The following recording features part of the ‘community participation’ segment from last night’s council meeting. Please listen carefully to wonderful address by the resident, the applause for his comments, and in particular the unbelievable claims made by Ron Torres.
Torres is part of the ‘old guard’ – a senior member of council having begun his career at Glen Eira in 1996. As Director in charge of Planning & Place, Torres has been intimately involved with all aspects of planning in Glen Eira for just on 20 years. Yet he claims that a planning scheme review was carried out with full ‘community consultation’ four or four and a half years ago! That, dear readers, is a blatant lie!!!!
The last Planning Scheme review took place in 2010 and council repeatedly asked for extensions so that they would not have to fulfill their legal obligations and review the scheme every four years as required. They were granted these exemptions until Wynne put his foot down and refused the final request. Council in fact did everything it could to delay the inevitable!
More to the point, as recently as August 2016, council’s own report on the 2016 Planning Scheme Review, show Torres’ comments to be dead wrong. There can be no excuse for such incompetence at best, or as we believe, the attempt to deceive and mislead!
Here are the relevant extracts from the minutes of 9th August 2016 – less than 2 years ago!
How much faith should residents therefore have in these so-called ‘professionals’ and ‘experts’ when pronouncement after pronouncement is designed to deceive we believe, and at best, to pretend that good process and proper governance is inherent in everything this council does!
Glen Eira Debates 
February 28, 2018 at 11:28 PM
Torres is excelling. Twice in two meetings he’s given out false information. First about no time extension for a development in centre road and now this doozy. He must go!
February 28, 2018 at 11:58 PM
If Torres was working in private industry he would be dismissed immediately. Local government is a haven for substandard work where accountability does not exist. I resent paying huge rates so that this behaviour can continue and be rewarded with promotion.
March 1, 2018 at 1:51 AM
2010 was the last review before the 2016 one. That was a joke in keeping with all of Glen Eiras forays into what they euphemistically call “consultation”.
March 1, 2018 at 7:56 AM
The planning department has served the pro-development at all costs agenda very very well. Unfortunately this agenda it is not consistent with the best interests of the GE community. Be nice to spend a day with My Torres showing him around Glen Eira and also talking to people away from his ivory tower.
March 1, 2018 at 9:02 AM
As usual the question why the councillors are not listening wasn’t answered. So we can only form our own opinions on this deafness.
It is time Torres went he has persistently and willfully demonstrated he cannot tell the difference between fiction over fact even on a simple question.
Lying has always been a bureaucrats tool or tactic used to hide their subterfuge, lies were particularly endemic under Newton and Burke, remembering they had a council sacked. (Rocky Camera has turned up working in Port Phillip) Maybe Ron Torres should leave as well.
There can be no democracy if lies are used to alienate people. Torres should remember that no person has a good enough memory to be a successful liar. Truth would be his friend if he chose to use it.
March 1, 2018 at 10:21 AM
When you play the man and not the ball you know you have no argument. The Consultation process was extensive and my criticism is that it has taken too long.
March 1, 2018 at 12:00 PM
Thank you Jamie Hyams, your usual B/S you excel in.
March 1, 2018 at 9:07 PM
Why is he in the council for 5 or 6 terms? He must be people’s favourite Councillor and yet you say B/S. Who is correct?
March 2, 2018 at 12:52 AM
Proves the point does it not? A talented B/S artist perhaps?
March 2, 2018 at 12:58 AM
Hey… for real? John Howard survived the children overboard fiasco… politicians who master the art of BS will always be elected. Anyways, council elections are a lottery the is fixed by the greatest number of photo opportunities… you can be a complete nonce and get elected to council. The current group (for the most part is a pudding proof)
March 1, 2018 at 12:39 PM
Huh? Does that mean this is all only a game? Well perhaps this would all be better played out on “coulda been champions”. Next council meeting I will be certain to grab a hotdog and beer.
March 1, 2018 at 10:53 AM
Yes indeed. It is very difficult to maintain any faith in democracy when the instruments of democracy are prepared to lie (or if I may be more forgiving, be so incompetent as to not know the truth or unable to remember their own actions). I was one of those dressed in black that evening and was continually gobsmacked at not only Torres misinformation, but by the continual further statements of individual councillors.
May I also point out the comment made by Councillor Taylor.
(I paraphrase): “Councillors must make evidence based decisions”.
Cr Taylor went on to eventually vote in the affirmative, presumably due to having made an evidence based decision.
