councillors and council officers welcome
to
the council meeting of the 11th of april
2022
thank you to those who are watching from
home my name is councillor jamie casales
i'm the mayor of stonington and i would
like to begin
by reading our reconciliation
acknowledgement statement and our
statement of commitment
we we acknowledge that we are meeting on
the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri
Woi Wurrung and Bunurong peoples of the
East Kulin nations and pay our respect to
their elders past present and emerging
we extend that respect to all aboriginal
and torres strait islander peoples we
acknowledge their living connection to
country relationship with the land and
all new things extending back tens of
thousands of years
we are reminded that as councillors we
are bound by our oath of office to
undertake the duties of councillor in
the best interests of the people of the
city of stonington and to faithfully and
impartially carry out the functions
powers authorities and discretions
vested in us under the local government
act and any other act
we do not have any apologies this
evening so we move to item four
introduction of councillors and the
executive team so i'll start on my right
from northport councillor kate healey
from southport councillor nikki babagal
from eastward councillor alexander liu
from northwood council of martial
griffin from northward councillor
matthew coast
from southward councillor molina
from southward councillor mike scott
and from eastward councillor polly
morgan and to my right is our chief
executive officer miss jackie weber who
i'll now ask to please introduce our
staff
good evening and thank you mayor to my
right eastern student judy hogan civic
support officer mississippi classic
direct environment and
infrastructure director planning and
place mr anthony d persualy coordinating
statutory planning to my left mr james
rouse acting director communion
wellbeing miss tracy lincoln's acting
director of organisational capability
and mr sean ross who is manager for
communications and engagement and to
your left is mr david thompson executive
manager legal and governance thank you
miss weber i would also like to
acknowledge and introduce our
independent members of the audit and
risk committee who were in the chamber
with us for item 8.1 tonight we have the
chair bird excel the deputy chair david
ashmore and independent members hilary
karna and jenny johansen thank you all
for joining us this
evening so councillors are moved to item
five confirmation of the minutes of the
previous meeting for the 28th of march
2022 is there a movement for the minutes
councillor keeley and the secondary
goal uh any questions comments or issues
about the minutes counsellors
great i'll put it to the vocal those in
favor of the doctor knows that is
carried unanimously thank you
councillors
we move to item six
disclosures of conflicts and interests
are there any matters this evening
counsellors counsel about a goal uh yes
for a generational mate 11 the recovery
grants program
thank you council battle any other
conflicts council scott yes thank you
mayor uh 11 8 12 and 8 13. um
no direct conflicts of interest but
thank you and councillor
thank you mayor yes 1916 one
thank you
no other conflicts this evening
item seven we move to questions from the
community for tonight's council meeting
council has received two questions from
mr pelston in accordance with the
government's rules a summary of the
questions are as follows how much money
has been spent in the last two years on
recycling education and how this is done
and how much does council charge in
waste collection fees to households that
get no collection service our response
to the questions will be sent to mr
charleston within 10 business days in
accordance with our customer service
charter and the responses will be tabled
and inserted into the minutes of the
next council meeting
so councillors we moved to item eight
our general business for the evening so
we have 8.1 the order of risk media
reports
[Music]
thank you for the opportunity to speak
to you tonight
um i will take the report as read but i
think there are probably a couple of
items that are worth just noting uh as
part of that um the first thing i'd like
to do is just remind you the role of the
audit and risk committee is that we have
no delegated authority we are very much
an advice and oversight committee
looking at policies and procedures and
our compliance with them
and the financial aspects as well
so
we're about for example looking at the
external financial reports performance
reporting uh the interface through with
our internal and external auditors we
very much look at our risk management
framework and how we're progressing with
managing our risks
and we look at the systems and processes
for monitoring compliance
with legislation
etc
the structure of the committee has
changed this year to what it was
previously we now have four independent
members that's up from three last year
and we have three councillor
representatives which is up from two the
previous year
just in terms of a couple of quick
highlights risk management is always a
major focus of ours um and we believe
there's more to do in this space but we
note that there are a couple of reviews
an internal audit and a
second review happening in risk
management so we're looking forward to
seeing those and using them as a as a
lead to get into the next phase
and we also look at some general risk
management reports internal order
reports and there's a internal audit
program
that's been produced
um
the we've also conducted a
self-assessment which has
uh shown us that we really need to
tighten up on our procedures none of us
were surprised by that but there's an
opportunity to make sure that we're
adding value by making sure that we're
focused on the right things that we have
the right reports at the right level to
make sure that we're picking up the big
issues
and finally i think it's important to
say the assessment of the committee
in terms of the performance of the
council and that we believe our
assessment is that the council is
managing its responsibilities
with respect to financial
control and compliance fairly well
the risk management approach and
governance culture is continuing to
strengthen
there's always more to do there but
that's sound and improving
um and the last thing i'd like to do is
just pass on the thanks of all the
committee members to the management for
their support in conducting the meetings
so couldn't do it without you
thank you thank you so much
councillors the recommendation before us
is to note
the report for the first six months
ending 31 march um
would you like to speak to it
oh i don't think we need to after we've
just said the summary thank you very
much
[Music]
no no
thank you i will open it up are there
questions as well for music
or comments on the report councillor
thank you just to point out on page 31
under committee structure
um yourself myself and council better
goal became council representatives
so i appointed oh sorry my apologies
it's appointed from that date i thought
it was appointed too because it just
wasn't exactly clear
in there but no i just picked that up
my eyes are better any other comments or
questions for the chair of the committee
no okay thank you so much bev
thank you for attending
we will put this to vote always in favor
of noting the report please raise your
hands that's very magnificent thank you
very much
8.2 amendment c 314 stone mapping
anomalies
can i seek and move to that please thank
you councillor philly and the secondary
council
would you like to speak to it counselor
healy
thank you this is quite procedural i
suppose there's 20 properties across the
municipality that are proposed to be
rezoned in full or in part through this
amendment to ensure that zoning of the
land is accurately reflecting its usage
and to encourage the development and
protection of open space within the
municipality
councillor sarah's the second guy
nothing to happen right
i'll open it up any discussion on this
item
all right we'll put it straight to the
vote then all those in favor please
raise your hands carry your minimum
sleep thank you
8.3 we enter our planning applications
so eight point three is nine glen tilt
road glenaris and i do know there is an
alternative before us but first i'll see
if i'll seek a move for the officer
recommendation
okay that lapses and we do have an
alternative who is moving out councillor
lou
and secondary council morgan thank you
council
um
thank you mayor just because of what
people will be tuning in for this this
alternative recommendation is engages of
refusal to grant landing pad
so for
the residents watching in particular
that means that the application that's
been put forward that you're watching as
rejected
outright
um just just for the purposes of
any future
uh recording of this meeting the basis
of our notice of refusal
of this motions notice of refusal should
it be accepted is that the proposed
scale mass and sighting of the
development is inappropriate in the
local context and does not reflect the
preferred neighborhood character
contrary to the objectives of the clause
55.8
in english for the objectives that means
that we don't think that this
development suits the neighborhood
the next um
the next clause uh the next reason
why i'm proposing this yellow is that
the proposed development by mentioned
size mass and setbacks fails to provide
a suitable transition to the native
residential zone and the neighborhood
character overlay area to the south uh
glen hill road so what we're saying for
the people who are at the
console
is that even though
even though this building is is
fits
the measurements as required for the
particular zone that's in because this
because it's on the boundary of that
zone so near a residential zone we don't
think it's the correct type of property
for the transitional area
the third reason is that the development
fails to provide adequate landscape
response and prevents meaningful
landscape from occurring on the site
contrary to clause 22.23 manual
character
policy
clause
55.038 landscape
what we're saying um
what we're saying
in this instance
and a lot of the objectives were
concerned
that this development
was being built on a nursery and it was
taking away an area that was quite open
it's been replaced with an area that's
quite
solid and dense and
without sufficient area for garden and
landscaping
and so that's another basis from which
we are which i'm proposing that this
application be refused so
in summary um again just for the purpose
of people watching
um my application is my
motion is to
refuse to grant this planning permit and
what
can happen from here is that the
applicant can either appeal our decision
to
vcap if they wish to or they may wish to
submit a new application
great thank you council um council
morgan is second year would you like to
speak uh yes thank you uh for you mayor
i wanted to um first of all uh
say that i
very much support council with laura's
alternative recommendation i thank him
for all the work he's done on
the detail in
the grounds for refusal um i really
thought about
because i guess
stepping back a little bit um
in some ways this looks like it's right
near a train line and so therefore you
have something that's at a larger scale
and there are some similar things um
even quite close to this that are more
that scale however um as council of the
reference there was a very open area
it's a very quiet and small street
normally
and the impact on the residents in terms
of loss of the energy
compared to what they've had there for
so many years a lot of people have been
there for a long time is huge
i also think that some of the concerns
particularly for me was
just
the landscaping of the site and the
change
the inherent change of having such a
development there and you know the
landscaping response i think um you know
wasn't really adequate to compensate for
that or ameliorate the impact on
the residents and also i think that
other
options and suggestions in terms of
looking at things that might normally
help with some of the issues raised by
residents um such as overlooking with
frosted glass windows or you know
changing
um you know sort of
balcony sort of
walls or sort of fencing um
to do this to actually really um
ameliorate the impact on the existing
residents would then really cause
detriment to the actual quality
of the residents themselves and people
who might move in there would would be
really impacted for me so if you if you
for instance have to block out windows
and and people can't look outside them
at all
or or a lot of that use too much of that
who's skewed it affects the residents
quality of life we moved into this
development since i feel like there
wasn't really enough that could be fixed
to address all the concerns residents
have raised without them impacting on
the quality of um the development um in
terms of what's being proposed and i
think i think we need to have
when we have higher density buildings
are too important they're um really good
for people to live in as well and if we
have to make too many adjustments to
them uh to
to accommodate the impact on existing
residents then you start to question a
visit there's a boundary where it might
be that's a bit too much now to make
them
really very um really good quality
places for people to live in as well so
that was my concern and why i decided to
support this refusal
thank you councillor morgan i'll open it
up for discussion is there any
discussion on this item
counselor griffin thank you mayor we
received a lot of correspondence about
this and i can say we've got some very
articulate residents who really
understand
the streets they want to live in and i
just with i just want to
read from this because i thought it was
really good i don't think it's
unreasonable to expect development that
is sympathetic to the neighborhood they
seek to become part of we need to set
the standard for the environment we want
to live in i know that council is trying
to create a greener and more sustainable
environment for our children well here
is the chance to walk the tours
thank you
yeah i'd just like to echo some of the
comments and i'll be supporting the
alternate recommendation to to refuse
this um we've all received a lot of
correspondence from local residents
clearly there's a lot of concern about
this i'd encourage anyone who's planning
a development in our city to talk to the
local residents first talk to them
before you've even started you know your
planning process
to find out what their concerns and
views are and really get to know the
area before you put an application in
this is a case where clearly the
application doesn't fit with community
expectations there's a lot of concern
around this which is legitimate um
residents just have to be aware though
this is stage one it's gone to council
it's gone to a council meeting we're
going to refuse it hopefully hopefully
you'll have the numbers tonight
but next will probably be vcat and
you've got to be prepared for that and
residents need to be prepared to
represent themselves at vega council
will be there we'll be represented and
we'll do our best but they should also
have their own representation of their
cat they should attend the hearings they
should participate in that our
experience is when local residents as
objectors engage in that process they're
more likely to get better outcomes
so i'd say to the local residents who
are objectives continue to engage in
this process it's not over yet it's
likely that it will probably go to vcap
but council will do its best to support
you we're a democratic organization we
listen to our residents and we respond
to them and that's what what i'm doing
on this occasion
thank you coast any other speakers to
the motion councillor healey
um i would have supported the officer
recommendation um this
is a development surrounded by a number
of three-story buildings already um and
the development offers two or three
levels when they had the ability to go
to four
but they didn't so they were trying to
respect what the neighborhood
the surrounding neighborhood i also note
that from driving around the area and
walking around the area et cetera that i
think that this particular development
had a much higher design standard than
the neighbouring properties
at the end of the killsworth avenue
grove
so
i was thinking there might have been an
alternative from these four councils to
address some of the concerns however it
feels like this is going to get rejected
that the um the officer's recommendation
