The above image of the August 15th pre-council assembly meeting reveals everything about the lack of governance and the manipulation that occurred. Here are the important things to note:

  • Cr Pennicuik DID NOT declare a conflict of interest at this meeting nor at any of the previous 9 assembly meetings where the Elsternwick Structure Plan was listed for discussion.
  • This pre-meeting lasted exactly 54 minutes and we have to wonder when in this 54 minutes was the Cade amendment discussed by councillors? – ie at 7’oclock? 7.20?
  • Responses to public questions at the last council meeting declare that In the case of the Amended Motion on item 8.2 passed at the Ordinary Council Meeting of 15 August, Councillors received written notification of all of its component parts at 5.10pm that afternoon. We assume that this was via email. Thus, did all councillors manage to access their emails prior to the assembly meeting?  And when were councillors forwarded all the other proposed amendments – especially the Zyngier one? Were these discussed on the August 15th pre-meeting, or any of the earlier ones?And how much time (if any) was devoted to each proposal?
  • As cited in some of the public questions on Tuesday night, council’s governance rules include the following: Members have sufficient information available to them to make good and informed decisions. Good decision making requires time – this was clearly not available pre-meeting and certainly not available to Cr Pennicuik to seek independent legal advice to confirm or deny that she had a potential conflict of interest.
  • In another response to a public question we get: There is no requirement under Council’s Governance Rules or the Local Government Act 2020 for a proposed Amendment to a Motion to be provided to other Councillors in advance of an Ordinary Council meeting, although it is encouraged as good practice. Correct that there is nothing specific in either the governance rules or the Local Government Act to determine WHEN amendments should be available to councillors. But this has not stopped Magee from ruling out of order a proposed amendment on the Bentleigh Structure Plan by Zyngier on the July 4th council meeting when he said:
  • Not only was the Zyngier attempted amendment disallowed on the claim of a non-existent ‘no surprises policy’ but that it also was not discussed at the pre-meeting. But in several responses to public questions we have the above council quote – no ‘in advance’ notification is required. Thus Magee basically gagged Zyngier!

For all the mumbo-jumbo, and claims of sound governance, what occurred on August 15th can only be seen as deliberate manipulation to ensure that only 8 councillors voted and that the casting vote was left in the hands of our compliant Mayor.