However, when another resident asked why there have been no traffic management impact studies tabled, no economic impact studies tabled, no social benefits studies tabled, the response direct to this question (not Cr Taylor) was that some studies can be found on the website. I remind you that Cr Delahunty had moved to amend the evenings motion to include a future Traffic Management Study and extensive shadow planning.
The point is, that it is not possible to make an evidence based decision unless you have studied the evidence. One would also expect that the evidence would be cited when addressing the rationale as to the position a councillor is taking. Cr Taylor has therefor also lied in that she stated she was making an evidence based decision… how? When the evidence required to make an informed decision, evidence drawn from the appropriate studies, is evidence that does not at this point in time exist.
I can only presume Cr Taylor is referring to anecdotal evidence, not scientific fact.
Further, and I could cite scores of further misleading statements from councillors on this evening…. Cr Delahunty stated that no shadow planning had occurred because the department has no shadow planning software. This is very curious as it readily available free of charge on the internet. I myself have conducted an extensive analysis of the shadowing and it is not a pretty outcome for Elsternwick. Was Cr Delahunty lying? Was the Cr mistaken or misinformed or simply native to the available tools? Or do the planning department have no internet access?
Yes!!! Councillors and others in the council such as Mr Torres need to make evidence based decisions, but they need to first collect it, then they need to heed it, then preferably cite it.
I am of the mind that if the evidence has been collected (and lets face it, there is a plethora of anecdotal recommendations collected from an (albeit less than adequate) consultation process, that evidence would lead to a very different outcome if councillors were true to the evidence analysis.
I might also note that Cr Sztrajt cited having spoke to many experts… yet he did not once state who or what these experts are.
Evidence my #%&*
March 1, 2018 at 1:32 PM
You’ve summarised the evening beautifully. Asking councillors to provide “evidence” for their judgements is a lost cause since, assuming that some skeric of “evidence” might exist, they would not have read it and secondly rely entirely on the biased views of their masters – the officers.
Listening to these councillors was disheartening. I agree completely with your view that none cited any specific “evidence” and even Esakoff, who at least pointed out some major deficiencies in the plans, in the end voted in favour of accepting them. That has been part of the tactic for years now. The mantra that this is only the “first step” in the process and there will be plenty of opportunity for resident views. Repeated recent examples show how untrue this is.
I had much hope that with a new CEO, the demise of Burke, and five new councillors there would be major change in Glen Eira. I was dead wrong. It is still the same horse but different jockey.
March 1, 2018 at 1:45 PM
And the planning department head is a constant.
March 1, 2018 at 10:56 AM
Oh… And Cr Davey… well this Cr had nothing to say on the night, but when asked on a tour of the affected neighbourhood by a resident what she thought about the high-rise towers, Cr Davey responded – I quote – “I haven’t given it much thought”
Well that was evident on the night.
March 1, 2018 at 8:49 PM
How did she wiggle in the Council???
March 1, 2018 at 10:11 PM
I think most of us are aware we have a major problem with the culture at Council. It comes down to the 5 D’s: Deny, Delay, Deceive, Distort, Dissemble. Regardless, Council has claimed it did a Planning Review 4 years ago. That report should therefore be on its website. The Mayor, having allowed Mr Torres to make the claim, is bound to make it a priority to ensure that it does appear there because it currently appears to be missing.
The 2010 Report, which Ron couldn’t possibly be talking about, recommended not doing structure plans.
March 1, 2018 at 10:51 PM
Perhaps a public question to Mr Torres at the next meeting would allow him to clear things up.
March 2, 2018 at 12:50 AM
Brilliant point – that must be a question put to the next meeting – even if only for embarrassment sake
March 2, 2018 at 9:59 AM
Council doesn’t want the public asking public questions. That was the point of the changes to Local Law and why those changes won’t be reviewed for another 3 years. They reserve the right to reject any question on any grounds, limit you to just 2 questions, make you sit through 3 hours of turgid meetings to get a public response which may not even answer the question.
March 4, 2018 at 9:03 PM
So what is the CEO’s comment; she after all, is the ultimate responsible officer (along with the Mayor to a lessor extent). Does she defend him or put her head in the sand?…looks like the latter after reading the above comments. You are correct, this would never be allowed in private industry. Sorry state of affairs. Its time some of the councillors put a no confidence motion forward in regard to Ron’s behaviour, if only to put him on notice.
March 4, 2018 at 10:45 PM
Perhaps someone can send an email to the CEO with a link to this page and demand an answer? Or is it time we got the press to ask the questions.. might be more likely to bring them to account.