Carol Altmann – The Terrier

This is Janet Dunn.

Janet is among the 115 people on the roll call of the rejected – those who have been denied membership to Lyndoch Living aged care.

If ever there was a case study of the absurdity of how the current Lyndoch board decides who becomes a member, it’s Janet, because Janet used to be a member.

In fact Janet worked at Lyndoch for 10 years as the Director of Community Services (1992-2001), during which time she developed and managed nine community programs from five offices across southwest Victoria.

Janet was also in charge of coordinating the initial accreditations for both the Lyndoch Nursing Home and Community Services, before her career took her to Melbourne.

Since leaving Lyndoch, Janet has managed several nursing homes –  both private and not-for-profit – and, unlike Lyndoch in recent months, has never failed any standards.

A quick look at Janet’s Linkedin profile reveals she has managed up to 300 staff, has in-depth knowledge of the aged care accreditation and funding systems, has worked on several state committees, including Ministerial Advisory Committees, and holds several post grad qualifications, including an MBA.

Oh my goodness.

Not only should Janet be a member of Lyndoch, she should be urged to nominate for the Lyndoch board at the AGM on 26 October.

The board, which has two vacancies and only one person with any nursing or aged care experience, needs people like Janet.

But while Janet has 30 years experience in aged care management, she is not able to become even a member of Lyndoch.

Why?

What is the criteria?

Did chair Sue Cassidy (Unisexcuts) and members Andrew Paton (WCC director), Kerry Nelson (former MPower CEO), Ron Page (dairy industry), Lorraine Milenik, Prof Rob Wallis and treasurer Kane Grant (Sinclair & Wilson), decide that because The Terrier was urging people to apply, that anyone who did apply was immediately ruled out?

Was that the criteria?

If so, what a wasted opportunity for Lyndoch to re-open its doors to the community, including to some extraordinary talent, like Janet, Marie Bird and Kate Sloan.

I have never met Janet and I only discovered her background after she commented on The Terrier Facebook page, but like the other 114 people, Janet’s application was dismissed without comment.

The board can do this under the Lyndoch Constitution and there is nothing, it seems, us mere mortals can do about it.

But surely it is wrong, so wrong, that a community owned asset can be controlled by a board that has no obligation, or desire, to explain itself.

Given this, I would like to see the whole board put up for re-election on 26 October.

Imagine that: a fresh start.

Lyndoch could then open up itself up to nominations from existing board members AND the general public, just like the “good old days” of three years ago.

It won’t happen, of course.

Why?

Because Lyndoch has shown it’s now fearful of any involvement or examination by the very community it was set up to serve.

How did it come to this?

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Meet Marie Bird, another highly skilled member of our community who has been locked out of joining Lyndoch Living.

Marie is among the 115 people who have been denied the right to become a simple member – not even a board member – of Lyndoch, our community owned aged care home.

Her application, like that of experienced nurse Kate Sloan who I wrote about last week, was rejected by the board without consideration or comment.

Let me tell you a little about Marie, who has lived in Warrnambool for 24 years.

She is a highly successful businesswoman (The Bird Group), a volunteer, philanthropist, a former member of various boards and committees, and currently the human resources director of her business involving the management of more than 500 staff.

On top of this, Marie has had personal experience in building community links with aged care.

In 1985, Marie set up an adult learning program in Port and South Melbourne that included close contact with the SouthPort Aged Care Community Nursing Home.

“The nursing home had an open door policy towards the community, resulting in some amazing opportunities for its residents,” Marie told me.

Through her work as an Outreach Community Education Officer with Prahran TAFE, Marie introduced a program that allowed the nursing home residents – along with people, who for whatever reason, were housebound – to re-engage in learning.

“The strength of this program, which went on for many years after I left my job, came from the local community’s involvement…which included the SouthPort Aged Care Nursing Home,” Marie says.

“This experience has stayed with me for more than 30 years, so to think Lyndoch Living – who until recent times nurtured this model of operation – has now shut itself off from its community just saddens me no end, hence my desire to see Lyndoch remain as a community based facility.”

In a normal world, Lyndoch would welcome Marie – with all of her skills and all of her business nous – as a member.

But no, Lyndoch doesn’t do normal.

Her application, like all the others, was metaphorically dumped straight into the bin.

The board made this decision.

So why would Lyndoch chair Susan Cassidy, hairdresser and owner of Unisexcuts, reject Marie Bird?

Why did deputy chair Kerry Nelson, the former (now retired) CEO of MPower, think Marie was a bad choice?

And treasurer Kane Grant, who works for Sinclair & Wilson? What was his reasoning?

And retired Deakin University academic Prof Rob Wallis?

And former nurse educator Lorraine Milenik? What were her concerns?

And Ron Page, an operations manager with the Australian Dairy Farmers Corp?

And last, but not least, why would Andrew Paton, the Director of City Growth at Warrnambool City Council, reject the application of one of Warrnambool’s leading businesswomen?

