Ineptitude or More Hoodwinking?

We’ve reported ad nauseum on the failure of this administration to provide accurate, comprehensive, and timely information to both residents and councillors. This post focuses on the regular ‘VCAT Watch’ that appears in every council meeting agenda. We’ve already commented on the fact that there is no complete record of DPC decision making in contrast to what other councils provide their communities. The Glen Eira version of reporting on VCAT cases is equally deficient and misleading.

Every agenda item is entitled ‘VCAT WATCH – (monthly) Decisions’ – where the current month’s name is inserted. Any reasonable person would then expect that what is contained in this watch does in fact represent the decisions made by VCAT for that particular month. As we will show, nothing could be further from the truth! But first, here’s how some other councils do it –

Boroondara provides regular tables outlining results according to ward. These are comprehensive, so that residents know the ‘success’ or ‘failure’ of each appearance at VCAT plus whether the decision to grant or deny the permit was made by council or under delegation. (Click to enlarge).

Bayside also includes a list, and then a full report on each decision where residents can again see the tabulated form of success or failure.

Glen Eira in contrast relies on its ‘VCAT WATCH’ where often very selective editing accompanies the ‘summary’ of the VCAT decision. We’ve taken the trouble to go through all ‘VCAT WATCHES’ FROM February 2012 to February 2013. The results are fascinating in that:

Not one single judgement has occurred when it is stated it did occur. Once a decision has been made the applicant, council, and objectors are notified that day by email. There is absolutely no excuse that a judgement which was handed down in say November 2012, does not feature until February 2013 – even though the tag line for the February agenda item states ‘February Decisions’. Let’s have a little honesty shall we, and simply label this as ‘past VCAT decisions’!
Not all VCAT decisions are reported. Why not, if this is meant to be genuine and honest feedback to councillors and residents? For example: in August 2012 there are 9 VCAT decisions listed on the VCAT website. Council only reported on 4 of these decisions. What happened to the other five? Why weren’t these included and reported upon? This trend is also evident for the following months – April 2012 – Glen Eira reported on 3 out of 7; November 2012 – 4 out of 5; October – 6 out of 7.
Nowhere does Glen Eira report on its ‘success rate’ at VCAT. Residents do not know the total figures, as they do with other councils, nor how many decisions are upheld, set aside, varied.

Below is our table of the VCAT WATCH from council minutes. The first column lists the applicant (or objector); the second column the date the decision was handed down and the last column lists the date that Council reported the decision. In practically every case there was at least one council meeting in the intervening period when the result could have been reported upon. It shouldn’t take 3 months to get something onto the agenda and then pretend it is current!

Highland properties	15^th November 2011	7^th February 2012
Long plan printing	4^th November 2011	7^th February 2012
B Central	1^st December 2011	7^th February 2012
Gold investments	25^th November 2011	7^th February 2012
Bilic homes	Not listed on vcat	7^th February 2012
Healy & Gold	20^th January 2012	28^th February 2012
Arch	28^th December 2011	28^th February 2012
Blue Wolf	22^nd December 2011	28^th February 2012
Sharp	8^th February 2012	20^th March 2012
Malina	22^nd February	20^th March 2012
Bayside building	Not on vcat website	20^th March 2012
Gillon	Not on vcat website	10 April 2012
Blint	Not on vcat website	10 April 2012
Malina	Not on vcat website	10 April 2012
Malina & business solutions	Not on vcat website	1^st May 2012
Imperium design	23^rd March 2012	1^st May 2012
Furman	22 March	1^st May 2012
Pascoe	12 april	22^nd May 2012
SilverArc	Not on vcat website	1^st May 2012
Anderson	30^th April 2012	12 June 2012
Bail	15^th May 2012	3^rd July 2012
Perkins	7^th May	3^rd July 2012
Poath rd	8^th May	3^rd July 2012
Architecture works	17^th May	3^rd July 2012
Tefillah	23^rd May	24^th July 2012
crb	4thJune	24^th July 2012
pbbs	6^th june	24^th July 2012
Booran rd	19^th june	24^th July 2012
Thermal	21^st June	14^th August 2012
IKONOMIDIS REID	26^th June	14^th August 2012
St wise	9^th August	4^th September 2012
Hta property	2^nd August	4^th September 2012
Brent Williams	8^th August	24^th September 2012
Smith	13^th August	24^th September 2012
Upside dental	4^th September	16^th October 2012
Vision 3	5^th September	16^th October 2012
284 Neerim Rd	18^th September	13^th November 2012
Trubuilt	24^th September	13^th November 2012
Hamilton	1^st October	13^th November 2012
Victoria Developments	8^th October	13^th November 2012
Malina	12 October 2012	27^th November 2012
Menory	18^th October 2012	27^th November 2012
Supreme Property Group	18^th October 2012	27^th November 2012
Visionary designs	25^th October 2012	18^th December 2012
campbell	26^th November 2012	5^th Feb 2013
sharp	27^th November 2012	5^th Feb 2013
pegasus	30^th November 2012	5^th Feb 2013
Carnegie apartments	10^th December 2012	5^th Feb 2013
Worotnicki	11^th December 2012	5^th Feb 2013
Linacre	23^rd November 2012	26^th Feb 2013
Mirmilstein	Not listed in vcat	26^th Feb 2013
Boston celtics	Not listed in vcat	26^th Feb 2013

