October 21, 2015
News Flash: Newton Resigns!!!!!!!
Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Governance, GE Service Performance[27] Comments
[27] Comments
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Glen Eira Debates
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October 21, 2015 at 2:26 PM
Hallelujah and glory be. Could be the best news of the past 15 years.
October 21, 2015 at 2:33 PM
Good riddance, to a man well out of his depth in dealing with any community related. Let pray to the God Almighty that Burke doesn’t apply for the job, that would be a disaster of Orwellian proportions.
October 21, 2015 at 3:26 PM
I applaud Newton’s decision to depart and believe that any organisation that gets him to work with them, as opposed to against them, will be very lucky indeed!!!!
October 21, 2015 at 3:30 PM
I know you shouldn’t speak ill of the departed but in this case it couldn’t happen to a more deserving bloke. Go Andrew and rest assured that residents will never thank you for your determination to have your own way all the time.
October 21, 2015 at 4:22 PM
I am surprised but extremely delighted with this development. Perhaps now the community might be able to achieve a council, under a new administration, that is there for residents. Newton’s reign has been a story of erosion after erosion of all precepts of good governance and I daresay very poor management. With some luck I sincerely hope that what has happened at Mornington Peninsula and the removal of countless senior staff under the new ceo will also occur in Glen Eira. A new brush is desperately required to sweep out all the rubbish and begin anew.
October 21, 2015 at 10:29 PM
correct
October 21, 2015 at 4:22 PM
Woo hoo….time for parties in the street. What a horrid man who has been at the helm as our council area and suburbs have gone down the gurgler!
Let’s hope the new CEO will be a person of integrity with respect for the community they are working for rather than a person with a clear distaste and disrespect for community members.
October 21, 2015 at 6:32 PM
Fantastic news. I’ll bring the champagne.
October 21, 2015 at 4:49 PM
Newton is getting out whilst he still has a shred of credibility left, even blind freddie can see his Newtonion ineptitude has left Glen Eira on brink of a unsustainable collapse.
Soaring population increases, with no worthwhile extra open space areas or facilities to cope, traffic management neglect that will take millions of dollars to ease, huge unsubstantiated investments in over the top sporting infrastructure, are just some.
His greatest legacy with be a angry divided community wrought through his pathetic planning policies. We will be paying for his asleep and wheel management for decades to come.
Lets hope his exit is immediate, the longer he stays on the more damage will be done.
Economic rationalism is not a science, it’s an outdated discredited ideology born by conservatives to asset strip generational wealth built by communities into the hands of political mates. And since Glen Eira has been well and truly stripped, its not surprising it’s time to move on.
Let’s hope this culture of bullying secrecy that has permeated Glen Eira civic culture moves-on with its master.
October 21, 2015 at 5:11 PM
You could be right on this. Before the proverbial shit hits the fan and reveals all the crap that has gone on under him, he leaves. The review of the zones will show what a disaster his planning was and still is and then there will be other ghosts to taint him. No longer god’s gift to management but someone who was the cause of countless investigations, ombudsman’s reports and millions down the drain to serve his ego. No kudos here to the dummies who kept appointing him. They must also go down with the ship.
October 21, 2015 at 6:46 PM
The challenge for Glen Eira lies ahead. Selecting a new ceo with the right values who is able to change the culture that has permeated every facet of the place will require an individual with great talent, perseverance, and integrity. That is pretty hard to find. It will be even harder if the Lipshutz and Hyams and Esakoffs and Pillings and Okotels and Magees and Lobos and Delahuntys and Sounness’s of this world are looking to duplicate and continue the anti democratic and anti community ethos that has run council for far too long. The next year leading up to the election should make for some wonderful headlines and reading.
October 21, 2015 at 7:27 PM
Coincidences or portents amuse me. Newton resigns today and in exactly one year from today we will be voting for 9 new councillors. How’s that for auguring well?
October 21, 2015 at 8:45 PM
I’m trying to figure out why a guy on $350,000+ at least decides to call it a day when he’s got another 3 years to go. Figure there are about 3 possible reasons – (1) the mrc has offered him a job. They are non-profit after all. On the mrc trustees would suit him down to the ground. (2) scared stiff about what’s coming with the new government breathing down his neck as a few insightful souls have already commented upon and then there’s always the possibility that he is crook or fed up with being the big fish in a tiny pond and is hankering for some bigger ponds to wallow in. I also hope that his crying to past municipal inspectors that staff morale is low and that if he goes they all go comes true. It would be wonderful to have some competent people at the top for a change.
October 21, 2015 at 8:49 PM
Oi Oi hold on there judges and jury. Like any human being Newton would certainly have drawbacks. Should’t the elected Councillors question, ask for more information, get community involved where required? more information etc before approving? Did you know that if any thing goes wrong the Councillors can be sent to jail and not the CEO and his direct reports? Hopefully, such comments will stop when the new CEO is chosen by the same Councillors. New CEO would be selected much before the next council election.
