Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Tidbit: A few weeks ago a reader contacted The Terrier about two Norfolk pines in Nicholson St, near the corner of Harper St, saying they feared the trees may have been poisoned. This reader also contacted the W’bool City Council.

The WCC has since investigated and found there was a gas leak that was basically asphyxiating the trees.

The leak has now been fixed, but the trees, according to the WCC arborist, have only a 30 per cent chance of survival.

The council will keep an eye on the trees until the end of Spring to see if they recover.

I am really grateful to the reader for alerting the WCC.

As readers of this page know, I am a tree-hugging, greenie, leftie, plover-lover of our natural environment, heritage and history, so I am hoping the 30 per cent chance is enough.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Welcome to The Terrier Sunday Night Tidbits in easy-to-digest, meaty morsels:

1. Shelly beach is less stinky: the indefatigable Colleen Hughson and the whole Good Will Nurdle Hunting and Pick Up Sticks crew are reporting that the rockpools at Shelly Beach, near Thunder Point, are cleaner than they have been in years since another fine mesh screen was installed at the Wannon Water treatment plant in February.

I had almost forgotten what a crystal clear rockpool at Shelly Beach looked like, but things are set to get even better.

A fourth, fully automated, $1.1 million screen made in the US is being installed at the plant by Wannon Water as we speak.

By automated, I mean it is the first screen that will clean itself without having to be physically taken out and cleaned by WW staff, which must be a shitty job, to say the least.

If the rockpools are looking good now, hopefully they will soon be sparkling permanently.

A big, non-algae blooming bouquet to everyone involved in making this happen. I will write more about this whole water pollution saga soon.

2. Big fat rate rise on hold: The W’bool City Council has decided, because we are in very tough times, against raising rates by 4.5% again this year, which it was allowed to do after getting approval last year to break the rate cap for two years in a row.

This means rates will go up by 2%.

But before we stand and cheer, the rate pain is not over yet.

The council is still very keen to slap that 4.5% rise into place next year because, it says, it still needs the money to fix its assets.

From what I am reading, it’s going to take a couple of years at least for most businesses to get back on their feet after the crush of C19.

We have said this many times before, but surely more savings have to come from within rather than jacking up rates by 4.5% at a time when ratepayers will still be doing it very, very tough.

3. Borrowing more big bucks: Speaking of which, I see in the agenda for tomorrow night’s council meeting that the WCC plans to borrow $3 million for its share of Reid Oval, $2.5 million for its share of the new library at TAFE and another $3 million to restore and upgrade the old library space when it moves out.

What are the plans for this old library space that warrants a $3 million loan?

Please, please don’t tell me the council intends to spread out and use the old library for more office space?

If they do, then I want our old Post Office building back.

I would love to see it open to the public as an art space, communal space, cafe…anything but offices.

The fact this beautiful old building – one of the best in Warrnambool – is shut off to the public is a travesty and all you can see through the glazed windows are phone books and shadows.

4. Another resignation: Speaking of Reid Oval, the project officer for this $11 million project, Mel Starr, has resigned and taken up a job in Melbourne where – according to an email she sent to various sporting clubs – she can be closer to family.

As far as we know, nobody has been announced as a replacement, so perhaps one of the existing WCC managers will pick up the role at this crucial stage.

By the way, can anybody tell me if this Reid Oval upgrade, as it stands, will be enough to host AFL practice matches as we had hoped?

Or will more upgrades need to follow? I have been told it is the latter but haven’t been able to follow this up this weekend.

5. Cutting up the credit cards: And last but not least for tonight’s tidbits, the council agenda confirms credit card use is way down.

The number of transactions fell from 6757 in 2018-19 to 4139 so far in 2019-20.

Ombudsman Deborah Glass was on ABC statewide radio last Wednesday and said the investigation into the council’s credit card use was still ongoing. No release date for the final report has been given.

And that, terriers, is tonight’s tidbits.  (The council will live stream its meeting tomorrow night at 5.45pm.)

[This is the C19 version of The Terrier : short, sharp and shiny posts straight to Facebook rather than longer, in-depth pieces to unearth where the truth bones are buried. Rest assured those pieces are simmering along behind the scenes.]

