WCC confidential item raises spectre of CEO demise
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Oohh, there’s nothing like a confidential item on the W’bool City Council meeting agenda to get the terrier nose sniffing the wind.
This juicy little confidential “personnel matter” is right at the end of the thumping agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting which has almost as many pages as “War and Peace“.
Personnel matter? Hmm, who could that person be?
My guess is it’s the CEO.
The worst kept secret in Warrnambool right now is the attempted coup against the CEO earlier this year – aborted just before Covid 19 hit – is being reignited by the two councillor power brokers, Crs Neoh and Gaston.
Cr Neoh has been lighting the fuse on the gelignite via his chest-puffing pieces in the local paper about transparency and accountability – all of which is about 12 years too late.
Both Crs Neoh and Gaston want the CEO out. (He is not Bruce, dammit).
They began working the numbers earlier this year and now, as the election approaches and everyone wants to buddy up, I would not be surprised if they have them.
Our CEO has had 18 months to turn around a legacy of 11 years – a legacy, may I add, that Crs Neoh and Gaston were part of.
Why are they in such a rush to get rid of him? Hmmm.
Politics, even at a local level, can be a dirty game of power and intrigue, and both are on full display at 25 Liebig St right now.
“War and Peace” it is.
[The meeting will be live-streamed on the WCC website from 5.45pm.]
Two years on, Levy’s Beach dunes are still being trashed
The scars of illegal four-wheel drives across the landscape at Levy’s Beach. Picture supplied.
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
We call ourselves Australia’s most liveable city, but this is still happening to our coast.
Two years after a long, expensive and detailed plan was put in place to look after the wild terrain of Levy’s Beach, it’s still being trashed.
The illegal four wheel-driving still goes on.
Illegal rubbish dumping still goes on.
The illegal trail bike riding still goes on.
And there is still no answer from the Warrnambool City Council as to whether racehorse training will be allowed, because most councillors are paralysed with fear of making this an issue at the next election and more importantly, pissing off the powerful Warrnambool Racing Club.
Tip: it already is an election issue.
Another tip: with Weir and McLean now pre-occupied preparing their defence for serious charges of animal cruelty against racehorses, the other 99 per cent of the trainers have moved on and are content with Lady Bay.
When it comes to Levy’s beach and our part of the Belfast Coastal Reserve, the council is incapable of making a decision and it is incapable of managing the area.
It has utterly failed and, this time, it cannot claim it didn’t know what was happening “out there”.
They know what is happening and the best they can do is launch yet another bloody survey.
Another survey, for another plan.
Illegal rubbish dumping and illegal four-wheel driving tracks at Levy’s Beach. Image supplied.
Please, not another plan.
We already have a Warrnambool Coastal Management Plan 2013, a Green Warrnambool 2018 plan, a Warrnambool Coastal Vegetation Management Plan 2012, a Management Plan for the Levy’s Point Coastal Reserve from 1998, a Marine and Coastal Policy 2020, and – as mentioned above – the Belfast Coastal Reserve Management Plan from just two years ago.
Now we are being asked to fill out this new survey by 10 July and say what you REALLY, REALLY, think should happen at Levy’s Beach…
Bloody hell. It’s exhausting, particularly when some of us are still putting our eyeballs back in from telling the EPA what we think about the Wannon Water treatment plant upgrade that will pour industrial effluent into this same stretch of coast.
I am starting to think the WCC is secretly developing a form of psychological torture where they survey citizens into submission, call it consultation, ignore the results, do nothing, and then survey us all over again.
It’s called surveyconsultationitis and is designed to cause temporary insanity and physical exhaustion as we scroll through yet another Survey Monkey and click on the multiple choice.
By the end of it all, we will be gibbering like chimpanzees and that, I suspect, is the whole point.
While we are distracted by all of this “busy work” – as musician and activist John Schumann once described it – our coast continues to suffer.
It continues to be raped and pillaged by those who really don’t give a stuff, and they do so with impunity.
They don’t care: it’s all a bit of a laugh to go up there in your Toyota Hilux and shred the dunes for half an hour, because nobody’s watching and nobody is issuing any fines. More people are fined for parking too long in Liebig St.
The Belfast Coastal Reserve is home to myriad bird species including the protected Hooded Plover. Image: Paddy Finnigan Photography.
The Belfast Coastal Reserve Management Plan promised this would change.
It promised that the council, Parks Victoria and various state bodies would all work together to protect this precious, wild coastline that is a victim of its isolation.
But the only thing that ever captured the immediate attention of all these bodies was the racehorse training: it was a top priority.
The council moved so fast in late 2018, it was almost as if it had a jigger on its arse: special meetings were held, Ministers were called, planning amendments were rushed through to make the illegal racehorse training that had been going on, legal…
Ah, the power of money.
We don’t need to fill out another survey because we have already spoken, many times: protect this area from any more degradation.
The council knows what it has to do.
Just do it.
Ouch! WCC parking inspectors return with a vengeance
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Have you received one of these lately? A parking fine for the ‘free parking’ in Warrnambool?
If so, you’re not alone.
That’s because the free parking in response to C19 was always free TIMED parking, but the W’bool City Council didn’t enforce the time limits.
For about two months, the parking inspectors were nowhere to be seen.
So most people assumed it was free parking, full stop.
Now that the time limits are suddenly being enforced – largely because some unthinking souls decided to park all day in front of shops – people are being whacked with fines left, right and centre.
As one person who contacted me after being fined said, “I thought it was free parking? Did I miss something?”
