The following two pages appear in the agenda items for Tuesday night’s council meeting. They pinpoint very clearly the sheer incompetence of this administration and its councillors – plus the ongoing ‘born to rule’ mentality of the MRC. Many issues need to be investigated and fully reported on – namely:
- What has Council done in the past 4 years to ensure that the Clayton’s ‘agreement’ is in fact bona fide and worth the paper it is written on?
- Council in 2011 published an ‘agreement’ signed only by Newton. Why wasn’t this countersigned by the MRC or Trustees? What actions, if any, did council undertake to ensure this occurred?
- What representations, if any, has council and/or councillors made to MPs following the Auditor-General’s report?
- Were councillors told prior to Newton signing the non-existent ‘agreement’ that this still required the MRC’s signature?
- What further ‘information’ is likely to ‘come to hand’?
- What is the nature of the ‘discussions’ that have taken place between Council (and whoever was involved) and the MRC in the past 2 years? Why has there not been a single report tabled in regard to such meetings?
- We have been informed that the MRC is currently creating a Master Plan for the centre of the Racecourse? What involvement has council had with this? If none, then why not? If yes, then why the ‘secrecy’?
CONCLUSIONS
We can only conclude from all this that:
- there is NO AGREEMENT!
- that residents have been dudded
- that administration and councillors have allowed this situation to drag on to the detriment of all.
Glen Eira Debates 
August 7, 2015 at 1:16 PM
While Council is busy noting the report and the utter incompetence and neglect of the Administration (failure to follow up) and Councillors (failure to provide the legally required oversight) I recommend they also undertake a review of the removal of the racecourse perimeter fencing agreement.
Removal of the perimeter fencing will likely be the same story of incompetence and neglect on the part of the Administration and Councillors so it would save a lot of time and ratepayers funds if they combine the two.
August 7, 2015 at 3:06 PM
The phrasing by the MRC is frankly, ingenious. “Final signed version” is appropriately vague. Who knows if this refers to the signed 2008 version of the agreement or the 2011 unsigned version? The latter dropped all reference to training and there has been a raging silence on this forever more. Convenient to all parties no doubt.
MPs are laying off too. The only solution is a Royal Commission and for starters they need to look very carefully at council’s involvement in all of this and the way the special committee was engineered. The whole thing stinks and the stench increases with every application put up by the club.
August 7, 2015 at 4:23 PM
Congratulations to Burkie, for the first time, ever he has produced a report that is devoid of spin.
True is it also devoid of any thing that is meaningful or informative (eg. a summation, and the significance, of this long standing controversial issue or a copy of Council’s communication to the MRC or any plan of action) but that’s only a by-product of him assiduously avoiding including any spin. It must have taken a tremendous effort on his part.
August 7, 2015 at 7:24 PM
Yet another truly substandard officer’s report.
1. You made a request
2. We sent a letter which we are not showing you
3. We received an answer which we are showing you
4. Let’s file it
Forget about mentioning that the Caulfield Racecourse was undeniably created to serve three separate yet equal purposes of racecourse, public park and public recreation ground. Valued at approx. 2 billion dollars, this primely located public land has been so inadequately managed by the Trustees that over past 20 odd years it’s been commandeered by racing and denied to the public. The Auditor General (September, 2014) stated how badly it had been managed and identified it’s 54 ha’s as being allocated
. 11 ha leased by the racing industry (for a pittance that the Trustees return to the club).
. 37 ha used by racing without any legal right or claim
. 6 ha that is difficult to access and comprises facilities which don’t meet the needs of community is available to the public.
Council periodically takes a swing at the Melbourne Racing Club and enters into agreements with the Club that are unenforceable to appease the residents. As typified by the above – that is considered job done until the next time CEO Newton thinks the residents once again need appeasing.
The AG’s report was daming so what is Council doing about it
August 8, 2015 at 7:53 AM
Good god, they get Linda Smith from Youth Services to write the letter to the MRC, that shows how seriously Newton take this issue. Anyone who has ever had the displeasure of dealing with Ms. Linda Smith will know what I mean
August 8, 2015 at 12:47 PM
Noise noise noise
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