Councillor Performance

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March 2, 2023

Who Runs The Show?

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Council Meeting(s), GE Governance, GE Planning, GE Service Performance
[9] Comments

At Tuesday night’s council meeting, residents gained further insight into the ills of Glen Eira Council. Please listen carefully to the following which occurred during item 8.3 on an application for a 4 storey development in a local centre.

Not for the first time are we informed that:

Councillors are not provided with enough time to thoroughly digest and analyse information fundamental to their decision making. Hardly surprising when some agendas are well over 1000 pages!
It’s also been made clear by some councillors that they have not been provided with important consultant documents prior to making major decisions. Or, if these documents are available, then they are provided at short notice. Hence we argue that this is anything but informed decision making.
When it is the CEO who sets the agenda with mayoral ‘consultation’ and there is no genuine notice of motion option in Glen Eira, then we are on a hiding to nothing.
The fact that councillors had to ask for all community consultation feedback on the housing strategy, rather than simply the ‘summary’, shows how little information is provided to them as a matter of course. And in response to a public question on Tuesday night, this practice of withholding the raw data is set to continue.

So what does all this mean? Put simply, we have a major problem in local government. Yes, some councillors have been found to be corrupt, and yes, some are bullies, or simply using local councils as stepping stones to far more lucrative careers in parliament. But what of bureaucrats? Who can pull them into line when every aspect of the Local Government Act practically empowers them to act with impunity? As managers and directors, all senior staff are beholden to the CEO for their (continued) contracts and ongoing employment. Councillors have no say in this and nor are they privy to their annual reviews or their Key Performance Indicators. That remains solely in the CEO’s domain. This breeds compliance and cow towing – especially when salaries are in the $230,000+ range.

Admittedly councillors have the right to sack CEO’s – but this can become a very expensive business and invite plenty of negative publicity and more investigations that could reveal other skeletons in the closet.

We have said on numerous occasions that councillors in general are regarded as a necessary evil at worst and as unnecessary appendages at best. Their ideal role is to merely rubber stamp whatever the administrators put before them. In theory, they are supposed to provide oversight; to analyse, question, and be provided with enough information so that their decision making is beyond question. Most importantly, they are meant to work in the interests of the community and to listen to resident views. This is impossible when they are denied access to timely information, or when they are so overloaded that it becomes impossible to do their jobs satisfactorily. We would love to know how many of these councillors even bother to read the hundreds upon hundreds of pages each week or simply rely on the reports from officers.

One article in yesterday’s Age has officers calling for more constraints to be placed on councillors. In turn, some councillors are seeing this as an attempt to further emasculate councillors and to ensure that all become nothing more than ‘lemmings’ following the lead of the bureaucracy. (See: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/councillors-behaving-badly-calls-for-tougher-penalties-20230228-p5co4y.html ). Which ultimately leads to the question – do we need councillors and do we even need local government when real power is vested in officers and not our community representatives?

February 10, 2023

Carnegie Swimming Pool

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Council Meeting(s), GE Governance, GE Open Space, GE Service Performance
[9] Comments

The following screen dump comes from the minutes of Wednesday’s council meeting. We are literally gobsmacked at the costings listed.

Several things need investigation:

Why has the projected construction cost gone from a budget figure of $53M to $62M? Why weren’t figures provided earlier about total costs? Given that the final figure also excludes GST, ratepayers are therefore looking at a forecast cost of just under $84M!!!!!! What is the rationale for a 25+% increase overall? Will residents now have gold plated taps?!!!!!!!! Has the design changed? Even accepting the rise in construction costs, we find this increase unjustified, unexplained, and unacceptable. We are not aware of any public documentation to justify this increase.
In terms of the published resolution (‘carried’) there are other questions that need to be answered. Why does ‘carried’ signify? Does this mean that some or at least one councillor was against publishing this resolution? Or does it mean that whoever voted against the resolution was also against the cost increase?
The Local Government Act now stipulates that ALL resolutions include information as to who voted for or against. This has not been done here! Is this simply another example of the failure of council to be totally transparent and accountable? When we are talking the mega millions listed here, residents should be informed fully about what is going on and the rationale behind all such decisions

PPS: Council has put out the following Media Release.

Published on 10 February 2023

We have been successful in securing $15 million of funding through the Australian Government as part of our advocacy efforts and we will continue to advocate to the Victorian Government as the project continues.

