10, 2013 at 9:22 PM
Maybe before deleting this post the moderator of this website should look into whether unsubstantiated claims were indeed fact or fiction. The moderator of this site has simply shown their hand as being both bias and compromised in not looking into both sides of a story.
The truth obviously hurt just a little too much here. There was no personal attack just a statement of fact that is easily substantiated if a person wished to do so.
March 10, 2013 at 9:30 PM
Dear anonymous,
we are still awaiting at least some of the answers to our questions!
March 11, 2013 at 11:17 AM
Place the post back up that you deleted and prove that you are unbiased and I could happily answer 3 of the 5 questions you put up. The other 2 only council could answer. Question 4 by the way is simply a joke and it’s quite pathetic the implications that you are making with it.
March 11, 2013 at 1:32 PM
Glen Eira, why dont you check your facts before you make unsubstainiated claims….yet again. Where is your “evidense” to your claims. Looks like incredible bias to me. Do your homework as you often suggest you do, then ask some sensible question based on your findings and you may then elicit a response.
March 2, 2013 at 11:04 PM
Under Council’s Local Law, public questions can be responded to in multiple ways. Under 232(2)(b) the chairperson (usually the mayor) may personally answer the question, which seems to be the normal situation. It could be referred to the appropriate councillor, or the appropriate officer, or the question taken on notice and a response provided later. Only under 232(2)(b)(i) is an answer required. Under 232(2)(b) subclauses (ii), (iii), (iv) a mere response is needed. Nothing under Local Law requires an answer or response to be accurate, not even a “best-effort” be made. Probably most responses are drafted by council staff, and are just published anonymously under the Mayor’s authority. While other councillors *could* exercise their very limited right to make a statement if they don’t like the response, they need to seek leave of the chairperson (Mayor) to do so. As we’ve seen, the Mayor doesn’t take kindly to criticism, and very very few councillors have exercised their right. The one that I can think of, on the occasion of Cr Lipshutz making accusations about a resident’s treatment of their wife, has been silenced.
March 3, 2013 at 8:05 AM
The more I see and hear of Glen Eira Councillors the more I become appalled – their words are never backed up by actions. The GESAC basketball allocations are yet another instance – fine lofty sounding words and promises of a revised fairer, more open and objective system being introduced in the coming year. Yet when the allocation clock comes around again, all they have done is make a secretive process even more secretive and not one of them questions it.
It happens time and time again in Glen Eira – Councillors delegate authority to the Admin, the Admin does what it wants to and submits a substandard report back to the Councillors that doesn’t list all the options, and their pros and cons, and just focusses on the option the Administration has chosen. Councillors never question, they just accept – it’s pathetic and it’s time Councillors actually started to live up to their election promises and began questioning.
March 3, 2013 at 10:24 AM
As far as we know, there is no council policy on sporting ground allocations that has ever been made public. It is quite possible that NO SUCH POLICY even exists! With nothing in the public domain everything is therefore left in the hands of unnamed individuals who can decide whatever they like. Residents and sporting clubs have no recourse since the criteria for selection is unknown and processes for appeal (if any) are also unknown. Individual clubs therefore remain at the mercy of unelected officers. Such a situation can only leave itself open to all forms of “dependency” and what we shall euphemistically call – “unhealthy relationships”.
March 3, 2013 at 2:58 PM
Maybe people such as Brendan should open up to the real truth, and that is that he has a massive chip on his shoulder and simply abuses websites such as this and council questions processed to try and scratch that itch. For 15 months he has been placing on sites such as this half truths and misleading information, all because he has a personal vendetta against one individual at the Warriors.
So petty is he and others like him that they would once more like to remove a club servicing close to 1000 members (mostly juniors and soon to be over that number).
Maybe he should fess up to the fact that the real reason many girls are not playing their is because his club refused to consider a regional format that would have embraced juniors boys and girls in all venues in the region.
Time for people who cant see past their own petty agendas to remove themselves from the issue and debate so that people with genuine considerations for junior sport can get on with providing proper, enjoyable and safe environments for kids to play sport in.
No Councillor with any regards for ethics or integrity should consider anything people such as Brendan put forward without first getting both sides of the story. If they do so they will discover a petty small minded individual that is quite happy to penalize hundreds of juniors in sport to achieve a pathetic individual agenda and grudge.
MODERATORS: we’ve decided to put this comment up in toto for 3 reasons.
1. It reveals more about the values of this author and his failure to address the central issues of the post rather than the target of his comments.
2. We are also confident that “Brendan” can do his own defending if he feels it necessary to do so.
3. The angst that the Warriors versus McKinnon allocations have caused in Glen Eira is unforgivable. The cause of all this MUST BE LEVELLED AT THE FEET OF THOSE COUNCILLORS who simply allowed such a situation to occur. We ask again – when will these councillors take control and actually govern in the interests of this community and relegate officers to their rightful place – as hired employees!!!!!!!
March 3, 2013 at 10:08 PM
I know of many Glen Eira residents who are members of Waverley basketball so the fact that mostly Oakleigh residents use the GESAC doesn’t really bother me. What does bother me is an administration that goes from disaster to disaster without intervention by Councillors. McLean and Gibbs on the audit committee for over 15 years is a disgrace and a slap in the face of true governance. Sacked Councillors becoming Mayors and riding roughshod over residents who chose to make their views public in a petition is another disgrace. Finally an administration headed by the (MODERATORS: phrase deleted) means Glen Eira is going nowhere fast.