Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Warrnambool has spoken and oh boy, it is being heard.

Like you, I went to bed last night in one Warrnambool and woke up to another one.

In what is an unprecedented election result, we saw one candidate, Vicki Jellie, finish with an astronomical 6526 first preference votes: almost one third of the total counted.

We saw a Sudanese man, a former refugee who has made Warrnambool his home, Otha Akoch, elected with 2771 first preference votes.

We saw a record number of women elected in Vicki, Angie Paspaliaris and Debbie Arnott.

And we saw a record turnout of 86 per cent of voters who, between them, voted in seven new faces for seven vacancies.

I doubt there has been any 2020 council election result across Victoria like this one, where not one sitting councillor was re-elected.

Warrnambool has done it: it has found its voice and turned the page on what has been more than a decade of division within the council and councillors, a toxic culture that enabled entitlement, and a growing disconnect from the community.

For all of the good work done by our elected councillors these past four years, so much had gone wrong.

The community, quite simply, had had enough.

It had had enough of being cut out of the conversation, of being told lies and fed spin, of being treated like a cash cow, of being left wondering why another year would pass and the same problems were still not solved, while fresh problems lined up behind them.

This time around, Warrnambool has really thought about its vote and taken a risk on not the same names – backed by the same power brokers –  but a completely fresh start.

It is scary, but my word, Warrnambool is ready to take the chance, because we are exhausted from the battle of just trying to keep on top of the latest scandal which was not of our making.

No more.

There are fears that a new council would not support the environment in the same way as the old one.

I am not sure how this computes when you had a 6/1 majority of the past councillors vote to destroy Levy’s Beach by handing it over to Darren Weir and his racehorse training.

And has done nothing to lobby Wannon Water on its sewerage plant upgrade.

And ignored the disgraceful environmental damage by hoons at Levy’s Beach.

And took years longer than our neighbouring councils to introduce a green waste bin and then applauded itself for being ground breaking.

It is a patchy track record, at best, and one that can only improve and must.

With this election, ethics and integrity are making a comeback and they are making a comeback not just in words, but in actions.

But it is not about passing the burden of change to a new council, walking away and watching on comfortably from the sidelines.

We need to stay involved, and take the energy from this election and turn it into a driving force for the next four years.

This is the message from this election and it is the message behind the enormous vote for Vicki Jellie.

Because 6526 votes was far more than a vote for Vicki the person: it was a statement of what our community can achieve when we all work together.

We want that feeling back.

Vicki’s work with Peter’s Project started from a place of personal grief and grew into a movement that saw Warrnambool achieve what many thought would be impossible: a first-class cancer treatment centre, run by Epworth Hospital, in a regional city miles from Melbourne.

Warrnambool wants more of this.

It wants THAT relationship with its councillors and council – the one where we unite, with empathy, respect, honesty and determination, to do the best for our city.

If we work in this way, we can get things done: we can improve the harbour, we can recreate Flagstaff Hill, we can care for our stunning environment, we can find ways to keep rates down under the cap, we can help traders get back on their feet from Covid-19, we can resolve the endless argument about CBD parking, we can get a grip on the 2040 plan, and, through it all, we can bring integrity back to the council process.

This is our chance for true change – Warrnambool has voted for it – and it starts today.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

And so it comes to this. As of tomorrow, Warrnambool will vote for a new city council and the choice is surprisingly clear: either voters want change, or more of the same.

It’s that simple.

The past few days have seen distractions around which new candidates are aligned with who, who met with who, who telephoned who, and who is truly, ruly, cross-their-heart-and-hope-to-die independent and who just says they are.

It is just that – a distraction – because no candidate will win this election on their own: our preferential voting system makes that almost impossible.

Anyone claiming to be truly, ruly independent should insist that every other candidate place them dead last on their “how to vote” card and see how that works out for them.

It won’t.

The fact of the matter is that candidates have to work together to create the election result they want: either a generational change, or more of the same.