is going to be rejected and um that it
probably as council co said go to vcad
and i hope through that vcap process and
that consultation process of vcat that
those conversations can take place to
get to
an agreement between the objectives and
the applicant which they can all be
happy with
thank you
any kind of speeches to motion
great all right councillor lou we're in
your hands to sum up
um thank you very mayor i think
everything that needs to be said has
been said
agreed we'll put it straight to the vote
a division is being called all those in
favor of the refusal please raise your
hands
and all those against the refusal and
we'll do it again for the division so
all those in favor of refusal
councillors battlegoal lou
griffin coast ser scott morgan and cyrus
and those against
uh council healey so the refusal is
carried
thank you councillors
we'll move to item 8.4 planning
application at 293-295
high street parade
is there a mover for this recommendation
councillor scott and a second dog
council about a goal thank you council
scott
um
[Music]
thank you
so this is a planning application for
buildings and works
to an existing building associated with
the use of the site as a restaurant and
one dwelling
in a commercial zone and special
building overlay
which includes restaurant cafe liquor
license
associated with the use of the site as a
restaurant
and a reduction in the car parking and
bicycle requirement for 293 295 high
street brand
um
at first i had some
concerns about this application and was
a bit hesitant was thinking about
bringing an alternate
recommendation but
after talking with council officers and
other people i decided to support this
officer recommendation
my concerns
revolve around the um
another little license
so starting to encroach into
some of our
neighborhood areas
um the volume of patrons that will be in
the area
and the reduction in parking
and also some concerns around race waste
management
but as i said after talking with council
officers i note that they have placed
a number of specific conditions
um on this application which will go
further to limit the
opening hours and the impact on the
overall amenity
so
i put this
two councils
thank you council black hole as the
secondary would you like to speak thank
you mayor
uh just a few extra things in june 2019
an application for a four-story mixed
use with five dwellings was refused this
application is actually an updated
proposal that's much more much much more
modest in nature and sits comfortably
with the rsl which is right next door
and a beautiful building
it's currently a three bedroom gel
dwelling the two car spaces and a
restaurant no car spaces so it's not
actually a substantial change to what's
currently there it's just a modernizing
um and adding in a second floor
with changes as councillor scott through
through
conditions is
going to change the
liquor licensing i think importantly
it's supported by the urban designer as
a well-considered three-story
development that respects the integrity
of the adjoining heritage listed rsl
and it's supported by the heritage
expert as it will sit comfortably
besides the rsl so for those reasons i'm
supporting this thank you
i love that any discussion on this item
counsellors
no in that case we'll go straight to the
boat all those in favor please rotate
your hands
that's carried over to sleep thank you
8.5 planning application 14 brotherhood
drive more than east
is a remover for this item
council morgan and the secondary
thank you
council morgan a few mayor i'll um take
the proposal as read um
and uh the officer's recommendation just
in summary is to actually uh support the
application
uh
um obviously some commissions to make
sure that uh there's proper um
uh you know connection um sorry to bring
it up uh
but there's proper um consideration for
the landscaping
of the site that the um uh i believe the
water tanks are going to be
appropriately connected as well
and that there is enough um
sort of setbacks and landscaping that's
preserved by this uh this block is
is what's proposed i guess is to just
summarize is to have a um
just a household um uh go up of length
is going to be subdividing into just two
units
and so
it's it's a very modest proposal in
terms of um
that area is very consistent there are
uh several
properties already
on that um on rover with robert wood
avenue who um where there are two units
only and they've taken it just
subdivided that way it's quite modest
it's not really pushing the envelope of
what is allowed in that area and it's
very consistent with the rest of the
street
um the design
of the property is also in keeping with
other properties on the street so it's
not in itself really impacting on
enabling character
there were seven objectives to this
and we did have a scheduled consultation
meeting however the objectives didn't um
actually attend
and so of course there was no uh
consultation there as well to perhaps
see if there's any other adjustments
that could have been made so it's a
shame that opportunities missed but
sometimes life gets in the way probably
people who wanted to rsvp into it and
things go wrong however uh given that's
the case and it's quite a standard uh
application i um support the officer's
recommendation
uh thank you carson morgan just before i
open it up i'd like to draw offices to
page 68. it says the consult was on the
16th of february but it was actually on
first
and that was attended by councillors
morgan however all three of us actually
attended that so could you please make
those changes for the minutes that would
be great i'll open it up for discussion
is there any discussion on this item oh
sorry i'm going to house a little second
up um i have nothing to add to what
council i'm not going to say thank you
thank you any other discussion on this
item
right see you straight to the vote all
those in favor
that's caribbean obviously thank you
councillors and our final planning
application for the evening is
145-151 high street parade i do know
there is an alternative for us so first
i'll ask you the remover of the
officer's recommendation
that lapses so who is moving the
alternative
council about a goal and seconded by
councillor scott thank you council
vatico give us a
the alternative please
thank you it's really just to remove one
residential level with a subsequent
reduction in the overall building height
by a minimum of two and a half meters
which brings the building back to the
preferred maximum harsh
great thank you and
stick to it thank you so uh this is an
application for a seven-story edition
behind an a1 grader building it's worth
noting that the previous application was
refused in 2017 as the applicant wanted
to demolish the whole site
this application seeks the retention of
the heritage building at the front with
the development at the rear separated by
an atrium for those who haven't seen the
building it's an absolutely stunning a1
heritage system building it's in a
little bit of a state of disrepair at
the moment so it'll be lovely to see it
coming back to its glory
of when it used to house a sunday school
as the report says it represents an
unusual example of the gothic revival
um and is is really a high
of incredible significance
the proposed development while it's also
of high quality and retains a
significant heritage
the proposal actually seeks to
exceed the preferred height so what this
motion does is it brings the height in
line with the preferred maximum building
height of 21 meter meters and six
stories
it the application final seeks the extra
level um as well as the roof terrace so
and if you read the report the
justification behind this additional
heish
is
is something that i i'm struggling to
support which is why we're going forward
with this alternative motion it mentions
that the atrium separating the heritage
building at the rear provides desirable
community benefits
to me all this represents is actually a
good design response it's a good design
response to an a1 greater building
that's of national state or
extraordinarily high local significance
but i don't see it as a significant
community benefit which is needed to
support the extra harsh
i know that there's quite a few meetings
that have been held with the applicant
and the design team and various people
within council to discuss the importance
of the relationship between the heritage
front and the development of the back
and that this response is appropriate
because the primary volume the heritage
at the front is being retained
but really it sits alone as as exceeding
the preferred height to the east and
directly opposite macquarie street is
the six-story development which meets
the preferred numbers of stories
and there's no other surrounding
developments
there are two examples that are
mentioned in the report that is
comparable to
and when i did a little bit of
background checking as to how these came
to be both of them were actually
determined at be cash in excess of the
preferred height after a failure to
determine appeal so one of these is a
nine story
um
which
is actually one story above the eight
story preferred and the other one is a
seven story which is also above the
preferred level so i know i hear
councillor griffin often talk about the
emerging character and i think this is
something that we need to be very very
careful of because with every single one
of these that we approve we are creating
the emerging character so this really
brings it back in line with preferred
maximum height a number of stories it
also will take a level which equates to
roughly nine studio apartments so the
deficit in car spaces will actually be
reduced as well and i think that's
really the main things thank you council
scott as the second official
does that be right i'll open it up any
discussion on this item counselors on
this alternative performance
council
normally i don't like to go against my
real counselors on an item such as this
um ideally would love to come here with
a unanimous view representing award but
i've really
thought long and hard about this
proposal
and
just a bit of background the reason why
we have preferred heights in locations
is so that we don't
take away a developer and architect's
right to
use design to its maximum ability so
what what has been found and we'll get
this in forest hill precinct when
there's preferred heights it allows a
lot more creative creativity because the
last thing we want in an area where
we're encouraging high scale development
particularly in activity centre zones
such as this one where we've got maximum
heights because every developer will
build to the maximum height and that
we're going to have a squished building
to get maximum floor space that's human
nature but when you put in a preferred
height allows for that creativity so you
might get buildings that are taller and
narrower you might get buildings that
are shorter or stepped in and so forth
um so that's why i'm preferred heights
we were very specific the playing
schemes means very specific about it and
why maximum mandatory heights are only
in residential streets because you know
the bigger impact there
the emerging character in high street is
six to eight stories i've got eight
stories at the end of my street which is
only probably four or five hundred
meters away from this particular site um
you know and disappointingly as a
council of a girl said that was a vcat
decision that we thought strongly but
that is the immersion character as we've
talked about
here
what concerns me is that the
applicant has gone to great lengths to
meet the requirements of the borough
charter
and vara charter is the delineation
between the old and the new
they have
picked top heritage
consultants being level 10 to work on
this
our heritage advice
you know it does talk about the fact
that the ac one does provide for a
variation to preferred building height
in circumstances where it can be
demonstrated that is a significant
community benefit can be achieved the
community benefit i see in this matter
is the finally the restoration of what
has been a beautiful building that has
been left to
pretty much you know
fall apart and finally now it's great to
see that now um the owners of these
buildings are looking at restoring them
back to their former glory and just
adding to the beauty of our streetscapes
but also that it can continues to meet
the objectives requirements and
guidelines in relation to visual impact
and overshadowing increased upper level
setbacks um but while their resulting
overall building part will exceed the
preferred maximum height the current
plus is deemed to be of a high quality
architectural standard and will sit
comfortably within the brand precinct of
the activity centre and the environments
of the site so matami i'm really
concerned that by doing this and sending
this off to appeal because that's where
it will go that we may lose all of those
compromises that we've got along the way
in that delineation between the old and
the new because a lot of thought has
gone into this but i don't want to see
that wasted
thank you any other speakers to
promotion
councillor griffin thank you mayor um
yes i hear what council sarah is saying
but i've always been concerned about
this emerging character and going above
preferred heights the whole areas of
stonington where this has happened and
we know
how disastrous that has been so i have
to support um council matter goals
amendment
thank you any others to motion
counsellor just briefly i mean i've just
read again the referral to the urban
designer and he did identify a couple of
concerns but then it's been addressed in
the um discussion plans that followed so
it seems like a very detailed and
considered
application so on this occasion i think
i'll be supporting the officer's report
recommendation thank you councillor
thank you um
i was originally intending to follow
your alternative but i think upon
hearing um council says um explanation
there
i think it's
what i found in trouble with in the
report was it talked about how the
public benefit that we were going to get
in exchange for the extra height was
this atrium which i just read that's not
really a public benefit at all however
the restoration and honouring of that
heritage building is so fantastic and i
think also how the
the site that the height is actually set
back quite far from the street level so
i think that gives some sort of reprieve
from it being so intimidating on the
street front itself
um and as also said by my fellow
councillors there's a really nice
delineation between the old and the new
and it's very high quality architecture
so
i'd be more inclined to support
officer's recommendation
thank you any other speakers to
promotion
council scott as the second guy
thank you mayor not much more to say
i think all the points that are being
raised tonight are valid but from my
perspective i think high limits and
restrictions are there for a reason and
as councillors we should be doing all
that we can to enforce them otherwise we
end up with this submerged character
that we tend to lose control or sight of
in terms of that visionary perspective
i'm not so worried about the density
in the
application
but i can see how this amendment will
positively impact
the quantity of properties on the site
um i think
there was questions around the size of
each of the properties
but i think reducing it down
by 2.5 meters or one residential level
uh will reduce the overall density in
terms of the setback i think the setback
from when i recall looking at the
pictures was from high street it doesn't
take into consideration the setback from
macquarie street which is quite a narrow
street
we talked about public benefit my
concern is
with the footpaths
and access up and down that especially
given that we've got paran high
which is well established there now and
children living in that area
so i support the uh
thank you any other things to the motion
before we move to something
can ask a question yes of course
um
i'm unsure what will happen with this in
terms of the numbers if this fails the
officer recommendation actually isn't in
front of us do we then go back to that
yeah so if
if the alternative recommendation fails
there is nothing on the table and then
it would be up to another counsellor to
move something else which could be the
officer's recommendation thank you
any other speakers to the motion
okay so
council butter gold we're back with you
thank you thank you everyone for sharing
your comments it is a complicated one
it's a beautiful design it's a beautiful
building and it actually comes down to a
