1.5.12 We are being played

Sometimes, like everyone, I feel greatly disheartened by our representatives in Council. Really, is this the level of contempt we can expect from here until the election?

Item one on last night’s agenda was a Notice of Motion from Councillor Anne Stanley, though it appeared to being ‘electioneering’. Very quickly it descended in to utter chaos. The first Notice of Motion from Councillor Stanley received no support outside Labor. This was described as an election stunt by other councillors. Councillor (correction) Hadid supported by Mannoun then put forward another motion to cancel the parking strategy all together.  In one fell swoop the councillors threw away $1.7million dollars in infrastructure and countless man hours and scrapped everything. The only three councillors against were the Liberal/Independent trinity of Lucas, Harle and Napolitano. A third option was put together which was a little bit of this and a little bit of that, as they argued and grandstanded.  Lucas, Harle and Napolitano immediately began calling other councillors all idiots and called for a rescission motion. The next hour was spent skimming over the rest of the agenda (appalling in so many ways as things were inadequately addressed) while (someone) found out if we could address the rescission motion at the same meeting. Chaos. During a break Councillors Stanley, Napolitano, Waller, and others rescued portions of the parking strategy with a new motion, agreed upon before coming back into session. A do over of sorts!

This is appalling. And the gallery last night was shocked, some livid, angry and outraged. It may not seem so in print as I describe it here, but the issues of the parking strategy have been in planning for a long time. They have been addressed by the CBD committee in consultation with community, large amounts of money have been spent to get this strategy off the ground. It had already been ratified and was being brought back to council for the election agenda of a councillor.

 Councillors (some) were present at the CDB committee when this was discussed. They continue to act in ridiculous ways in council meetings without any consideration for the work done in order to draft plans and strategies, with no consideration for those involved in these things. And they behave this way because they want to make a political point against the other side of the bi-partisan coin for the sake of it. There is nothing in the councillors’ behaviour last night that would lead me to assume they care a jolt about any of that. $1.7 million is the infrastructure cost so far of the parking strategy. For a moment, all I could do was thank god they didn’t have to deal with the federal budget.

 There is a complete lack of respect for the community and the staff and a display of blatant one-upmanship I’ve never seen from this appalling excuse for a council. The saviours in this instance are the Liberal/Independents who last night were lucid enough to prevent $1.7million dollars spent on a strategy blown on a whim. But let us not forget that it was their contribution that began the decent into chaos in the first place. So the initial sacrifice allowed them to come up trumps later. Nice. Especially for those invested watching from the gallery.

Michael Byrne took the opportunity in the speakers forum last night to announce his candidacy for Liverpool once again. I’m not surprised, he is sort of like a ghost that only haunts the place around election time, I can’t for the life of me recall having seen him since the last election! Thankfully, he speaks highly of himself as a local saviour so we can all be confident. (Removes tongue from cheek…)

After last night some council  staff are clearly gutted. The community who watched from the gallery  are in shock. People are scratching their heads wondering what else this moronic lot could possibly do given half a chance. Let’s not give them one. We deserve better representation than the debacle this council has been since they were first elected.

Council meeting 27.2.12

Well that comes under the ‘interesting’ event tag. A fairly quick meeting, consisting of an attempt at a censure motion, yelling locals, usual topics and new people to meet…

Last night councillors spent considerable time discussing an urgency motion regarding totally inappropriate comments made by one councillor on a website…as I’m sure there will be more on this I will not mention the name of the councillor… however a great deal of discussion went into how to word the complaint, etc, etc …and while having a coffee later I was taken back to a similar situation some time ago when Cllr Hadchiti was accused, proven inappropriate and censured for making inappropriate comments to another councillor… the outcome… having the whole thing not only heard by all councillors, taped for record keeping and witnessed by the gallery, considerable dollars spent on the investigation when the ruling was handed down, he simply chose to ignore, dispute and disregard the outcome.

