The year in review

Well it’s now been one full year give or take a few days, we have a council elected by the people for the people…well perhaps not so much for the people… Here is a quick rundown of what I see has and hasn’t happened… sadly there is more of the hasn’t than has. Listed in no particular order and is by no means complete, if you feel you can add, please do so by commenting . As always I value your input be it positive and or negative.

What the Councillors Have made HAPPEN…whether we liked it or not…

• They Have increased rates- promised & promoted to be 12.5% that actually amounted to between 17% -30% for most residents.
• They have – made sure they got the top pay scale available.
• They Have – continued the infighting amongst themselves at council meetings, factions and fractions formed early and have continued to the present day.
• They Have – attended Council meetings: In fairness council meetings have had pretty good attendance… one councillor through a death in the family was absent, another was ill and another it was pointed out perhaps forgot to set the alarm. All in all except for these three occasions they have attended scheduled council meetings, although not privy to briefings it’s been said to me that attendance here is not so well represented.
• They Have – encouraged the increase the number of apprentices hired by Liverpool City Council.
• The Have – secured Collingwood House and its surrounds for the future.
• They Have – managed to take 3 junkets on our behalf… 7 members attended the Broken Hill State conference and The Mayor & Gary Lucas attended the Canberra summit while now another 7 are preparing for the Tamworth State conference. Although strictly conveyed as development and training, I’m still unsure why we need such a large contingent at these events. These I might add are the publicly advised events; I cannot say if there have been others for which we pay for our councillors to attend. We won’t know this until the budget indicates councillor expenses.
• The Mayor has – appeared to be pretty busy; she has managed to acknowledge plenty of functions she has attended although whether or not she has managed to fit in her full time job as well is unknown to me.

What Councillors didn’t’ do:

• They Haven’t - had too much activity amongst the community by councillors – nonexistent with perhaps exception of vote promoting support to smaller core groups
• They Haven’t – facilitated transparency – way too much is done behind closed doors, comments by councillors in previous posts confirm this.
• They Haven’t - Debated issues in Council, on way too many occasions the councillors have simply rubber stamped ideas – very little active debate was done in chambers.
• They Haven’t – Worked within the community amongst the community to raise the profile of issues important to the residents. E.g. proposed container terminal, South Sydney Freight lines, M5, bus services to the western region etc
• They Haven’t – supported many of the community functions i.e. National tree day (NO one attended at all)
• They certainly Haven’t – Promoted Liverpool as a destination of note, or for that matter promote Liverpool at all.
• They Haven’t – Cleaned up our city – highly promoted in election campaigns as our most urgent need.
• They Haven’t – Created  pride in our community again high on the list during the campaign
• They Haven’t – Fixed parking – can you see a pattern forming?
• They Haven’t – Improved infrastructure, maintenance and appearance of the LGA
• They Haven’t – Eradicated Graffiti – although it has been the number one talking point for the whole year
• They Haven’t – Fixed our Gateways – although I know work is due to start…but we are a year in.
• They Haven’t – Managed to have to Noise walls installed for the Casula residents along the rail or the m5 or at Warwick Farm.
• They Haven’t – Supported the Local residents at Hoxton Park and Austral in relation to the proposed schools… with the  exception of Cllrs: Gary Lucas, Peter Harle, Nadia Napolitano & Tony Hadchiti  who did fight for the locals in relation to Hoxton Park albeit a little late in the process they did have a reasonable shot at it. These 4 in fairness have in some small way at least started to represent the community; however there are 11 in total…
• They Haven’t – responded to the LAKES group who wrote to all councillors for support, last I heard only 1 replied, this councillor after all had managed to make upset many amongst the H/Park group and was looking to raise his image. Little to naught has received his attention since. I have now heard that some representation has been made by another councillor, although extent and details are unknown at this stage.
• They Haven’t – Attended community meetings/forums with the exception of (on occasion) Cllrs: Peter Harle, Gary Lucas and (more rarely) Tony Hadchiti.
• They Haven’t attended committee meetings on way too many occasions although  they  fought to be included in many of the council committees… for example one councillor stood for one committee in particular that has now had 5 meetings, he managed to attend only once for an hour.  Others made comments at council meetings questioning committee decisions only to have it pointed out that if they had actually attended the meeting they were in line to make decisions and that they had not bothered to attend.
• They haven’t –commenced work on Pioneer Park although money is in the bank waiting
• They haven’t – got a good reputation from the community for answering emails and letters.
• The Mayor hasn’t brought this team together; they are no closer to working as a team than they were the day before the election. Perhaps not entirely her fault but none the less disappointing.