Carnegie Memorial Swimming Pool underway

Construction is now underway on the new Carnegie Memorial Swimming Pool.

Council has awarded ADCO Group Pty Ltd the contract ($62 million) to deliver the project with a revised total project cost of $75 million.

The new year-round aquatic and leisure facility will be one of the most environmentally friendly and sustainable centres in the world. It will be designed and constructed to a Six Star Green Star rating with climate resilience, low energy operations and maximum water efficiency, and will include:

indoor and outdoor pools;
an outdoor diving pool;
learn-to-swim programs, a therapeutic warmwater pool and numerous allied health services;
a café, barbecue, and shaded seating areas;
allied health treatment rooms;
program rooms for classes such as yoga and Pilates; and
retention of design references to the past such as the post-war style signage, the red brick and retaining the eastern hill.

Glen Eira Mayor Cr Jim Magee said we have been committed to delivering this much-needed facility to the Glen Eira community since 2019.

“We are excited to finally be moving ahead with this intergenerational project but there will be continued challenges that we face in relation to the increased cost of materials and labour that we will need to balance with all projects moving forward.”

To read more about the project, view the concept designs for the centre and to keep up-to-date with timelines and major milestones, please visit the Carnegie Memorial Swimming Pool redevelopment webpage.

FAQs

Why is the project starting now?

Due to a Victorian Heritage Register nomination from a member of the community and the subsequent review undertaken by Heritage Victoria, the project was delayed by 12 months.

Why is the project cost higher than the contract value?

The $62 million contract value is the value of the construction contract. Other costs go into delivering projects of this scale, such as a contingency budget, authority fees, consultant fees and capitalisation costs. The total project budget is $75 million.

COMMENT:

Sadly the above Media Release does nothing except repeat the notice in the minutes, plus adding plenty of more spin. Itfails to explain the reasons behind this decision, nor the lack of governance in providing residents with the complete information as to:

The full voting record
The exact nature of the various price increases and their justification
Nor has any tender documentation for this project been placed in the public domain – as has been the case with various other expensive tenders. We do not know for example: how many applicants there were; how many of these applications were compliant; what were the selection criteria;
Finally we repeat that even with major funding from government, residents will still be up for at least $70M. We will watch carefully to see which departments will have their budgets cut right back and which projects will be abandoned and/or delayed.

January 26, 2023

Looking At The Real Stats!

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance, GE Transport
[5] Comments

The next 6 months or so will see the final structure plans for both Bentleigh and Elsternwick – two of our major activity centres as well as the Caulfield Station precinct. Most of the published documentation thus far, and this includes the Housing Capacity analysis which accompanied the woeful Housing Strategy, is anything but convincing given that the draft proposals are mostly based on data from the 2016 census and not the latest 2021 figures. The 2021 census figures barely rate a mention. So we have the ludicrous situation where the future of the municipality is being determined on pre 2016 trends rather than what has been happening since 2016 and the import of this latest trend.

Yes, trends are important, but the overall council analyses thus far seems to have largely ignored what the 2021 census results reveal about the present and the recent past. In order to see exactly what has been happening in Glen Eira over the past 5 years, we have compiled the following tables, from the 2016 and 2021 census data. They provide a good insight into:

The continued and accelerating loss of detached housing
The continued increase in the number of single and two bedroom dog boxes which in most instances would not cater adequately for a family with kids. Families with children constitute the largest percentage of our population (48.2%) whilst couples without children represent 37.2%.
The failure to reduce car ownership so that council’s integrated transport strategy and the aspiration of a 50:50 mode share is literally a pipe dream. Yet, we still find that strategic planning and the stated intention to reduce car parking provisions is based on this unachievable target.
The number of properties has increased, but the number of dwellings WITHOUT CARS keeps going down.
A pie in the sky assertion that housing affordability can be improved by increasing site coverage, reducing permeability requirements, etc.
Travel to work data via public transport or cars cannot be taken seriously in the 2021 census given that this was at the height of COVID and just under 40% of residents in Glen Eira were working from home. We have however included the data.
The housing capacity analysis stated that many homes have ‘excess’ bedrooms. The data for both Elsternwick and Bentleigh shows that the number of persons per bedroom is on the rise. What this means is that in these activity centres amenity is sacrificed for density and very little is being built that will accommodate family living.