So what can we expect to come from this.? What will happen here now the precedent is set?… could we expect the same, should we expect the same? For the record I was personally disgusted by the comments made on the website, but I was similarly disgusted by the comments of the previous situation as well… and totally unsatisfied with Cllr Hadchiti’s actions.

Then I thought, ahha the difference here is there will be a number of people who make a formal complaint… then I realised they did before also….so where do we stand?

I can only assume after an appropriate investigation and considerable time (& money)…we will be advised, however the question begs asking…would the previous censure have been acted upon differently if said councillor knew his actions would allow the next one (even more vilifying) to be dismissed similarly… as I said only time will tell… but this is not how our councils should operate and again we are to be embarrassed by poor behaviour and lack of professionalism by some of our councillors.  The true outcome of the embarrassment may not be known until counting time in September when we find out if our community accepts this behaviour OR treats it with the appropriate contempt.

AS for yelling locals, new people… as with most council meeting some residents will not achieve their goals and leave unhappy, while I get to meet new people and put names to faces, which I  must say is always a plus in my book.

Until next time…enjoy your week… come up and visit me at the clean up Australia Day Program on Sunday and where I can I’ll keep you posted on what’s happening about our city.

6.2.12 Council meeting – A new record**

Last night’s council meeting set a new record, and before you think, what dumb thing did they do…well it was in—time–a record early close…all done and dusted by 9.20pm. as for the dumb things they did… common sense prevailed and the councillors decided (7-3-Cllr Lucas was MIA until just before the end) that $100,000 fighting fund for the intermodal was unfair to many other important issues that have gone before and that it was fair and reasonable to fight the mega-modal but from within a considered and reasonable budget utilising the expertise and experience of those already working in council.

The decision as to how many or who may attend the women’s conference in Dubbo was swept aside and potential attendees were given a week to inform the GM of their attendance. Again, as with all conferences I support attendance however the number attending should be regulated and minimal… let’s face it at $160 per room per night (3) accommodation and a registration fee of $540 each this could quickly become an expensive venture… don’t get me wrong, we only have three women councillors and I could fairly easily be convinced that all three should attend however the requirement is not only women attend, potentially 11 could and we now would be none the wiser, as it wasn’t decided in open council.

On what was a relatively light agenda, some reasonable discussion took place on the intermodal issue, some less than pleasant jibes from Cllr Mannoun when Cllr Harle put some perspective to the matter of $100,000,  the decision to reclassify our recently purchased land at Kemps Creek was ratified, decisions regarding the alignment of power @ our property 52 Scott Street, investment outcomes, Malek Fahd School DA conditions, the community shuttle bus (more on this further down) and general council business stuff was dispatched with relative ease including the support of the Graffiti management Strategy and rubber stamping the committee minutes although one item was referred to general business regarding the use of local roads by the ARTC, I’m sure there will be more on that at a later time.

The Community Bus… from the advice of the GM a decision has not yet been made by the minister regarding the Community Bus, so please if you see the benefit in the all day free parking at Collimore and would prefer the State Govt pay for the shuttle bus, now is the time to write to the Minister.  I will write again shortly and post here,  if you would like help or additional info pls call or email me asap.

Lastly if you are a business owner, manager or decision maker tonight at the Liverpool TAFE at 6pm is the safety workshop co hosted by Liverpool LAC , Council and chamber of commerce… see you there.

** I’ve been reminded that the shortest meeting was actually when Cllr Lucas was overseas…as his attendance last night was quite limited there may just be a trend LOL

1st 2012 Council meeting Monday 6th Feb

7pm at the Frances Greenway centre beside the City Library.

It’s Friday afternoon and I’m almost through reading the business papers, nice quiet afternoon in the office YAY. Greens program day all day tomorrow and with a little luck family day on Sunday with my main men… all is good with the world!

