In any good organisation, heads would roll

Finally, we get an admission, four days out from the scheduled opening of the swimming pool season, that for the second year in a row we will not have a public pool for summer...


Now they blame the site and the Health Department for the delays.  It is always someone or something else.  But they are not going to fool those of us who remember that the site sat empty and idle all last summer while the Council and its staff bungled the tender process. Work on the new pool only began after summer, yet the old pool was dug up nine months earlier.

It is interesting that new Shire President John Nicholas has his name on this release.  Perhaps he has put his foot down in the first few days of holding office and insisted on a bit of actual accountability and communication.

It seems his election ''out of  a hat" over incumbent Tony Pratico after a drawn vote went down like a lead balloon.  There was no announcement or media release announcing his appointment, and the Council website still lists Pratico as President.

This gives you some insight

From the Council website....

Insight Newsletter

The Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes publishes a bi-monthly newsletter, the 'Insight' to inform the community of news, events and information.
To view the most recent edition, click on the link below:
December/January 2015

Still no pool when we need it,

Only a couple of weeks now until November 1, when the Council swimming pool normally opens.

Last summer, families like mine with hot, bored kids were left looking at a hole in the ground where our much-loved 50m pool used to be.  We were told it had to be closed and dug up then so that a new one could be completed and open in time for start of the 2015/16 swimming season.  Well, here we are, and I don't think anyone is going to be swimming in the new one any time soon...

So why hasn't the Shire come out and informed the public that the pool will not be ready for start of the swimming season? Why isn't the Shire telling us when it will be ready? (Maybe they don't know.)

If they have bungled this project to the extent that the community will be without this important facility for the best part of two summers, why won't they own up, tell us what went wrong and be honest about it?

Again, I remind the Shire's senior staff and councillors of the core values listed on the Council  website, which include the following;

• Sensitivity to the impact of our decisions
• Honesty and Integrity
• Openness and accountability
• Effective communication

How to eliminate your critics

In a small town like Bridgetown, it does not pay to criticise to the local Council if you run a local business.

They will boycott your business and they might even try to make it disappear...

What happened the big two-storey building on the corner of Hampton Street and Steere Street, right opposite the Shire offices??

I am a part-owner of The Freemasons Hotel which has been offering accommodation, beverages and food in Bridgetown for more than a century, but it has somehow been airbrushed out of existence if you check this panel on display at the Council's Tourist Information Bay north of town.

 There is a list of accommodation providers...

Even the smallest chalet and B&B operators get listed and shown on the map, but not the hotel with 22 rooms on the main corner of town!

 

The information lists every other licensed premises in town, restaurant and cafe, but not the one right opposite the Council offices which they walk past (but never into) every day.

 

There is a big sign on the building which says 'Hotel' and a sign on the wall which says 'Restaurant' so even if they don't dare to darken the doorways, there is no excuse for not knowing what goes on inside.

I know how CEO Tim Clynch will respond if I ask him about this. "It was an oversight," he will say. 

I think its vindictive and petty.  

 

Written, Authorised and Published by Michael Southwell, 179 Blackwood Park Road, Hester Brook WA

Another ''in-house" election

Nominations opened last Thursday for candidates in this year's Local Government elections, and they close this Thursday at 4pm.

But there is absolutely no reference to the election or the opening of nominations on the Bridgetown-Greenbushes Council website. There has been nothing in the local newspapers. Nothing in the Mailbag and no sign of the Council's "Insight" publication.

After nominations close and the sitting councillors are all safely locked in with (they hope) no opponents and no need to fight an election, the Council will happily promote the election and the results.

CEO Tim Clynch and his team are happy with the current councillors because they almost always agree unanimously with his recommendations.  This makes life easy and comfortable and all the decisions which affect our community are largely made behind closed doors during "informal briefing sessions" and "workshops" involving councillors and staff.  The formal Council and Standing Committee meetings, which are open to the public and go on the public record then proceed quickly and smoothly to deliver the pre-arranged outcomes.