Please look through the following tables carefully and keep asking this council why they have steadfastly refused to include the most relevant data in their costly consultant reports!!!!

BENTLEIGH CENSUS RESULTS

ELSTERNWICK CENSUS RESULTS

GLEN EIRA AS A WHOLE

December 28, 2022

Reviewing 2022 & What’s In Store For 2023!

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Governance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance, GE Transport
[4] Comments

Another year is fast drawing to an end with very little ‘progress’ in most major areas of council business. 2023 will undoubtedly be crucial in setting the foundations of what Glen Eira will become over the next 20 years.

2022 was basically very disappointing. Following the Wynne letter of December 2015, which basically ordered council to pull its finger out, 7 years later we still do not have:

Permanent structure plans for our major activity centres
Any comprehensive reviews of the residential zones (circa 2013)
A developer contributions levy
An ESD (Environmental Sustainability) policy in the planning scheme
A WSUD (water sensitive urban design) policy in the planning scheme
Parking precinct plans – promised at least 15 years ago

In many ways transparency and accountability have also gone backwards. For example:

No longer is there publication of all community consultation feedback. Instead we get carefully manipulated ‘summaries’.
The Annual Report now no longer publishes data that fully explains everything. We are told that council planted 2000 trees but are not given any indication of how many were ‘replacement’.
Important background documents such as traffic analyses are not provided in many cases PRIOR to the call for community input. In other words, residents are asked to comment on something that is vague and lacks the strategic justification for the recommendations – literally making consultations practically meaningless for residents. Even councillors don’t get to see all the data prior to their important decision making.
Nothing of real consequence for tree protection. It will not be part of the planning scheme.
No update on flooding since 2006 when climate change is central
Urban Forest Strategy that lacks sufficient funding
Probably hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on glossy planning documents and consultants that amount to nothing – ie car parks; Inkerman Road bicycle path etc.
FOI applications fought tooth and nail by this administration to prevent full disclosure

So, are there any good points that featured in 2022? There are a few in that it is clear that some councillors at least are not enamoured with the way this council conducts its strategic planning. The very fact that the notorious Housing Strategy was voted in by 4 to 3 means there is division. Had both Esakoff and Cade been present at this meeting then we have no doubt that the Housing Strategy would have been voted down. Maybe that’s why it wasn’t put back until the next council meeting when these 2 councillors would have been present?

2023: The year ahead

The coming year will be pivotal in setting the scene for the next 20 years. Up for decision we will have:

Bentleigh, Elsternwick structure plans and the accompanying DDO’s.
Review of the Planning Scheme. Whether or not this will incorporate a review of the actual zoning everywhere is anyone’s guess.
What happens to the remaining 10 neighbourhood centres that are currently without any DDO’s or Urban Design Frameworks, and definitely no structure plans? Will they be left untouched for another decade?
Will community consultation come close to genuine consultation where councillors and the community consultation committee have direct and influential input into the survey questions?
Will we ever get decent parking policies and parking precinct plans?
How much funding will go to our declared climate change policy and all its attendant duties – ie Urban Forest strategy and real protection for trees on private property?

As stated earlier, it’s now been seven years since the Wynne letter to get things right and we’re still waiting. No other council that we know of has taken this length of time to produce some decent strategic planning. What is wrong with Glen Eira?!!!!!! Until there is a major change in council personnel, and in culture, we believe that the pro-development of this council will remain.

Finally, we wish all our readers a fantastic festive season and a healthy and fulfilling 2023. We also thank readers for their continued support and encouragement.

December 12, 2022

Elsternwick: Reconciling The Truth & Council Fiction!

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Governance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance, GE Transport
[2] Comments

Council has finally put up its responses to the questions asked at the Elsternwick Zoom Meeting. The document may be accessed via this link: https://www.haveyoursaygleneira.com.au/81078/widgets/391968/documents/248250

We ask residents to pay particular attention to the following question and the ‘answer’ –

What justification is there for 8-12 storeys?