FYI one in confidence (closed session),  offering NACE a contract when they have a record of breaking rules in Liverpool, financial reports, graffiti Strategy, the community bus shuttle and more on the intermodal…come along, see how/if  your councillors represent you and come up and say hi to me… I love meeting locals.

Council Meeting 19.12.11

The last council meeting for 2011 was pretty much as one would expect a very full agenda. Coopers Paddock was on the agenda and while the entire site was not given to council we gained more space than we had initially been offered for the safety of the flora and fauna. The ATC will remediate the site and hand it over to council over the coming years, all in all a good outcome albeit a lot of expertise involved to ensure the Powerful owl, the Varied Sittella and numerous other species now have sufficient space to roost and call home… the big hope now is that the remediation doesn’t disturb the more fragile and move them away.  An interesting outcome was for the Direct Freight people, in that they were seeking a 24/7 licence to operate, and no one had mentioned the option of the ‘proposed’ new 400 metre section of road, from what I heard the freight company may be coerced into assisting financially with this road, which would make the lives of the many in that sector safer and happier.

I have attached the presentation I made to councillors, here I’ve indicated what was ‘missed’ by the councillors interjections and frankly I wasn’tperturbed, it was as I expected but I am happy with the outcomes, albeit the nonsense with the carbon tax didn’t get stopped, I am confident the people of Liverpool will know this is a political stunt and treat it with the appropriate disdain. Every thinking person knows the 17% the state government is planning to increase power next year (on top of the nearly 40% in the recent past) will affect us all way more than the compensated .07%. Alas as a council election is imminent this is to be expected. Cllr Lucas did not succeed in his attempt to have the community ousted from the CBD committee (tks to Cllr Stanley for her support) and the community forums (although now two not three) will continue monthly from Feb-November interestingly at Cllr Lucas behest.  The other reason for posting my comments was that as always some councillors don’t really listen and in the discussions later in the evening Cllr Hadchiti clearly misquoted me so I’ve posted here for the record.

As I said it was a full agenda and we finished up at approx 11.30pm, council kindly provided a supper however I and many others were simply happy to make a move home. Some of our staff travel long distances and to their credit some were seen arriving at work at 8.30 as did I. I get a little miffed when I hear disparaging comments about our staff, they are from what I’ve observed a decent and hardworking group of people and I wish them all a very Merry Christmas and may 2012 bring exciting times for us all.

All is not necessarily done for 2011 although that was the  final meeting/committee/forum for the year and I do miss them over the break however I am looking for some time off with family as I am sure most people are.

Wednesday Morning ritual

Part of my Wednesday morning ritual is picking up both local papers and reading them almost front to back, sorry property section I’m not reading although I still like to glance at what is available and where.

Having said that I love reading the editors comments, articles but  mostly the community comments, I as most of you would know love the interaction with the community and this is just another form of it IMHO… but today I was livid to read the letter from Paster Henry Jacotine in this week’s Champion, not because I don’t feel he has a right to make a personal comment, he has or that I disagree totally with his opinions regarding the marriage act (which I do) because I happen to believe in an equal & fair society & abhor discrimination. But what bugged me most was  what he  failed to mention, being a couple of what I think are pertinent facts, 1) he’s a pastor at the Inspire Church,(hardly an unbiased opinion)  2) His appalling behaviour at the Carbon forum aside, he’s a former Mayoral  candidate for the LCIT, a local political group who despite their ‘Independent’ tag  consistently  displays a strong Liberal (as in political not open minded) agenda, with both their councillors who most often vote in block with the Liberal councillors, including wearing ‘vote Liberal’  T-shirts & scrutineering for the Libs at recent elections . Lastly as a decent person he disparages me (& perhaps you) as indecent because I disagree with his prejudice (then again who made him final ‘judgement’ officer?) or  that in my opinion we are all created equal. Please Paster Henry Jacotine at least sign off with your credentials so those other (in) decent Liverpudlians can see where your opinions are formed & your allegiance lay.