This is why we have the unlikely alliance of Kylie Gaston (Labor), Michael Neoh (former Liberal/Nationals), David Owen (former Greens) and Sue Cassidy, who re-signed with the Liberal Party about a week ago, all working together to hold on to their spots.

That’s politics, but it’s not the main game for voters.

The main game for you is deciding whether you want a fresh start, a new chapter, or more of what has rolled on at 25 Liebig St for the past decade and left the place in a shambles.

We need to decide, as voters, what we consider acceptable:

Is it acceptable that WCC was one of only two councils in Victoria to vote to bust the “fair go” rate cap for two years because it had failed to budget properly?

Is it okay that rates on an average three-bedroom house in Warrnambool are above $2000 a year?

Is it okay that four councillors decide to sack the CEO for no reason and we now face Supreme Court action?

Is it acceptable that those four councillors sought legal advice on this sacking without council approval and expected us to pay for it?

Is it acceptable that councillors had no idea of the details in the CEO’s contract that led to a $364k payout?

Is it acceptable that the acting CEO was in August allowed to take steps to re-employ herself for five years – a deal worth $1.2m – knowing her contract was about to expire?

Is it acceptable that up to 200 racehorses a day were set to destroy Levy’s Beach until two of the trainers involved were arrested and the whole idea was never spoken of again?

Are we okay with councillors who claim to be environmentalists, but voted 6/1 in favour of this destruction?

Should we accept that these same councillors profess to be clean and green yet failed to submit an opinion on the Wannon Water treatment plant upgrade that will pour treated shit into the sea for another 20 years?

Is it acceptable that the upgrade to Liebig St blew out by $5 million and there are still empty shops?

Is it acceptable that there is no plan for the future of Flagstaff Hill, despite it bleeding more than $800,000 a year?

Do we accept that the council still has no real tourism plan beyond Flagstaff Hill?

Is it acceptable that serious bullying allegations were not acted upon by councillors and dismissed as “operational”?

Are we okay with even one dollar of ratepayers’ money being misused on corporate credit cards?

Do we accept council properties being rented to council staff for years on end and ratepayers paying for repairs and renovations?

Are we okay with a veteran councillor being the head of a body which has, for years, rented a council property for zero dollars?

Do we accept that the council says it was committed to social housing while cutting its social housing stock?

Is it acceptable to have the second highest pet registration fees in Australia?

Are we okay with Corangamite and Moyne shires blitzing us in Covid-19 recovery plans, including zero debt and hiring new staff?

Do we condone backroom deals on who becomes Mayor?

All of this – and it is only half of it – is what this election is all about.

This is what matters and this, to use the words of US vice presidential nominee Kamela Harris, is how you “prosecute the case” for change.

This track record is the measuring stick for your judgment.

There are 19 new candidates vying for your attention and, between them, they have a wealth of experience, ideas, qualifications, passion, ethics, integrity and – above all else – a desire for change.

Are you ready?

I am.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Ding! Ding! It’s last drinks at the Warrnambool City Council as we have known it for the past decade, with fresh faces stepping up for the election and the old crew failing to fire.

We may see, at last, a permanent end to what I will call the Anson era (aka, the dark, old days).

In this past fortnight we have seen a flurry of exciting new candidates – Jim Burke, Otha Akoch, Tracey Togni, Ben Blain, Cassandra Prigg – with more names yet to come before the 22 September deadline.

By sharp contrast, the announcement by veteran councillors Kylie Gaston (8 years/twice Mayor) and Mike Neoh (16 years/ five times Mayor) that that they will both run again went down like a lead balloon.

(Strangely, Cr Neoh also announced he would run for Mayor, for a sixth time, before that part of the newspaper story online suddenly disappeared.)

That’s because the ratepayers and residents of Warrnambool have wised up.

To put it bluntly, they no longer fall for spin, gas lighting, or the lack of taking any responsibility whatsoever for poor decisions and costly mistakes.

For while Crs Neoh, Gaston and the other five sitting councillors have all made a contribution to public life, they have also overseen a period where the councillors have completely lost the trust of the people – and for good reason.

