Nice while it lasted: WCC lifts kindergarten fees after C19

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.

Northpoint hotel saga creates one big headache

The Northpoint tavern on Hayley Drive off Mortlake Road has been on the drawing board for 12 years and still remains unfinished.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Is this Warrnambool’s ugliest building site?

I had no idea, until last night’s Warrnambool City Council meeting, that the poor residents of Hayley Drive, near Northpoint shopping centre on Mortlake Rd, have been looking at this stunning vista of a half-finished building for years.

In fact the planning process for what was going to be a “licensed restaurant” at the back of the bottle shop started in 2006.

That is four councils ago.

Since then the plan has been back to the council eight times for extensions and amendments and more extensions, as the “licensed restaurant” changed and morphed and popped out at the council meeting last night as the Northpoint Hotel, complete with a bar, a bistro and a TAB.

Some residents have had to object EIGHT times to the same project.

One elderly objector, now aged 89 (she was in Year 12 when the project started…okay, maybe not quite, but you get my point), said she always feared the restaurant would morph into a hotel. It looks like she was absolutely right.

I have come to the highly scientific conclusion that the planning laws – local and state – really suck.

How can a project come back to a council eight times over 14 years? How can a building sit half finished for years?

How can prime old Warrnambool buildings be demolished, and their blocks of land sit empty for years and years as what was an “urgent” project becomes suddenly not so urgent?

And why do the goal posts keep moving, so that a licensed restaurant becomes a hotel?

Cr Sue Cassidy was among the councillors last night who were not happy with that change and moved – successfully as part of the planning approval – that the word “hotel” not be used in any signage.

The goal posts must not keep moving, Cr Cassidy said.

I am personally delighted to hear this, as my little street is about to do a David and Goliath by challenging the whiz bang Lyndoch Medical Clinic that was approved in 2017 , “amended” in February this year and approved again last month.

This “amendment” has seen the project double in size. Cr Cassidy, as we know, is both a director of the Lyndoch Medical Clinic and a Lyndoch board member.

From what Cr Cassidy said last night, it looks like my street can count on her support when it rolls onto VCAT.

That is another whole story, for another day.

Time to press the re-set button at the next council election

It has been an interesting four years, to say the least, since the last Warrnambool City Council election. The next election will be held on 24 October.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

In less than six months, on 24 October, we get to vote on a new Warrnambool City Council: the people who will be our eyes and ears for the next four years.

It is a chance to press the re-set button and, my word, we desperately need a re-set.

I know it’s not easy to put your hand up to be a councillor, but it’s astonishing to watch how quickly some councillors lose sight of why they were elected in the first place.

Self interest, personal ambition, old ties, an unwillingness to challenge “old” Warrnambool …..all of these things combined have crippled our councillors and – collectively – they have lost our trust.

Trust, honesty and openness is all we ask for.

We don’t want councillors who are more concerned about building their profile so they can run for Parliament, which seems to be the case for at least half of the current batch.

Trust, honesty and openness should not be hard…and yet it is.

That’s what we looked for when we all voted in 2016.

But what did we get? We got a council that took its eye off the ball.

We had a city centre upgrade that blew its budget by $5 million. We have parking fees that – until the pandemic – were killing the CBD.

Until the pandemic, our rates were due to increase by almost double the state cap for two years in a row.

We had outright abuse of council credit cards on food and wine, with some councillors sitting right at the table.

We had a Mayor actively discouraging journalists from investigating things like this credit card abuse.

Another four years down and there is still no plan for the bleeding bull of Flagstaff Hill. (Our tourism manager resigned almost a year ago and has still not been replaced.)

Staff morale has been in the toilet, with top level resignations and claims of bullying that just wouldn’t go away. Whistleblowers were not protected, but effectively forced out.

(The councillors may not be able to direct “operational” matters, but they sure as heck have a duty to ask the CEO what is being done about these issues.)

And we have had so many conflicts of interest that would never pass the pub test, I have lost count.

Bringing up any of the above used to be sacrilegious: “you are so negative!” “What about the positives?” “Why don’t you run for council then?”

But the people have since found their voice.

In the past four years, the best performers have been the people of Warrnambool: you have been the bright lights.

I am just now waiting to see which of these lights finds the confidence and courage to run in October – start thinking about it now.

Not drowning, saving: shire councils show the way with C19

Smaller councils have been doing something of an “Eric the Eel” in response to Covid-19, showing a strong performance compared to their bigger neighbours. Image: Newstatesman.com

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

There’s something very “Eric the Eel” about how well the smaller councils are keeping afloat during the financial fallout of Covid 19.