Also in the paper is the partial agendas for the upcoming council meeting as is the CBD Committee meeting, also mentioned  are Cllr Lucas’s plans for the foreshore of the Georges River, the plans are admirable and I look forward to discussing this further at the Monday meeting, however as the agenda for  the CBD Committee is rarely publically available prior this is your opportunity to give me your opinions to take to that meeting ( I am your community representative) bear in mind talk is cheap, funding such a venture would not and while he gains deserved attention for his foresight not a lot of what he has suggested could be funded by Liverpool Council and would require significant funding from other agencies as well as approval from the State Rail who own the land (I think).

 Also highlighted in the paper are the ATC proposals. As you well know I support saving as much of Coopers Paddock as possible (all would be lovely), and have supported the ATC’s plans for other developments including the proposed future development  of a housing estate on their land to the east and the creation of so much local work,  but it seems a little bullish that the ATC president has indicated its an all or nothing deal…”Mr Cornish said we intend to sell the land to fund the upgrade, no money no racecourse”. What a shame, I know the ATC plan to sell the Munday Street Site but from what I recall the info on Coopers Paddock indicated they were planning to develop the Industrial site… not necessarily sell it off…while I might have missed some fine detail it’s a shame the ATC feel that way and plan to completely give up if they don’t get their approvals 100%.  To that he said “young families in the west deserve world class facilities, not just the toffs in the eastern Suburbs.” (As quoted in the Leader) but only if they get their 100% approval it seems. I can only imagine some of those ‘toffs’ in the eastern suburbs’ would enjoy seeing a wildlife refuge right next door to the racecourse when they travel ALLLLLLL the way out west for the races and probably not so excited about struggling with trucks going to and from an industrial estate.  I guess they won’t be coming at all if the ATC don’t get all their approvals ;-(

Lastly the final council meeting for the year is on Monday at the Francis Greenway Centre at 7pm… Come along, say hi and see what is happening in your city.

Council meeting 21.11.11

Following last night’s council meeting I’ve been thinking, is this how the majority of the people of Liverpool expect their councillors to behave and to be heard saying. Last night, as is oft the case,Lib/Ind  Cllr Lucas embarrassed us, the decent caring people of Liverpool. His constant innuendo, jibes and downright rude and thoughtless comments belittle us as a city. The conversation regarding the Graffitti walls/tanks at CPAC was again beyond the pale… the young man from Europe featured in the paper a couple of weeks ago painting on the tanks was actually pretty good press for Liverpool., alas not for Lucas, he hoped  this fellow wasn’t another one of “those illegal immigrants who overstay their visa’, how low does this man actually go… all the while using council funds as his personal slush fund and directing hundreds of thousands of dollars  at his will without taking it through the formal budget process to the community and yet supported by the Liberal coalition. Another financial offering of $7500 to fund signs etc against the intermodal… road works that may well need attention being financed when others like the very busy Bobbin Road remain appalling, with CCTV for the CBD now has a reserve funding pool to name a few, no doubt there are some good causes amongst them but usurping the usual public process and not having them even in the council minutes is inappropriate at best.

When people come up to you at the meeting to say how embarrassed and appalled they are by this man it makes you wonder about the people who vote for him in the first place. I believe the people who vote for him generally do not know his behaviour; they do not hear the depths to which he will troll… His carryon at the Carbon debate and those hecklers in the audience surely aren’t the majority, surely the good people of Liverpool expect their councillors to behave with some dignity, self restraint and perhaps just basic good grace.

Plus of course the constant call from the Liberal coalition for private briefings on all and sundry, what the hell happened to transparency?

On a positive note Lib/Ind Cllr Napolitano, who arrived quite late, however in time to  jump to the defence and support of the walls and the users.

A Pattern is emerging, that the Labor councillor’s vote in accordance with advice given by the staff, this to me is a good thing in that we pay for the expertise of our staff, one would hope we trust their informed and educated judgement, tempered of course with our local knowledge and support of our residents.