Summary

So far I have to say that without exception these guys have cost us more than they have done, any infrastructure and maintenance that has been achieved could have also been done without councillors at all, the General manager and staff have in most cases prepared the relevant info for rubber stamping by the councillors. Our most successful initiative was perhaps the Garbage system rollout, a huge success by recognised standards was done by council staff not councillors. Several programmes have been supported but not initiated by councillors except the obsession with graffiti, and again this is in the planning stages nothing has actually happened. Those wheels of progress do turn ever so slowly don’t they?

To say I am disappointed in the achievements (or lack thereof) of the councillors because as I see it they have done little to nothing to improve Liverpool, they have cost us (big time) they support very little and they achieve even less. I don’t want to hear that they are new, we are a year in, and I won’t say that they haven’t done anything at all, I can only comment  on what is public and so far there isn’t anything much that can be said.  The two councillors (apart from the mayor) who manage to get comments out and about being Councillors Lucas and Harle seem to have attended some public forums (and recently Cllr Hadchiti has rocked up to a couple), they have attempted to have their views heard and in councillor Lucas’s case he’s the councillor who has pre empted nearly every important issue by releasing it to the local papers long before it was a council decision or while still in discussion phase. Things like the rate increase, proposed parking metres, parking initiatives etc. You only have to look back through Champion & Leader papers to prove this.

Could I have done any better?  – who knows, I guess that’s a question people can ask at the next election but surely we can expect a lot more in the coming years, after all we have these councillors for another 3 years. 

Just in closing, so I am clear, I strongly support council having councillors, pro active, passionate and active councillors. I would prefer to have been able to report on the many fantastic achievements and improvements to our Liverpool alas, all I can say is I’ve kept my word, I promised to keep an eye out whether elected or not. There are still many things to achieve here in our fair city and as part of a number of committees and groups I’ll continue to do the best I can and in the mean time I will keep you informed, I will continue to submit ideas, I will complain and I will recognise good work.

So for now, it’s been a year, we need to move forward, refocus and hopefully bounce some positiveness and passion into those councillors who appear to have done nothing but suck up fresh air in the last year and cost us money. As I said above this list is not complete, if you feel you can add, please do so by commenting.  As always I value your input be it positive and or negative.

What can we do?

So we have a town crier and the Mayor has acknowledged some lunches and functions…yay… is that all there is?

One of the best parts of what I’ve been involved with in recent years is listening to people, listening to them talk about what they’d like to see in Liverpool, their dreams, their concerns and their hopes. We don’t always agree, which is great, debate is wonderful, forums such as these allow for all opinions to come together and discuss issues. You get the odd whinger who instead of participating throws stones from the outside, knocking the attempts by citizens. Again this is their prerogative but who does it help? (Point in question the Champion online article Communication woes for LCC). At least on Street Corner and this site  people comment, again not always agreeing but free and open debate.

 So my question this week is how do we improve interaction, how do we encourage people to get involved? There are too many issues in Liverpool to list here, big issues, issues deserving of debate, discussion and downright outrage but still only a few get involved.  One of the reasons I get involved in the council forums is they are regular, the venue is provided and the small core group of attendees do care, but they are small groups by comparison… what can we do to encourage Liverpudlians to engage – not necessarily agree, many of my own opinions have been changed through debate with others closer to a situation. How do we reach more people? How do we encourage debate? What is your burning issue, something you’d like others to involve in? On our own very little will change, but if we band together we can become a force working together for the betterment of our city and its residents.

While I have your attention please consider supporting the residents get the barriers by making a submission to: ssfl@artc.com.au  the website to find out more is:  www.ssfl.artc.com.au and if you are in a writing mood the Warwick Farm car park is also calling for submissions in support of the car park over the existing (and arguing against the installation of a new street through Berryman reserve). http://www.tidc.nsw.gov.au/ or through the streetcorner post on the 28^th August.

If you’d like more info give me a call or drop me an email.

weekly update 15.7.09

Here we are a few weeks into July and I am heartened by the number of  people attending most of the Council forums. Last night at the western forum there were quite a few new passionate and engaging residents in attendance. Part of the presentation was to advise residents that the 12.5% rate increase was now in place, it needs to be said that this additional 9% approval is for five years…with an option to apply for an extension. My bet is that the argument will be that once we are ‘used’ to the increase why remove it? But that will be up to a new council.

