From: COkotel@gleneira.vic.gov.au
To:
Subject: Automatic reply:
Date:
Thank you for your correspondence.
If your email is addressed to multiple councillors, it will be responded to by the first-named councillor on behalf of those who have been emailed. If you are unhappy with council’s response, please let me know.
If I am the first-named councillor that you have emailed, I will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible.
Warm regards
Cr Karina Okotel
Glen Eira Debates 
November 4, 2013 at 11:54 PM
Definitely a vote wasted here.
What this is telling me is that if you send an email to multiple Councillors (there are 3 per ward) on any topic or issue and don’t put Okotel’s name first then she is happy for whoever is first on the list to respond on her behalf even though she doesn’t have a clue about who is first on the list or the topic.
Pretty pathetic but the absurdity is further compounded by the “all is saved” comment that if this makes you “ünhappy”” (also known as totally p*ssed off), then you can send her another email (make sure you put her first) and she will “endeavour” to get back to you a.s.a.p.
Twelve months in the job and such a display of dedication – unquestionably it warrants “sinking the slipper” (the bigger the better).
November 5, 2013 at 12:05 AM
The Council encourages you to contact the Council via e-mail. I have found E-mail to be the most indirect inefficient way of communicating with the Council.
Now I fax personally addressed letters and follow up with a phone call if I don’t receive a response within two weeks.
November 5, 2013 at 8:25 AM
Dear Glen Eira
I am confused here.
Unless something has changed overnight and having been on the Council for the last 4 years, the practise is and has been for the Mayor to respond on behalf of the Council.
Perhaps, I am a Rip Van Winkle.
November 5, 2013 at 10:35 AM
And what if the Mayor isn’t on the list?
Perhaps you better start questioning the practise – because if you are all happy to leave all mail/email to the Mayor (or anyone else) then you have to wonder why you are even there.
November 5, 2013 at 12:21 PM
Whether the practice has been used for 4 years or more is completely irrelevant, this reasoning is floored.
If the e-mail is addressed to multiple Councillors it implies that the person who initiated the correspondence is seeking the opinions of multiple Councillors not just “the first named.”
On the occasion that the person is explicitly requesting the opinion of the Council, then the Councillor should refer them to the e-mail address of the Council.
November 5, 2013 at 9:48 AM
Quite frankly, there is no point in writing to councillors. Okotel’s email makes it abundantly clear that no councillor will express a personal opinion on anything, and never in writing. The voice of uniformity is all that matters or the line that excuses all councillors – “I am advised”.
November 5, 2013 at 1:55 PM
Councillors are reluctant and fearful of publishing a personal opinion. This e-mail is almost an admission that individual Councillors feel that the resources provided to them are inadequate, and Councillors are fearful they may express an opinion that is inconsistent with the views of the Council.
If Councillors feel that the resources provided to them are inadequate, they must unquestionably rely on the opinions expressed by the Council.
Okotel is a quintessential head nodder.
November 5, 2013 at 8:52 PM
Okotel will only earn some respect when she stops being Esakoff’s ventriloquist’s dummy.
November 6, 2013 at 6:35 AM
Not an illustrious start