WCC suffers mortal wound in Mayoral election bloodbath
Cr Kylie Gaston watches on as Cr Peter Hulin explains why the councillors deserve to be sacked. Image: Annie Cairn Terrier.
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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Time to ask the tough questions of those in charge
Powerhouses: Warrnambool City Councillor Sue Cassidy and Lydnoch CEO Doreen Power at the 2019 May Racing Carnival. Image: Lyndoch Living.
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
It’s a big week coming up for these two women.
One of them quietly holds a lot of power in Warrnambool and the other is Councillor Sue Cassidy.
Let’s start with Cr Cassidy, on the left, who tomorrow night will front the Warrnambool City Council and tell us why she should be Mayor.
Cr Cassidy becoming Mayor is the best thing that could happen to Warrnambool for the next 12 months, because she could finally break open the grip that has strangled the place for a decade.
Credit card abuses, bullying, boys’ clubs, budget blow-outs, over-the-top fees, fines and charges, and an assortment of other dodgy dealings don’t happen unless you have a majority of compliant councillors.
These are the ones more concerned about building their public profile, or not causing a fuss, or staying in sweet with the CEO.
Last week, Cr Cassidy told it like it is. No wonder former CEO Bruce Anson didn’t like her.
And it is for this very reason, of course, that she won’t be Mayor unless Tony Herbert pulls the pin and decides to rest and look after himself. I hope he does.
He is running for all the wrong reasons.
I disagree with many decisions that Cr Cassidy has made as a councillor, but if she can drag the bullshite into the light for the next 12 months, she has my vote.
Which brings me to the woman on the right, Doreen Power, the CEO of Lyndoch.
This Tuesday at 4pm, Ms Power will front Lyndoch’s 67th AGM at Lyndoch, not that you would know it, because I haven’t seen a word of it advertised.
But this is an important meeting.
We will be able to learn if the $1.77 million deficit recorded last year by Lyndoch has been turned around.
We will hopefully find out more about where the $100 million is coming from for the eight-year masterplan.
It’s also a chance to dig into where the money collected by Lyndoch from the residents and governments is actually going.
And it is a chance to learn how staff shortages, poor staff morale and the divide-and-rule work environment that has developed within Lyndoch over recent years is being handled.
I am building a series of stories on these things as we speak.
As it happens, Cr Cassidy is also on the board of Lyndoch.
I am counting on her to ask these questions with the same rigour and don’t-give-me-that-rubbish approach that she wants to apply to the WCC.
After all, we don’t want a Lyndoch board full of people more concerned about building a public profile, or not causing a fuss, or staying in sweet with the CEO.
Yep, it’s a big week and the bummer is that I won’t be at either meeting because I have been invited to a Google conference in Sydney to talk about the importance of things like The Terrier to small cities like Warrnambool.
I will pick it all up when I get back. See you then.
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WCC tearing each other’s heads off in mayoral race
Behind-the-scenes tensions among councillors have exploded into a full-blown battle in the fight to be Mayor. Image: Game of Thrones.
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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Cr Gaston on credit card abuse: “This is a blip. It will pass.”
A leaked email from former mayor Cr Kylie Gaston to her fellow councillors gives a fascinating insight into her thoughts on the WCC credit card scandal. Image: WCC/Twitter.
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Every now and then something slips out of Warrnambool City Council and we catch a glimpse of what really goes on.
This is when we learn what councillors really think, unplugged and unfiltered – this is one of those times.
The words of one councillor, former mayor Kylie Gaston, recently leaked through the solid wall of control via an email and I must admit that it made my jaw drop.
Cr Gaston didn’t expect these words to escape and she was not happy about it, but the non-confidential email she wrote to her fellow councillors (except Cr Peter Hulin) has crept through a crack and run free.
The email was sent by Cr Gaston the night before the September 2 council meeting at which councillors were still battling the raw flames of the credit card scandal and desperately trying to regain public trust.
Cr Gaston did not like this move at all and she told her fellow councillors as much, while at the same time revealing what she really thought about the whole issue.
Here is her email from 1 September in full:
“Hi everyone,
I am only writing this email to councillors, not including Peter Hulin as he is putting the motion forward.
I will be blunt.
This is a political notice of motion. Who is going to second it? Why second it when it is only going to add to the political fire, no matter what the outcome.
I think we all believe, as Thommo said, this is an iceblock not an iceberg. If the Standard reporters are working this out, why would we fuel the fire?
Let the motion lapse. Let the gallery yell at us. And let’s get on with what we are elected to do without unnecessary cost to ratepayers.
This is a blip. It will pass. We need to focus on our values and keep moving our city forward.
Kylie.
Did a word leap off the page for you? A tiny word that says so much: “blip”.
A blip.
We are talking here about the blatant misuse, abuse and unjustifiable spending of ratepayers’ money by senior council staff and a potential cover-up, all of which is now the subject of three inquiries.
I can’t un-see that word, “blip”, despite Cr Gaston’s explanation, which I have also published in full below.
And then there is this zinger: “let the gallery yell at us”, which is exactly what they did, and some paid the price for it.
Cr Gaston expected a rowdy meeting, but now anyone who shouts at meetings in the future could be fined.
In this email we also learn Cr Gaston looked to the Warrnambool Standard to gauge whether credit card abuse was a problem for the council.
If the sole newspaper wasn’t worried, why should councillors be?
Good grief.
