An alarming new trend in Council decision making has become increasingly obvious over the past few months. Major issues are suddenly not being handled by full council but are introduced, discussed, and deliberated upon through the secret and unaccountable advisory committees! Even worse, is that Officer’s reports presented to these committees never see the light of day! Apart from the Environment Committee, none have external representation, agendas aren’t published beforehand, and the public are definitely not invited. This is again highlighted in the agenda for Tuesday night’s council meeting.

It strikes us as strange that important Planning Scheme matters such as ‘impervious surfaces’, ‘Open space strategy’, ‘Environmentally Sound Design’ should be relegated to the Environment Committee alone and not full council so that proper debate, motions, resolutions and most importantly, officers’ reports are available for public scrutiny. We present the following
extracts from the Environment Committee ‘minutes’ and direct readers attention to:

• Reports are to come back to the Committee, not council
• Presentations are to the Committee alone. Why not to the public as well?
• Note the failure to (include the) answer CL’s query on C60!
• Note the dampeners always seem to come from Officers!

We do however acknowledge the efforts made by Cr. Pilling in relation to these issues!

“Open Space Strategy

Cr Pilling noted that Council had endorsed the Committee recommendation to consider a report on this matter.

CL (resident) sought information on population growth and enquired if the impact of the proposed Caulfield development had
been considered.

Action: Officers will enquire as to progress on preparing the report with the relevant Director and advise the Committee. Officers will provide the Committee with Glen Eira’s latest population projections. 

9.0 Sustainable Design in Planning Process

Cr Pilling suggested that a broader approach is needed to be in step with surrounding Councils who have already implemented some form of voluntary ESD requirements in their planning processes.

RR (resident) circulated a separate report on the matter.

The Chair acknowledged the challenges of using what is currently a voluntary scheme noting that having adequate provisions in the state policy section of the Planning Scheme would be far more effective as it would be enforceable.

DAF (Peter Waite: officer) noted there had historically been some concern in the community over councils using the planning application process to introduce matters outside of the scope of the Planning Scheme.

 JG (resident) stated that the introduction of a voluntary scheme would provide relevant information to developers which may not be readily available and developers could promote the ESD benefits at the point of sale.

Cr Pilling felt that as most neighbouring councils where using STEPs, Council should also.

Councillors carried unanimously the following recommendation to Council (moved by Cr Pilling, seconded by Cr Tang)

Action: Officers will invite a representative from a council that has recently introduced ESD controls (within last five years e.g. Boroondara, Bayside) to address the Committee at the next meeting. Officers will seek to provide further information to the next meeting about the effectiveness of voluntary ESD schemes at other
councils. 

COMMUNITY PLAN & ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY  

This is another example where major decisions have primarily been channelled through a committee. Residents have not seen any of the public submissions, nor the rationale for the selection of community reps on the Steering Committee. Worse still is the proposed timeline and terms of reference for this latter committee. No mention of voting rights, community reps outnumbered by councillors, and inexplicably, the committee will CEASE IN FEBRUARY 2012 (unless reinvigorated by council) when the overall consultation proposals are still ongoing – especially the first draft, review, and dissemination. Further, there is no plan to include community reps on the Consultation Committee!

The terms of reference for both are:

“Community Consultation Committee Terms of Reference

Role of the Committee

The role and function of the Advisory Committee is to act as a steering committee to assist Council by providing recommendations in relation to reviewing, improving and broadening the ways Council consults with all residents, ratepayers and other stakeholders to ensure maximum participation, communication and value to the community.

Membership

Council will appoint members on an annual basis. The Advisory Committee will comprise:

Four Councillors
(including Chairperson)

Mayor – ex-officio

Meetings

Meetings shall be held at least four times annually.

Reporting

Advisory Committee recommendations will be submitted to the next appropriate Ordinary Council Meeting for determination.

Community Plan Steering Committee

A steering committee shall be established to oversee the development of a new Community Plan consisting of the Community Consultation Committee and representation of up to three external members.

Sunset Clause

Unless extended by Council Resolution, this advisory committee shall cease to exist on 28 February 2012.”

Last but not least, there is the NON APPEARANCE of the minutes of the Special Committee regarding CEO reappointment. For a 3 minute meeting, it shouldn’t take this long to put up some palty minutes! But even stranger is the fact that the entire AGENDA for this meeting has now disappeared from the Council website. It seems that this no longer exists!