By Carol Altmann

It has been a bit like pulling teeth, but the Warrnambool City Council has finally released more detail about why it has rented two properties to two of its staff for – in one case – more than 30 years, and 14 years the other.

The five-page article posted on its website is a direct response to the stories that have appeared here about one senior WCC staff member living in the old bank building at 130 Timor St, part of the Archie Graham Centre, since 1987 and currently paying about $190 a week.

This property also saw about $43,000 from the Archie Graham capital works budget used to build a new garage, retaining wall, garden bed and sealed driveway in a spend that sources say incensed many of the Archie Graham staff.

The other property is a beachside former caretaker’s residence, currently rented at $221 a week.

Both are open-ended, on-going leases with no end in sight.

So, what is the council’s more fulsome explanation as to how these arrangements work and why they exist?

You can read the whole thing for yourself here – please, do – but the nub of it appears to be that these two properties are “unusual” and the council is lucky to find good tenants to rent them:

“Because of the unusual locations and nature of these properties if Council staff were not renting these properties they would not be made available for rent to the general public and Council would lose income.”

 

What exactly makes the properties “unusual”?

Well, according to the council’s explanation, the Archie Graham tenant is virtually a live-in security guard, turning off lights and appliances left on by the staff and centre clients, and, on occasion, even responding to attacks by vandals:

“Over a recent weekend the staff member was able to set in train urgent repairs when an intoxicated individual smashed a glass entrance door.”

 

Further, the tenant can only access the apartment via the main entrance to Archie Graham, which I guess when you put all of these things together, means that not all WCC staff could be entrusted with such an arrangement and they could not be guaranteed a good night’s sleep.

(Apparently councillors were also told privately in response to my stories that the tenant had to share a bathroom with the public. This does not appear in the public explanation and my sources say that such a claim is is not correct.)

The beachside house apparently has similar issues with noisy passersby:

“In the past the house at Shipwreck Coast Holiday Park has been made available to the public to rent but Council experienced difficulties in the rent being reliably paid and tenants finding the level of amenity acceptable with regard to being in close proximity to excited holiday makers.”

 

I will leave that image of the excited holiday makers for you to ponder.

As I say, read the full statement – it is too long to reproduce here – and I will finish with just one or two more points.

First, I recently asked the Local Government Inspectorate if these two lease deals breached the Local Government Act because, under the Act, a lease of more than 10 years must be advertised.

The inspectorate contacted the council CEO Bruce Anson and reported back to me that, no, the leases did not breach the Act because neither was for more than 10 years, even though one is 31-years long and the other inching toward 15 years.

I think George Orwell would be impressed.

I don’t know how frequently these leases are renewed, but the collective total for each is definitely more than 10 years. This, according to the inspectorate, is an “alleged loophole”.

Moving on.

Much of the council’s response has been about privacy and protecting people’s names and addresses:

“As a responsible landlord and to ensure the privacy and security of the tenants, Council will not broadcast the identities of the tenants in these homes.”

 

Some readers may also share this view.

But I have to point out that this issue is about due process, not particular individuals, which is why I have not published names.

Nothing written about the people in these two properties is not on the public record. You can visit the council offices and read the lease register, which is a public document and the reason it is public is because it deals with public property.

Of course Mr Anson, parts of the council, and probably the tenants in question, would all prefer we didn’t go poking about in lease registers and asking questions about rents and new garages and sealed driveways and forcing them to write long statements justifying their actions, but this is exactly what we need to do – and what I do on your behalf – because that, as we know, is all part of a healthy democracy.

A freedom of information application asking for copies of the two lease agreements is still being processed. Thankyou to those of you who donate $ to help me pay for these applications. If you too would like to support independent journalism, please consider making a small contribution below.

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By Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”]A[/dropcap]fter almost two years of collecting, organising and editing, some of the many, many wonderful stories about Fletcher Jones are now live on a new website.

The Stories From Our Community website – http://www.fjstories.org.au/ – is another tangible result of the Fletcher Jones stories project that started last year and involved collecting at least some of the stories from those who either remembered Sir Fletcher Jones personally, worked at the Warrnambool Fletcher Jones factory, loved the Pleasant Hill gardens or iconic Silver Ball tower, or maybe a bit of each.

They are stories from another time in which workers were valued as individuals, when customers were treated like kings and when quality – above all else – was what mattered most.

They are also stories from people who did not work at Fletcher Jones, but who remember Christmas parties in the Pleasant Hill gardens, or being married there, or trying to fish the money out of the wishing well using a stick and a piece of chewing gum.

As project co-ordinator Julie Eagles explains, the website is a celebration and living tribute to not only the past, but the present, with the dilapidated Pleasant Hill complex being slowly brought back to life since its purchase by businessman Dean Montgomery in 2014.

“Since mid 2014, we’ve celebrated the sympathetic renewal of Warrnambool’s Pleasant Hill, the Silver Ball and Fletcher Jones Gardens by Dean Montgomery and the FJ Stories project has worked alongside the site renewal now taking place,” Julie says.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”]T[/dropcap]he push to preserve the Fletcher Jones gardens, silver ball and parts of the factory began years earlier when local artists and community groups began to create works of art, share stories and even make movies that recognised the importance of the site to Warrnambool’s character.

At the same time, a group of dedicated volunteers led by Lex Caldwell kept the gardens alive while the factory continued to crumble around them.

By late 2013, the situation looked dire, with nobody seemingly prepared to take on the huge task of bringing the site back to full life. We wrote a story about it (and it is still one of our most popular), which drew upon a report by the Warrnambool Planning and Heritage Group, of which Julie is a member.

Shortly after, in early 2014, the Save the Silver Ball and Fletcher’s Gardens page started on Facebook and the community began to share its connections to the site – and the stories just kept coming and coming.

Everyone, it seemed, had a Fletcher’s story.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”]O[/dropcap]ne of those taking note was Dean Montgomery, who stepped in and bought the site with plans to create a Warrnambool Motor Museum, but who has since also spent a huge amount of money slowly restoring the gardens and factory to their former glory.

The Jones’ family has also reconnected with the site as a result of the community campaign and has funded much of the stories project, while also providing items from their personal collection of memorabilia and photos.

“The website is still being developed and there are still more stories and images to upload,” Julie says.

The site is organised into different themes and, a bit like a rabbit burrow, you can just keep digging deeper and explore all the nooks and crannies.

“Some of the themes currently have little or even no content, while others have lots to explore, learn from and enjoy already,” Julie says.

The website launch follows the unveiling of a story panel at the site last December, and a second panel will be unveiled at this year’s community picnic in the gardens on Saturday December 3.

[box]The FJ Stories Project will finish in December 2016. If you have a story to share, you can contact Julie Eagles directly at  julie.eagles@bigpond.com The next Fletcher Jones community picnic is on Dec 3.[/box]

 

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