The only thing that could upset this lovely arrangement would be the unexpected election of  pesky newcomers or dissenters like me.  So when the elections roll around every two years, they keep things quiet until nominations are closed.

It is not too late.  If you want to have a go at improving the way our Shire is run, just call the Returning Officer Elizabeth Doust on 0447 277043 and tell her you wish to nominate.

Pool funding problem was simply a budgeting failure and fundraising drive is a sham

This little gem surfaced in the latest Council minutes...

''In December 2014 when Council awarded the swimming pool design and construct
tender to Safeway Building and Renovations it was recognised that the total contract
cost was some $161,823 more than the amount available in the 2014/15 budget..."

Ahhh, so that's why we had to have a community fundraising drive to 'fit out' the pool

"At the 1st budget workshop held on 20 April 2015 Councillors agreed that the funding
shortfall of $161,823 should be funded in the 2015/16 budget via an increased
project transfer from the Land and Buildings Reserve and any other funding received
in the interim (either before the adoption of the budget or after adoption) could be
used to lessen the eventual transfer from that Reserve."

Because building the pool has taken so long, the Council can now use its own reserve funds to make up the shortfall, so if you donate to help "fit out" the pool, your money will just go into a Shire bank account to help pay for the next bungled project.

Council likes some businesses, not others

I was browsing the latest minutes of Council and I saw they were discussing an application by someone to set up a new takeaway food outlet offering Indian cuisine.  I thought, "That would be good. Great addition to the town."

Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather when I saw the decision:

Council Decision Moved Cr Scallan, Seconded Cr Hodson
C.08/0715 That Council not approve (refuse) the application for a trading
permit for Spicy Grill Indian, to trade from 74 Hampton Street, Bridgetown.
Carried 7/1

Whaat!!  Why???

What is this mob trying to do?

It was at the same meeting that the same group voted unanimously to over-ride their own planning scheme and the objections of locals to allow a supermarket to be built in the old packing sheds.

Then it hit me...  the Council President, Tony Pratico makes most of his cash selling greasy fried chicken and chips out of an old house called Chooks.

Pratico did declare a conflict of interest, but his friend the CEO helped him out by providing councillors with a reason to knock this potential competitor back....  it might cause parking problems. 

Please!  What a joke. 

The money-go-round

As stated previously here, I just don't get this fundraising drive for the new pool.

For those who came in late...

 Council decides to the demolish a perfectly good 50 metre pool because it has leaks and the filter system is inadequate.

Instead of just fixing the leaks and the filter system, it decides to spend $4m on a new one, which will be half the size (25 metres).

We have no pool over summer because, we are told, work on the new pool has to be done during those dry months because it is impossible to build a new pool during winter.  Work on the new pool does not commence until April and is now being carried out during winter.

We then learn that more money - $160,000 - is needed to "fit out" the pool.  A public fundraising campaign is launched.

Greenbushes miner Talison, which is managed by councillor Pat Scallan, announces it will put in $100,000 and match any other donations $1 for $1.

Now, in today's paper we see that Holden dealer Kordics has donated a small car as a raffle prize. There are 300 raffle tickets selling for $100 each.  Sell those tickets and you have raised $30,000. Matched dollar for dollar by Talison, you then have $60,000 and the $160,000 target has been reached.

So why all the fuss about a community fundraising drive?  Its all been taken care of with a couple of large business donations.

And in the paper today, Cr Scallan offers the comforting angle that this community fundraising will keep the rates down.

Yet every year he and the other councillors agree to spend tens of thousands of dollars of ratepayers money on community grants to organisations such as St Johns Ambulance and the Agricultural Society, which are quite capable of doing their own community fundraising.

As I said, I don't get it.

We need some new leaders

Shire Council elections will be on again in October, so it is time to consider whether you should have a go at representing yourself and your neighbours to help get the local government Bridgetown/Greenbushes needs.