And, lastly, it shows Cr Gaston, who is an experienced councillor, trying to line up councillors like ducks in a row, rather than free-thinking individuals.
So this is how it works when we aren’t watching. How fascinating.
I asked Cr Gaston a number of questions about this email and this is her response in full:
Hi Carol,
I will certainly be interested to see how you frame my response.
I believe the NOM (notice of motion) was political rather than useful and wanted to clarify that with my fellow Councillors and not make it personal with Peter Hulin.
This has certainly been a distressing and unfortunate episode at Council. Personally I am disgusted with the inappropriate use of monies and I believe most people are honest.
We need to learn from it and move on. I did not intend the word blip to imply something small but rather in the history of Council this is an unfortunate episode which we need to deal with responsibly and I believe we had already put appropriate actions in place.
At the time of the Council meeting the Ombudsman was involved and two weeks prior, Council had called a Special Meeting to appoint an external and independent auditor. The scope will certainly include a review of our corporate governance and how we arrived at this point.
As it stands, the Minister is waiting the outcome of the Ombudsman report, so in fact the Notice of Motion achieved no more than what is already happening.
There is not much more to it than that.
Kind regards,
Kylie
I ran this response past Barry the Bullshite Detector. He gave it a 9/10, saying it contained more spin than a whirling dervish dance party.
Last Thursday, I asked Cr Gaston a follow-up question on why she was so confident this whole issue was an “iceblock”, after all, the official inquiries had only just begun.
Her answer arrived a few hours ago:
“In my view, the subject of further investigation had been dealt with at the special meeting and the (motion) was not going to add value.
What it was going to achieve was keeping the issue burning (so to speak) in the public domain when we had already dealt with it.
Bringing in the minister was only going to be political and, as it eventuated, the minister did indeed say it was already being investigated.
At this point I’ll wait to see if there is any further information of which we are unaware.
I don’t believe corruption is systemic at WCC and through transparent external investigation we will review our policies to ensure this does not happen again.
There are always some people who will try exploit systems for their own gain, I detest this, however, I believe most people are honest and our staff are hard working and trying to do the right thing.”
Nobody has ever suggested corruption is systemic at the WCC, but boy, wouldn’t you want to turn over all the rocks to see what might crawl out?
That is how to restore public confidence, bit by bit, and without a “blip” in sight.
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A record profit for WRC, so let’s leave Levy’s alone
Trap for Fools, trained in Warrnambool by local trainer, Jarrod McLean, won the $2 million Mackinnon Stakes in 2018. Image: Darryl Sherer, www.racenet.com.au
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Remember the doom-and-gloom, Chicken-Little-The-Sky-Is-Falling predictions for local racing if the big trainers weren’t allowed to run horses at Levy’s Beach?
Well the Warrnambool Racing Club has just notched up a record profit – its equity has gone from $8.5 million last year to a cool $10.1 million this year.
That’s right, far from falling in a deep dark hole, things have never looked so good.
“This has truly been an exciting year for the Warrnambool Racing Club,” enthuses chairman Nick Rule in his 2018-19 report to members.
Mr Rule goes on to wax lyrical about a “remarkable financial year” and, in particular, this year’s hugely successful May Racing Carnival: “Extremely strong crowds, record betting turnover and highly competitive jumps racing were the highlights…”
Hold your horses!
Wasn’t the May Racing Carnival under threat of collapse if hundreds of racehorses a week weren’t allowed to pound up and down the dune at Levy’s?
That’s what the racing industry told us, the State Government, and also the Warrnambool City Council which, by the way, still manages to find the money to be listed as a major sponsor of the WRC.
The long stretches of sand at Levy’s Beach, Warrnambool, which form part of the Belfast Coastal Reserve.
The truth of the matter is that no racehorse training has been allowed at Levy’s beach since the end of 2016.
And the sky hasn’t fallen in. That seductive old fox, Jobson Growth, hasn’t packed up and left town.
Darren Weir kept on winning, until he was exposed in January for the cheat that he is, with more charges – enough to make your hair curl – laid yesterday.
Local trainer Jarrod McLean also kept winning – including taking out the $2 million Mackinnon Stakes last year – until he, too, has found himself facing a raft of animal cruelty and corruption charges.
WA trainer Lindsey Smith has moved in to Weir’s stables at Warrnambool and is already racking up winners.
And the Warrnambool May Race Carnival has sailed on as one of the biggest events of the year on the Victorian racing calendar.
So much success and yet not one racehorse – officially at least – has trained on Levy’s Beach in three years.
The lure and magic of the Levy’s beach and dunes has been exposed as pure spin.
Cr Michael Neoh has also been crunching the numbers.
He now personally believes that racehorse access to Lady Bay should be enough.
With the Weir juggernaut no longer in the picture, the number of racehorses using Lady Bay has plummeted: Cr Neoh says it is now averaging 22 a day on the beach, and 14 in the water (April to July). It was close to 100 at its peak.
Lady Bay is where we “share” our public beach and that should be enough.
As it stands, the end of November is the deadline for the racing industry to move into Levy’s, but permits still need to be issued and roads and carparks need to be graded.
Behind the scenes, the traditional owners are also keeping up their fight to be heard, as they always have to do, because their connection to the land can’t be measured in turnover and totes.
The council, having just declared a climate change emergency, could step up right now and show it really does care for the most vulnerable parts of our coast.
Which way will this go in November? I don’t know, but the arguments that propped up the need for Levy’s are collapsing as fast as Weir’s career.
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