Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Reality bites: the Warrnambool City Council has written to families with kids in kindergarten to say the fees are going up for the next two terms.

Take that, families with young children, a nice big slice of cold fish across the chops! C19 be damned!

Letters were sent out to families last week saying the new fee would be $340 per term, up $8, “as reflected” in the 2020-21 budget.

That’s odd, because the WCC Budget for 2020-21 hasn’t been passed.

In fact a special council meeting will be held next Monday (June 15) so people who have taken the time and effort to write a submission can be heard.

Too bad if you planned to object to higher kinder fees – it’s a done deal!

And what a deal.

For the sake of raising, what, an extra $10,000 or $20,000 toward the bottom line of a $73 million budget, they are kicking young families right in the crayons.

If the WCC can’t absorb that sort of cost as a goodwill gesture to young families as they emerge from C19, then its priorities really are broken.

Perhaps the CEO could defer his automatic pay rise and any bonuses for 2020 indefinitely – I reckon that would cover the cost of the fingerpaints.

Or maybe we could cancel the delayed trip to Sweden to look at hydrogen fuel cell prototypes, which seems a little excessive when we are apparently struggling to fund morning fruit and milk.

For those who listened to the outpouring of self-congratulatory twaddle from the Mayor and councillors during last week’s meeting about the WCC’s “wonderful” response to Covid-19, this fee rise is a slap back to earth.

Fee rises hurt. Rate rises hurt.

And they hurt some families even in the “good” times, let alone when the ass has just fallen out of the national economy.

This kinder fee rise may also not be the last, but the first, for 2020-21, because hidden in the DRAFT budget is a line showing the fees for Term 1 and 2 next year.

It has three little letters: TBC.

To be confirmed.

We will watch with interest to see if any of the seven councillors stand up on 6 July, when the budget is due to be passed, and put a line right through any kindergarten fee increases for the next 12 months.

That – not self congratulation – is the kind of practical help our community needs right now.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Why, oh why? Why would our Mayor Tony Herbert sit out in Liebig St on Tuesday night (7/4) with three other people, drinking a beer, breaking the Covid-19 laws now in place?

And why would he do so on the very same day that he recorded a video to the WCC Facebook page urging people to stay at home and “up” their efforts to stop the spread of the virus?

Why, oh why?

This photo was taken last Tuesday night around 9pm and that, by the way, is the official mayoral car parked facing the wrong way, but we will leave that to one side, because the bigger issue here is a complete lack of judgment and, I hate to say it, a sense that what rules apply to some, don’t apply to others.

I didn’t want to ruin our Mayor’s Easter – I had plans for a quiet day today – but our civic leaders need to be accountable.

So I asked Cr Herbert why he was out drinking a beer on what I initially thought was a Wednesday night, after the WCC emergency meeting. He said he wasn’t out, but went home straight after the meeting, feeling unwell.

I then learned the photo was from Tues night, not Wed. I contacted the Mayor again. This time Cr Herbert agreed that yes, he was out, and below is his reply in full. I read it, digested it, and could only come back around to the same conclusion: this is so wrong.

Other leaders both in Australia (NSW Arts Minister Don Harwin resigned 5 minutes ago) and internationally have fallen on their swords for failing to follow the Covid-19 laws.

I have no idea what, if anything, will happen to Cr Herbert but boy, I am still staggered by his thinking that this was okay. It is not okay.

Cr Herbert’s reply in full:

“On Tuesday night, I left home to buy some items at the supermarket.

On the way, I drove along Liebig Street to see how businesses still open in the southern block, the dining precinct, were faring.

There, I had a chance, unplanned encounter with two business owners.

We had an emotional and refreshingly optimistic conversation. We stood metres apart from each other with the exception of a brief moment when one of the business owners passed me a beer. After a short time I left for the supermarket.

The job of being mayor doesn’t ever stop. I considered it part of my role to see for myself how our city is faring in difficult times. This is something I do regularly.

The decision to drive along Liebig Street I viewed as mayoral duty, so too the conversations I had with the business owners.

I can’t rely on social media alone for insights into how our city is travelling. It is important for any mayor, where reasonable and safe to do so, to find out first-hand about the state of the city.

Of course with the threat of COVID-19 ever-present, we need to be vigilant as we go about our work and my work has changed accordingly.

But, we also need to be mindful that our focus on safe behaviour does not morph into an ugly vigilantism.

In our conversations and online commentary I believe we need to be encouraging and supportive, not vindictive or constantly seeking to blame and shame.

After my purchase at the supermarket, I returned home to continue a board game with my family.

If you wish, I can provide a bank statement of the supermarket purchase.

Regards, Tony. “

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

It’s two weeks tomorrow since Lyndoch Living went into lockdown in the face of the Covid-19 virus.