What they missed was the clear message that free, timed parking would now be enforced.
(This means if you park in a two-hour car park, for example, you get two hours free. If you stay longer than two hours, you may get fined.)
Two of the areas that matter most to residents, according to that survey, is good communication and getting the city’s parking right.
Pretty basic stuff.
So I am here to help spread the word that free, TIMED parking is in force and it’s great. I hope it stays.
I hope the only place where you don’t get at least the first hour free is Liebig St, where perhaps it’s the first 30mins.
Traders have been begging the council for years to offer some form of free parking. Now, more than ever, they need that help – permanently.
Just this one move alone would, I suspect, see the council move from an F to at least a B in next year’s satisfaction survey.
As it stands, the free, timed parking is due to end on 1 July.
Wannon Water upgrade issues: The Terrier cheat sheet
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
The sexy Wannon Water sequel: Meet Dr Sam, the West Highland Water Scientist.
Dr Sam is here to help us have a say on the Warrnambool sewage treatment plant $40m upgrade which is actually not sexy, but boy, it’s important.
What happens next at that plant sets up what will happen off Thunder Point for the next 20 years.
It’s a big ask for us humble citizens to get our heads around the full proposal.
How can we possibly know whether it’s the best we can do for our beautiful ocean?
But we have until 1 July to express an opinion, no matter how humble.
In digesting this WW plan, Dr Sam and I have been able to take a bit of a short cut – and you can too.
I have been able to tap into scientific and environmental experts who are helping the Clean Ocean Foundation with its response.
They have shared some of their thoughts with me, to pass on to you.
This means that if you want to make a comment, you don’t have to feel overwhelmed and have some handy starting points.
What follows is a top 10 list of some of the very detailed concerns being compiled by the COF. At the end is a link to an extended mix of these tips.
We are giving the simple version here, but the message is clear: we need to invest in new ways of doing things, not just do more of the same for the next 20 years.
This is our chance to stand up for the sea.
Here is your Terrier 10-point cheat sheet:
1. Where does the sewage go if the treatment plant fails, or partially fails?
2. Risks to human health from exposure to the effluent both inside and outside the mixing zone via fishing, diving, snorkelling and rock pooling.
3. The phosphorus concentrations – largely from Warrnambool Cheese and Butter – are about 10 times higher than for a similar plant. This can lead to algal blooms.
4. Micro-plastics will still be able to make it through the screening process and into the sea.
5. There is no plan for effluent disinfection. Physical, or chemical disinfection will provide a much safer marine environment.
6. The amount of effluent discharged each day will grow from 16 megalitres to 26 mgl a day, which means more pollutants will also be discharged.
7. The upgrade doesn’t take into account ‘new’ pollutants and how these will be handled, such as micro plastics, organo-chlorines and pesticides.
8. There is no deep exploration of ways to reuse/recycle the wastewater or reduce the energy consumption of the upgraded plant.
9. There must be an upgrade of technology, not just an expansion of the existing systems.
10. Industries that create the vast majority of the waste should be paying more toward the plant upgrade to make it best practice and future proof.
Public confidence in WCC crashes to an all-time low
The appointment of a new W’bool City Council CEO in Peter Schneider came with high hopes, but he has struggled to turn the ship around.
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Today (22/6) the Warrnambool City Council fell off a cliff and we need to know, right now, what our CEO Peter Schneider is going to do about it.
The annual WCC community satisfaction survey results released today show the overall performance of the WCC is at its lowest recorded level – ever.
Absorb that for one second.
Its overall score of just 42/100 is lower than the darkest years of the past decade.
It’s far lower than the regional average (56) and the state average (58), despite several councils having been dismissed, exposed or shamed.
Confidence in our council’s direction has crashed to just 32/100.
The ability to make community decisions scored a paltry 38/100.
Of the 28 different areas independently measured – from parking to tourism to traffic – satisfaction was down on every single measure, bar one (the environment, which stayed the same).
This is not just a failure, but a full-blown crisis.
As the survey company warned in its summary, it is going to take a mammoth effort to turn around.
We are looking to you, Mr Schneider, for answers and direction. This is why we pay you more than $320,000 a year.
But what do we get from our chief?
Well, today we got this statement to Katrina Lovell from The Standard:
“While we can look at the challenging issues that were playing out at the time the survey was conducted – horses on beaches, a councillor resignation, the Reid Oval design, The Lookout proposal, free car parking, ongoing investigations into management of credit cards and the start of COVID-19 restrictions – the reality is that many in the community are not happy with our performance and we must address this,” he said.
We get more excuses.
We get “not happy”.
Where is the plan, Mr Schneider? Where is the hope for change and real connection with the community you serve?
The council would have had these survey results for some time, and yet we don’t get even a hint of a plan, but more platitudes.
I, for one, am sick to death of the platitudes.
And where is the statement from our Mayor?
This is why we have a Mayor, to speak on behalf of the six other people elected to represent us.
Are they shocked? Outraged? Saddened? Determined to start working on this from first thing tomorrow morning?
We have silence.
They just don’t get it. Even after a report card littered with metaphorical Fs and Es, they still can’t reach across the divide and say “we hear you”.
In the meantime, there is a second survey that was released about a week ago, that we won’t see. This is the staff survey which, I have a sense, is equally as shocking.
The WCC will not be releasing those results. I wonder why.
Bring on October – and vote for change.
[The community survey report is 163 pages long and buried on the WCC website. I will drill down into it as the week unfolds. You can find it here.]