I also heard it said that some residents complain (and rightfully so out west) of the poor communication from council… may I take a moment and stand up for council in that they provide 4 forums a month to meet and reach residents of all the areas in the LGA. As you are aware I’ve been attending all 4 now for approx 18months (CBD-much longer), and I find it frustrating to hear some of these complaints as there are a couple of things council cannot do. On our rates it cannot telephone or post info to every resident advising of every change, 2:council cannot ‘make’ papers deliver to the outer areas of Liverpool or in fact ‘make’ people read them if they do happen to get them.

What council can do is correct the advertising on the notice board at the Bringelly community centre that has incorrectly advertised the forums for some time now and adjust them to read every second Tuesday of the month. Council can instigate and provide community notice boards in relevant locations for residents in outer areas.

What we can do, is to tell people about the forums, I’m getting a bit of a reputation (or misunderstanding that I work for Council) because at every given opportunity I invite people to come along, have a say or comment about things that are happening and listen to any presentations the council offers. For instance the current issue out west is the changes to the LLEP… this was presented to the forum many months ago for comment – we were able to ask questions and make formal comment. Whilst everyone isn’t always available to attend every meeting it seems to me if an opportunity arises to hear what is going on or in the plans it is our personal obligation to attend wherever possible. I also believe more people would attend if they understood the process and relaxed atmosphere these are presented in and that whether it is a personal issue or one affecting a whole community, council is there to listen, to note and even ask questions of the relevant staff, with answers coming back to the forum in the form of minutes.

On a positive note at a couple of the forums we(the residents) have been lobbying council for many, many months to include a newsletter, (providing not only info but actual copies of other newsletters distributed in other areas), with every rates notice advising residents’ of any changes, challenges or general information. As many of you are perhaps now aware this is happening, although there will still be a gap in communication as renters will not necessarily receive a copy. But again copies of these are available at the forums.

So come along say g’day, you’ll sometimes even find a councillor sitting at the back taking notes. The council staff are friendly and from my observation obliging and you can suggest topics or staff/personnel you’d like to hear from at future forums.

1st Tuesday- CBD Forum in the Liverpool Library 5.45pm – mostly info about the CBD and business initiatives and developments.

2nd Tuesday Western Forum – Bringelly Community Centre 7.30pm – pretty much anyone who lives west of Cowpasture Road on acreage – not so much residential

3rd Tuesday: Eastern Forum; Liverpool Council chambers 7.30pm- covering mostly issues east of the Georges river.

4th Tuesday: Central forum: L’pool Chambers, 7.30- pretty much anyone from the river to Cowpasture Rd and residential just beyond.

Whilst my areas are only an indication this is pretty close to accurate but you can attend other forums (as I do) if you are unable to attend your local one or have an interest elsewhere in the LGA

So much happening and so little change.

 Well it is official; Council has been granted permission to increase rates to residents of Liverpool by 12.5%. You all know my stance on this; I think the timing is poor.  I expect there are a great number of our citizens who will feel the increase of rates, water and electricity (averaging at about $600 per year) will leave them even further behind the eight ball. But alas, what can you say, even if you rent, expect that it will increase also as your owner will try and recoup the costs via your weekly rent.

This brings me to my current theory? Is this just clever manipulation by the State Government to further alienate residents from councils, is this another nail in the coffin of local government? Why do I say this, it is becoming increasingly obvious that State Govt legislature is systematically tearing away controls from council, things like Planning is now a regional issue, systems are being set in place where councils will now have to hand over plans so that State can monitor community participation and consultation. Little by little State government is making things either difficult or downright taking things away from Local Councils.

It is often said that we are over governed, is this a slow and steady way of making councils seem redundant? Is this my view alone, or do you have a theory of your own?

Don’t misunderstand, I support our local council, I am not totally against having ‘big brother’ keep an eye on local government, heaven knows, where were they when the OASIS project was costing us millions? Along with the DFO and other such projects. Was the State actually a party to some of the ‘financial woes” and “poor planning” that affected our city?