At the same time, as we know, Victoria has strict rules regarding leaving home, travelling or spending time with others, with a bottom line that if it’s not essential, don’t do it.

But where has the Lyndoch CEO, Doreen Power, been these past two weekends since the lockdown began?

Not in Warrnambool, but – according to sources – travelling back to Melbourne, which is where Ms Power has her family home.

This came as a shock to me: that the CEO was not here, seven days a week, standing side-by-side with the staff as they faced a health challenge that could devastate a nursing home if it took hold.

Why, as their leader, would you not be here? If there is a logical explanation, we should be able to hear it.

It’s well known in certain circles that Ms Power travels home most weekends – usually leaving Friday afternoon and returning Monday morning – having never relocated her family to Warrnambool as she planned to do, according to a local newspaper report, after becoming CEO in 2015.

In normal times, we might shrug our shoulders and say “who cares?”

But these are far from normal times.

Lyndoch Living is an aged care facility in full lockdown and Ms Power is the CEO of this facility.

Is travelling anywhere out of Warrnambool right now and then returning to Lyndoch the best thing to be doing? Is it essential?

Does the board know about this and does it accept it as being okay?

This is why CEO’s are paid the big dollars, because the expectations on their time are so much greater and especially so during a crisis.

I have checked the fine print for the Victorian travel restrictions and people who have two dwellings can travel between them (such as a parent who works in the city, but commutes home at weekends), but the overarching message is to do so only if absolutely necessary.

Lyndoch Living says as much on its own website: it tells us there are only four reasons for us to be leaving home – food, work, exercise and medical reasons.

We know the mantra and we are all doing our bit, despite all of us missing family and friends and wishing we could just jump in the car and drive.

We can’t.

But the CEO of Lyndoch can, even with Lyndoch in lockdown, and my question is why?

 

I put three questions about this to the CEO and the board chair Kerry Nelson this morning. I have not yet had a reply and will run it in full if I do, although I suspect the questions, as in the past, will be met with silence.

Speaking of silence, it’s also a fortnight since the Lyndoch Living board met to talk, among other things, about how to respond to explosive allegations against the CEO that were contained in a confidential staff survey.

We have heard nothing official since.

This is despite South West MP Roma Britnell saying that the allegations and concerns in the survey mirrored those from people who had contacted her directly over the past months.

And it’s despite the last two places where Ms Power worked as a CEO before being hired by Lyndoch Living – Seymour Health and Plenty Valley Health – both reporting low staff morale during her tenure: that is on the public record.

And yet the Lyndoch board has done nothing and continues to do nothing.

Maybe they just don’t believe it.

Or maybe Lyndoch has seen so many staff leave over the past five years that they no longer care whether good, hard-working people stay, or they leave because they have had enough or felt they had no choice.

That must be terrific for staff morale.

And yet the Lyndoch staff, all of them, are now rolling up their sleeves, battening down the hatches and devoting themselves to caring and protecting the frail and infirm residents against one of the greatest health challenges of our time in the Covid-19 virus.

The staff continue to show their professionalism and concern: they continue to show up because they care – first and foremost – about the residents who have perhaps never been more vulnerable.

For this, I send gratitude and thanks to all of the Lyndoch staff and I know you do too.

I am suspending the Tip Jar for the time being and encouraging readers to make a donation to Warrnambool Food Share which you can do below.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Leadership:

Wow, what is this that I see? There are some amazing things happening in Warrnambool in these c/v times.

I see local businesses doing their best to hold on and adapt as best they can, like Materia Bros (big shout out to that wonderful family) who are doing home deliveries of fresh produce – check out their FB page for details.

We are seeing jams and chutneys arriving on doorsteps; messages for health care workers written in chalk on footpaths; grocery runs for elderly people; hand-written cards and notes appearing in letterboxes…all prepared with sanitised hands, of course.

I love seeing this generosity of spirit happening in our city – we all do.

But what I would like to see more of is bold leadership from the top.

I want to see more of our Mayor and CEO, with at least daily updates on what the WCC is working on, and what real, practical steps are being taken to prepare for the next 12 months.

This is how long the economic fallout from this virus will last, if not longer.

I want to see updates on support packages being prepared for local businesses, solo operators, ratepayers and residents, not a ‘fly through’ of the Reid Oval upgrade, which was added to the WCC website today.

I hate to say it, but even in a sport lovin’ city like ours, sport upgrades have to come second right now.

The millions of dollars that were to be spent on Reid Oval would make a huge difference to those who will be doing it really tough in the next year or two.

There is no sugar coating it: the fallout from this virus is going to hit Warrnambool hard and we need a plan and we need it now.

I don’t envy the CEO or our Mayor in these times, but this is what leadership is all about and it’s what their jobs are all about. Leadership is easy when the going is easy, but true leadership shines when times are tough.

We are in those times.

A strong, bold, council vision delivered straight to our door: I would like to see that.