Another matter the proposed development of the Flower Power site at Moorebank was supported by the Liberal Coalition again as the staff advised against building walls in flood prone land, and again the Labor members were outnumbered, if you’ve lived here as long as I have one would question developing that land for residential at all.

At the same time the Valley Music group finds themselves better off sourcing private premises rather than rely on council for support, I guess they have the ousting of 2GLF as an example on that one!

Then of course it is becoming clear that an election is in the wind, Liberal Cllr  Hadchiti directing comments to the gallery about their presentation to council or Lib/Ind Cllr Harle attempting to justify/resurrect  poor previous decisions while Lib Cllr Hadid feels there are potential votes in highlighting correspondence from a local Labor MP that will endear him to the community. Worse still that same councillor was previously a ‘close and valued friend’ of said MP… one has to ask, what kind of sincerity is there when one can flip flop support not only for a close and valued friend  but an entire moral/political ethic just to get elected.  

While Lib Cllr Mannoun must feel scare tactics will have him elected again as he photographs  addicts on a Sunday morning. Spreading fear about walking the streets of our city (which by the way I and my husband do regularly day and night) is a poor political tactic albeit not new for him.

Frustration came to a head last night also as Mayor Waller finally raised her voice against the antagonistic and argumentative Lib/Ind Cllr Lucas.

As I look back over the agenda that I’d felt had but a few ‘issues’ within, some of the gallery left delighted with the outcome, while some residents left not happy they had been let down by the council… it is unrealistic to think you can make everyone happy.

However  there is one matter raised I would like you to watch out for and  is coming to  public exhibition soon, that  is  the options for the Old Council site… what happens here with this site  is  an important decision, this should not be taken lightly and one we the people of Liverpool absolutely need to be involved in. As with some of our parks being sold, once gone or developed they are gone forever and these assets cannot be replaced and should not be sold off for short term gain without the consensus of the people of Liverpool.

As promised previously I’ve attempted to outline who was responsible for some of my comments here, this I hope will remove the ambiguity and allow you the reader to clearly see the direction our council is heading, thereby making your decisions and opinions a little more informed.

 

Reading reading reading ;-)

According to the statutory investment report for Sept 2011 approximately 13 million dollars was spent by Liverpool Council on property acquisitions, some will be compulsory land acquisitions, some may be the flood prone area by backs, some may be associated with community needs, when will we find out how much council spent on 48-52 Scott Street Liverpool? Still hoping for transparency  so left to guess until then. ;-(

Also from now on when I am reporting on items such as our councils refusal to include Green Power purchases and such I will attempt, where I’m sure, to advise who of the councillors votes for and who against, it has been brought to my attention that a number of residents would like to know, and in fairness, our chief climate change deniers come from the Liberal coalition not the Labor party so I will where I’m sure begin to include that information. I will also continue to include any stupid comments like that of Cllr Hadchiti when asked what they could spend the estimated $70,000 on by not buying green power… it wasn’t bonus money Cllr… You’ll still need to purchase power it just won’t be going to research and development of cleaner, dare I say it, greener technologies. For those of you who follow this same councillor on twitter… you think he might have been too close to his paving paint?

I’ve had a quick read through this coming Mondays minutes and congratulate Cllr Stanley for asking the question of proposed costs to council for not including Green energy in our purchase, while I’m not sure of the extent and detail to which accurate answers will be available, as some may be conjecture, I know our council staff will endeavour to provide the most accurate analysis they can.

I also support the GM in his decision to not handle the 2012 Council elections in house, with current ICAC investigations and questions over the lack of transparency the last thing anyone in Liverpool needs is doubt, I feel this, albeit potentially a more expensive option and with our lack of expertise in house is a good choice. I do recall a conversation with our previous GM who felt he could have done a better job in house and perhaps he did have the required expertise, in this instance however I agree is perhaps the best option.