Do you remember Eric (pictured)? He was an athlete from that great swimming nation of Equatorial Guinea…ahem….and therefore the one least likely to out-swim his fellow competitors in the 100m freestyle heats at the Sydney Olympics.

But – against all odds and with some good luck – he slogged through and won the day.

I feel like I am watching Eric in action when I read that both Corangamite Shire and Moyne Shire are planning a zero per cent rate rise next financial year.

This means nought, nada, nothing will be added to the rate in the dollar amount from this year.

Warrnambool City Council, which has double the population and double the budget, has been kind enough to defer its 4.5 per cent rates wallop for a year and offer us “only” a two per cent hike.

How kind. No wonder almost 200 people have reportedly already applied for help.

WCC expects a total budget of $76.6 million to spend next financial year.

Compared to the “Erics”, Warrnambool is the Ian Thorpe in the public pool: Corangamite will have a total of $49 million to spend and Moyne just a smidge less.

And yet….

And yet Corangamite will spend $14 million on building works, while WCC will spend $18.5m: not that much higher. Moyne will spend $18.1m.

Corangamite expects to record a deficit of just $120,000.

WCC is looking at a deficit of $1.5 million.

And Moyne, just to be totally “Eric”, expects a surplus – a surplus – of $800k.

But here is the real clincher: while the WCC is putting off staff to save money, Corangamite is hiring staff as part of a $5.2 million C19 recovery package.

A $5.2 million package and hiring? How on earth does it do it?

What Corangamite and a lot of other councils did was apply to the State Govt for a thing called the Working for Victoria Grants and it received a sweet $2.3 million smackeroos.

This has allowed Corangamite to create 45 temporary jobs over the next six months. Brilliant move.

WCC has announced a $1.9 million C19 recovery package – less than half of Corangamite – and there has not been a single word about any hirings.

I was going to ask the WCC whether it had applied for a Working for Victoria Grant, but I learned the W’bool Ratepayers’ Association got in before me and has already asked this question.

They have allowed me to share the response from our CEO:

“WCC put in an initial expression of interest and are still working with the fund managers.

No decisions have been made by them and no timeline has been provided on the outcome.”

Uh oh. This gives me a sinking feeling.

I have this terrible sense that when the starter’s gun went off – “go, go, go!” – we were left standing on the blocks.

In the meantime, Eric – little Eric – has just tumble turned and is well and truly into the second lap.

No bones about it, WCC pet rego fees are astronomical

Pet registrations in Warrnambool are already the second highest in Australia and continue to climb. Stock image.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Well this is enough to make pet owners barking mad.

Tucked within the pages of the Warrnambool City Council draft budget is a little note that pet registration fees are set to rise – AGAIN.

If this rise goes ahead – as I suspect it will – this time next year a single desexed dog or desexed cat will cost $72 to register, up from $70. It was $54 just a couple of years ago.

The CEO said at last Monday night’s meeting that our rego fees are, “not dissimilar to some other municipalities”.

This is untrue.

We now pay the second highest pet regos fees in Australia, behind only Brighton, in Melbourne.

In Ballarat, the fee is $40. In Traralgon, it is $43. In Portland, it is $35. Over in Port Fairy, it is $39…you get the drift.

The reason we are being fleeced, it seems, is that in 2017 the council signed on to a three-year deal with the RSPCA that saw an explosion in its fees for running the council pound – the cost tripled overnight.

Not only that, the cost of running the pound has risen astronomically for EACH year of the three-year deal.

The RSPCA charged the council $328,000 in 2018-19.

Next financial year, which is the last year of its contract, it will charge $425,000: almost half a million dollars!

Holy malooza! It’s enough to make you have kittens.

In response to a question from a ratepayer on Monday night, our CEO explained that the RSPCA is all about saving animals, rehousing them, returning them home etc all of which costs money and is supported by any animal lover, including me.

But here is the rub.

The RSPCA also runs the pound in Portland and they ain’t payin’ anywhere near $70 a dog or cat. Why not? Because, to put it simply, Glenelg Shire negotiated a better deal.

The RSPCA runs very few animal shelters in Victoria now and no doubt those they do run are top notch, but charging $425,000 a year for a city the size of Warrnambool?

I would rather see these funds used to subsidise desexing – of cats, in particular, as happens in South Australia.

As it also happens, the WCC has just advertised a tender to run the pound from 2021-22. Will the RSPCA be, again, the only one to apply?

Or maybe the council, post C19 when people need to be redeployed, could think about using that half a million bucks a year to run the pound again itself?

Unless we want to see pet regos go up and up and up, it could be the best option.

[The WCC draft budget is open for public comment and feedback until 3 June.]