One more question while you are reading…. what do you think of Liverpool?  At a forum last evening I heard a local parent say she was saddened when her own children, who had been raised here in Liverpool in a basically ‘normal’ upbringing,  stated they wouldn’t even consider living in Liverpool or raising their children here in Liverpool. She was saddened because she works to improve the environment and the amenity of the city and is a supporter of all things “Liverpool’ and here her own kids were disparaging of ‘her’ city. A city she believed had served them well. So what do you think? Are we raising our kids not to appreciate what we have here in Liverpool or is it all too late?

Seems my blog this week has more questions than answers, so help me out here…

update 24.6.09

Saturday was the local Greens meeting and I must say I totally enjoy attending, what an amazing opportunity to discuss the needs of our community alongside some truly dedicated people. Greens Councillor Lesa De Leau was a guest speaker and gave a wonderful overview of her role as the only Green councillor at Rockdale and the opportunities it presented for her. She spoke of the State conference (I also attended) and was most encouraging for those like me who aspire to achieve more in local council. It is great to see we have guests attending, you don’t have to join to attend, we welcome your input and look forward to sharing ideas with you.
These events serve well as a reminder of how accessible the Greens MPs are and that I simply need to pick up a phone when I have a question or am working on a project within our LGA.

Tuesday saw the Central forum, these always inspire me, the access to Council officers is great and as mentioned previously they are presenting the Bike plan for the LGA, which by the way will go on public view in early July, so look out for it and make sure you comment on what it is you’d like in your local area.

Cllrs Lucas, Harle & Hadchiti were also in attendance and to my delight one of the more senior residents took them to task on what is and is not being achieved.  Now if that were me asking the same questions I’d have been accused of knocking the councillors so for me Yippee and I’m glad you came Don. I think most of us understand there has been a huge learning curve for these councillors but now they need to step up and make some significant moves to get things done. A chat later with all three councillors and it’s lovely to see that they are continuing to question/ challenge the access for the school at Hoxton Park. I’ve also made some enquiries and hopefully there will be good news for the residents of Hoxton Park soon. So HP Residents don’t give up, we might, with a huge amount of luck, just get the RTA to rethink the access issue…. I truly hope this is the case, but time will tell and then I’ll let you know… keep watching and don’t forget together we can achieve much more than anyone of us could achieve alone.

Council Meeting 15.6.09

Last night saw a huge crowd of people attend the Council meeting designated to decide on the fate of the proposed school at 612 Hoxton Park Rd.

Many are aware that the residents have worked tirelessly to point out to council and the community that this particular location was not appropriate for safety and traffic reasons. I have also commented on Street corner that I would not send my children to this location, it’s a 2600sqm site proposed to school 800 children and 50 or so teachers and support staff. Anyone who knows me will know that this for me is not a religious issue; this is purely a “locational” one… alas last night the councillors in their lack of infinite wisdom voted to allow the school to proceed.

To their credit Cllrs Hadchiti, Lucas & Harle voted against this proposal on all the right reasons… namely the aforementioned location and that the residents themselves were pleading for support against the development. Sadly the other councillors hid behind jargon and rhetoric rather than vote for what was best for the community. The Applicant advised he would abide by the council decision regardless of the outcome; some of our councillors ignored the residents in favour of a school whose origins were outside our LGA.

Onto other matters raised during the meeting, Councillors had the opportunity to have a 2.5% pay increase and Cllr Stanley proposed that the councillors choose not to accept the 2.5%. Good news I say, as I had already begun preparing documents to stifle any chance they might have had, with council in dire financial circumstances (hence the need for 9% rate increase)  the thought of paying some of these councillors to do so very little is abhorrent.

Other matters were mostly operational issues, but I heard that Cllr Lucas wouldn’t be available for the Heritage committee meeting next week as he was attending the Canberra summit… which takes me back to my last meeting comment of how many councillors put their hand up to attend on our dollar…seems my request to send two and take notes fell on deaf ears…alas I wonder what the cost of this sojourn costs us, the people of Liverpool.

The Lehmann oval situation has become untenable and council has closed it for sporting groups, hear! hear!… this particular oval has been a money pit for way too long. Perhaps we could encourage the locals to set up a community garden on the site,  according to Cllr McGoldrick…”someone” is looking at a proposal for the land… I guess time will tell although Cllr McGoldrick was keen to withhold info for the moment.

My understanding is that the Hoxton Park School site is to be readdressed at the next council meeting on the 29^thas a rescission motion was lodged last evening. More on this as it comes to hand.