There are no explanations; the board can offer only silence.

The Lyndoch AGM will be held on 26 October and nominations to become a board member close two weeks prior.

There are two vacancies on the board and – personally – I would love to see Marie nominate for one of them, but she can’t, because she is not a member, which is a pre-requisite.

In reality, nobody can nominate for the board, other than those ‘tapped on the shoulder’ by the existing board members.

For a community owned aged care home to behave in this way should be unacceptable.

And yet, it seems, those with the real power to challenge it, accept it.

I wonder what it will take for the charade to end?

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

And so it comes to this – the Lyndoch Living board has kicked the community to the kerb with a mass rejection of membership applications.

The official letters began arriving in the post today.

Among those rejected was Kate Sloan, (pictured).

Kate has worked in the emergency department of South West Health Care for 20 years, including 13 years as nurse unit manager.

She has been a registered nurse since 1986 and an endorsed nurse practitioner for 14 years.

Kate also has post-graduate qualifications in emergency nursing, health management and forensic nursing.

She has hospital certifications in critical care and midwifery.

Kate wrote all of this on her Lyndoch membership application form, even though there was no box for such detail, to show the board that she might have something to offer as a member.

But Kate was considered not good enough.

She was not considered worthy of becoming a mere member, let alone ever considering becoming a board member.

The decision to reject Kate was made by Chair Sue Cassidy (hairdresser), Kerry Nelson (former CEO Mpower), Andrew Paton (WCC director City Growth), Ron Page (dairy industry), Kane Grant (Sinclair & Wilson accountant), Lorraine Mielnik (retired  nursing lecturer) and retired academic Prof Rob Wallis*.

No reason has to be given, and the board provided none.

Kate is not alone.

From what is unfolding so far, all 115 applications from the community membership drive last month have been rejected.

The Lyndoch board has – so far – not found one single person from the applicants that they consider worthy of joining Lyndoch.

Not one.

In my view, this board no longer represents the community.

From its actions over the past 12 months and particularly now, it has proven it has disconnected completely from the community that created and nurtured Lyndoch Living for more than 60 years and which still owns it.

That is disgraceful.

Instead of standing up and speaking up, the board is a part of Lyndoch’s determination to avoid community scrutiny.

It is an accomplice – not an ally – as it watches the community lose control of a community owned asset.

Again, in my view, this is disgraceful.

The community is no longer needed or wanted on a rocket ship that has its nose turned toward the ground and is losing senior nursing staff at a time when it needs them most.

Perhaps, as some have been speculating, it’s all a path to Lyndoch being privatised.

I used to think that was outlandish and would never happen. Now, I’m not so sure.

Because, until now, I believed that the community would never LET it happen.

I have come to realise the community has no – official – power to stop it.

The board has complete control over who it lets in, and who it keeps out, and you are being kept out.

And so come the next Annual General Meeting at Lyndoch on 26 October, there will be no invitation for you to join in.

I doubt you will even be told the date, which is why I am publishing it here.

There will be no questions from anyone outside of Lyndoch itself.

Anyone who hopes to nominate for the board, can’t, because you have to be a member first.

The AGM will be an entirely closed shop and, if you are lucky, you might get to watch it on Youtube a week later.

Despite the odds, I am not giving up on Lyndoch without a fight.

Because Lyndoch doesn’t belong to Sue, Andrew Prof Rob, Kane or Kerry. It doesn’t belong to the Lyndoch CEO or executive, and it sure as #$@$ doesn’t – yet – belong to BUPA.

It belongs to Warrnambool.

As a journalist, I can write about this as The Terrier.

But as a member of the community who has a strong connection to Lyndoch, like so many of us do, I will be once again writing to MPs Roma Britnell, Dan Tehan and  Minister Luke Donnellan and asking for their intervention.

The community has done all it can to fight for our aged care home: we need help.

In the meantime, if you have had your application rejected and are willing to be mentioned here, please get in touch.

* The chair and board was contacted earlier today for comment. It had not responded by deadline.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

I always suspected it was the case, but now it’s been confirmed – for almost three years, the Warrnambool City Council did virtually nothing about racehorse trainers breaking the rules at Lady Bay.

Early last year I lodged a Freedom of Information application for all of the correspondence between the council and Warrnambool Racing Club about breaches and alleged breaches of the training rules at Lady Bay.

I asked for everything from 1 December 2016 – which is when the new rules began – right through to 14 March 2019: all letters, emails, the whole lot.

The application took nine months, with the council making me jump through multiple, mind-screwing hoops to narrow down such things as what I meant by “members” of the WRC, what email addresses they should search for, what names they should search for, what keywords they should search for….

On and on it went, at an eventual cost of $216.75 (funded, thankfully, by a grant from the Walkley Foundation Public Fund which supports investigative journalism).

