A resident has contacted us asking why Glen Eira ratepayers should be subsidising residents from other municipalities. This is not the first time this issue has raised its ugly head. Remember the GESAC basketball debacle when the ‘contract’ was awarded not to McKinnon Basketball Association but to what can be termed ‘outsiders’. Since then, all quiet on the western front – with no information as to whether all court time is now utilised as per ‘contract’ or whether ratepayers are still ‘subsidising’ the officer decision. Then there’s the issue of GESAC not recognising and providing a discount to countless ‘senior’ residents as other council pools do. And of course, each year admission and membership prices have gone up. Thus this resident’s query and ‘evidence’ presented below –
Hi there love your web site and the debates listed on there. I do have a great thing this so called council has been doing. I was at my grandmother’s place the other day who lives in Frankston and noticed that she had a letter from Glen Eira Council. Being a rate payer myself the curiosity got the better of me and had to have a look to see what it was. It was a bill for exercise classes. I questioned my grandmother what this was and she informed me that she goes to exercise classes some where in Bentleigh which is subsidised by the Council. My question is why as a rate payer are we subsidising people from other municipality to use Council services? I asked my grandmother if there were are clients that did not live in Glen Eira and she said there is quite a few in her class.
Glen Eira Debates 
August 2, 2015 at 11:40 AM
Good question, why is Council busy subsidising residents from other municipalities yet not subsidising those that are bearing cost providing the facility.
I suppose it’s the same warped logic that provides time restricted Council car parking around shopping areas (to encourage residents to shop locally and support the traders) then turns a blind eye to all the tradies (working on nearby apartment constructions), that park all day with impunity.
Best example – try to find a car park in either the Shepardson or Kookarib carparks in Carnegie.
August 2, 2015 at 3:07 PM
Was it not Dela aunty who promised McKinnon Basketball Association (MBA) that she would investigate why MBA was not given the contract and that she would reverse when the lease is overdue?
August 4, 2015 at 9:46 PM
GESAC is the home of the Oakleigh Warriors Big V team. Their marketing is poor with little growth, especially girls, since opening but the bills must be being paid and the courts are being used so congrats to GE admin and councillors for their vision. If only the ratepayers were as happy!
August 4, 2015 at 10:02 PM
The question surely is – who is paying the bills? The original allocation was ‘won’ on the basis of the Warriors handing over $4000 per week for 90 hours of court time. No report on hours, money, etc. has been tabled in the past 3 years. Residents have no idea whether:
1. The Warriors after all this time are filling up their 90 hours, or whether the courts are being hired out to individual groups to make up the shortfall
2. Has council been receiving the $4000 per week, – or are ratepayers subsidising the Warriors?
August 3, 2015 at 8:19 AM
The amount is insignificant and encouraging physical activity in seniors (regardless of where they live) is a good thing. But when local residents, who are footing the bill for the facility, are denied a seniors discount when they use that facility, then it’s probably time for a review of the management of the facility. Tip of the iceberg?
GESAC has always been controversial issue from it’s inception through to the heavily criticised and never explained long delayed opening and now to it’s management (eg. sporting facilities allocations and seniors discounts). It is a $45 million dollar investment (about half of Glen Eira’s annual income) and the “prudent fiscal management” required to repay the borrowings (terms unknown) is frequently (aka conveniently) used by Council to justify not acquiring additional open space or undertaking other capital works. Yet on the other hand, we are told it is paying for itself and is a rip roaring success.
Which version is correct? It’s impossible to tell as, despite it’s significance, there is no separate reporting for GESAC and therefore it gets lost in the total, although sometime it rates an occasional explanatory note. It really is time Council presented to residents detailed, auditable accounts for GESAC but the likelihood of that happening is zip.
August 3, 2015 at 7:03 PM
http://www.weekendnotes.com/caulfield-racecourse-public-recreation-reserve/