If you agree with me that there is something wrong with the way our Council is being run, you should think seriously about trying to change things.

What we have here in Bridgetown is a firmly embedded and entrenched clique of people who benefit either by being a part of the current administration, or being allied with the current administration.

The only way in to take away the control these people have and improve the way things are done is through Council elections.  Only when we see a majority of councillors who are smart enough and independent enough to challenge the status quo, will we see change.

But it is tough.  In a community of around 4000, we have a large percentage of the voting population either employed by the Council (50 employees and nine councillors), or who benefit from Council spending.  All those with vested interests have partners and friends, so that’s a large number of motivated voters who will always support the status quo.

The Council does nothing to improve the economic wellbeing of the district.  It simply collects ever-increasing amounts of money from ratepayers and spends it on its employees and maintaining lots of empty buildings. In order to be seen to be achieving something, it has borrowed large amounts of money and spent large amounts of reserve funds to build a new library and new swimming pool.  (Note: we already had an adequate library and a perfectly good pool. One needed a bit more room and the other some repairs.)

We could do better. Much better. It is time to put Bridgetown on the map.  The economy of this area used to be based on agriculture, but this is waning.  The economy is now reliant on visitors and population growth.  The Shire Council needs to provide leadership to help Bridgetown to grow, help promote the area and boost economic activity.  All we get from our current Shire President is endless motherhood statements about volunteers and road safety.

Please consider helping to move your community forward by nominating for Council.  Go along to a couple of Council meetings and you will see for yourself how they sit there and vote on street name changes for an hour, then sit down for a ratepayer-funded feed.

We certainly deserve more.

 

If you are interested,  call me on 9761 4410.

Asking people to help pay for the pool is outrageous

I recently received a letter from the Shire's Bridgetown-Greenbushes Pool Fundraising Project.

They asked me to "contribute to this community project."

It is not a community project, it is a Shire Council project. The letter lacked detail as to how any contributed funds would be spent.

I replied, declining the request and gave the following reasons;

1. You have not properly explained what funds raised will be used for. "Some of the costs" and "additional pool equipment" are very vague descriptions. I would like to know how much of the costs are yet to be covered by ratepayers funds and borrowings. I would also like to know what equipment is not covered by the tender awarded to construct a pool and associated infrastructure.

2. I do not understand why a public fundraising drive is required to help pay for an upgrade to Council property. Surely this project falls within the Capital Works Program and Budget of the Council and hence should be properly funded as part of the Council's operations.

3. You appear to be double dipping. (We) already pay annual rates to the shire, which we expect will be used among other things to fund the provision of public amenities.

4. I think the project has been poorly managed. I do not understand why the existing pool was demolished a year ago, when all that has been done since then is to dig a hole in the ground.

5. If the Council had taken a pragmatic and prudent approach, it would have simply fixed whatever real problems (leaving aside aesthetic issues) there were with the existing pool, rather than demolishing it and starting again. This would have been a much less expensive and time-consuming option, thereby removing the need for public fundraising.

Tree, what tree?

I understand Shire CEO Tim Clynch has been busy hosing down the issues raised by a former Council employee ..... outlined in previous posts here.

Mr Clynch and the councillors have had a nice little chat about it all behind closed doors and the upshot is that its just a storm in a teacup, everything has been fully investigated and nobody has done anything wrong.

Included in his briefing was a statement that some of my information was wrong. It was not the case that a native tree was felled (without a clearing permit) for timber to build the fancy outdoor recreational facility for staff.

Well, what do we have here?

That's a recently chopped down tree in the depot grounds.

And what's this?

This is what's left of the tree after it had been cut into lengths of timber at the back of the depot with a Lucas Mill belonging to a Shire staff member.

And finally...

There's the timber being used to make the patio.

I've asked the councillors if they think there is anything wrong with any of this and they have simply circled the wagons, claiming they are not allowed to pursue the issues because they are "operational". They have been trained to see their role as nothing more than rubber stamps for decisions made by the senior staff.

