Carol Altmann – The Terrier

It’s simply a chance for councillors to raise topics that are not already listed on the council meeting agenda.

The could perhaps ask short questions on our behalf like: “how much has the council spent on legal fees so far this year?”

Or “has Cr Neoh installed a grease trap and fixed that dodgy deck at his restaurant?”

Or, they could ask long questions like: what was the point of that $700 dinner for four at the Myrtle Bar & Kitchen, which included five bottles of wine and six glasses of champagne and was paid for by the Director of City Growth, Andrew Paton, and attended by Cr Sue Cassidy?

Or why was Vikki King appointed acting CEO and not Peter Utri, who is the most logical choice being the Director of Corporate Strategies?

Or who gave Ms King permission to be both acting CEO and head of Community Services at the same time? Did she have to ask an underling?

And then there is that question which just won’t go away: “why did you sack Peter Schneider, and how much will it cost us?”

You get the drift.

Moyne Council has general business. It even has urgent business. It also allows the public to address the council for up to five minutes on an agenda item.

Warrnambool City Council does none of this.

General business ended in 2015, when then councillors Kylie Gaston, Mike Neoh, Jacinta Ermacora and Rob Askew threw it out the door –  Crs Peter Sycopoulis and Brian Kelson voted to keep it – and since then it has been one, slow steady retreat into secrecy.

We saw the worst of that secrecy with last month’s dumping of the CEO, when four councillors decided to seek legal advice on how to get rid of him, voted to get rid of him, stitched up some sort of deal with the new acting CEO, and did it all without telling us a single word.

This is new normal for our council.

What a disgraceful benchmark and one we should never accept. The truth of that whole stitch up is yet to come out, but come out, it will.

In the meantime, we shall watch with interest tomorrow night to see who leaps up to defend the public right to know.

Only then will you be able to judge, as the October election creeps closer, who actually stands for transparency and openness and who just talks the talk, while pulling down the shutters.

(Tomorrow night the council will also vote to start looking for a recruitment agency, at a cost of $50,000, to hire a permanent CEO by next May.

I remember the cost of using a recruitment agency was one reason Crs Neoh and Gaston gave for rolling over Bruce Anson’s contract each time it expired, rather than look for fresh blood.

Now the WCC will spend another $50,000 – or $100,000 in two years – without so much as a blink.)

The special council meeting via Zoom starts at 5.45pm and will be live-streamed on the WCC website.

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Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Former Warrnambool Racing Club chief Peter Downs has quit the board of Lyndoch Living, having been reappointed for another three years just last October.

I don’t know exactly when Mr Downs* – who moved to Melbourne in September – resigned, but his board profile was on the Lyndoch website yesterday morning and gone by the end of the day.

This is awkward.

Lyndoch now has to fill his spot.

Mr Downs was one of nine board members, and Lyndoch must have at least nine board members under its constitution.

And here’s the catch: to become a board member, you must be first a general member.

Uh oh.

As we know, Lyndoch has only 15 14 members in total, all present and accounted for, including the board, the executive including the CEO, and two life members in Ron Patterson and David Atkinson who have already done their time.

There is nobody else, because, as we also know, nobody has been allowed to join.

No new members = no new board members.

Just yesterday there was a brilliant Letter to the Editor to the Warrnambool Standard by retired lawyer Lynn Hudson, a super-qualified person who applied to become a member of Lyndoch and was flatly rejected.

Her well-credentialled husband was also rejected. (You can read the letter here).

Lynn’s letter pulled back the veil on the farce that has seen a string of smart, caring, well-credentialled people who have applied for Lyndoch membership and been rejected with no explanation.

What an absolute joke. 

Except the joke, if it only were funny, is that the Lyndoch board now has to find a new board member.

It has four choices, only two of which will pass muster. 

One is to hand pick someone that passes the strict criteria for being a Lyndoch board member, which appears to be sit down, don’t ask tricky questions and be bedazzled by the plans to transform our aged care home into LyndochLand™.

Another is to advertise for a board member, which used to happen back in the days of equity, openness and gratitude for a community that loved Lyndoch.

A third is to do both of the above: advertise and then pick the person who has been worded up to apply.

Or…..

Or, the board just happens to have a membership application on its desk right now from one of the most qualified, most decent, most ethical, respected and upfront people in Warrnambool: Vicki Jellie, AM.

What a stroke of luck for Lyndoch Living!

Vicki, as we all know, was the driving force behind Peter’s Project, which saw a multi-million-dollar cancer treatment centre built in Warrnambool.

The AM after her name was awarded in the national Australia Day awards in 2017 as Australia’s Local Hero – a winner chosen out of the whole nation!

And yet here is Vicki, applying along with the rest of us, to see if she is good enough to be accepted as a member of Lyndoch Living where she used to work and where, first hand, she saw the changes that are now the subject of long-overdue scrutiny.

Mind you, I doubt Vicki would want to join the Lyndoch board as it stands. 

There are mounting questions about the direction of Lyndoch, and around staff morale, resignations and sick leave, which rolls on, believe me, except I am unable to speculate publicly as to why.

Mr Downs’ resignation has forced the hand of the board to reveal its true intentions and the next board meeting on 25 February will be very revealing.

We will know whether the board intends to once again be open and honest with the community that built and sustained Lyndoch for more than 60 years, or to remain a place of secrets and, I hope, growing unease.

One thing is certain, the game is up.

*I have left messages with Mr Downs late this afternoon for comment.
If you would like to apply to become a member of Lyndoch Living, here is the form.

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This is worth running in full: a Letter to the Editor of the Warrnambool Standard from 15 February 2020.

It says it all.

Membership rejected:

“I recently applied to be a ‘Member’ at Lyndoch. The application form itself is a curiosity. It seeks no information re educational or professional qualifications or work or life experience. The form doesn’t require a witness. My application was peremptorily and summarily dismissed in what appears as one liner pro forma rejection letter.

I am a recently retired lawyer of nearly 40 years experience, previous AHPRA Board Member, previous Veterans Board Member, Supreme Court Registrar, Legal Consultant at a Royal Commission and so on.

Similarly my husband, a recently retired AFP Officer after 38 years of service including in Afghanistan was also rejected with the same wording from Lyndoch.

Has any member of the public not directly associated with Lyndoch been accepted as a member?

Is Lyndoch’s approach to bona fide member applications consistent with the requirements and expectations of the broader community whom Lyndoch purports to serve?”

Lynn Hudson, Warrnambool