Residents of the Western area may be delighted at the decision re the crematoria; however I’ve not read that in detail yet… and will over the weekend… let’s hope it’s good news all-round.

Don’t forget Next Monday the 17th at 7pm is the council meeting, brought forward because several of our councillors will be on the south coast for the Local Govt Association meeting.

See you at the Francis Greenway Centre!

Looking forward

Tonight is the Carbon Tax debate at the Liverpool Council chambers, 170 George Street Liverpool. 7pm.

Come up and say hi, I will be there with a few of my colleagues, am looking forward to a friendly exchange of ideas and hopefully providing the community with some real information and answer some of those nagging questions.   Will update tomorrow on any of the comments and hopefully clear up any misconceptions.

BLATANT CAMPAIGNING …but what the cost?

Last night’s council meeting was everything one has come to expect, while not publically aggressive seems while we were ‘exited’ things got a little heated with a couple of Cllrs conversation at the close being somewhat agitated. However at this meeting there was the added bonus of councillors blatantly working the room in a ‘vote for me vote for me’ attempt at every opportunity. But what the cost, tenders called, delayed, left hanging, security of a council on a mission lost in the volley for votes… and pretty much nothing one can do to rectify this sorry excuse for representation.

For a long time now I’ve hammered the lack of attendance at committee meetings, forums and pretty much anything to do with the public, now we have a bunch of councillors, who attend little, read even less and realise an election drawers nigh clambering for votes and by-lines …and the cost is delays, even more delays. The wheels of council turn slowly enough, as frustrating as it often is, eventually we reach a point where something can be enacted, in this instance, the parking strategy, some of us, have been working on this for years and years, some of us helped make some hard decisions, but we did it in good faith that the outcome would provide the best result for all the people of Liverpool and it was all done as transparently as possible, community meetings, advertising, etc etc. Trust me it’s not very often I tend to agree with Cllr Lucas but last night I did just that, (ok only once) after some pretty petty too-ing and fro-ing the penny dropped to him that the whole strategy was being put at risk because of some blatant pandering and campaigning….

Then our gems decided not to include green power in our electricity supply, but Cllr Hadchiti is looking for carbon credits for planting trees…lordy, his lot have lost the plot… is he now  for the carbon tax on all things that interest him and not on others, I don’t think it works that way councillor… you can’t have it both ways.

 While there are times one would say who cares, sadly I do, it’s our future, it’s our council and in the end it’s our money they are frittering away. Another $35,000 in legal fee’s in the land and environment court,  which brings me to the another point,  I’ve not heard or seen what it cost us to own 48-52 Scott Street, and what the costs of maintaining it will be on our council. Yet another perfect example of lack of transparency,decisions made behind closed doors..

To other things, it’s Cllr Napolitano’s turn to be Deputy Mayor, seems when you have the majority Coalition councillors true representation is a thing of the past… it’s more  a matter of “it’s my turn you had yours’  here  bipartisanship is gone the way of the dinosaur. Although on this our council doesn’t stand alone, petty politics is the norm.  Thank God we have a popularly elected Mayoral system in place at least there the community decides and it will be interesting to see how this pans out in less than 12months when we’re back at the polls.  

The committees representation are pretty much the status quo, although from memory any councillor can attend any committee meeting ‘voluntarily’ as an observer should they so wish and as always pretty much don’t. Heaven knows if they had shown a little more interest in the CBD Committee maybe we wouldn’t have had the debacle of last night… although Cllr Harle is on the committee and voted against the strategy, seconded it and then withdrew…seems to me the ‘caucus’ meetings the coalition have aren’t too clear when one councillor appears to be texting another … although at other times the same councillor tweets during council meetings, maybe he’s just bored.

Please spend some time looking about the council website, there are a couple of matters on exhibition and worthy of your time and comment. And remember if you don’t voice an opinion something important may just go through you wished hadn’t.