The councillors are ignoring  their responsibility to make sure the CEO is doing his job properly.  And if these sorts of things are going on and senior staff including the CEO are simply covering up, that is surely a matter for councillors.

For instance, if the CEO says he has investigated something, but he has never interviewed the complainant, is that a satisfactory investigation???

It's called turning a blind eye

After being informed about the issues raised in the post below this one, I went along to the Council  Meeting on Thursday 26 of March and used public question time to ask the President, Mr Pratico what he did when a Shire employee informed him late last year that illegal activities were taking place at the Shire depot.  This is a transcript of his answers, and some given by the CEO, Mr Clynch. The answers  surprised me.  They might surprise you too. 

My questions to the President   re; former Shire employee Kevin Edsall

11.    In late November last year, when then Shire employee Kevin Edsall, who was the fleet manager at the depot, approached you at the Agricultural Show and reported the theft of steel beams from the Shire Depot by a fellow employee, what action did you take?

President: “When that was reported to me, the matter had already been reported to the CEO previous to that, so I made the CEO aware of the theft.”

My follow up: Do you know…what was the outcome?

 “The CEO  attended to it and the material was returned.”

22.    When Mr Edsall reported to you that his colleagues at the depot had cut down a jarrah tree on crown land and were using Shire supplies and equipment in work hours to construct a recreational amenity, that is an enclosed deck, for themselves on Shire property at the depot, what action did you take?

President: “I think that the Manager of Works was aware that enclosure being built, so there was no action for me to take.”

My follow up: Do you know whether a building permit was sought or obtained for the structure which was built?

Answer from CEO: “No, my understanding is that a building permit was not required for that work."

Why was that?

CEO: “I just made the inquiry and that was the response I got.”

33.    When Mr Edsall later reported to you that not long after him raising the previously mentioned issues, one of his colleagues at the depot had presented him with a spent .22 calibre bullet shell at his workplace, what action did you take?

President: “He… when I questioned why he was presented with that, his response was the Shire employee who presented it said he found it.”

Follow up: Did you not see that as a case of bullying or intimidation in the workplace?

President:  “As Shire President, if it was a case of bullying, or if Mr Edsall felt it was bullying, he should have gone to his superior in the workplace, which was the Manager of Works."

I believe he did report it, but what was your reaction?

"I do not believe it is the Shire President’s role to interfere in operational matters.”

Answer from CEO: "I conducted an investigation into that matter and arrived at a conclusion that there was no…"

What was your finding?

"I decided there was no case of bullying in that situation."

One set of rules for Council staff (none), and another set of rules for the rest of us mugs

Some time last year, the boys up at the Shire depot decided the confines of their lunch room were a little too restricted, so they cut a hole in the wall, chopped down a nearby jarrah tree and went to work cutting it up (mostly during work hours) and building themselves a patio entertainment area.

Apparently its a fabulous place to enjoy all the free beers donated to the work crews by grateful members of the community who get their roads graded regularly or their verges cleared.

A few small problems with this, though...

1. It is illegal to chop down trees without a clearing permit
2. It is  illegal to erect a structure like this without a building permit
3. It is highly inappropriate to use Council-owned equipment and materials during work hours for an unbudgeted expense like this.
4. It is unethical for public servants to accept free cartons of beer for doing their job.

You would expect someone like Shire President Tony Pratico to be aware of the points outlined above and to take strong action if he was informed about something like this, but sadly, you would be wrong.

At last night's Council meeting I asked him what he did when he was told about the situation by a worker at the depot who didn't like what was going on.

The President's reply: "The Manager of Works told me he was aware of that being built, so I took no action."

I then asked whether a building permit had been sought or obtained for the structure.

Council CEO Tim Clynch replied: "I was told no building permit was required."

Wait a minute...  He was told?  As the CEO and a former town planner, surely he knows the rules regarding building permits?