And at the end of all that searching and all that money, the result was just two letters:

Two, brief letters from the WCC to the WRC in 27 months: one written in March last year and one from November 2018.

This was the total sum of all written correspondence between those in charge, despite the steady stream of complaints (and videos and photographs) from the public during this time showing near misses, a racehorse that had thrown its rider, trainers riding fast past walkers, and numerous other safety issues. (See footage below from 2017.)

Apparently none of this warranted even a single email from the WCC to the WRC.

Perhaps they rang or texted each other, leaving no paper trail, I don’t know.

What I do know, however, is that when it comes to cracking down on errant trainers, the council has been extraordinarily weak. 

Let’s be super clear here: asking for the rules to be enforced does not mean we are instantly “anti-horse racing” or that all trainers are running amok. #notalltrainers

Instead, it’s a reminder that a public beach is just that – public –  and members of the public have every right to be asking the council what happens when things go wrong, especially when it comes to racehorses on Warrnambool’s main swimming beach.

Until last November, not one trainer had been suspended or fined.

The council says it has since cancelled the permit of one trainer for breaches, although we don’t know who, or for how long, or why, or whether – to be frank – if this actually happened, as some within the industry are unaware of it.

Professional racehorse training at Lady Bay is now the new normal and despite claims that it has “always” been this way, it hasn’t.

A second FOI, which I will write more about soon, revealed there were regularly more than 1000 horse workouts a month at Lady Bay until disgraced trainer Darren Weir fell off his perch.

This is not how it used to be, but this is what our council happily signed up for: up to 96 horses running each morning until 10am, seven days a week, from the first day of Autumn to the first day of Summer, including public holidays.

And they did this with a promise that officers would keep an eye on things – the FOI results show that they didn’t.

In fact Mayor Tony Herbert has recently taken things one step further and suggested that people who are worried by the racehorses at Lady Bay should go to another beach.

Good grief.

This is an excerpt of what Cr Herbert recently wrote in an email to one resident:

“I have spoken to many people over the past few years and some of them avoid the said beach when training of horses is occurring.  Some find that unacceptable, others find that ok.  WCC approach is trying to achieve a balanced approach.

We are so lucky in our city and region that we have a number of alternatives, if sharing the beach with horses is unacceptable to you in the mornings. During the winter months if I’m walking my dog, I choose to use other beaches and there is a number of them.”

In other words, if push comes to shove with “sharing” our main beach, it is the general public that gets shoved.

More on the results of these FOIs soon.

The FOI would not have been possible without a grant from the Walkley Foundation Public Fund which supports investigative journalism.

“YOUTH AND BUSINESS LOSE IN BY ELECTION FIT FOR DROVER’S DOG”

PETE SMITH’S MEDIA RELEASE

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] V[/dropcap]oters in the South West Coast have foregone an opportunity for change that will be manifested in the electorate’s youth and in business for at least a decade, according to failed Liberal Independent candidate Pete Smith.

“At a time when Portland in particular is looking for inspiration and leadership, people have voted for nothing more than an image on a poster and the Liberal Party’s logo,”  Mr Smith said.  

“With a campaign run out of Melbourne along traditional party lines and while constantly tethered to a Liberal minder, Mrs Britnell uttered not one visionary word.

“I don’t blame voters, I did exactly the same thing for over 40 years.”

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] M[/dropcap]r Smith said that with the electorate of no interest or benefit to the current Labor government, it was doomed to a decade of drip fed maintenance for roads and services and nothing more. “

“…and when a Liberal government returns to power, other more pressing marginal electorates will receive the lion’s share of funding.

“What our young people needed was a reason to stand tall, knowing that Portland was earmarked to lead Australia – if not the world – in renewable energy research and tourism while Warrnambool would be afforded the same status in dairying promotion and excellence,” he said.

“Businesses, particularly those in the services and hospitality sector should have opened their doors today (Monday) with a sense of relief and renewal, and with a spring in their step; instead it will be yet another dog day afternoon in what will become a decade of them.”

Notwithstanding what he termed a tragic and deeply troubling setback for the electorate, Mr Smith said he felt a sense of responsibility to strive to achieve more for the electorate as a private citizen than Ms Britnell will as the local member.

“I intend to seek Roy Reekie’s help to broker a meeting with Labor Premier Daniel Andrews to outline a plan of action in which he can demonstrate his personal commitment and concern for the electorate.

“Having been gifted a seat that a famous drover’s dog could have won for the Liberals,  Roma won’t be out to make waves or put the electorate and its people before the party politics, whereas I am and I can,” Mr Smith said.

[box]After taking an initial hit, the primary Liberal vote currently sits at 40% (down 16.6%) on the back of the thousands of pre-poll votes and postal votes now being counted. Candidate Roma Britnell will rely on the preferences of National Party candidate Michael Neoh to win. Independent Roy Reekie is sitting second with almost 17% of the primary vote, followed by Michael Neoh on 14.38%. You can find counting updates here.[/box]