You can’t talk about being open and upfront and then have four councillors knife a CEO behind closed doors just three months before an election, with no evidence or explanation as to why, and install a person from within whose five-year contract was about to expire.

All of this was done, of course, without telling ratepayers how much the coup will cost them in legal fees and payouts.

And who could possibly describe the rorting of ratepayers’ money through the abuse of council corporate credit cards as a “blip”?

Who does that?

Cr Gaston did and, in my mind, it is both unforgivable and so telling, because it reveals a mindset among councillors where public image is more important than public accountability.

It’s this mindset that has plagued our council for at least 10 years, at enormous expense to ratepayers and residents.

The current batch of councillors, except, perhaps, for Cr Sycopoulis who spent years challenging the dominant forces, have been part of this.

We know, for example, that the Liebig St upgrade – trumpeted as a huge success – blew out by almost $5 million.

And poor old Flagstaff Hill has cost more than $10 million to keep afloat since it began to die in 2009, including $3 million for a sound and light show that was doomed from the start.

Instead of telling us the truth, the council reports on Flagstaff Hill told us fibs, before they stopped telling us anything at all.

Ratepayers also spent more than $6 million propping up the Fun4Kids festival because the council had nothing else in the wings to replace it.

And just last year, there was no money to spend on repairing and maintaining basic things like footpaths and bridges, yet the councillors agreed to spend $775,000 on two toilet blocks and almost $500,000 on a single roundabout in Kepler St.

Many of the current councillors were part of all this.

Rates had to be increased by double the state cap, because we were so broke, yet Crs Neoh, Gaston and Anderson, as Mayors, kept reassuring us that the budget was strong.

It wasn’t. It was weak, and it’s going to get much weaker.

This year’s budget already has a $10 million hole from the impact of Covid-19, which is far from over, and the blowout will most likely get worse before it gets better.

We are potentially facing a devastating financial and social crisis in the next 12 months and yet what do we get from most of our councillors? We get more fairytales.

First we are told the council is considering selling Flagstaff Hill, but it’s prime Crown land and it can’t be sold – nor should it be sold – without good reason and special permission from the state.

The ink had barely dried on that fairytale before Cr Gaston, in announcing her candidacy, said she wanted to keep Flagstaff Hill, reopen the pub and…drumroll… link the whole place to Lake Pertobe.

This “new idea” has been around since 2013, when it was raised as one of the ways to stop Flagstaff Hill from bleeding to death.

At that time, the majority of councillors  – including Cr Gaston and with Cr Neoh as Mayor – pushed for the sound and light show…. and blew another few million dollars.

Cr Neoh, meanwhile, recently announced as his big new idea a walking/bike path from Lake Gillear to Childer’s Cove.

As candidate Jim Burke discovered in his research, this “new idea”  has been around since 2005,  a year after Cr Neoh was first elected – 16 years ago. (See above)

Nothing happened.

It’s all just more spin, more puff and more distraction from a legacy littered with waste.

Even if we wanted to believe in these fairytales, we can’t afford them, and the people of Warrnambool know it.

We are wide awake to what is going on.

Despite the attempts to keep us in the dark, we have been turning on the lights and we can see an entirely different future to one that is just more of the same.

That future, if Warrnambool really wants it, starts with choosing an entirely fresh council in October.

I’ll drink to that.

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Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Welcome to Terrier 2020!

This is going to be a huge year, not least because council elections will be held in October and we have a chance to clear the decks at the Warrnambool City Council and start afresh.

And, boy, do we need to start afresh, because the great hope of a new, visionary, united and transparent council after the 2016 election has fallen apart.

We were dudded.

All of those promises on glossy election leaflets and what did we get from our elected councillors? We got a big, fat rate rise above the cap.

And this rate rise of 4.5 per cent was not just for one year, but two, making our average rates ($1920) higher than those in suburban Melbourne (eg $1727 in City of Yarra). I would not be surprised if this year’s rate rise is deferred, after all, it is an election year and it will be all spin and good news stories from here.