little bit of subjectivity and i think
that's what we're seeing around the
table is that we each have our own
different views on what significant
community benefit looks like
and and that's wonderful that's why we
all are here that's why we all represent
a different voice and that's why we all
have different opinions and and that's
democracy so
uh so i welcome everyone's views and as
southward we don't have to all walk in
the same line we actually have to think
differently and represent
the different people within our group
and i think it's really important that
we continue to do that respectfully so
so i have nothing more than that thank
you
so we will proceed to the boat so we've
got the opportunity before us with the
change that's being articulated so can i
see a show of hands all those in favor
of the alternative
and those against
so the alternative is carried
thank you councillors
we move to item 8.7 will not stream
albany's proposed median opening
relocation uh can i see the movement for
this item please
thank you council blue and secondary
council morgan councillor lou much to
say on this one i'll just take it as red
thank you careful morgan um yeah just to
briefly say i'm also taking this river
to highlight that um this is because i'm
a petition from residents
who have been concerned about safety
issues and we know that there um there
has been an assessment done that says
that there are genuine safety concerns
there um and that there have been in the
neighboring area around there some
accidents not quite at that location but
there have been some serious accidents
um along daniel road and
you know it's really important to try
and minimise any chance of accidents in
you know when there's
not going to be a significant impact or
traffic or anything from this so it just
seems to me like a really
straightforward thing we should do in
response to the concerns from residents
thank you any discussion on this item
counsellors
yes counselor battlegroup i think i'd
just like to add one more thing in the
very very small chance that anybody from
wilmot street might be watching this
that even if you sign the petition or
even if you turn it up to the local
meeting please make sure you respond to
the next stage because that's actually
where the decision gets made
the steps up until this point bring it
to council and give us the information
and the evidence that we need to support
it next is up to you and we can openly
support it if it gets some support from
the community great point thank you
all right we'll move straight to vote
all those in favor
carry unanimously thank you councillors
item 8.8 towards a circular economy our
future waste strategy is there a move
for this council morgan and the
secondary
council healey thank you council morgan
you in there i'll just speak briefly to
this and take it largely as i've read
what i do for tomato is is that this is
just endorsing a draft waste strategy to
go out for community consultation and
engagement and public exhibition
the strategy itself is
is both necessary and important it's
necessary because of the state
government making significant reforms to
recycling across the state
and so we do need to develop a strategy
around
how we are going to actually uh approach
waste ourselves uh how can we
work on
encouraging a circular sort of
closed-loop economy
and
within sonington and maybe even
throughout our whole region
and what can we do to actually not only
improve
the environment
minimise
carbon production but also to reuse our
resources and to ultimately save money
for council and for our residents and
ratepayers
there's a lot of waste at the moment
occurring
and this is a of the global issue
and within stormington if we get this
right and with input from a local
community hence it going out to
consultation
we can actually really get some benefits
for our community and we've seen that uh
state government waste charges just keep
on going on uh
landfill is going to disappear
in the future you know there's that's
been strongly signaled so
rather than just waiting for this to
happen and be reactive we really need to
have a very strong strategy that is
going to help us address this
and right now we just need to get the
input from the community on it and see
what they think and then we'll come back
to council so i think if people see
things in there they think is great
respond give us that feedback if they
see things in there that they they think
is awful and they're like you know
why would anyone do this
also give us that feedback because we
need to hear everything we can before we
uh bring in place such a critical
potentially transformative strategy
for our municipality
thank you council morgan
councillor helios secretary would you
like to speak sure
uh so
wonderful introduction already but
just to add to the policy recognizes the
role that we have in waste which is
pretty massive um and also that things
are moving quite quickly in the world of
waste
therefore it's really important this
policy also aligns with global best
practices and the circular economy
the key priorities of the strategy are
to firstly avoid and reduce waste
secondly to
to allow people to reuse for as long as
possible so supporting the maintenance
repair of goods and then thirdly to
recover and make waste history
essentially so
um as councillor morgan said i really
look forward to um
promoting this to our community and
hearing feedback from our community
great
any discussion councillor griffin thanks
maybe in addition to what's already been
said i i just couldn't resist a bit of
personal history around waste because
this report resonates with me having
lived on a farm in a no waste family
even sharing bath water as children we
composted food scraps made pocket money
by returning glass bottles for refunds
and we were given a strong message by
our parents waste not what not a very
clear message sounds like another world
really but that's the world i was
brought up in a world that i think we
need to recapture because uh populations
both urbanization have led to some
really serious waste issues
i was shocked recently to learn that the
even the ignomas blue and white masks
that we've been mandated to wear have a
potential lifespan of 450 years
so this report seeks to address these
issues
and i'd also like to add it i think that
many in our community are totally
confused by the wasted issue of what to
put where what business things go in
what's recyclable what plastic is able
to be recycled and what's not but you
know if we look around the world there
are many examples of success in waste
production and recycling in sweden this
is hard to believe that 99 of all
household waste is reportedly recycled
and half is converted into energy that's
a pretty great target so there's global
best practice out there that we can tap
into um and i was very pleased to hear
from mr quasik that this
this community consultation will also be
asking the community about how we can
best educate our community because i
think education is the key here
i'll support this topic thank you
thank you griffin any other discussion
just briefly i just wanted to commend
our offices on
when they do the road resurfacing they
use plastic bags in the in the composite
that goes on the roads and that gets rid
of tens of thousands of plastic bags for
each section of road we redo we're one
of the first councils to do that and not
only does it help support the circular
economy by finding a really good use for
those
single-use plastic bags but the road
network also lasts longer the roads um
last a couple of years longer than they
would otherwise so you know really good
effort on that and it's just an example
of what we can do with a small way and
i'm sure there'll be other opportunities
as well as we move forward
thank you mayor i'd also like to
congratulate council officers
for putting together such a
comprehensive community engagement
program i think
the this is the design of this
opportunity is amazing and i know that
it was
designed
or developed i should say in response to
our community vision
which was clear in its aspirations for
the environment and for climate action
we know that waste is an increasing
problem for donington as our population
grows so does our waste
how we manage waste will be critical in
protecting our environment and
responding to the changing climate
seeing waste as a resource will underpin
how successful we are in hopefully
establishing our own local circular
economy
i'm happy to endorse this waste strategy
to go out for public exhibition and
engagement and
there is a lot of confusion out there uh
councillor uh griffin is correct um and
i think
the state government have a lot to play
in that and hence why i think
we have been
led by the state government to implement
a
waste strategy
but we do know that
people are
engaged and connected to how we manage
waste um and we also know that this is
the first step in uh
educating people on a new strategy and
hopefully we can take them on that
educational journey all the way through
to the implementation of
thank you
any other comments in this item
great castle morgan
yeah i think um
just to reflect uh on the comments that
many people have
spoken here on this is that you know
there's so much potential here and as
councillor griffin put it you know uh
waste not one night and
it's it's an incredibly um important
sort of maxim to use when living life
and i think um
you know
this is where we can learn from the past
actually in terms of in terms of you
know whether it's got modern approach or
not but that whole principle
um is is very important i think we've
gone through lockdown and we've seen a
lot more people at home and a lot more
issues with waste and a lot more you
know suddenly people at home and and the
waste is around them in a way and that
also has really put people interested
then because you suddenly realize
there is always rocketship there's all
this um
you know uh
shipping you know getting things shipped
to you you've got a whole bunch of
materials getting disposed as well and
more and more people in our community
are becoming really conscious of this
problem and
it is something where if we get it right
locally the benefits um as the report
notes we could be saving hundreds of
thousands of dollars a year in cost to
the community as well and so that's just
another reason to take this approach and
get the feedback from the community get
it right for something that people have
concerns about definitely want to hear
about it and be able to fix it um it's
why we don't just pass things and they
do go out for draft and community
feedback
and just commend it to everybody fancy
counselor morgan will proceed to the
vote all those in favor please raise
your hands
carry another sleep
thank you councillors we move to item
8.9 plastic free policy is there a move
for this item
basically
basically i'll just um once again take
this as reg um as a document it's
basically just
adopting a plastic free policy to
eliminate single-use plastics in
council operations and services and our
events so it's not about saying we're
getting rid of single-use plastics in
the community that's a separate issue it
is about what we do as council
um there have been um you know a policy
from the victorian government single-use
plastic policy coming in 2023 as well
this aligns us with that policy
uh what i wanted to do was comment
though on one of the things that really
stood out to me is an excellent part of
this policy and really important because
in the past when uh single use fans on
serious plastic have come in they've
often
not been wealthful through all the
implications of this and and
they've often not had appropriate
exemptions
and in this case the thought of having
these presentations in here for people
with accessibility needs for instance
that's been something that people with
disabilities have raised constantly when
this has come up because there are some
people who have medical needs where they
might need single use scores for
instance and
you know metal ones other ones don't
always work if they rare cases but it's
really important we don't exclude people
so i just thought this was really
excellent that the thought had gone in
and had clearly covered those exemptions
um
and it's referenced what's happening at
federal and state
and it's not
it's not just assuming that one size
fits all and so it's got the flexibility
in there that if we need to we certain
circumstances still have some as an
exception we can still have those uh
plastic materials available if we need
to truly for a valid exception but
otherwise we're also
going to have a huge impact on the
environment and on reducing race by
getting rid of single-use plastics as a
council
and
this is going to in the long run uh
bring a lot of benefits and efficiencies
to council operations it will be better
for the environment and it's also really
consistent with what
uh the feedback we're getting on the
community about reducing waste and and
if council uh wants to keep on using
single-use plastics and yet we go out
with our waste strategy saying let's not
waste materials that's a bit
contradictory so in that sense i think
that this policy really
is very complete and has
made reasonable uh adjustments or
accommodations so it has allowed us to
do that when needed but overall it's
also doing the right thing on the
environment um and um
from
making sure we're fitting in with uh
stage policy as well
thank you and cats available as the
second guy i might pretend
great and councillor griffin has a
question um yes because i have a problem
with a
a policy
or a recommendation that isn't costed
so i just wanted to ask mr quasik how
have you been satisfied and i'm not just
doing this to impress our auditors
um mr classic um how could you satisfy
my need to to know that rate payers are
not going to have to so i'm going to
cosplay as an exorbitant amount to make
this change
thank you mr classic
um the um
policy itself relates to items that
the federal state government has made a
mandate from the
next year that certain ones will be
the use of those the other items are
used at council events
so we will be working with
providers of those events to look for
alternatives to replace those items
in terms of cost
there are relatable items that are
similar to the
current items that are used
they're just recycled wines so
it's about
not using plastics that that
in some cases can't be recycled
and it's about using more sustainable
materials so
give you an exact um
for that period of time but uh the
intent is to have relatable items that
would be at certain cost
councils also work with providers to
actually help them through that process
to assist them in the purchase of
alternative materials that would replace
the uh the
used materials
and and as was mentioned earlier there
are exemptions for certain parties such
as you know lab rather information
services and things like that which are
not easily requested
thank you thank you
any comments for this item cancels
scott thank you mate
just to cancel the griffin's point a
really valid point and i think a classic
example is right in front of us that
when we first started this term of
council we had plastic bottles on this
table we've replaced them now with
reusable bottles and i think the upfront
cost
is probably significant but the longer
term costs
in 2021 the australian government
released the national plastics plan
which sets out key actions
that the government will take to tackle
the plastics problem
also in 2021 the victorian government
released its single-use plastic policy
um which bans the sale and distribution
of cigarette plastic
there's at least 26 of 79 victorian
local councils which have adopted a
single use plastic policy or set of
guidelines
including metropolitan melbourne
councils
and now it's our turn
and
we can implement a timeline that commits
us to reducing
um and eliminating single-use classics
in our council operations and services
at council events and at council
sorry and at events on council lang then
i think that's a great step forward
any other comments counsellors
come forward
um i'll be um
i'll be brief now i just want to say
that
i don't think that this policy is
intending to
to shame anybody who does use single-use
plastic to
people who use simple use
plastic cups or plastic plates i mean
they're good people
they know they don't need to they don't
need to
lose any sleep over their use of that
material
if this was something that we were doing
in isolation i'd be inclined
to vote against it but it's simply to
the extent that it simply harmonizes us
