We are being inundated with photographs and comments about what is going on in Glen Eira streets. None of them is complimentary and each highlights the incompetence, stupidity and failure of this council to ensure safety within the public realm. We remind readers that council’s Road Safety Policy expired in 2012. Two years later, we’re still waiting for its reincarnation.
In this post we feature signage that is meant to warn drivers of road works – except that the genius who erected the sign ensured that it was hidden behind a tree making the warning invisible. When this resident notified Council (and we quote from the email) – The response was simply (without explanation) we won’t be moving it. I really do worry that our ratepayers dollars are being wasted on morons like the officer who is either mind blowingly stubborn. Or just plain stupid.
The second set of images belong again to the corner of Kokarrib and Neerim Roads. The accompanying comment read – It forces people onto roads unprotected, with poor visibility, at a very busy place that services a supermarket. If this is “to the satisfaction of the responsible authority”, then GECC needs a boot up the arse.
December 11, 2014 at 9:22 AM
On one hand I agree that Council’s failure to adopt a road safety strategy is yet another serious failure to fulfill it’s legal and moral obligations to residents, however, on the other hand I am glad that the 2008 Road Safety Strategy has sunk into oblivion.
That particular strategy (which was recycled year after year with only statistics being updated) was
. not proactive – rather than outlining a strategy of identifying and implementing improvements to “hot spots”, it preferred instead to wait for 3 casualty incidents within a 5 year period to occur before advocating action.
. it recognised that the speed indicating trailer was totally ineffective but since Council already had it and it cost little to operate, it served the purpose of giving residents the impression that something was being done
. residents complaints re speed, volume and/or safety issues were dismissed as being a request to waste money and it was much better to have an assessment system – after all Council only budgeted for 4 traffic management treatments per year. Shame the strategy failed to provide detailed info on the assessment system or why Council, faced with dramatically increasing traffic volumes and “rat runs” did not increase the number of budgeted traffic management treatments.
. in general, the language was dismissive of and derogatory to residents.
(Moderators – you should provide a link to it so residents can read it for themselves).
Council’s last 2 budgets includes a significant chunk of ratepayers change being spent on a traffic study (which involves the revival of the LATM (Local Area Traffic Management) system which, although highly regarded in traffic management circles, Council has let languish as it preferred to review one street at a time. The LATM system recognises the fluidity of traffic and parking – ie. a change in one street flows on to impact surrounding streets, therefore, the impact on the local street network as a whole must be considered. The one street at a time approach, rather than resolving the issue, simply transfers it to next street (fix one, address the other later).
While some may take comfort from knowing something is being done, one has to wonder just when the residents, with their grass roots knowledge of traffic and parking, will be permitted to have input into the statistical analysis prepared by the Council’s subcontracted out traffic department. A department that, as a result of statistical analysis, when reviewing each high density planning permit application, continually states that
. there will be “no adverse impact” and
. a short narrow street (eg. Belsize Avenue, Carnegie, which is reduced to a tight one lane only when cars are parked on each side – everyday!) can have handle the increase in traffic caused by the 4 storey, 45 unit development (and incidentally the other 100 other units yet to be constructed units). with ease.
December 11, 2014 at 10:10 AM
did anyone speak to the council or councillors about Kokaribb ? What did they say? Or is it a problem getting through the switch? hopefully they have one of their thousand employees looking at GE wordpress!
December 11, 2014 at 11:10 AM
No shortage of examples when it comes to this council’s needless wasting of public money and all due to lack of common sense. Within a 100 metres of our place we’ve had – (1) drain cover replaced 4 times because garbage trucks couldn’t turn so they ran over the concrete cover and smashed it. It took the fifth go for them to realise that they needed a steel and not a concrete lid. (2) a keep left sign on a traffic island in a very narrow street. This got knocked over 3 times and replaced each time. Took them three goes to get the message that the turning circle was so tight that this would keep happening if the sign was replaced. There’s no sign there now. Don’t think there was ever the need for a sign given the surrounding conditions. Would love to know how much all these replacements cost instead of getting it done properly the first time around.
December 11, 2014 at 11:17 AM
I have been a ratepayer in the Caulfield/Glen Eira municipality for over 40 years and have noticed have unresponsive the administrators have become to ratepayer requests. And how overbearing they can be in circumstances when they want something done,
Have a tree intruding onto the footpath and demands come quickly. Yet their trees are regularly not pruned to safe standards.
Especially the last 10 years where they have become a law unto themselves.
With elected officials who are not prepared to take them on I can’t see things changing unless there is a ratepayer rebellion.
December 11, 2014 at 12:43 PM
Anyone noticed the similarity between Councillors and the Trustees of the Caulfield Racecourse Reserve – both of them have failed in their duty of oversight, just accept what ever is presented to them and neither are open and transparent.