But this disgraceful management of our city’s finances is the first of at least 20 good reasons why we need to start over in 2020.

Here are another 19:

1. No councillors questioning why the council had 81 corporate credit cards and how these were used.

2. The inappropriate spending on these cards, including the now infamous Cape Schanck event attended by Cr Tony Herbert and Cr David Owen, and the $700 dinner for four people, including Cr Sue Cassidy and City Growth manager Andrew Paton, at the Myrtle Bar & Grill. Unbelievable.

3. Cr Herbert, as Mayor, failing to tell his fellow councillors about the thousands of dollars in inappropriate credit card spending repaid by former council tourism head, David McMahon, and Cr Kylie Gaston describing the entire credit card scandal as a “blip” that would pass.

4. Cr Gaston and Cr Michael Neoh using the council as a springboard for their political ambitions, sending a clear signal that they would rather be in Spring St than Liebig St. Will they run for council yet again? Probably.

5. Councillors denigrating ratepayers, residents and journalists for daring to ask questions and for refusing to sit down and shut up.

6. The ugly, personal power plays of Crs Herbert and Cassidy over who would be mayor, including Cr Herbert dropping the c-bomb. Classy.

7. The astronomical increase in pet registrations, making them the second highest in Australia, and fining hundreds of dog owners in what became a P/R disaster.

8. The cost of parking and parking fines in the CBD which might bolster revenue, but is killing local traders by a thousand cuts.

9. A $3 million blowout on the Liebig St upgrade, and excessive spending on roundabouts, pedestrian crossings and toilet blocks.

10. The first sod of the Reid Oval redevelopment has not been turned, yet small sporting clubs like East Warrnambool Football and Netball Club are already being shafted. This comes on top of clubs paying a 100 per cent increase in WCC sports ground hiring fees. Meanwhile South West Sport, of which Cr Neoh is CEO, pays no rent for a council-owned property at 34 Koroit St and South West Sport will eventually have a brand new office at Reid Oval. Fair?

11. Whistleblowers within the council being investigated and threatened with disciplinary action.

12. Bending over backwards to accommodate the racing industry and particularly disgraced racehorse trainer Darren Weir by turning our beaches and Albert Park into full-on training facilities.

13. Flagstaff Hill remains a running financial sore, with no clear, public plan for its long-term future.

14. Some council staff living in subsidised, council-owned properties, including one on a verbal agreement only for more than 30 years.

15. The council ignored its survey of 700 people which found most did not want a rate rise. By contrast, an Ipsos survey of 52 people* which declared Warrnambool the most liveable city has become a council mantra.

16. A mural by a convicted paedophile remains covered up at the Lighthouse Theatre, rather than removed, despite the full horror of child sexual abuse in Warrnambool now coming to light.

17. The continuation of the boys’ club mentality within council that allowed bullying to go unchecked, credit cards to be misused and good staff worn down to the point of quitting.

18. A botched attempt to charge local market stallholders $600 a year after complaints from permanent traders yet, this summer, Cr Neoh set up a pop-up restaurant right next to permanent traders.

19. And last but not least, a council that declares itself clean and green, yet still sprays glysophate/Roundup around Lake Pertobe; wants to allow racehorse training where hooded plovers nest; wants to fly across the world to Sweden to talk about hydrogen; and attempted to cut down 115-year-old Moreton Bay figs.

I am sure each of you could add more, but the point is we deserve so much better and we can demand it.

We want community leaders who have the community at heart – not people installed for their own self-interest, or by a particular interest group.

We don’t want more slogans and spin – we want honest answers to our questions and a bold, realistic, sustainable plan for our city.

Above all, we want an end to the waste of ratepayer and taxpayer money.

This is the year we can make a change – we can do it – and campaign 2020 starts now.

[*Ipsos interviewed 9515 people nationally for its survey. Of these, 52 were from south-west Victoria, which was defined as an area east of Colac, up to Casterton and across to the SA border. The majority of these 52 ranked the south-west highly on various liveability measures.]

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