with something that is going to that the
state government is going to enforce
upon us anyway um i don't see that
there's any moving forward reason to
vote against it
thank you councilor thanks me well now
mr kwaswick has
made me feel comfortable about costs um
i do support this i mean i think a
plastics-free world particularly
synergies plastics is so desirable you
walk along beaches you walk along the
streets you drive along roads victorian
state government roads plastic
everywhere so if we can find something
that can be recycled and is of
comfortable cost you know totally and in
support of this
thank you
any final comments before we sum up
counsellors
council morgan do you need to sum up
well just briefly i just wanted to say
that
we've heard from all councillors here
and i think in particular it's worth
noting that as council we've said this
is not about shaming people and maybe
using serious plastics um and to make it
clear there are people in our community
who will still use them they might have
disabilities they might have any reason
and unless you know what that reason is
certainly don't go and judge people no
one should comment on that this is about
council events and council operations
itself and harmonising with what state
government's already
suggested um oh he's bringing in that
will need to do by 2023 and sort of
recommended now and it's also about
you know not wasting a finite resource
plastics are non-recyclable they are
finite resource
and
if we can actually
use reusable materials we should where
we can
great
all right we'll put it to the vote all
those in favor
that's carried unanimously thank you
councillors
um we moved to item 810 the bin
standardization and feedback program as
they're removed from this item
council and the secondary
council thank you council
thank you madam mayor
so the recommendation is that council
will look at a 12-month bin feedback
program uh trial to reduce contamination
and improve resource recovery in
stonington's curbside spins
involving the use of educational
feedback and a report come back with the
internal results of that trial feedback
um and then nope management will be all
endeavor to align the feedback program
with the standardization fin colours
which is going to happen across all
councils in victoria and
it's good timing because it is very very
confusing um so madame
the challenge that we have is that
we have we're losing close to six
hundred thousand dollars a year and to
opportunity costs of
waste that is put into the mainstream
garbage garbage that's going to landfill
so as we know we're paying exorbitant
amounts for it's going up 20
in the next financial year which is
equivalent to around 20 percent
what we're currently paying
the efforts of so many residents are
doing the right thing all you need is
one bit in your street
um that gets emptied into the recycling
um
recycling truck
that uh everyone's done the right things
one can contaminate the whole lot and it
ends up going to landfill and that is
estimated to be costing us around 450
000 a year so it's not insignificant
when you look at it in the context of
you know what you know in the context of
rate rises
and then of course we're also losing
money those those recyclables could
actually then be on sold through our
recyclable contract and we could be
getting revenue for them so um so what
this is aiming to do is to help our
residents understand
it's timely that it happens as the bin
lids are being changed over i remember
when we first brought in the recycling
and the combing living there was a lot
of confusion in the community and we're
about to see that all again with the
number of new bins i've lost it's funny
talk about a circular economy it's
circular because we're going back to how
we used to do it so there's a bit of an
irony in that but look this this is
about education it's proactive it's not
about enforcing it's about just helping
people because majority of our residents
want to do the right thing and we don't
want to spoil it for those that do um
just because somebody just hasn't done
the right thing or something in the
wrong bin so that's what this is about
achieving and not may
imperative as far as the cost to to rate
phase essentially for
big contamination and and so forth and
again that it really is about trying to
do some education to help our community
do the right thing and to cut those
extra weight costs this is again what
this program is about it's about
education and encouragement and we are
by no means the first council of leaders
we're not the most amazing innovators in
the world putting this forward it's
already been done by
casey darabin frankston manningham
mooney valley mornington moorland
portfolio monash burundara and a few
others apparently
so the feedback from offices at those
councils is that this process is the
most effective way to drive behaviour
change and that's really what we're
trying to make happen now last year i
got to go in a rubbish truck it's very
exciting and there's a camera on the
back of the truck so you can see what's
actually going into the compact a bit
and it was plainly obvious that there is
so much stuff that is going into our
general waste that should be in our fogo
bins and should be in recycling so it is
it is something that needs to happen and
i've found like i'm sure all the other
counselors around the table have that
people really want to do the right thing
and want to be educated on how to do
that and this targeted individual
feedback program is going to be the most
effective to do that and this bit
inspection as part of the program is
likely to be treated as alarmist by some
um with
all sorts of suggestions around um
whether or not the waste will be
pilfered through or if they'll be fined
or if their waste won't be taken
etcetera but that that's incorrect so
you're not going to be fined the first
stage is purely about education the next
is a quick check to see how you're going
it's not a forensic analysis of your bin
this is a flip the lid have a gander you
get a gold star great work people or
a little bit of a try hard mixer hard
next time you know that kind of thing
that's all it's about because we don't
know again that bin contamination is a
massive problem at stellington and from
a financial and environmental standpoint
it's really important that we give
initiatives like this a go especially
when they've been proven to be so
successful in other areas
but as as important as we've come from
the waste driveway strategy this isn't
the only solution in dealing with waste
more effectively there also needs to be
action taken to reduce packaging from
producers and retailers we need action
at both the state and federal level to
help reduce the amount of waste that
enters into our own homes in the first
place through excess packaging and also
how to process waste once it leaves our
streets but we all have an important
part to play and this program will help
to educate you to know how to do your
part
thank you thank you councillor healey
i'll open up for discussion
i had some questions sure sorry just
through the through the chair
thank you um through you madame
uh to mr kwasick how many bins will be
inspected
or is it proposed to be inspected
um there are approximately 800 000 views
and that's over per month over the life
of the trial period
and
some of those bins
will be a second and third
assessment
so
a thousand per week in the first few
months
um and if we are just looking at the top
twenty percent of three madam mayor
sorry um if we're just looking at the
top 20 of the rubbish how will we be
able to really gauge what's wrong with
light in the bin and how will we then
inform the rest of the community and
educate the community from that
information
it's about engaging
normally if there's contamination
there'll be a
gauge in that top um part of the
material this is not gonna take
to actually empty out the vehicle or
rummage through the rubbish it's about
getting a sense of where there's
contamination a lot
so
the idea of the second and third returns
are to assess the
uh the success of the campaign to see if
that education campaign is working
um in addition to the feedback program
there's a whole series of
education
components in this campaign so it's not
just the assessment of the place it's
also an education campaign that goes to
the wider community as part of it
thank you mr president
thank you as you can probably hear i'm
not very much in favor of policing
private bins as the best way to reduce
contamination
um to me this is putting the blame on
our residents rather than on council for
failing to educate and communicate the
importance of proper waste disposal
every resident i've discussed this issue
with has said we need clear signage on
our bins and continuous reinforcement of
the message
given the success of sweden in recycling
i actually contacted the stockholm
council to ask how have they become so
successful
and just to read part of the response uh
from swedish to english the general
public needs to know why this is
important they need to feel an emotional
need excuse the english there i think
it's in the translation the best way is
to change to create new habits the best
way to change is to create new habits
our ratepayers need to be well educated
on problems and ways not only for the
sake of our planet but also for the
current high and impending higher costs
for council
we have an opportunity to connect with
them on the list of their bins with
signage that is clear and of course when
we send rate notices
the message needs to go to all our
residents clearly and persuasively
the idea of bin inspections is to me
unacceptable and will not endear or
motivate our residents
the results in the report show
contrary to what council heli said that
of the 14 councils looked at there was
no data from eight of them
uh that have tried this and for the
others it was a combination of strong
education and positive reinforcement
that gave them positive results but it
didn't decide in that report which of
those things was more important the bin
uh invasions or the education
i think we need to be leaders in
stonington in
outstanding and successful communication
i think we've got a great opportunity
here i really think our residents will
respond to that
if they know why and where to put their
waste they want to do the right thing
they don't know how
big inspections to me are a negative and
reactive rather than a positive solution
i note the big inspections will only be
looking at the top layers which we've
discussed with mr clarzek i'm not sure
what this will teach the community but
the idea of this and photographing the
content to me is a contravention of
resident privacy
rubbish removal already costs rate
payers only above their rates
as a waste-free target is so important
i think we need to think laterally
rather than embarrassing those very
people who pay for council services
we've all endured the pandemic police
every day we deal with the thought
police and now they've been police
let's be smarter
thank you any other comments on this
item counselors
thanks
thank you
to be honest this didn't sit comfortably
for me when it was first presented
a couple of months ago and i did worry
about it overstepping our role and um
and and the the the opportunity to align
with um the bin standardisation i think
was actually really powerful because
that's our opportunity as well with the
imprints of lips
so
but since then i've sought some more
information to educate myself rather
than having an emotional response which
i think is probably what i initially had
so let's make it a bit more
evidence-based so the audits gave us
really important data to understand
contamination
we know that this costs us money we know
that it's about six hundred thousand
dollars a year we know that our
contamination rates in recycle are much
higher than the state average we know uh
fogo contamination is a little bit less
problematic but it's still higher we
also know that sending waste to landfill
is more expensive and costs a
significant amount of money so it's
about six hundred thousand dollars that
we have an opportunity to avoid and i
think it's there for incumbent
on us to consider ways to avoid these
costs and that's not to mention the cost
of the environment which i won't even go
into
we know that stonington's lagging behind
other councils in terms of our
contamination and we also know that our
community cares about this
plus we know that the approach is well
tested by other councils as an effective
way to create change now it's not a
randomized sample this has been a
research project where it's been very
very controlled so it's hard to
understand what what results in what
however having said that we've actually
done education for two years and we're
still lagging so i think that tells us
enough that we have to actually try
something over and above what we're
currently doing
and so i would hope that this will give
us a little bit more of a controlled
survey of actually what works and what
doesn't work there was a lot of news in
the media i saw today over the weekend
and today with contrasting views on this
some people are on board some rate
payers are on board and ask what
residents have to hide others are
feeling it's a little bit strange
through to outrage and that that's fine
you know we're never going to satisfy
everyone but i think it's really
important to note this is a 12-month
pilot this is not changing the way we do
it forever
it's not suggesting punitive measures as
you've
as you said counselor feeling it's about
rewarding correct behavior with a focus
on education and at the end of the trial
we'll have some really good data to
actually understand whether it's worked
or not um and we can actually see those
who are part of the trial versus those
who are not part of the trial and we can
we can very quickly measure the efficacy
of the program and determine if this is
an effective way to create change
thank you
thank you um thank you
man councillor morgan's often raised the
issue a council of surveillance cameras
on chapel street and the idea that
sometimes cctv cameras can make people
feel a little bit uncomfortable
what this looks the reason that i'm
opposing this policy
is all about the idea that people need
to feel safe and they need to feel their
privacy is being protected
i would be opposing this policy
if it didn't say
if it saved money or if it didn't save
any money i would be opposing this
policy whether it saved whether whether
it increased our recycling amount or it
didn't i'm opposing this policy because
i'm against the idea of government any
level of government opening up people's
beings and taking photographs
i've been talking to a lot of rate
payers about this
various people have different views some
people say that's council vatican i said
well i've got nothing to hide other
people say well i don't throw anything
out but um
then i i wouldn't um that i wouldn't
mind if it was going to the tip anyway
but what about people who put credit
card statements in
what about people who put medicine in
their head
what about people who put complex legal
documents in every more confidential
identity
they have
they take a risk when they put those
items in their bin
that the items may be collected or that
someone may walk past and they may
rifle through the bins and look at those
items they do take that risk
but they haven't had to worry about the
idea that the government is going to be
doing that the government is going to be
taking photographs of
that the government is going to be
keeping this data they're going to put
it on a list
and these photographs are going to end
up on a file that file is going to be
linked to your property
and then
that data could fall into somebody
else's hands we have already seen
government attacked by a cyber attack
this year we don't know where it came
from it might have come from overseas
we do know that foreign actors have been
attacking councils
um
this is not
this is creating a sense of insecurity
within our community
so it's for this reason and this reason
alone that i'm opposing this policy
i mean
there to use an extreme example
we could send police into people's
apartments and have them point guns at
people and say no put it in that bin put
it in that bin we never would it's
ridiculous we say that that fossil's
alive
so the question for this council to ask
is where do we draw the line what
infringement on a person's rights and a
person's privacy are we prepared you
know how far are we prepared to go
in terms of privacy to save a bit of
