Shifting sands on racehorse access to coastal reserve
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Thankyou to the Walkley Foundation for funding part of my investigative work with this on-going story.
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WCC suffers mortal wound in Mayoral election bloodbath
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
The Fallout: Oh, if looks could kill.
How on earth does the W’bool City Council come back from the Mayoral showdown?
On Monday night there were more knives out than an episode of Masterchef; more blood on the floor than the Red Wedding, if thankfully of the invisible variety.
(If you missed the audio, it is a must listen. You can find it on the WCC website).
The truth is, it can’t recover.
You can’t un-say that someone betrayed you, that you were set up, that you were manipulated, or that the place is run by two political wolves in Crs Gaston and Neoh who urge you stick with them, then eat you up for breakfast.
You can’t un-say, as our Mayor elect did in a phone call, that you did a c*** act.
So here we are, right back to square one after three years, with a council split right down the middle.
For the council to keep blaming the media for eating its own head off is ludicrous.
This is a shambles all of their own making and it’s the natural outcome of backstabbing, disloyalty, power plays…and an obsession with control.
It is the sort of political bastardy that might happen when you are running for state politics, but it doesn’t wash here.
So the council will limp along with one arm and half a leg, like the Black Knight from Monty Python’s Holy Grail (“a mere flesh wound, sire”), until we get to the next election.
That election is 12 months away, but the search for fresh candidates must start now.
Who would you like to see re-elected? And who do you know who should be there? Your time starts now. #election2020
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WCC tearing each other’s heads off in mayoral race
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Isn’t the selection of Warrnambool’s next Mayor going well!
As of next Monday, we are most likely going to have a Mayor in Cr Tony Herbert who doesn’t want to be Mayor. Woo hoo!
Tony has told his fellow councillors he is tired, not sleeping at night and he doesn’t want any more of the stress that comes with leading a city that is finding its voice, even if it pays around $77,000 a year.
Tony is done with the top job and fair enough.
But wait, you can’t just leave, Tony, because the Mayoralty is not about putting people INTO the role, but keeping people OUT, don’t you get that?
This is why Cr Peter Hulin will never, ever, ever be Mayor, even though he is the second-most experienced councillor in the joint.
And this is why Cr Robert Anderson became Mayor five minutes after he was first elected and bumbled along as best he could for the first 12 months.
And this is why Cr Sue Cassidy won’t be allowed anywhere near the big chair, despite leaving the meeting with her fellow councillors last Monday night thinking she had the gig.
I heard she even opened a bottle of bubbles when she got home.
Sorry, false alarm, because Tony also went home, sat down, probably swigged a giant scotch, and realised he wanted to be mayor after all. Yeah, right.
Barry the Bullshite Detector can smell a political power play at 100 paces and senses his fellow political animals, Crs Kylie Gaston and Michael Neoh, were all over Tony’s change of heart.
If Cr David Owen was well enough to be the next Mayor, he would have been their choice.
But with Cr Owen out, Cr Anderson out, themselves out (unless Mike was mayor for the 400th time), and Cr Herbert out, the unthinkable loomed: a loss of control.
And we can’t have that.
So Tony has booked into the Hotel California and propped himself up for another round.
Ah, such is democracy, Warrnambool style.
If there was ever a case for the direct election of Mayors by the people, rather than by the power brokers, it is this one.
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WCC rate rise and May Racing Carnival corporate tent
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
How to save $700,000 in seven days, instalment #6:
Today is another reminder rather than a revelation: for at least the past 15 years, the Warrnambool City Council has hosted a marquee at the final day of the May Racing Carnival at a total cost to ratepayers of around $225,000.
I am still waiting for a response on how much the council paid last year for this corporate networking tent, but in 2014 it spent more than $17,000.
For one day.
If we tally this up over 15 years, at an average, conservative cost of around $15,000 each time, we are suddenly up around a quarter of a million dollars.
This money has gone into hiring the marquee, the catering staff, the chairs, tables, decorations, hors d’oeuvres, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, member’s reserve entry tickets and wristbands.
Ratepayers even paid for the race books.
I first wrote about this marquee in 2014, when it emerged the guest list was largely made up of members of council and their partners, local MPs, local executives, representatives from the council’s Melbourne law firm, Maddock’s, a couple of associates of then-councillor Brian Kelson, and current Mayor Tony Herbert, who was invited as the then chair of Commerce Warrnambool.
So much for it being a networking opportunity.