Tender spot

Seems to me I may have hit upon a tender spot with some people. I felt it best to set the record straight and on this blog I can put forward my opinion unedited… (I refer comments in the Champion on line)

For the record, I didn’t vote for any of the present members of Liverpool council, after running alongside them for the months prior to the election I decided to choose individuals I believed would do what is best for Liverpool and who wouldn’t hide behind a group or party(although in some cases they were members of a party). Ok not enough people agreed with me but for now I will continue to make comments, you certainly don’t have to agree with me and are free to make comments also, I actually encourage it. This doesn’t mean I either like nor dislike them personally or politically.

LCC deserves the best representation we can get, if at times I hurt the occasional feeling, I’m sorry for that, my comments are not designed to hurt but to awaken – draw a positive result, in the end a council who is active in the community is the ultimate goal. Personal feelings aside we need them awake, active and engaged… if my comments help achieve this I have achieved my goal.

June Long Weekend

Hi all,

I just wanted to wish you all a safe and happy long weekend… with the submission for Draft Man Plan done, I can now turn my time to some other local matters that are in need of some attention. 

If you have a concern in your local area, please don’t hesitate to drop me an email or leave a comment. As I’ve said in the past, when we all work together so much more can be achieved.

Happy weekend…

Signe

ps…mark in your diary the  20th June 10.30 – 12.30 for the Local Greens meeting, come along and work with us to get things moving in Liverpool and Fairfield.

Two things.

Did you know you are invited to comment of two matters before Council?

Councillor’s pay rates and whether or not to change the Branding for Liverpool.

As Mayor Wendy Waller repeatedly mentioned during the campaign, her job as Mayor does not require full time attention we can now suggest she doesn’t take the full amount available. Did you know a Mayor can earn $7+,000 not including expenses?  If Mayor Wendy is genuine in her promise to provide us with fair representation and she doesnt’ think the job warrants her full time commitment let’s pay her a portion of the amount available, not indeed the entire amount.  Also if you have an idea of how to proportion what a councillor can earn in relation to their participation, let me know.  I don’t know how we can measure this but surely the amount they contribute to the city should be a consideration in how much they earn out of our rates. They vote on this soon…don’t wait.

Councillor Lucas also wants to have the Crest replace the branding on all Council documents etc.  I’ve read that this could result in excess of $1M additional money spent.  I think the branding is modern and certainly as you drive around L’pool you know and recognise the symbolism…do we / can we justify this enormous cost?  My suggestion… phase it into the paperwork as new is required…add it…there is room for both and justification for both…one is branding, the other representative of our history…why can’t we have both and why does it have to be one or the other? Our bicentennial is two years away lets phase the crest into paperwork as it is replaced…provided of course it doesn’t blow the budget. 

Considering all the things we want/need done around Liverpool do you care that much what symbol is on your rate bill or would you rather see the pot holes fixed…? I know what my answer is…

As promised I’m staying in touch

Well I’ve been constantly in touch really, I’ve been attending the forums and of course the first meeting of the new council. 

I am heartened by the number of people surprised I wasn’t elected and for their continuing support. I must however point out that I received very few votes in the scheme of things so if you would like to see me run again any time in the future you need to help me by making comments etc.  From my present standpoint I’m one very opinionated person and whilst this is not a problem for me, I’m keen to represent the People of Liverpool, not just my personal opinion.

So onto what has been happening, I attended the first council meeting Chaired by Mayor Wendy as she became known, I watched in sadness at the grandstanding of Gary Lucas and the Holier than thou of some of the councillors. I found Mayor Wendy to be competant and clearly in control enough to check and make sure of points before proceeding. She was clear on her focus when it came to which of the Groups she wished to be involved with, whilst I might say her Labor counterparts seemed equally clear in what they were trying to avoid being involved with.  On the whole they did what ever they could to avoid any sign of working each managing to sit on only 1 committee whilst the other members of our council managed to participate in two or three committees and Mayor Wendy on 4. It is early days so I’m keeping an open mind. Sadly there are some elected to our Council who appear to be less enthusiastic about participating than others so time will tell. 

I love this city and I want to see it move forward, to that end this is I hope as negative as it ever needs to be. I would very much like this blog not to become a whinge and whine session, so I will attempt to present anything I can in an upbeat manner.  I will also however, present things as they are.

All the best as we move forward into the future with our New Council. 

I’ll be back as soon as there is some news worthy information to print… until then, make comment, offer opinion after all that’s what I’m doing.