Last night’s debate on the Elsternwick structure plan would have made Machiavelli proud in terms of the chicanery that was enacted. This council has reached the nadir of good governance and accountability and obviously has no compunction in employing every dirty trick it can to further its agenda.  Here are some of the lowlights of what happened.

  • Out of the blue a note suddenly materialised and was presented to Magee stating that Pennicuik had a ‘conflict of interest’. Who wrote the note, and when it was written remains undisclosed.  Interesting, because when Magee asked for any conflicts of interests at the start of the meeting, there were none. Suddenly we get the Pennicuik one. The consequence of this was that only 8 councillors were permitted to vote and Magee therefore had a second, casting vote. A number of questions arise as a result. If this was a genuine conflict of interest (which we doubt) then why was Pennicuik permitted to vote previously on anything to do with this structure plan? And if it is a genuine conflict of interest, then why don’t the same principles and standards apply to Athanasopolous’ voting when it comes to Carnegie and the business he runs there? Does this mean that any councillor who owns a property in an area cannot be involved in decision making for that area and thus can’t represent his constituents? It is ludicrous that this is the standard that Glen Eira chooses to implement – but only when it suits of course!!!!!
  • Every effort was made by Magee to silence Cr Zyngier on numerous occasions, especially when he queried the accuracy of the data that the officers had provided to consultants and which all had a significant impact on the consultants’ ensuing recommendations.
  • Torres continues to mislead this council and it can only be deliberate. For example: when discussing the difficulty of enshrining winter solstice standards into the planning scheme, Torres also referred to council’s reliance on ResCode. What he does not say cannot be seen as an oversight since he knows full well that ResCode DOES NOT APPLY to buildings that are above 5 storeys. The issue here is 6 storey and higher buildings on Glen Huntly Road. ResCode is entirely irrelevant!!!!!
  • The gallery was told several times that there were several alternate amendment motions. Why it was the Cade amendment that was heard first (and thus was voted in on Magee’s casting vote, instead of the Zyngier proposal) raises further questions of manipulation to achieve the desired outcome. There was literally not even a nano-second,  or pause for breath, between Magee asking for a motion and then immediately calling on Cade! Pre-arranged? You bet!!!!!There is no way that this could be seen as anything other than backroom orchestration designed to prevent the Zyngier proposed amendment!
  • At one point Zyngier attempted to prevent the removal of Pennicuik, by proposing a ‘friendly amendment’. He suggested that 509 Glen Huntly Road be removed from the Cade amendment, which was the property causing the alleged conflict of interest. We note that 509 is: (1) a block of apartments; (2) it is not listed as a ‘significant’ heritage building and is very unlikely to be demolished and have a six storey dwelling erected in its place because of the sheer number of apartments and presumably individual owners.

Here is what it looks like:

Magee ruled that this was NOT a ‘friendly amendment’ since it is an ‘alternate’ recommendation! Further, he ruled that both the mover and seconder did not accept this – YET THEY WERE NEVER DIRECTLY ASKED WHETHER THEY WOULD ACCEPT THIS as is the normal custom. He simply made the decision to discount Zyngier’s attempt with the lamest of excuses! Furthermore council’s own governance rules state the following in regard to ‘friendly motions’ –

Clause 38(2): A friendly revision of a Motion may propose to alter a Motion by leaving out, inserting or adding words which complement the Motion.  

The aim of last night’s meeting was to achieve by hook or by crook the ratification of the Cade amendment. It was designed to prevent council taking a position on protecting sunlight to the southern side of Glen Huntly Road because this would further limit the heights of development on the northern side. For all the rhetoric of giving a damn about heritage, and the ‘village feel’ of Elsternwick, the Cade amendment revealed how little council cares about these issues. 12 storeys still remains, and that’s supposed to be in line with the ‘village’ atmosphere. And we are supposed to take comfort in the fact that a 6 metre setback will now be sufficient to avoid additional overshadowing when no documentation/evidence has been supplied to justify this claim.

Residents need to hold such manoeuvring and councillors to account. We have a mayor whose only function appears to be to steam roll through anything that the planning department puts in front of him. It is indeed a very sad day for Glen Eira residents because this sets the precedent for Bentleigh, for Carnegie, and for every activity centre in the municipality.

Please listen very, very carefully to the following audio of the ‘debate’ and note Magee’s actions and words throughout this item.