What all this leads to are two possible conclusions – either there is vast incompetence or the failure to provide complete information is deliberate. Readers can make up their own minds. What is certain is that the processes and practices within Glen Eira’s reporting framework is well and truly below par and cannot be relied upon by anyone.

anon Says:

March 14, 2013 at 8:07 AM

Assuming your work is accurate this would be a legitimate issue for a councillor to raise with the CEO. Do any of them have the guts? If it is tardiness then how wide spread is it in other areas of the Councils work.
Love to be a fly on the wall in that department this morning.

Anonymous Says:

March 14, 2013 at 8:59 AM

A suggestion for the authors. Could you let us know what the outcomes of the decisions were for those that council neglected to mention.

Macca Says:

March 14, 2013 at 10:58 AM

Glen Eira is literally stuffed. If there’s no trust in the reports or stats that are put out by the admin then everybody should pack their bags and get out of the business of running a council. Slovenly work is one thing. Deception is something else. The entire planning department needs to quit or be shunted out.

March 14, 2013 at 1:00 PM

Ah, “never let the facts stand in the way of a good story”. The person in charge of publicity and PR is Paul Burke. He is also in charge of interpretation of Local Law to ensure Law and Order in the community, staff and Council. And he knows as his original background is ‘army, police services and Attorney-General’. So we have lawyer Councillors setting laws (including meeting procedures) and a ‘policeman’ operating them. It does not matter if those laws are not consistent with any other Councils or for that matter with State laws. Glen Eira Council is a ‘good place’ to live, and if you don’t like it go and live someplace else, like the directors.

Colin Says:

March 14, 2013 at 3:32 PM

It’s no big deal if vcat results aren’t published within a few weeks at the next council meeting. The big deal is that the truth isn’t being told and that people have to double check everything that comes out of council. I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them on anything they publish.

March 14, 2013 at 7:00 PM

Dump Newton and Burke and Glen Eira can move forward.

March 14, 2013 at 9:01 PM

i think glen eira is unique in having a ‘spokesperson’ Burke. other councils use the eo or the mayor for publicity and pr.

Anon Says:

March 24, 2013 at 9:37 AM

It takes a couple of months for vcat to make a decision – hence the delay. I’m assuming only decisions which are worth mentioning are put in the reports – otherwise this section would be very long. All vcat decisions are on the vcat website so there isn’t much point in hiding them!

gleneira Says:

March 24, 2013 at 11:12 AM
If you check today’s VCAT site (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/vic/VCAT/recent.html) you will see that the latest decision is the 13th March and also that the member handed down the decision on this very day! the hearing for this first decision was the 12th Feb – in fact, most decisions take less than 3 weeks to bring down. Council receives immediate notification of the decision.

If only ‘decisions …worth mentioning’ are in the council reports, then the titles for the items should not state “January/February/March decisions”. In addition, if you check the vcat site only about 6 to 8 decisions per month pertain to Glen Eira. Hardly a mountain of information to comment upon! Finally, not all decisions are placed on the vcat website. Whether this is because there has been a request for ‘confidentiality’ or the inefficiency of vcat is not known. The bottom line is that council is far from transparent yet attempts to give the impression that it is!

Glen Eira Debates