Only difference I can see is that Council meets more often and lets the public in so that it can go through the open and transparent sham. Trustees as least make not pretense.
December 11, 2014 at 1:24 PM
Most of over-development examples and administrative bungles come now from the Rosstown Ward. Yet this ward has always returned Councillors that are much more pro development and pro administration then Councillors from Camden or Tucker Wards. Carnegie, Ormond and Murrumbeena has been earmarked for development since at least 2002.
So, unless people from Carnegie, Murrumbeena, Ormond, Glen Huntly and parts of Caulfield South are prepared to vote in Councillors that are different you can forget about residents having a say in Council affairs. It is a little surprising that pro-development and conservative Councillors are being elected in this ward time after time, since most of the area belongs to Oakleigh district returning Labor politicians for the State parliament. No Labor affiliated or independent Councillor has been elected in Rosstown Ward. Any reason why?
December 11, 2014 at 11:10 PM
yeh, what about Pilling he was a Green and ended up voting with the Liberal Party
December 12, 2014 at 12:16 PM
yeh, that’s my point. What about him? A turncoat or serving his own purpose?
December 13, 2014 at 9:47 AM
Hope for Ross Town at the moment is Cr Karina, residents depend on her. Pilling is empty. Greens have realised that he has contravened Green policy. Pilling in next election will be booted. Pathetic
December 13, 2014 at 11:07 AM
They are in big trouble if looking to Okotel for support – she’s a dead loss.
She voted for the zones to be implemented without community consultation.
Then unbelievably at the recent residents organised planning forum (160+ frustrated and angry residents attending), stressed the importance of residents expressing their views to Councillors. When it was pointed out to her that that was exactly what the attendees were doing (and had done so in the local and state media) and was asked for her commitment to residents, all she could do was say, without any form of substantiation, that the advice she had received was that “changes would only make it worse”. Followed by a repetition of the importance of expressing views to Council.
Needless to say, residents described her performance as a great example of inadequate representation.
December 11, 2014 at 2:58 PM
I’ve added the photo of the tree obscuring the sign to my Facebook page. What a classic! And to think the joker who made that clown-line decision is probably on $150k.
I’ll add my voice to the disinchantment at the way ratepayers are treated by council these days. If you get past the Service Centre and get to a boffin you are invariably treated as an interruption and rarely have your issue satisfactorily resolved. Seeking councillor help is a waste of time as the admin have them sorted.
The amount of money wasted on unnecessary roadworks is scandalous.
December 11, 2014 at 4:48 PM
Re ratepayers being treated with contempt by officers – you’ll be pleased to know that Cr. Lipshutz is fond of saying that Councillors only have one employee and that is the CEO whom they appoint. Ergo it follows that while ratepayers are footing the bill for their salaries the culture is such that the officers all work for the CEO and not the ratepayers.
Pretty sorry state of affairs if you ask me.
December 11, 2014 at 3:41 PM
Nothing surprising in the council treating ratepayers with contempt.
Just why council would place a sign in that spot when there is a clearance a little further up is beyond me.
December 11, 2014 at 3:53 PM
The same moron must have put in the signs for speed humps along McKinnon road. Some are less than 5 metres from the hump. If you don’t know the road and especially at night you would hit the sign before the message had time to register. There must be a prerequisite of an IQ of 65 in order to work for Glen Eira Council.
December 11, 2014 at 5:31 PM
Think if you have an IQ above your shoe size you’re in.(:
We need a management consultancy firm to do a thorough audit. That won’t happen while we have the current bunch of councillors who are happy to collect their allowance, attend mandated meetings and do little else to change the status quo.
Until we get people of calibre to stand for council in order to shake things up the mediocrity and poor standards that are in vogue will continue.
December 11, 2014 at 8:14 PM
The same moron filled in his section of the customer service log as “satisfactorily completed” – he’s not that big a moron!!!
December 11, 2014 at 10:16 PM
Some might suggest that’s further primary evidence for the prosecution!!!
December 11, 2014 at 10:54 PM
We’ve reported on this over the years – and nothing appears to have changed. So, for your interest, here are some facts and figures comparing Glen Eira staffing and costs with our neighbouring councils. All figures are taken from the various Annual Reports.
Glen Eira has 1373 staff. This does not include contractors. 25 SENIOR OFFICERS RECEIVING OVER $133,000 (INCLUDES 5 OVER $230,000)
BAYSIDE – 704 staff and 21 over $130,000
KINGSTON – 1450 staff – 26 senior officers and only 2 over $230,000
MONASH – 1094 staff – 2 over $230,000
Top heavy as per usual in Glen Eira!
December 12, 2014 at 7:03 AM
There are two fundamental issues here and both come back to the need for a thorough external review of management operations and practices.
One is the structure and staffing. Which includes answering the question – why all senior positions aren’t taken to the market as each contract expires. We’ve not so long ago seen Newton re-appointed without that occurring. He may be the best candidate in which case he and the council should have no qualms about going to the market.