So if you and I, fellow citizens and ratepayers, wanted to cut down a native tree for some timber, we'd need a permit and if we wished to extend our dwellings and build patios, we'd need a permit.

But in the Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes, if you are council employees the rules apparently do not apply.

Employment conditions are secret, apparently

I recently rang the Council and asked to see a copy of its Collective Employee Agreement.

Many other WA Councils make their employment agreements available on the via their websites. Not ours -- far from it -- as you will see from this email exchange:

From: Tim Clynch [mailto:tClynch@bridgetown.wa.gov.au]
Sent: Wednesday, 11 March 2015 2:26 PM
To: Michael Southwell (southy@iinet.net.au)
Subject: Request for Information

Hi Michael

Emily from the front counter has referred to me your request for a copy of the Shire’s collective employee agreement.

Please note the Shire currently has a collective employee agreement for the outside works staff and an enterprise bargaining agreement for inside staff. 

With regard to your request for copies of either one or both of these agreements I have referred to Section 5.94 of the Local Government Act. 

An employee collective agreement is not a document defined under Section 5.94 as being available for inspection by the public.  Therefore there is no automatic right to access that information.

Both agreements were considered by Council at its June 2013 meeting as confidential items “behind closed doors”.  Therefore the contents of each Agreement are considered confidential and are not available for inspection by members of the public.

Based on the above I am not able to provide you with a copy of either one or both of the agreements.

If you are dissatisfied with my decision you are able to request consideration under Freedom of Information legislation.  Application forms can be obtained from the Shire’s Records officer Eileen Kneale.  Under the FOI legislation if your FOI application is declined by the Shire appeal rights would be available to you.

Regards

Tim Clynch
Chief Executive Officer
Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes

From: Michael Southwell [mailto:southy@iinet.net.au]
Sent: Thursday, 12 March 2015 11:09 AM
To: Tim Clynch
Subject: RE: Request for Information

Hi Tim,

In arriving at your decision to keep this document secret, did you consider Council’s stated Values, which include being “open and accountable”?

The fact that the document was considered as a confidential item at Council does not support your argument that it is secret, given that the decision to consider it behind closed doors would have occurred at your suggestion.

Similar documents are publicly available at other Councils.  Perhaps you should check with the Department on whether the document should be publicly available, as you have on other issues.

I should not be made to go through the time and expense of an FOI request, when there is no good reason to keep the document secret.

Regards,

Michael

Hi Michael

Once an item is accepted by Council as confidential under Council’s Standing Orders I am not permitted to release the information to the public.

Section 5.94 of the Local Government Act lists the local government information available for public inspection.  An employee collective agreement or similar is not identified as a document freely available for inspection.

Prior to making my decision I did consult with the Department of Local Government and Communities and their advice was that the document was not of a type that would normally be freely available to the public but at the end of the day the decision to release it rested with the CEO.  As stated previously, as the matter was considered by Council behind closed doors I am not authorised to release it for public inspection.

The Local Government Act identifies the types of matters that can be considered by a council behind closed doors, one of which is “a matter affecting an employee or employees”.  An employee collective agreement or EBA is such a document.

I am happy to stand by Council’s values of being open and accountable but I also am obliged to work within the requirements of the Local Government Act, other legislation, Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes Local laws and Council Policies.

Regards

Tim Clynch
Chief Executive Officer
Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes

 

  So  some of the people in Bridgetown (councillors, council employees, and presumably their families) are allowed to have this information about  employment conditions at the Shire and others (ratepayers) are not.

I must go to the time, trouble and expense of an FOI request to see this innocuous document.

I will be entitled to the document under FOI, and unless Mr Clynch is completely ignorant about the FOI Act, he knows that. 

The only material exempt under the Act is that which reveals personal information, might harm the State's economic interests, is commercially confidential, is protected by legal privilege, may interfere with law enforcement or jeopardise national security.

The CEO is simply playing a game.  The object of the game is to discourage people from scrutinising Council activities.