At the recent Save Glen Eira residents’ gathering, MP Clifford Hayes (a former Bayside councillor and now elected to the Victorian Council) stated that during his time at Bayside it was councillors who ran the show. They gave orders to officers and not the other way around. In Glen Eira the reverse has always been the case. Unelected bureaucrats run everything and our so called ‘representatives’ allow this situation to continue, often to the detriment of ratepayers.
Another question from a residents at the last council meeting illustrates this perfectly. Please also note the response from our current Mayor.
Glen Eira Debates 
October 22, 2019 at 5:55 PM
Couldn’t lie straight in bed our mayor
October 22, 2019 at 8:41 PM
Hayms is either as thick as the proverbial short plank, or he is getting his role as head propagandist for the IAJAC mixed up with being a GE councillor. The speaker didn’t asked him if council or the CEO had ever asked the Minister to interfere with a planning application. (That was dead clear) He asked has council ever requested that the CEO ever relayed to the Minister how residents feel about over development. The question couldn’t have been put into simpler terms. Still Hyams spins his reply 180 degrees into a heap of weasel word. This guy hates any resident/s that dare to question his authority as a self proclaimed jumped-up-know-it-all for GE. It really is time he stood aside and let some new ideas surface into the debate.
October 23, 2019 at 8:41 AM
Councillors spend a great deal of time trying to do a good job; unfortunately many of them under estimate the amount of time they need to allocate to do a good job. As a consequence we have people in jobs they like to do but cannot do due to time constraints. What this says is YOU SHOULD NOT BE IN COUNCIL. Stop wasting rate payers money and leave it to people who can spend the time and are not interested in the money or the kudos; not having failed at the State or Federal level in politics.
October 23, 2019 at 8:51 AM
I am sure our councillors TRY and do a good job, the problem is they do not realise how much time is needed to do same. Consequently they rely on council staff for advice and there is the compromise. If you run for a job make sure you can do it otherwise resign. Half a job is not doing your public duty! Loose the ego.
October 24, 2019 at 8:45 AM
You are being to kind, the politics in GE is very sectarian. The bureaucrats who have to put up with this sectarian nonsense have learned to bypass our hopeless councillors, and we residents have ended up with rule by the bureaucrats.