Networking is supposed to involve connecting with people you don’t already know.
Cr Peter Hulin has long challenged the justification for the marquee, but it remains firmly in place.
Indeed when Cr Hulin again questioned its relevance in 2015, then Cr Jacinta Ermacora said the marquee was an important part of the council “supporting the local racing industry”.
This made thoroughbred horse racing sound like some form of charity rather than part of a multi-billion dollar enterprise based on gambling.
I am pretty sure the council could find far more needy causes who are out turning sausages in the carpark at Bunnings each Saturday.
And this is the bigger problem, because while $17,000 a year is not much in an $89 million council budget, it is still a lot of money to a majority of people: this is what the council loses sight of.
It can drop $17k of our money on one afternoon’s entertainment without batting an eyelid or producing one shred of evidence as to its value.
Because it is all about “networking”.
In this case, however, the networking is not working, especially now the council is asking ratepayers to either pay more in rates, above the 2.5% State Government cap, or face service cuts.
The final instalment tomorrow.
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WCC rate rise and a $450,000 roundabout makeover
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
How to save $700,000 in seven days, instalment #5:
On the same night Warrnambool City councillors decided to explore breaking the rate cap – on December 3 last year – they also agreed to spend $450,000 to spruce up a single city roundabout.
That’s almost half a million dollars to beautify just one roundabout – at the corner of Kepler and Koroit streets – and they did it without a hint of irony.
Not one of the five councillors who supported potentially raising rates above 2.5% (Cr Peter Hulin voted against and Cr David Owen was absent) seemed concerned that they expect ratepayers to choose between paying more for services, or having services cut, while they plunge money into non-essential projects.
Like dressing up a roundabout.
The council will draw $450,000 from the city parking fund – putting that fund into deficit – to upgrade the roundabout by the end of this year.
This is the busy roundabout outside the Warrnambool Hotel and Ishka etc, which is no doubt unfriendly to pedestrians in its current state.
But improving pedestrian safety (more about that in a moment) and a $450,000 makeover are two separate issues here.
Mayor Tony Herbert was particularly enthusiastic about the improvements because, he says, Kepler St is “the next most important” CBD street after Liebig St.
“It doesn’t matter who occupies businesses there, but I believe that is the next street to get the work done,” he told the meeting.
As it happens, Mr Herbert does occupy a business there, with his office smack bang in the middle of Kepler St, in the Wyton’s cafe precinct.
Until last year, this intersection wasn’t even part of the city renewal plan, but it is now.
Now it will have bluestone paving wrapped around each corner foothpath and central lighting poles that allow for banners and decorations. (See the plan here).
The council calls this “high end aesthetic treatment” and there is no doubt it will be swish compared to boring old bitumen and basic lighting, but is it really necessary in a cost-cutting environment?
It’s a bit like fixing the electrical wiring in your house – for safety – and digging into your savings to replace all the light shades at the same time.
Because what started the momentum for this makeover was money from the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) to make the CBD safer for pedestrians.
The TAC will fund almost half of a $1.67 million upgrade to three CBD intersections, including the Kepler St/Koroit St roundabout.
The council will use that money to replicate those painful zebra crossings that are now in Liebig St and which make drivers give way to pedestrians as they enter and exit a roundabout.
(VicRoads, by the way, say this style of zebra crossing can work, but they also create a greater potential for rear-end accidents. But I digress…)
Having secured money to build the crossings, the council decided to go one step further.
It rummaged around behind the couch and found a neat $450,000 to throw into beautifying the Kepler St/Koroit St roundabout.
Importantly, such a makeover would also create a distraction from the fact the council has run out of money for Stage 3 of the CBD renewal along Koroit St, which is not surprising given the other two stages blew out by more than $3 million.
So from not being part of the CBD renewal, the Kepler/Koroit intersection now has star billing.
In fact it will probably be all that happens along Koroit St between Kepler and Liebig St for some time.
Even so, can new pavers and lamps really be a priority when the council says it must save $700,000 a year from its budget?
It’s too late to ask that question because the beautification is going ahead.
Your input, via the council’s online consultation that opened last Friday, is to decide what else you might like to see added to the works and when you would prefer the 12-week project to start.
There is no option to say, um, we don’t want that style of fender-bender zebra crossing and, by the way, can we also save the $450,000 for something more important?
There is actually no mention of the $450,000 cost of the “high end aesthetic treatment”.
This figure remained buried inside the council agenda and minutes: until now.
More tomorrow.
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