October 21, 2015 at 9:38 PM
I repeat what I said earlier. If these 9 councillors are to choose then the danger is they will repeat the mistakes of their past. The conservatives would love nothing better than to have a new ceo as their ally so that their plans continue and their power base remains secure. It would be sheer madness to give the new ceo 5 years to begin with. Your suggestion about getting the community involved is a good one – as long as it is not another Glen Eira consultation farce.
October 21, 2015 at 9:57 PM
Maybe the decision to refuse the MRC’s application to build towers in the racecourse is a threat of the things to come for his friends at ther MRC and he became scared. Maybee the green fence is to be removed!!!!!!!
October 21, 2015 at 10:29 PM
Newton will be remembered for Glen Eira’s rubbish lined streets, when he came to position, our streets were clean and tidy, by his end nothing but piles of rubbish on nearly every street, road and avenue. These ugly piles of rubbish are metaphors for the rubbish that lined his policies, strategies, and building projects. The air smells cleaner already.
October 21, 2015 at 10:29 PM
Yippeeee. Best ever early chrissie present
October 21, 2015 at 10:43 PM
The councillors should make clear to the incoming CEO, that his/hers first duty will be to rid us of Mr. Burke. Without Burke’s home base empire neutralized, any new CEO will be at Burkes want, maybe Burke will see the writing on the wall, pack his bag and leave with dignity, fingers crossed for post Caulfield cup the double.
I will put $100 down, and another 10 cents on his dignity
October 21, 2015 at 11:17 PM
I hate to be a bearer of bad news. Here is a word of caution. Autocratic democracy, of which Newton was presiding over, first rule is to ensure continuation of the power base it holds. As Newton states so eloquently and strategically “It would not be reasonable to make this change during 2016-17 in the lead up to the end of the Council Term or the induction of new Councillors in the next Council term.” Another words Councillors, here is your best chance to elect someone like me that you can work with and continue your policies, ideology, and world view regardless of the chancy results at the next election.
October 22, 2015 at 9:00 AM
councillors don’t have policy, they just rubber stamp the montions put before them
October 22, 2015 at 7:19 AM
The fiddler has jumped ship just before Glen Eira burns. And a good job too.
Gonna be a hard job to turn this ship around, changing the firmly entrenched culture of superiority of the Administration over residents that Newton has thrived on, is going to be a long hard battle.
Residents need to support this opportunity to make a change by ensuring that next years newly elected Councillors doesn’t include the old guard and instead includes Councillors who genuinely care about the community and have both the smarts to achieve the changes the community wants..
October 22, 2015 at 9:23 AM
It’s dead easy to change culture, replace Newton with a community responsive and progressive CEO, he sacks Burke, and then replace the heads of the departments.
We need is a good economic manager that also has community and democratic values. Caring for people will lead to worthwhile policy and change
Newton’s problem was he is an elitist conservative, these types are the born to rulers, democracy and lesser people just get their contempt, he believes the system is his personal ego-machine in place to protect his image and (MODERATORS: rest of sentence deleted) His type is not worthy of any respect or accolades.
His going away gift should be of a huge montage poster sized print of some of the endless piles of dumped rubbish in our streets. He can hang that on his wall of fame
October 22, 2015 at 10:29 AM
First dagger in the heart to Newton, planners, and pathetic councillors. Age article today that says what a monumental stuff up has happened in McKinnon and Ormond because of the zones. That is Newton’s legacy. Sure to be plenty more.
October 22, 2015 at 10:43 AM
You just be an ignorant fool not to know that grade separation is not Council’s project.
October 22, 2015 at 11:13 AM
How about a petition from residents to get the CEO to leave now
October 22, 2015 at 5:20 PM
The State Government insists, even demands, we have a CEO and the Local Government Act spells out the functions of the CEO. Looking at the list above, it is hard to recognise anything that fits with the functions. Pretty much all of it is somebody else’s responsibility. If one actually focused on the functions eg “ensuring that the decisions of the Council are implemented without undue delay” or “providing timely advice to the Council” or taking responsibility for “appointing, directing, managing and dismissing Council staff and for all other issues that relate to Council staff”, then the record is much less attractive.
A few things stand out for me. Council keeps making decisions based on poor officer reports [lack critical information, don’t spell out what Council “must” consider, over-egg the evidence, fail to consider alternatives, engage in blatant rhetoric to manipulate Council]; council staff write to Ministers making requests without delegated authority, bypassing accountabilty and transparency provisions; council staff fail to accept accountability for their decisions—a general problem with the corporate culture; the unwillingness of Council to consult on anything significant; how asset sales have been used to prop up a shaky budget position; the absolute failure to improve the distribution of open space to support higher density development; and the unseemly amounts of money spent on pet projects such as the $300K+ pursuit of Tony Rabba while ignoring all the breaches of local and Road Safety law surrounding every multi-unit development. If Council believes Andrew Newton is not responsible for any of this, then they should state who is.
Something else that really needs to be brought out into the open: what the hell are the criteria that Council uses to select a CEO, establish appropriate remuneration, assess their performance, and decide to renew their contract without advertising the position?