recycling or to save a bit of money
in this instance i
believe and i believe a lot of great
players also agree with me that the line
has been crossed
and for that reason um i'll be voting
against this policy
any other speakers to the some questions
the question yes catherine um yes uh for
you um
sorry i just think you've had a right
way to ask this but i think that um
i guess what i wanted to ask of is um
what privacy um
obligations does council have both in
terms of um
perhaps legal information but
particularly medical information
um as as a provider so that's the first
one thanks class to be
council's privacy policy covers the use
and storage of customer data and
personal information
um informational intelligence
and with one access and review for the
purposes of the service improvement
um any photographer's statements part of
visual checks
will be a waste only not personal
information
or any materials containing personal
information
so i guess i'm further to that um
my understanding is is that
there's potentially very strict
penalties on any organization that
breaches medical
privacy with those apply to council
yes i will
and i guess finally um
at the moment i'm aware that there are
times when
you can get a notice on your bid
already if there's a problem with it
for instance if someone goes and puts 20
kilos of brick in their beak it's not
going to get collected
and so as a question what happens when
um that happens now and how is that
handled now and have there been any
complaints
from people
who may receive some notices or seen
others receive those notices that their
privacy is being breached thank you
i'm not aware of any complaints relating
to privacy although they have been one
of those applying to things that may
have
been foreign
thanks man so look i echo a lot of what
the mover in the second has said i don't
really understand
the level of concern about this it's
been expressed at tonight's meeting i
mean it seems like it's a standard
approach adopted by a number of councils
particularly those around us and we're
the last to have done this so we're
probably behind
doing this
it's going to save us i think the report
identifies 140 k year in contamination
you know improvements and also resource
loss of up to 450 k
so there's significant savings there
we've got contamination it's a problem
and from what i've read in the report
and heard from officers this really is
an education program it's not designed
to embarrass anyone and then i i just
quickly read tonight
again over the
the towards the end of the report you've
got a number 27 any staff performing
visual checks have been required to have
valid police checks and sign
confidentiality agreements
point 29 any photographs taken as part
of visual bin checks will be of waste
only not personal information or any
materials containing personal
information
there's also reference of course to the
privacy and data protection act 2014 so
it seems like this is
tried true and tested
officers have put a lot of thought into
protecting people's privacy they're not
going to be rifling through people's
bins to find out what they're up to and
that it's it's about trying to identify
if there's things going in the wrong bin
if there's contamination and helping
educate people so they can do a better
job
and how many times have we seen bins in
our street overflowing where you're
seeing
recyclables in the bin that shouldn't be
full of recyclables overflowing and vice
versa in the recycling bin if they
flattened their cardboard and so forth
there'd be plenty of room in all the
bins they wouldn't be overflowing with
the crows and that pulling things out on
the street i think we had a couple of
emails today from residents expressing
those views
so i'm supportive it's only involving
from what i can gather that the council
bin service so it's not private bins if
you've got a private bin service it's
not you and if your lawyer's putting
your documents and that in the bin
unshredded or your account is putting
financial documents in a in a council
service bin or a public being you know
unshredded i'd be sacking them
immediately you just don't want to have
someone doing that you should be
protecting
people's data and
certainly if council was doing that i'd
be really concerned we've got privacy
and protection we have to follow and i
would have thought professionals who are
lawyers and accounts and so forth would
have to meet that and if you're a
resident please be careful because um if
you're not destroying your your personal
information or treating it appropriately
no matter what you're putting yourself
at risk we don't want to see people's
identities being stolen and all that
sort of stuff which can happen too
easily um it's more likely to happen not
through this but through another process
so
i'm endorsing this i'm supportive thank
you council scotland
thank you
councillor um healy mentioned a number
of councils that have already
implemented this i'm wondering if any of
those councils
had complaints made about bridges of
privacy against them
do you know that information
probably i've had some conversations
with m councils and that wasn't raised
with me
[Music]
strategy is education
and as a community we thrive on
knowledge and information and i think
together we can make the right decisions
if we are shown how when it comes to
managing
our views
the circular economy has an estimated
financial value in excess of a million
dollars
uh in a report commissioned by the csiro
and the kpmg estimates that a social
economy could give australia an
additional 23 billion dollars in gdp
boost
so
you know when you weigh up the benefits
in terms of
economic stimulus to getting our waste
right
as opposed to the
potential or perceived threat of
people's private information being used
against them
i think
i would prefer to see
us investing looking at ways to increase
our revenue thank you thank you
motion council morgan
for you now i'm not going to speak too
much to this but i did want to uh
think for me especially listening to
this debate what we've heard so far is
that
there's no new privacy risk from this
trial this is something that council
already does that we do sometimes
inspect bins there are problems that
will notice is on them
so it's the same thing
we also know that we need to improve
um what's happening with recycling and
that contamination of beams is a huge
issue
it's it's costing hundreds of thousands
of dollars of money per year
and it's going to actually
cause costs to go up if it isn't
addressed
and we're going to see waste charges per
ton of waste that goes to landfill or
that can't be recovered and recycled
is said to like i think from the report
it was almost going to double in the
next couple of years from the state
government but
we're going to have to charge our
community through their rates
and so it's really important that we we
find a way to manage this cost
and so that you know you know itself and
i agree with what others have said all
the other reasons the environmental
benefits education but ultimately this
is something that i thought really left
out to me is that it would be really
economically irresponsible if we didn't
try and get people to
reduce contamination in bins
we have rules on what can and can't be
recycled they're not there to be
just because someone's made them up to
be difficult they're there because of
limitations in recycling technology
the ideal situation would be if we had
technology to a point where we just put
everything recyclable to one billion a
few things that can't be recycled into
the other and we just get all sorted at
facilities but those facilities aren't
really available yet
um
and they're not really um they're
certainly not widely used and they're
often quite experimental in terms of
being able to sort
with enough accuracy all the different
things into separate streams so
unfortunately residents still have to do
the sorting i wish we did it i mean
huge amounts of bins that are coming in
is a problem to have four bits is
something we have to think about it um
yeah with the state government's changes
as well so people don't want to do this
address this problem this way but we
have to address it and this is
a very viable way to address it any
other alternative is worse
and we need to try and reduce
contamination in these bins and at the
moment
the thing is to stop from getting
contaminated in the first place that's
really the only point where you can
address this problem
and so because this has an impact on the
whole municipality
and it has an impact
on um our costs and
and our financial situation and this is
just going to get worse and worse over
the next few years
and it's not something we can control
we're not the ones setting the waste
charges the state government is and
that's in response to the global
situation i support this because
it's something we need to do and be
irresponsible economically not to do it
thank you and just before we go to the
council to sum up given there was quite
a lot of media interest in this over the
weekend um and there may be more i will
just say a couple of things so i think
we need to be really careful when we
talk about the people that live in our
community they are not just rate payers
over 40 if not 45 percent of our
community are renters um and often when
they come from one council area to
another we don't have synergy without
villages and the state government's
mandate that would be coming in in a few
years time
said will say that every business across
victoria they all need to be the same
they all need to comply and that's going
to be great so when people move in and
out of our city and into other areas of
victoria they're going to have the same
colored beans the same system the same
waste requirements but at the moment we
have 79 councils and we virtually have
79 different systems
so this is really about a whole of
community issue
it is about education that's why there's
no penalties we're not policing it's
about positive reinforcement so if
you've done your waste correctly you're
going to get a tag that says great job
as counselor healing said
if you could do better or there's
something in your bin that shouldn't be
there it should be in a different way
you'll get a tag telling me what that is
so that you can do it differently next
time
your bin will still get collected
regardless it's not going to be left on
the street and council will be touched
on the fact that currently there are
checks already and if you put
construction waste into your recycling
bin you're going to get a fluorescent
yellow sticker on your bin they're near
impossible to rip off and your bin won't
get taken it gets left there and that's
just tough life you need to find a
different way to dispose of that now
that's a lot more embarrassing and
obvious than a little white and blue tag
that might just hang on the handle that
you can very easily unclip
and so i just don't see there being this
um this pleasing issue and i don't
appreciate the fear-mongering that our
media in particular have tried to
inflict on this we're trying to teach
people how to do the right thing
a week doesn't go by or i don't hear
from someone in our community wanting to
know what stellington's doing when we're
going to have a glass bin how much of
our rubbish goes to landfill how much is
going to landfill that shouldn't be
going to landfill
never in my 10 year 10 years on council
have i heard more about waste as a
passion from our community than i have
probably in the last couple of years and
maybe the pandemic does have something
to do with that
um so i think that this is only prudent
as um councillor badagal also said we
need to try something it's not just a
contamination issue it's actually
resource loss so in your landfill being
you're allowed to put food in organics
however about forty percent of our breed
of our natural beings has fogo in it
that could be in our garden bin going
and doing
much more better things than in landfill
so that's where we're actually losing a
significant amount of great pay money
and so that's what i'd like to see
improve and i hope that after the trial
it comes back to us with some fantastic
data and hopefully seeing improvement we
see that behavior change and then that
will help inform us roll out some kind
of education program hopefully with the
assistance and financial backing of the
state government across the entire
community
council said we're back in your hands i
think you've just summoned the debate
for me
and the division has been full so we'll
cast the vote twice all those in favor
please raise your hands and all those
against
that's carried and we'll do the division
all those in favor counsellor's healey
battlegoal coast ser scott morgan and
cyrus and all those against uh
councillors lou and marcia that is
lots of divisions tonight
item 8.11 the community recovery grants
program application and assessment
process now i do know we have conflicts
of interest on this so we do need versus
claire councillor
thank you mayor yes i'm declaring the
conflict as one of the named people in
the report as part of the internal order
thank you and councillor scott executive
council
can you also declare for 8
so i work in
uh well there's a perceived conflict of
interest because there's a number of
community groups that i'm involved in
that may choose to apply for these
grants
and a13 similarly there's a number of
community groups that i'm involved in
great nature to take part in mexico so
we'll call you back in three items
okay so councillors is there a
um
thank you mayor so for people watching
if anyone is watching um this is
this is a a
motion noting um a report of an audit
which
which started out with a few questions
that i asked to the council meeting um
to do with the cobra recovery committee
and the grants that um
the coded recovery grants that were
administered under a policy that was
contributed too heavily by the recovery
committee
a result of the questions this order was
um
the ceo
um suggested that this internal audit
take place so that those questions could
anything
thoroughly answered
so
my concerns particularly related to um
to grants that were received by two
organizations like launch housing and
emerge the reason that i had concerns
with those organizations were that i
considered just i considered that there
may have been
complex undeclared conflicts or
perceived conflicts that involve members
of the code of recovery that the
members of the covenant recovery
committee perhaps may not have declared
i never in my questions made any
allegations whatsoever before
and it was never so much about fraud it
was about ensuring that we had proper
processes so that we couldn't have
thoughts
take place
so both
the audit um
did bring up a couple of um
the audit report did demonstrate a few
points which i think need to be
highlighted which are highlighted in the
offices report
firstly both launch housing and emerge
were specifically approached in personal
emails or conversations and encouraged
to apply for the grants this happened
outside of council's ordinary
advertising mass email project
now in respect of these direct
approaches the audit found that only
four organizations including launch and
emerge did receive direct approaches
council staff believed that more
organizations received direct approaches
but they couldn't find any records to
verify that other
organizations had received direct
approaches
and they speculated that these records
may have been lost due to staff turnover
also both launch and emerge were
repeatedly followed up by council
officers who encouraged them to apply
for grants
in fact in a merger's case
they didn't
realize that they needed to actually put
in the paperwork
emerge
had to be reminded by council officers
that for them to receive the grants they
actually need to put in the paperwork
in respect of the personal associations
and perceived conflict of interest
issues
then i asked councillor where there were
questions about and that i made a
submission to the audit risk committee
about the auditors effectively repeated
and adopted my assertions particularly
in the in relation to the connection of
two counselors
to um
to
the
organizations
emerge and watch and they also mentioned
the proact mechanics institute
following the report
following the controversy of the public
becoming aware that emerge received
funds
emerged refunded the amount
that they were granted to the council in
full this took place on the 7th of
october of 2021 and the council
confirmed that they have received this
repayment
disturbingly to me
counsellors to the best of my knowledge