Elsternwick is growing and there is demand for new dwellings and employment space into the future. State planning policy directs growth to activity centres. The draft Structure Plan aims to balance growth with protecting heritage and other characteristics valued by the community. While there are areas proposed to allow 8- 12 storeys to accommodate some of this growth, taller built form is restricted to a small part of Elsternwick, close to the train station and Nepean Highway. At the same time, the draft Structure Plan is proposing a considerable amount of down zoning from 4 storeys to 2, to protect residential heritage. Most of Elsternwick is proposed to remain low-scale.

The claim that the decision to allow buildings of 8-12 storeys is ‘restricted to a small part of Elsternwick, close to the train station and Nepean Highway is not only inaccurate but wilfully misleading – especially when this statement is compared to the actual proposed heights along all of Glen Huntly Road.

It’s clear that a vast amount of sites will now be liable to accommodate a DISCRETIONARY height limit of up to 12 storeys! And many of these sites are nowhere near Nepean Highway or even the train station. Which leads to the most important questions:

When will council have the courage to call a spade a spade?
When will councillors insist that spin and obfuscation are not the hall marks of every single council pronouncement?
When will residents stop being treated as idiots unable to understand anything about sound strategic planning?

December 11, 2022

From ‘The Age’

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Council Meeting(s), GE Governance
1 Comment

CLICK TO ENLARGE

December 9, 2022

Elsternwick: Meeting With Camden Ward Councillors

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Governance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance, GE Transport
[5] Comments

Somewhere between 90 and 100 residents showed up Wednesday night for the Elsternwick Structure Plan ‘face-to-face’ meeting with the Camden Ward councillors. Crs Szmood and Zyngier were present whilst Cr Parasol was an apology.

The night was extremely valuable in that residents could directly address councillors with their concerns, their views on the draft structure plan, and how they generally perceive officers’ attitudes to residents and their aspirations for the suburb.

We present below a selection of comments that were made throughout the 2 hour meeting. It was very clear that there was much dissatisfaction with the structure plan itself, but also the entire consultation process, and how little heed council pays to resident views.

Some of the following audio is not crystal clear. It was a very large room that often sounded like an echo chamber. So please bear with us and listen to these comments.

PS: It’s also worth mentioning that council stated that the audio of the recent Zoom meeting on Elsternwick would be published. It was also promised that all questions would be answered. It is now over 2 weeks since this event and we still have not been provided with this audio or the responses to the queries. Perhaps officers are simply hoping that residents would forget?!!!!!

December 7, 2022

Why They Can’t Be Believed!

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Governance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance, GE Transport
[4] Comments

Glen Eira residents have been told repeatedly that structure planning and associated Design and Development Overlays (DDOs) CANNOT provide MANDATORY height restrictions for commercial sites unless they are heritage listed or have other extenuating conditions. This of course ignores the fact that other councils have been successful in having their strategic planning approved and gazetted.

The most recent example comes from Bayside City Council for the Highett Neighbourhood Activity Centre. Here is the current zoning applying to this DDO. Note the Commercial zoning and the fact that these sites are NOT under any heritage overlay.

Here is the Bayside gazetted DDO – as recently as September this year!. Please note the 3 and 4 storey MANDATORY height limits.

Why has Bayside managed to implement a MANDATORY 3 and 4 storey maximum height limit on these sites, in comparison to Glen Eira’s 6 storey discretionary height for Caulfield South, Caulfield North and East Bentleigh? Why is our council so compliant and unwilling to achieve what other councils achieve? What is really going on within our planning department?

After 7 years of incompetency, we are still back at square one, where the agenda remains more and more development regardless of what it means for residential amenity and meeting community concerns.

November 18, 2022

Inkerman Road – Safe Cycling Corridor

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Council Meeting(s), GE Governance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance, GE Transport
[4] Comments

We continue to be appalled at the manner in which this council conducts its business and its total disregard for residents and their views. The latest example comes in the agenda for Tuesday night’s council meeting and involves the Inkerman Road ‘Safe cycling corridor’.

Some preliminary observations:

The item consists of 510 pages out of a 1309 page agenda
The agenda was published around 10am on Friday morning – literally 4 days before the council decision (and this includes a weekend) – hardly enough time to read, digest, analyse, and comment by residents. Some of the associated documents date from August 2022 whilst one is from April 2022. Why couldn’t these have been published earlier so that residents can get their heads around them? When were councillors themselves provided with access to these documents?
From a very brief scan of the associated documents, nothing is definitive and recommendation after recommendation includes the need for further research once the project is given the go ahead – despite the plethora of caveat after caveat stating how difficult it is to provide real data and projections for increased cycling numbers, etc. Nor do we know how much all of these consultant reports cost!

