Here are some questions for residents to consider:
- Why are so many decisions in Glen Eira City Council made in secret?
- Why is the community voice so often ignored?
- Why are the principles of good governance in terms of open and transparent decision making repeatedly abused and perverted?
- Why does this council consistently resort to spin, obfuscation instead of disseminating the truth in an open and honest fashion? Why are they so scared of the truth?
- Why is this the only council in the state not to accord its councillors true democratic process via its meeting procedures?
- Why do public questions so often go astray?
- Why are there no community representatives on the vast majority of advisory committees?
- Why is there no real ‘debate’ in council chambers but far too often the mere rubber stamping of officer recommendations?
- Why do councillors accept sub-standard reporting from officers?
- Why has Newton’s position never been advertised?
- AND THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION – WHO STANDS TO GAIN THE MOST FROM ALL OF THE ABOVE AND THE CULTURE THAT IS NOW ENTRENCHED IN GLEN EIRA COUNCIL?
Glen Eira Debates 
August 16, 2013 at 12:37 PM
With regard advertising the CEO’s position, you know that you are not by Law required to do so.The Councillors of this City are acting in accord with the Local Govt Act.This is a non issue.
August 16, 2013 at 2:01 PM
Complying with one section of LGA is not the same as complying with the entire Act. In the case of the last reappointment of the CEO, it can be argued that there were multiple breaches. It was certainly done without transparency. The decision was not made by Council but by the CEO Contractual Arrangements Special Committee acting with delegated authority. A first attempt to subvert democratic process had to be aborted, and the second attempt led to a committee of 8 in which Cr Penhalluriack was very carefully excluded. Now try finding the Minutes of each meeting of that Special Committee and the “relevant reports or a summary of the relevant reports considered in the decision making process”.
Everything was done in secret, with no information to substantiate the public claims made by the then-Mayor, Cr Esakoff, about the process and outcome. Council consciously went out of its way to subvert the provisions of LGA concerning transparency and accountability, and this is on top of previous process failures (eg 2005 that contributed to the sacking of Council including Crs Hyams and Esakoff). Personally, I don’t agree that the CEO’s KPIs are secret. Maybe it could be argued his performance against the KPIs should be private, but not the assessment criteria.
August 16, 2013 at 12:51 PM
An old saying has it that fish start stinking from the head. This is the issue in a nutshell in Glen Eira. The Local Government Act also gives councillors the power to advertise the position. This has never been exercised with Newton. It is the issue and the only one that can remove the stench.
August 16, 2013 at 2:49 PM
If I was making over $300000 year in year out then all stops would be out to keep this going. Throw a few crumbs here and there to some others and its laughing all the way to the bank.
August 16, 2013 at 3:40 PM
Every shred of formalised procedure or mechanism that could assist people has been eroded over the years. Planning is the highlight of course. Councillors see only a miniscule number of applications; delegated planning committees produce no minutes and make their decisions after hearing the few objectors able to be present during working hours within the next half hour; at council meetings no one can speak and the accompanying recommendations are woefully biased and inadequate. I shouldn’t forget that these reports are only available on the Friday before the council meeting. Again very little time to “lobby” and get hold of councillors. Even if councillors vote against an application the game is lost since vcat mostly goes on officer recommendations.
The questions raised in the post are valid. Comparing what council was like years ago to now is a salutary lesson on how to stifle both public debate and influence. Councillors are included here. I keep asking myself how many more scandals and outrages have to happen before something is done to finally and irrevocably change the culture of council and its chief protagonists. All the spin in the world will not change my view that there is much that needs to alter in order to fulfill the stated charter – that is, serving the people in an honest, open and transparent fashion.
August 16, 2013 at 4:26 PM
I think it will go this way:
Lipshutz Reappoint
Delahunty Reappoint
Sounnes Advertise
Esakoff Advertise
Okotel Advertise
Pilling Advertise
Hyams Advertise
Lobo Reappoint
Magee Reappoint
August 16, 2013 at 7:23 PM
Mary D is a worry. Lobo is a lost cause and Sounness doesn’t know if he’s Arthur or Martha. Pilling blows with the wind and accepts what’s put in front of him. Magee does what suits Magee best. Okotel, Hyams, Esakoff and Lipshutz will continue supporting the bugger.
August 16, 2013 at 8:48 PM
Deals have been done with the Greens. Newton reappointed for 3 years. Looks like we are going to have to change the wattage of the street lights to low vis. The crims will love it.
August 17, 2013 at 7:38 AM
Where to for Glen Eira? The answer is further down the gurgler – not sure where rock bottom is but we have to be close or may even have passed it and be in the process of defining a new depth,.
Council’s handling of the new planning zones proves it. Council claims to actively involve residents in Council decisions yet when it comes to the reform zones, which Mayor Hyams described as the “biggest change in planning in the history of Glen Eira”, Council has actively sought to exclude any resident input.
Mayor Hyams justification for this exclusion is a 2010 consultation and his belief that nothing significantly different would have come out of a consultation on the zones. He may possibly be correct on the no significant difference aspect – not because Council has been addressing the issues but because Council has been continually ignoring them for over a decade and would only continue to do so.
The only difference between the zones consultation and any other consultation undertaken by Council is how blatant this total disregard for residents has become. A behind closed doors decision to exclude residents and even two weeks after the announcement has been made they won’t release the actual documents until everything is set in concrete so that resident opposition/questioning is cut off at the knees.
August 17, 2013 at 1:10 PM
Annonymous 6 A – Please expand on each category that you have put the councillors in i.e. Mary D is a worry etc.
What attributes are you looking out for in a Councillor? In that case, why do you not become a Councillor? Is it because of the peanut salary that they get i.e.$25K per year? If you are a man, put your hands up in the next local elections or better still if you apply for one of the community consultation reps that the council has advertised. Yes, I have already put in an application as I intend facing the committee’s and correcting them where necessary. If you are just having fun as your friend Richard cranium does whenever required, you time would be well spent in entertaining your Richard and stop being judgemental. Human being are not useless creation.