were never informed that emerged
um repaid this money in full nor was the
general public and that ever informed
that emerge had replayed the grant money
in full
and if anybody can produce any evidence
to the contrary of that statement i do
invite them to do so because i
cannot for the life of me find any
communication to councillors about a
marriage we've had in the moment before
the other interesting thing that the
audit discovered was that both the merge
and launch were told of the closing date
for the grant applications before the
closing date was even approved by the
ceo
however other applicants for the grants
weren't told of the closing date before
the applications
also in respect of param mechanics
institute
which was an institute that had a
councillor as the vice president
they applied for a grant of 1299.84
however they were overpaid and received
a grant of 1 999
the audit doesn't say that the money was
that the excess money
was ever paid back by the parent
mechanics institute
ultimately the recommendations of the
auditors were the council needs to adopt
formal processes in place to ensure that
councillors formally declare any
potential perceived or actual conflict
of interest that they are aware of
for sure
[Music]
could i ask for an extension
is there a movement in the second year
for that moved by house assassinated by
council cars
before serving on a
on a committee that oversees any grants
policy
just briefly to finish on a personal
note
i raised these issues out of my concern
for the good governance of the city
i was hoping that
that by raising these issues we could
improve our governance
i do feel that
some of my colleagues
didn't like that i raised these
questions that questions that i asked
weren't permitted to be put to offices
and council meetings
that there have been that there's been a
um
internal arbitration that stealthy
might having
uh asked these questions as well
which found that i was at all times
respectful
persistent and active in the interest of
the city and asking these questions
i hope
that all councillors read this sort of
report in detail and learn the lessons
from the findings of the audition
thank you council luke councillor helios
the second would you like to speak yes
thank you um can i just ask some
questions yes through you first there um
can i just clarify for the record that
this audit found that no counselor had
acted inappropriately according to the
policy or grant framework
thank you yes i can confirm that thank
you and is it usual for councillors not
to be told about acquittals and grants
throughout the year
through new mayor
we would normally
advise council if we bring a report in
regards to
community grants but certainly
sometimes
sometimes community groups don't fully
um
you know spend all their funds et cetera
thank you
also the internal audit says that emerge
an organization that supports women and
children who have experienced family
violence return the grant money to
stonington however no reasons were
provided do we know what those reasons
may have been through you mayor um i
understand the emerge board determined
to return the funds to council as the
board was at the view the funds could be
used more effectively given the
deteriorating perfect situation at the
time
thank you
so again just to point out that this
order report clearly demonstrates that
no council officer or organization
stepped over any line during the grants
process and there were some minor
operational improvements that will now
be implemented across our grants
programs
the report also makes it very clear that
it's widely recognised that many
councils are likely to have connections
with the local community and including
taking roles within the local community
organizations and this is why people
often vote for us
because we have a demonstrated
understanding of the needs of the
community and the audit recognises that
you should not look
to ban organisations or that councils
are involved in when receiving grants
but instead just sensibly details how
potential conflicts can be overcome
i think basically these grants programs
are incredibly important incredibly
important ways to support our
communities in a way that identifies
local needs and provides a local support
is always important we look at
continual innovation and in ways that we
can improve our processes
it was sad to hear that imoge had
returned their money
because their program was intended to
support three programs i believe that
we're going to deliver support to 110
women and children who had experienced
family violence
and that family violence
was kind of a supporting people and
family violence was a bit of a loser in
this whole process
particularly as an issue i think when
we're looking at the how that's been
exacerbated through covert the u.n
called it the shadow pandemic and it
urged all governments to prioritise it
in their covenant response
and recent studies by monash university
into the impact of covert on family
violence have indicated significant
increases and the frequency severity and
complexity of family violence and a
significant increase in the number of
first-time family violence clients
um
so again always good to to look at
continual improvement but it's important
to note that no counsellor or
officer i would step the line through
this very extensive audit report
thank you counselor healing any further
discussion on this item councillors
councillor griffith thank you mayor
i look i do think council lou performed
a civic duty in bringing this
information to the council it has now
been resolved it's been looked at all
processes have been followed up
and the report did find that there were
several shortcomings in the
administration of the grants
the good news is that the auditor has
made a number of recommendations to
enhance the grants management practices
particularly in relation to the
management of conflict of interest
and that these recommendations have now
been implemented
in the council community grants program
and the quick response grants so i think
there is a good outcome from this it has
been a quite a stressful process for
both a number of councillors and for
council lou but i think this is for the
betterment of good governance in the
city
and i think that the ceo in having this
internal audit the right thing has been
done so hopefully we can move on and
ensure that we don't have these issues
in the future
thank you and for the discussion on this
item councils
all right councillor
[Music]
um yes thank you
look i think it's
this is a very
um difficult issue for this council to
face
and this council needs to try and face
it without any biases
i think we've already begun
um
with what we've with um the comments
from the council healing to see
councillors attempt to put some spin on
the findings of this but this is awarded
is nothing for the cap it's not actually
anything for the council to be proud of
this audit showed that we
didn't have appropriate conflict and
interest policies in place
and
that the organizations which gave rise
to the conflicts of interest had certain
irregularities within the grants process
such as
being directly approached as opposed to
being the subject of mass advertising
such as being repeatedly contacted such
as very disturbingly believing that they
didn't need to put in paperwork to get
the money
such as being overpaid significant
amounts
such as
when the grant information became public
deciding that they needed to repay the
money to council
supposedly because other organizations
can better spend the money on code of
recovery
um somewhat contradict
somewhat
contradictorily if that's a word that
counselor healey he talks about um
talks about how good the program would
have been and what an amazing service it
would
have
would have provided
just because
an organisation is a not-for-profit
organization doesn't give it any special
status the rules and rules surrounding
proprietary apply evenly i hope that as
a council we learn from this difficult
process
and that the situation that gave rise to
this process never repeats itself
all those in favor please raise your
hands
that is carried unanimously thank you
councillors we will bring our council
bag all back in please
while we move our papers to 8.12
community grants program
is there a movement for this
recommendation counsellors
thank you chancellor
a second up
thank you council council would you like
to speak just brief i'll take the report
as read and i wasn't expecting to to
speak on this particular report but look
it endorses the community grants policy
2022-23
notes the community grants program will
open on the 26th of april 2022 and close
on the 23rd of may 2022 so
all the community groups out there be on
notice
it notes community grant program
partnership grants are in the second
year of a three-year funding cycle
and convenes the community grants
working group to review applications
draft recommendations for council
considerations so it'll come back here
for a final decision
and it opens quick grants response
grants on 25th of july 2022 until funds
are exhausted and then the report really
goes on to outline um that the different
categories and so forth and we've got
we've got um three main categories of
the community grants program
community capacity building which is up
to fifteen thousand dollar grants
partnership grants which are triangle
grants up to fifty thousand dollars and
quick response grants we can get
planning up to one thousand dollars so
they're the small ones that um
are the quick grants
and look i don't think there's much more
to say except that it's it's really
important for our local community that
we um
we support our local groups in this way
um one of the key
beneficiaries of these grants of the
ethnic meals programs is so important to
older residents in our city whether it
be the greek or the italian seniors and
so forth they get together um have a
meal be able to socialize speak in the
language which they were born
uh speaking and be able to connect and
that connection is is just so important
particularly now that we've got cover
behind us
the community's been here so hard during
the last two years or so where people
just haven't been able to get together
maintain those relationships maintain
those support groups and these grants
will help um to some extent in doing
that so i absolutely commend this thank
you councillor coast council would you
like to see it
uh council of course has said most of it
um
the other thing i would add is that
these grants really important for
not-for-profits to continue to survive
and have different funding streams
because not-for-profits rely on multiple
funding streams in order to provide
their service but it's also really
important for council because a lot of
these community providers are out there
doing things the council just doesn't
have the resources or is not the most
appropriate person to be delivering it
so really excited to see this within the
draft budget
noting that there'll be various
different streams that groups can apply
for
any further comment on this item council
christmas just quickly mayor it's
important to note that these
considerations come back to council for
final
acceptance and also just reiterating
that the program has been adjusted to
reflect learnings from the 21 22 program
i think that's very important to keep in
mind
thank you any final comments on this
wonderful council coast
healey and the um guard
thanks councilman
thank you so um essentially this motion
is just to endorse the quick response
grants funding recommendation and note
that a quick response grants will remain
open until the funds are fully expended
um the two applications for quick
response grants during the 21 22
community grants um
oh and so in this round
520 is being recommended for funding of
a program by melbourne fight back
against parkinson's incorporated and a
request by melbourne uh high boys uh
oldboys hockey club to update their
storage shed is not being recommended
for funding
great nothing to add
thank you councillors we will bring
councillor scott back into the chamber
[Applause]
i saw the next
time
welcome back councillor scott we are
moving to item 8.14 the city of
swellington media policy cannot be seek
to move for that policy council
thank you
um
this policy uh it's been ten years uh
last time we have data it was ten years
ago so it's quite overdue and um i think
back to
our media ten years ago we certainly
didn't have the likes of um twitter um
facebook and and all the other social
media platforms that um you know just
pervasive um today to this day
so
um what this policy does is really about
just responding to our contemporary
media landscape as i said and our
operations were appropriately it has
been benchmarked with other councils um
and what
the key the key points around it is that
it doesn't prevent an individual's right
to speech
and councils may express their own
personal views
rather policy sets clear expectations
for counsellors in their role and their
contribution to protect and
enhance strangers reputation
and the policies mold on courtesy and
respect in accordance with council's
adopted real mutual respect charter
the other points madam mayor is that um
that um it's expected that any
councillors will firstly the mayor and
the ceo uh the primary spokespeople
mayor on um council position matters
operational matters obviously to the ceo
um and your either of you are notified
as soon as practicable should a
counsellor
wish to express a personal view of which
they must be clear
and there is some wordage that goes
around that that it is their personal
view and not the view of um council
because we don't want to
mislead the public and foster everyone
has their own views um it's important
that it's clear where they're coming
from and there's a requirement to ensure
that all public comments are factually
correct non-defamatory and
evidence-based
and that there is no disclosure of any
confidential privileged or private
information
other points are it's not appropriate
that we publicly criticize council staff
and we make every effort not to damage
or harm council's reputations
so anime that's the the highlight of it
i will respond to matters that are
raised during the debate
and so i'll um
stop at this point thanks councillor sir
the amendment is to amend clause 9 of
the policy
us a page itself oh
page four of the policy
because there's a lot of there's a lot
of numbers in it so it's is it part nine
under authorized spokesperson yes
um and where it says counselors may
express their personal views
to end clause 9 from that point so
everything after after that within
clause 9 right down to not publicly
criticized council staff and make every
effort not to damage your heart
council's reputation
so your amendment is to remove
everything except for the first sentence
in point nine correct
okay is there a second for that
amendment council agreement council who
would you like to speak to the american
yes and i i would thank you madame i
hope
that those opposing the amendment um
have the courage to speak against rather
than just simply vote against
we are all sitting here not as
ambassadors of the council
it is your role madam mayor and it is
the role of the ceo
to defend and protect the council's
reputation
that is not our role
as councillors our role is to represent
the constituents who voted for us
by moving a motion a policy
that places restrictions
on a counsellor from criticizing the
council
of policies of the council
this council
is attempting to interrupt the
democratic process
i'd like to read a text message that i
received i can find it quickly and quite
lot
from a constituent
about this issue
which i think makes all of the necessary
points that all he made so i'll just
read it out
this policy
disadvantages incumbent councillors in
an election period
an incumbent councillor will be bound by
the policy during the election period
whereas a prospective candidate is only
bound by the local government act
to disadvantage a group of people like
this violates the notion of a free and
fair election and probably raises equal
opportunity issues also
so
what that means in plain english
is that if a
candidate running for office wants to
criticize the council
and a councillor has the same view as
the candidate
the candidate is allowed to express
their view critical of the council
but the councillor is not
secondly
this undermines
the political interests of every
resident and ratepayer
the freedom of political speech implied
in the constitution is predicated on the
idea that voters need robust information
