Glen Eira Debates

December 15, 2014

7 Responses to “It Can Be Done!”

1. Anonymous Says:

   
   December 15, 2014 at 5:55 PM

   Of course it can!

   It’s actually very poor business practice to continually re-appoint the same people without going to the market to ascertain whether they are the best available. And those holding the positions shouldn’t feel threatened by the competition. Unless they feel their flaws might be exposed of course.
2. D.Evans Says:

   
   December 15, 2014 at 6:38 PM

   Mornington Peninsula councillors have more sense and courage than Glen Eira’s poor lot. It has taken a while but the end result can only be positive. No position should ever be seen as a job for life with the incumbent never exposed to competition from his peers.
3. Anonymous Says:

   
   December 15, 2014 at 7:40 PM

   All senior positions should be advertised at the end of the contract. Akehurst, Burke, Swabey and the rest have been there forever. The whole lot needs a good clean out.
4. anon Says:

   
   December 15, 2014 at 8:00 PM

   I’m glad someone got something to be excited about, while we in GE have the rather drab old boring Newton
5. I. Hertzog Says:

   
   December 16, 2014 at 9:41 AM

   Andrew Newton was appointed, via an unadvertised, in house promotion, circa 2002/3. Since then he has been re-appointed many times, all of which have been unadvertised. His last unadvertised re-appointment (in 2013) was for 5 years – taking him up to 2018 while the current encumbent Councillors (responsible for this last and longest reappointment) terms expire in 2016. As is typical of this Council the reappointment did not provide any opportunity for community input and merely involved the presentation of a signed contract. No justification was presented for the length of the re-appointment and the justification for reappointment being he is the “best available”. No list of achievements or details performance assessment were presented (what are his key performance indicators???). Without an open and transparent appointment process being undertaken one wonders how Councillors would know the calibre of candidates who were available and be able to determine “best available”.

   Looking around at Glen Eira today, I see a municipality that was once desirable (late 90’s) has become average – name any Glen Eira suburb that makes it to any current “best” suburb listing. Is he the man with the vision to lead Glen Eira into the future? Judging by past performance, I sincerely doubt it – and certainly his length of tenure (without the additional 4 years remaining on his contract) already exceeds the norm for CEO’s of private or public entities. His supposed “commitment” to the community is not reflected by attendance at Council held community events (even as a background figure).

   Objectively look around at both Glen Eira and surrounding Municipalities – all have been subjected to the same population growth pressures, the same State Government planning guidelines and the same vagaries of VCAT – yet the differences are clear. In all areas, where Council is the responsible authority, you’ll see stark contrasts. Other Municipalities have less developments, have properly landscaped developments which are scaled back to be less dominant and respect the neighbourhood character, have retained heritage buildings (especially in areas earmarked for growth), have retained mature trees and vegetation on private and public (parks and streets) land, have way way better traffic and parking management (on main roads and residential streets), have new parkland projects (that they purchased), have existing parkland that is largely devoid of pavilions, concrete paving and plinths and one heck of lot less street dumpings and their prompt removal.

   Much criticism has also been made of Newton’s dominance in the management of the Municipality and the Newtonian rules that Councillors (those legally responsible for the management of the municipality) have willingly agreed to abide by. While others are better able to comment upon these governance issues, please note that the differences highlighted above did not happen overnight – they are the result of years of disregard and will take years of concerted effort to redress. As the long term CEO, Newton bears significant responsibility for their occurrence and also for Glen Eira’s failure to adopt new concepts (well documented, developed and tested) that have been successfully implemented by other Councils. Ergo, the earlier question of “is he the man with the vision to lead Glen Eira in the future?”
   1. Macca Says:

      
      December 16, 2014 at 10:19 AM

      Quite a number of similarities b/w Kennedy and Newton. Ombudsman’s reports for starters; questions about governance and community dissatisfaction with continued reappointment. No doubt both went to the same pen pushers school.
6. Anonymous Says:

   
   December 16, 2014 at 12:10 PM

   not to mention this is the man that stage managers the sacking of any council that stands up to his suspect management. The Libs councillors want him because he is one of them. The others councillors are moral cowards as well as political dunces

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