The second is the treatment of ratepayers. With almost disdain in some circumstances. This is something that has become quite pervasive. I’m sure there are many dedicated officers who take their jobs seriously as they do ratepayer requests. I fear they are in the vast minority however.
I was speaking to a council employee recently who said the standard of staff supervision is generally appalling. He said he could work at half pace and no-one would notice. It annoys him that he is dedicated and earns his income while he sees so many who, in his words, “don’t want to work”.
In the end it comes back to those we elect. They are the ones who are responsible for the seemingly bloated bureaucracy; the general lowering of standards; the poor responsiveness when it comes to ratepayer complaints or requests; the wastefulness (nowhere more obvious than roadworks) – and so it goes.
We won’t get a proper external efficiency audit until the council changes as the old hands who run the show are beholden to the administration. Either that or the appointment of an Administrator prepared to call in management consultants to do a root and branch review.
December 12, 2014 at 7:20 AM
To add a little detail
Bayside – 2009 population 96,329, area 36 sqkm,
Kingston – 2009 population 147,214, area 91 sqkm
Monash – 2009 population 176,069, 81.5 sqkm
Glen Eira – 2011 population 131,013, area 38.7 sqkm
Unfortunately, Glen Eira Council has frequently been critcised for retaining a culture of the “more staff reporting to you, the more important you are”.
Though the staff and salary data combined with the above may be simplistic, “gut feel” says it would be supported by detailed analysis
December 11, 2014 at 11:39 PM
So, someone has made a new footway by putting up a barrier on the road, then someone has come along and stopped people using either, whilst impeding the motor traffic for no apparent reason, is this what the pictures of a thousand word tells us.
I for one, can not understand the logic behind this behavoir.
If I was forced to guess the reason why, it would be to say, it looks like an insurance demarcation dispute between two intransigence belligerents, shirtfronting each other on who going to foot the liability bill, whilst the safety of the general public comes in at a distant second place to the smoldering ego’s of these belligerents wankers
December 12, 2014 at 9:56 AM
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/central/caulfield-village-green-space-sales-video-contradicts-councils-open-space-woes/story-fngnvlpt-1227152661836
December 12, 2014 at 1:17 PM
Just adding to the saga of the hidden sign.
The road works to which the hidden sign refers affect a small shopping centre. A small shopping centre in the lead-up to Christmas. The shop keepers businesses were being so adversely affected by the road works being done during their busiest time of year (astounded at the appalling planning too) they kicked-up such a stink they forced a cessation of work until after the busy period. Much to council’s chagrin.
So much for prudent forward planning.
December 12, 2014 at 3:22 PM
I overheard a shopkeeper venting. If windows at White Hall had been open they would have nearly heard it.
As a Bundeera Road resident where most of the works took place none of us know why they were done. One said it was money looking for a project.
December 12, 2014 at 8:59 PM
Have you noticed in the picture a 3 storey building in the NRZ zone, or perhaps it is an MUZ zone? Can anyone tell?
December 13, 2014 at 12:35 PM
It is zoned C1Z, no height limit, no amenity standards according to VCAT.
December 13, 2014 at 1:10 PM
stir like hell Says:
December 11, 2014 at 1:24 PM
Most of over-development examples and administrative bungles come now from the Rosstown Ward. Yet this ward has always returned Councillors that are much more pro development and pro administration then Councillors from Camden or Tucker Wards. Carnegie, Ormond and Murrumbeena has been earmarked for development since at least 2002.
So, unless people from Carnegie, Murrumbeena, Ormond, Glen Huntly and parts of Caulfield South are prepared to vote in Councillors that are different you can forget about residents having a say in Council affairs. It is a little surprising that pro-development and conservative Councillors are being elected in this ward time after time, since most of the area belongs to Oakleigh district returning Labor politicians for the State parliament. No Labor affiliated or independent Councillor has been elected in Rosstown Ward. Any reason why?
This is worth repeating.
Until we as residents are prepared to vote in councillors who are willing to take on the officials, nothing will change.
It’s no easy task, mind you, as they have the knowledge and information on which councillors depend and it’s far easier to collect your money and go with the flow.
The administration has way too much power. That is why they so often ride roughshod over residents and make mind numbing decisions even a primary school kid could fathom is dumb like placing a traffic sign behind a tree.
The administration know most residents either have no interest or are ambivalent and trade on that inertia.
I’m one who advocates the right of recall for elected officials whereby an electorate can petition to trigger a vote on the suitability of an existing elected representative to continue in office.
But that would actually require an active and involved community and -sadly – we don’t have one in the City of Glen Eira.
December 14, 2014 at 3:18 PM
Anyone notice all the leaves in the gutter near the hidden sign. Our street cleaning dollars at work!