about public office to inform their
decisions at election time
yes freedom of speech isn't a positive
right
but the point is persuasive
given that one of the stated objectives
of the local government act is to uphold
democratic transparency and
accountability
how can the voters know what we think
if we're not allowed to say what we
think
thirdly
the policy is imprecisely worded
it's not clear whether the references to
consistency with council
with the council position would extend
to an obvious expression of opinion
also how is political interest defined
if the intention is to ban counsellors
from speaking to the media absolutely
then the policy should just say that and
lastly there's no whistleblower
provision for a disclosure that is
deemed a legitimate matter of public
interest
and in this very council meeting we've
been discussing the disclosure which was
alleged in that matter of public
interest which resulted in an order
in our council as well we had public
discussion of the number of issues
australia day and how it should be
celebrated
pronouns and where the staff who use
pronouns and email signatures are doing
it to express a political opinion
rubbish means and whether we should
whether the appropriate way to tackle
the recycling issue is to have council
officers come in and looking people's
beings
or not
and this very policy itself
which which um
attempts to limit the freedom of speech
of counsellors
now my fellow councillors who i've
discussed this week have said i've said
um to me i'm overreacting
that this this policy
will not limit
anything
whatsoever it will not stop
you from doing any will not stop me from
doing anything i've done today in terms
of
media
radio interviews television interviews
but everything i've done today would be
allowed under this policy that's what my
fellow counselors said well that's their
opinion
but we also live we also reside in it in
a council
where
other councillors i think will attempt
to use this policy
to weaponize this policy to attack the
political speech of their fellow
councillors
they will say a councillor isn't
following this policy by not following
his policy the council is not acting
respectfully
because the council is not acting
respectfully they're breaching the
standards of conduct because they're
breaching the standard of conduct they
all be suspended from the council
there is a saying which a old u.s
supreme court judge
made famous which is that sunlight dies
so that sunlight is the best
disinfectant and democracy dies in
darkness it's ironic that as a council
we said people have nothing to fear from
council officers going through their
rubbish but we have everything to fear
from councillors criticizing council
officers
oh okay
thank you
uh council britain is the secretary of
the amendment
thank you mayor um did councillor all
you want to ask i just had a question
sorry
i'm supporting this amendment because i
i can support a media policy that simply
says the mayor is the official
spokesperson for the council and all
councillors are free to speak to the
media and on social media with the
proviso they make it clear they're
speaking as individual counselors
i would wholeheartedly support that in
line with what councilwoman has put
forward i cannot accept the policy as
it's written out because i cannot accept
that all media statements will respect
any decisions made by council for
example that all media statements will
be entirely consistent with any adopted
or established council positions
we as councillors have a right to speak
up particularly if we disagree with
council decisions that's why we're
elected
the policy will not
the policy as put up as a recommendation
will not protect and enhance the
reputation of council
only smart decisions transparency
accountability great customer service
and value for money will enhance the
reputation of council
conversely bad decisions will impact on
the reputation of council as far as i'm
concerned there can never be enough
transparency and accountability
i did not join council to silence other
councillors or allow myself in any way
to be silenced free speech in a free
media are the cornerstones of democracy
and democracy is sometimes uncomfortable
but lack of transparency and curbing
free speech have far worse consequences
any attempts as councillor said to gay
councillors gags the community who
elected them
what would the community say about any
attempts to silence or curb their
elected representatives
we don't know
because they haven't been consulted they
haven't been consulted on a key issue
of free speech
this recommendation will bring the
council into the same disrepute as other
councillors councils which have tried to
curb free speech
open debate and exchange of ideas should
always be encouraged every councillor
has the right to express their views to
the public through all media making it
clear these are their personal views i
cannot support the recommendation but i
support counsellor's amendment
thank you i'll open it up for
discussions
uh morgan you had a question yeah yeah i
guess i've
got at least one question possibly two
seconds
um the um section of the proposed media
policy that um council was amended
um is that new
for this policy or is it taken from the
earlier policy or other policies of
stonington and being already in place
i'll ask
mr ross
[Music]
um there's probably some questions i'll
ask under the main section um i'll just
stand instead yeah okay any speakers to
the amendment
um so look i've listened to what
counselors said and
i will be
supporting the office of recommendation
and the reason i'll be supporting it is
that i actually think it strengthens the
democratic process i don't think it
weakens it respectfully that's that's my
view
i think
that it would be weak in the democratic
process if we were to go out in the
media and say things that are factually
incorrect were defamatory and were not
evidence-based and you can see you know
one of the dot points says that you know
you should be ensuring all public
comments are factually correct
non-defamatory and evidence-based
councillor wants to take that out i
don't understand why you do that if
you're a counsellor i thought it was
established practice as opposed to being
a mayor or a ceo or in some cases a
deputy mayor clearly expressed that the
views um may does not represent the
whole council in doing so clearly state
that to the words of the effect that i'm
not representing or speaking on behalf
of the city of stonington i'm here on my
own behalf and i've certainly done that
in the past i remember having a blue
with councillors here on the howard hawk
dive tower but i was very clear i was
speaking as a counsellor my position was
different
to the mayors and the ceos at the time
but i did it respectfully as well but i
did express a contrary view and that's
why i don't think this is trying to
silence anyone it's saying that if
you're going to express a different view
do it respectfully do it factually do it
in a balanced way as well debate can
still be robust or commentary can still
be robust but it needs to be respectful
putting things out in the media that are
dishonest untrue misleading unbalanced
tricky so they get people to think a
reality that's not not necessarily the
right one but to support a political
view
that undermines democracy that
undermines the council that undermines
everything we're doing so
i think it's it's really sensible this
and i respectfully disagree with with
council lou on that i know you wanted to
hear from each council i hope that
expresses to you my sincere view on this
and look counselor if it doesn't work
you know we counsellors can can change
things policies aren't set in stone i
think this is a considered serious
approach from from council offices i
think it's benchmarked against other
councils it reflects best practice it
reflects
what we should be doing and so i'm not
going to be supporting you on this
occasion absolutely thank you and
um
yeah so
the local government act states that in
performing the role of council a council
must act in accordance with the
standards of conduct and comply with
council procedures for good governance
the standards of con conduct are defined
in schedule one of the local government
regulations
and state that a council must not
discredit or mislead
as part of that it states that one and
performing the role of counselor counsel
must ensure that their behaviour does
not bring discredit upon the council and
two in performing the role of council a
council must not deliberately mislead
the council or the public about any
matter related to the performance of
their duties so i'm really concerned
that the parts you want to take out are
kind of the parts that are in the local
government act so if you've got issues
with them
then i think it's about talking about
the local government act but this is
what we've got with us so in both the
standards of conduct and the media
policy itself is nothing that is
intended to limit
um restrict or distract from robust
public debate in a democracy and the
policy explicitly says that you can
express your personal views
therefore when i hear of councils
reacting so negatively to proposal with
media policy and in particular to
elements that mirror the standards of
conduct that in the local government act
i'm quite confused
um
so counselors feel that being told to be
factually correct non-defamatory
evidence-based and are told not to
disclose confidential private
information
impedes too much on their right to
freedom of expression i'm really
concerned because i feel like the good
people of turakuyong and south yarra
don't appreciate being lied to or misled
and this policy is not about muslim it's
about transparency it's about truth
telling therefore i don't find the
officers recommendation of this media
policy to be extreme or restrictive to
those who truly have good community
intent and i fully endorse officers
recommendation thank you councilman any
other speakers to the amendment council
morgan um just briefly on because
council alone did say that you know
who's interested in what people may have
postings i wanted to say that um i fully
support what uh councilman hilly and uh
council press have said on this matter
and that's why i'm voting against it um
the other issue is i think that it's
actually really good to have the media
policy spell out expectations
that they may come from local government
act who may be referred to under the
regulations
but this is a go-to document
it's it's meant to be used and referred
to and so it's much easier to have this
in plain language
on what the expectations are so that the
counsellor does want to go out to the
media which they can absolutely do
this is right there as a reminder but
yeah don't say something to family tree
do check your facts you know do make it
clear that you're not the mayor and so
you're not speaking on behalf of council
but you're putting your views as an
elected representative forward that's
really reasonable having it all in one
place means that if someone for whatever
reason doesn't do it
then you know it's not you know throwing
it from later on that here it was it was
in this uh policy document or in this
bit of legislation that maybe you just
didn't have in front of you and you
forgot to check it's right here and so
we can get it right it's far better to
to be able to get it right initially
than have to
sort of uh
you know deal with any fallout if you do
get it badly wrong and we're talking
about things like disclosing
confidential private information like to
the media you know uh
things like
defamation and being able to have a
policy here that also says that you know
you can check in and this is who you
check in with
so you know you won't
get hit with these sorts of issues
potentially if you actually follow it
because
then someone could say that that's
probably that's not actually correct and
you can change what you're going to say
and still make your point in a different
way so i feel that it's about
uh making it really clear for
counsellors if they do go out and speak
to the media this is how you can do it
and still have your freedom of
speech and be able to represent your
community and express your political
views
but in a way that's not going to
actually hit
state legislation restricting uh
councillors
or other things like defamation
thank you casper logan any other
speakers to the amendment council
i'll talk further in substantive motion
but just responding to the
call for being brave enough to speak out
um and really responding to some points
that were made in an election campaign
an incumbent versus a new candidate i
can't see any
any difference if you disagree with
council's policy and you express your
own personal views it doesn't matter
whether you're incumbent or whether
you're a new candidate you still
disagree with the decision and you are
entitled to do that you just are saying
that it doesn't it's your views it's
your personal beliefs it's not those of
council
you said we can't say what we think the
third bullet says that you may clearly
express your views but please say it
doesn't represent the whole council so
you can still say what you think um
this is an intention to ban from
speaking well i think that's been
covered by plenty of other people i
don't need to go through that one and
there is an opportunity to disagree you
came up with some examples earlier
earlier on in the year you can still
disagree with them in the chamber you
actually disagree with them you can then
take why you disagreed with them out
into the media should you feel the need
to do so
you can do so without actually putting
down and belittling other
people thank you council bargain we need
to speak also
thank the men there i will be voting
against the amendment um i just want to
make the point i agree with everyone
spoken before me
and not to repeat that but um very
importantly not publicly criticized
council staff
so first and foremost
our council staff are not political
they're here to do a job
and for them to do a job and be
criticized in the media it's completely
inappropriate not to mention a breach of
occupational health and safety and we
know the laws are about to get beefed up
even more so i mean to take that out
would just be totally negligent to the
very people that serve our community and
all the requests that we put on them i
mean we don't see the boards of asx top
100 or 200 companies criticizing the
staff that work for them you know
they're just as just as um
committed to achieving outcomes as we
are and it's completely inappropriate um
so and not only that officers don't have
the right to respond i mean at least in
a political forum we've heard about you
you're not allowed to say what you think
yes you are you're more than
more than um we were 10 years ago able
to say what you think you do it in the
chamber people watch the meetings if
they miss it they can play the meeting
back if they really want to watch they
can watch it again on repeat if they've
got you know nothing else to do you can
get on social media you can get on
twitter you can have your own mail
groups that some councils do to express
their views publicly some councils have
done letterbox drops that they're funded
themselves there's so many opportunities
to go out there and say what you think
so to say that westside that you're not
allowed to say what you think is just a
fallacy um it's completely incorrect um
and all of the bullet points and we'll
talk about it when we get to the
substantive motion um should the
amendment be lost
but most importantly in there is that we
do not criticize our staff
any other speech to the motion scott
well i was going to talk about that
sorry the point that uh cancellation is
pretty much criticized
excuse me
um thank you mayor so i was going to
specifically
identify that one point that um
the not publicly criticized council
staff and i really don't understand why
you would want to remove that from the
media policy
but as i say councillor says pretty much
mentioned everything that i wanted to
say with regard to that particular point
and i do agree with all the other
councillors here and i will not be
supporting this amendment
thank you councillor scott as the final
speaker and given um
names as a principal spokesperson i'll
very briefly mention that um i
appreciate where the council law is
coming from and we have had some robust
discussions about this already
um i don't want to touch on every single
point that's in the proposed amendment
to remove
um but i will say that you know it is
handy for me to know what media has been