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Sooo, as has been reported by the ABC and The Standard earlier today, our Mayor Tony Herbert will remain Mayor, having not offered his resignation, despite his recently breaking one, two, three…no, four, laws, and taking a hit for the biggest fine, which was breaching the C19 distancing rules.

Cr Herbert was also not officially challenged to step down by Cr Sue Cassidy despite some tub thumping at the weekend.

There are no real surprises here, because:

1. the Mayor was never going to step aside (having come up with a palatable reason for his brain fade);

2. he was never going to be asked to resign (as the majority of his fellow councillors were happy to let this one slide) and;

3. his only challenger – Cr Cassidy – had two votes at best in herself and maybe Cr Robert Anderson.

 

(Crs Gaston, Neoh and Owen were never on board and Cr Sycopoulis and Cr Herbert are politically close as a part of the same faction in the Liberal Party.)

The W’bool City Council also craves at least some modicum of stability, in what are unstable and uncertain times and not just because of the C19.

As was drawn to my attention today – by a reader who runs a forensic eye over such things – there are FIVE senior management positions on the council that are either vacant or have ‘acting’ staff in the role, starting with the Manager of Governance, that reports directly to the CEO.

The head of tourism – remember him? – has seemingly not been replaced since he resigned last July.

The Manager of Community Planning and Policy, who resigned last year, is still listed as being in that role.

So is the Manager of Economic Development and Investment, who resigned in January.

As the reader pointed out, how does this affect the council’s ability to do its day-to-day business?

Well one area, I can tell you, is updating its policies, some of which are years out of date.

One example, again offered by this astute reader, is the council’s whistleblower policy, you know, that little thing that should have protected people like Dr Bernadette Northeast from speaking up about bullying within council.

The document was supposed to be updated in 2016.

The anti-corruption guidelines from IBAC posted on the WCC website are from 2013.

Jeeps. As we know, it is the small stuff that affects the big stuff. You let one thing go, then the next thing falls over, and then the next.

It’s a bit like how one coffee on the council credit card morphs into eye fillet and bottles of cab sav.

Or stuffing up the way people have to pay their pet registrations, which I hear is still causing grief for pensioners who now have to go to great lengths involving forms and Centrelink (two things that are enough to make me want to take to the couch) to prove they’re eligible for a discount.

Let’s not forget that it’s only a couple of months since Cr Mike Neoh went rogue and declared to The Standard that he had “had a gutful of raising issues and not seeing any progress.”

What this means in plain speak is that certain councillors wanted the CEO gone.

Before the C19 descended, I doubt the CEO would have survived a no confidence vote.

So the Mayor will stay on as the figurehead, but the wheels were wobbling within the council itself well before this detour.

The real work starts once the virus lifts and we have to get back out onto the highway. Strap yourselves in.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Leadership:

Wow, what is this that I see? There are some amazing things happening in Warrnambool in these c/v times.

I see local businesses doing their best to hold on and adapt as best they can, like Materia Bros (big shout out to that wonderful family) who are doing home deliveries of fresh produce – check out their FB page for details.

We are seeing jams and chutneys arriving on doorsteps; messages for health care workers written in chalk on footpaths; grocery runs for elderly people; hand-written cards and notes appearing in letterboxes…all prepared with sanitised hands, of course.

I love seeing this generosity of spirit happening in our city – we all do.

But what I would like to see more of is bold leadership from the top.

I want to see more of our Mayor and CEO, with at least daily updates on what the WCC is working on, and what real, practical steps are being taken to prepare for the next 12 months.

This is how long the economic fallout from this virus will last, if not longer.

I want to see updates on support packages being prepared for local businesses, solo operators, ratepayers and residents, not a ‘fly through’ of the Reid Oval upgrade, which was added to the WCC website today.

I hate to say it, but even in a sport lovin’ city like ours, sport upgrades have to come second right now.

The millions of dollars that were to be spent on Reid Oval would make a huge difference to those who will be doing it really tough in the next year or two.

There is no sugar coating it: the fallout from this virus is going to hit Warrnambool hard and we need a plan and we need it now.

I don’t envy the CEO or our Mayor in these times, but this is what leadership is all about and it’s what their jobs are all about. Leadership is easy when the going is easy, but true leadership shines when times are tough.

We are in those times.

A strong, bold, council vision delivered straight to our door: I would like to see that.