What is the most staggering aspect of this item is the following recommendation:

That Council:

1. Adopts Option 2 (Attachment 3) as the preferred corridor design for the purpose of community consultation, once the following pre-conditions have been met:

a) Funding to deliver the project is confirmed through Council’s future budget allocation process.

b) The City of Port Phillip resolves to proceed to wider community engagement on its section of Inkerman Road / Street.

2. No further design work and/or community consultation is to commence until pre-condition a) and b) have been met.

3. Informs community and stakeholders of Council’s resolution.

COMMENT

Why on earth would you commit council to an estimated expenditure of $14M+ before you undertake further (and hopefully genuine) community consultation on the actual options provided?
If voted in, then what impact on other projects does the $14M have? What would be abandoned or delayed – especially if no state or federal funding was received?

WHAT WE ARE TOLD

Option 2 is preferred even though it means that only 47% of current car parking will be retained. How many car parking spots will thus be lost?
Currently the estimated average daily cycle numbers for the Glen Eira sections equals 163 cyclists. The claim is that the increase in cyclists would fall ‘somewhere’ between 84% – 207%. Hell of a range forecast upon which to spend $14+M!!!!!!! and we’re even told that estimating cycling demand is exceptionally difficult
In terms of cycling instead of using the car the result is likely to be only about 6-8%!

Even if the number of cyclists along this stretch of road increased to 800 per day, that is still an expenditure of $17,500 per cyclist!!!! Nor is there any guarantee that this is money well spent in terms of overall safety – ie

The Independent Safety Review found that for both design Option 1 and 2, due to the bi-directional bicycle lane, there are expected risks for cyclists given the high number of intersecting driveway crossovers on the south side of Inkerman Road, largely applicable to westbound cyclists as departing vehicles may not expect a cyclist to arrive from this direction.

To address this the design includes the provision of bicycle line markings and surface treatments at the crossovers which serves to advise the presence of bicycle lanes. With the report concluding, “nonetheless, the prevailing issue is the unexpected arrival of a bicycle in the eastbound direction. As a primarily residential area, it is anticipated long-term residents will quickly adapt to the proposed design, and the risk associated with this item will reduce over time”.

On a wing and a prayer the above quote, rather than any assurance that in the early stages cyclists and motorists will be ‘safer’!!!!!

CONCLUSION

Glen Eira City Council is clearly addicted to grandiose projects that cost the earth and will look good on certain CVs. Whether or not the projects represent real value for money, or even achieve the desired outcomes is seemingly immaterial. All that matters is that agendas are rammed through and virtue signalling becomes the modus operandi for all council decisions.

Finally, we very much doubt that this important item is listed at the end of the obscenely long agenda by accident. What that means is that there will probably be very little time for ‘robust’ debate/discussion!!!!!

November 15, 2022

Housing Strategy: More Council Idiocy!

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Governance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance, GE Transport
[5] Comments

Council has stated that its intention is to create a new zone – NRZ2. The stated criteria for earmarking these areas are supposed to be sites along major roads/transport and that they are at a minimum 600 square metres in size. We have previously highlighted that there are countless streets that are not within coo-ee of such measurements. Here is another example – Sycamore Street in Caulfield.

Please note that there is only ONE SITE in the following image that is over 400 square metres. All of the rest are 300+ square metres – half of the size ‘recommended’ in the housing strategy. This leads to some basic questions:

What on earth is this planning department doing? Have they actually bothered to investigate the sizes of the various streets earmarked for increased intensity? Or have they merely sat at a computer and drawn lines around various streets and properties?
How can they produce criteria and then simply ignore them?
Is this simply incompetence, or a total indifference to the basic rules of planning?

PS: here’s some more – Beech Street, Caulfield South.

All of the sites in this image are barely over 300 square metres, yet they are designated to become NRZ2 which means increased site coverage, reduced permeability, etc. In the attempt to make the measurements clearer, we’ve left off some sites, but their width and length is similar to those depicted. They will also be just over 300 square metres.

PPS – and Filbert Street, Caulfield South. Please note: not one site over 500 square metres and the vast majority just over 300 square metres.

Glen Eira Debates