done by councillors or is about to
happen that way if i am contacted i've
at least got some context i know what's
already happened
um there's zero attempt at all for
officers to try and kill a story and mr
ross is here to confirm that if anyone
needs to hear it
it's just about us knowing it's
transparent it's really useful i don't
want to go and speak to a journalist and
you know talk about something that the
counselor that already spoke to the
journalist went on a completely
different
in a different you know area that i also
could have spoken on had i known what
was really happening so it's just about
being open transparent and helpful to um
us and the ceo
um factually correct non-defamatory and
evidence-based
there's really i don't think we can
argue that um not publicly criticized
council staff i just wanted to
latch on to what councillor healey said
it's actually in the code of conduct we
signed when we got elected and it's
probably been in every code of conduct
version that i've seen in nearly 10
years on council so under 5.8 council of
relationships with council staff it says
councillors must and there's a whole
bunch of dot points and it goes respect
the role of council officers and staff
and treat them in a way that engenders
mutual respect at all times acknowledge
the professional obligation officers
have to give advice based on their
knowledge and experience act with
courtesy towards council staff
refrain from publicly criticizing
council officers in a way that casts
assertions on their professional
competency or credibility
so it's it's plain and clear it's not
reinventing the wheel it's really just
taking what's already there and what can
already be enforced against us and
putting it into a medium policy so that
it's in the context of when we are
speaking to the media so i don't see any
harm leaving it in i don't think it
stops anyone's right to speak to to the
media however we do need to protect the
health and safety including the
psychological safety of our offices and
i don't think we'd be doing that if we
were allowed to name them and shame them
in the public
council we're back with you to sum up
um thank you madam mayor look i just
want to comment quickly on something
that councillor healey said
and it's been taken up by um various
different councils there's no point
doubling up in a policy there's no point
having policies that say multiple things
in different places we have the code of
conduct
we have the standards of conduct we have
the local government act
nothing that we can do can legislate
here to permit a breach of those
documents so to suggest
that by removing
anything here that i would be removed i
would be proposing removing anything in
those documents
um
that's missing the point
what i'm trying to do is ensure that the
community knows that councillors are
speaking freely
that we call a spade a spade and a
shovel a shovel that they can rely on us
when they hear from us to hear our
opinion
we're all going to have different
opinions we're all going to con we're
all going to have different realities
different versions of the truth
different takes on arguments just
because another counselor doesn't like
what i say or the way that i say it
doesn't mean that they have that they're
entitled to prevent me from saying that
um
there are some people watching this in
the back because i have gotten a few
texts from the constituent
and they said well councilman
um
there are a lot of moral guardians on
this council they say we say so in our
email signatures
but i
turned out today
what we're doing is limiting free speech
we're being immoral and i'd like to end
by quoting c.s lewis
the greatest evil is not done in those
sordid dens of evil that dickens love to
paint but is conceived and ordered moved
second carry and a minute
in clear carpeted
warm well-liked offices by quiet men
and women
with light with white collars and cut
fingernails and smooth shaped cheeks
we do not need to raise their voices
we'll proceed to the vote so we're just
talking about the amendment at this
stage which is to remove everything in
point nine except the first sentence
division the division has been called so
all those in favor of the amendment
please raise your hands councillor lou
and councillor griffin
all
all those against the amendment
sorry that's right so the amendment is
lost we'll do it again for the division
so all those in favor council lou and
councillor griffin all those against
councillors healey badagul coast ser
scott morgan and clasars so the
amendment is defeated we go back to the
substantive we already heard from
councillor council babel i believe
reserved her right so we will proceed
with the debate um just in the interest
of time i would like to ask we don't
repeat anything that was already said
during the amendment um and we move
forward so who would like to speak to a
substantial question
um yes um
so um i wanted to ask
is this media policy
identical to policies of other councils
or is it different and developed
independently of those
um
um this point that contact the mayor and
or the chief executive as soon as
practicable
what does that mean in terms of time
like sometimes there's no time when the
counselor could be before
you've spoken to the media could be
after
as soon as he came
as
just take a common sense approach to it
as most counselors already do
any other questions or comments to the
substantive motion
counselor morgan
yes i'd just like to briefly comment on
why i'm supporting this policy
it is a policy that is
very common it's an update of an
existing policy
that we already have
in no way
is it trying to actually ban
counselors from speaking
it's really worth remembering that this
policy applies to both counsellors and
council staff
and
and so it's it's a very useful and
important document from that perspective
because obviously
uh knowing who
the authorized council spokespeople are
and having a process where you go and
contact
people if you're contacted by a
journalist
uh rather than um
perhaps
just commenting yourself will make it
really clear for everyone who may need
to access this media policy not just
counsellors
but council offices it's a routine thing
to have such a policy
um the items
that are referring to councillors as
others have said
are already in other acts and other
requirements however the community as we
can see from some of the coverage of
this
have only read the media policy they've
not gone and read these other apps to
understand what's required um
and so having this spelt out
is really important for transparency and
how we operate often people might wonder
how can that person say these things
when they see stories in the media where
does that person get their information
from
so when you're in an elective position
like a council you are representing
not the people who voted for you are
only speaking for them you're here to
represent the whole municipalities in
the local government act and as such
we're all in a leadership role here and
there's an expectation on us that we are
um calling factor we are actually
factually correct now people can make
mistakes and errors of fact and that's
i'm you know not intended and that can
happen in the media but it's not just
about whether people use different
language when we're uh talking about
things it's not just about calling a
spade a shovel
it's more about if you call a spade
uh a tesla car
no i mean that's what we're talking
about don't be misleading don't be
incorrect and and so it's not
unreasonable but the thing is you can
still go out and do this
it's just not according to this policy
right so we're saying to counselors
don't do you shouldn't do these things
when you're speaking to the media but
it's not um
it's not actually saying
that you're going to be stopped from
talking to the media it's a it's a
guideline it's about how to handle these
interactions in a way that might protect
counselors personally if i was going to
go and do media i'd really want to know
um if i was going to say something that
was really factually incorrect that
might get me into trouble because it's
in the media in particular and so yeah
if i just pull up a council officer to
say or you know like fat check something
that's useful
um what this does though is rather than
having
an officer be responsible for this
there's a clear process where now i know
i need to go depending on what it is but
i go to the mayor
and give her a heads up and i'm going to
be speaking of this and she could tell
me
that thing that you've got to say is
actually not correct
uh so just a brief extension here
so an additional millionaire
is there
for the additional minute council and
all those in favor of the extension
that's carried thank you so for instance
if i wanted to make a claim that i
thought was true but then i just quickly
text or call them there and say hey you
know the herald song called me about dog
babies this actually happened by the way
and i didn't
send it to vermeer i sent it to
mr ross um but with this process i would
go to the mayor and if i wanted to say
something that was incorrect on that or
respond to the journalist
then um
the mayor could just let me know if i
was about to say something that would
potentially cause huge concern in the
community that was incorrect or not
factually correct so i see this as a
very reasonable
um thing to do from that sense it's
really easy just to pull or text as soon
as practicable it could be half an hour
later or even a day later if something's
happened you can't do it it could be
five minutes before you go and do
whatever interview you're doing and so
there's just it's just inaccurate to say
it's a ban finally
councils everywhere are doing this is
not about political parties um it's not
about
um
you know a particular point of view here
i have had no involvement in drafting
this at all um so i just think that you
know it's a reasonable thing to do and
we should all actually vote for it thank
you morgan i remind councillors to
remain silent while our colleagues are
speaking it's very distracting thank you
any other speakers to the substantive
motion to raise anything not raised
under the amendment
council said we're back with you to sum
up
um
look i can't be supporting this motion i
would have been able to support it with
the
amendment i think it would have been a
fair compromise um
i'm
i'm really concerned about this motion
this proposal
in the way that it does restrict
councillor's rights and
some of the other councilmen said this
isn't about political parties this is
absolutely about political parties this
is
this is a situation
right across victoria where as councils
have moved further and further to the
left
and had more and more groups elected and
start to dominate their policies
councillor lou i'll stop you there um
even no one's called a point of order
that's completely inappropriate it's
council officers that have written the
policy they're giving us their best
recommendations advice it has nothing to
do with parties completely irrelevant to
the matter before us move on from that
point please um
this sort of policy would never be
adopted by a council that hadn't moved
further to the left like a lot of other
councils have done whether or not it'd
be recommended by an officer or not i
mean officers make recommendations um
that their officers don't put up
recommendations that they don't think
councils councils are going to accept
this is really disappointing for the
people of stonington
what the people of startington are going
to get from this is more wasted rate
payers money in internal council
infighting
as councillors make complaints against
other councillors for purportedly
breaching this policy it's not going to
stop media it's not going to stop me
from going on 3aw and sky news and
talking about how the far left and the
greens are taking over victorian
councils
[Music]
parties that has nothing to do with what
is before us we are looking at adopting
the media policy that covers a lot of
different things if you raise political
parties again which is completely
irrelevant to this debate i will end
your speaking time move on from the
point the second time thank you thank
you um thank you
thank you for in a non-art in a
non-debating style helping to bring me
back onto point
um
look
this policy will not silence councillors
ultimately
every councillor around this table
thought if they had something to say
feel free to be able to say it
if that means being respectfully
critical of a position that the council
has taken a councillor should be allowed
to do it before or after a vote if that
means being respectfully critical of a
decision that officers have taken i'm
not talking about naming and shaming an
officer but being respectfully critical
of the decision made by officers
we will be we should be allowed to do it
and
won't change my actions i'll continue to
do it
i just hope
that by doing it
it doesn't result in
more
waste wasting of great players money in
council in fighting
any other speakers to be substantive um
thank you
trying not to say anything i've said
before
but in my five years on council i've
always felt very free to speak freely to
the media
because i have felt it is an obligation
on me to do so
i believe that's always been done
respectfully
i will continue to do that i was a bit
concerned when councilor morgan said
that she would go and check with the
mayor or
someone at council about what she might
say i doubt if i will do that
because i believe i was elected to speak
up for what i believe in
and uh but always with respect and
always with the proviso that it is my
opinion not the opinion of the council
as in samir's elected role to speak for
the council thank you
any other speakers from substantive uh
as a senator council battlegoal thank
you mayor
as councillors we're in really
privileged positions to make decisions
on behalf of our community however to
achieve the best results for our
community we need effective working
relationships between councillors the
ceo and staff
while we determine policy directions for
the municipal
municipality we rely on advice from the
administration
mutual respect is vital for a
professional and collaborative working
relationship between all parties in fact
positive behaviour in my opinion enables
us to serve our community better
as councillors i believe we should be
creating an environment where we can
attract and retain talented staff as
this is critical to serving the needs of
our municipality
poor behaviour and criticising staff can
seriously affect the health and
well-being of those affected as was
concerned as was some confirmed in the
pw pwc report on council behaviour
using the media to criticize staff is
not conducive to achieving positive
working relationships it's the role of
the ceo and not counsellors to be
responsible for staffing matters and
there are more appropriate mechanisms
for us to provide feedback on staff
without playing out in the media
likewise we have an opportunity to
provide direct feedback to the ceo in
fact only recently we had that
opportunity on performance
and
progress against plan this is how we
share concerns about the ceo again not
in the media where the ceo has no
opportunity to engage in debate
i'm no lawyer and uh and i'm new to
public office but i read the chart of
human rights and what i see in section
15 is that every every person has a
right to hold an opinion without
interference but it comes with
responsibilities to respect the rights
and reputations of other people
free speech when it's used
inappropriately can cause serious harm
to others and as such it needs to be
managed carefully
if a council wants to speak to the media
and share their opinion there is
absolutely nothing in this policy that
stops you from doing that it merely sets
protocols to make it clear that your
views do not represent
mine or other councillors or the council
and that you've publicly refrained
refrain from criticizing and make every
effort not to damage the reputation of
council
i'm glad to hear you've just confirmed
councillor that this media policy is not
about gagging councillors but having
respect for others because that's
exactly what it's intended to do we all
have different views we can all speak to
the media should we want to but we need
to speak about the policy and the issue
at hand and not the need to put down and
belittle other people
in the past week um
i believe it's me or one of three of us
or perhaps all three of us we've been
called left-wing fake independence
amongst other things but at least i have
the opportunity to comment publicly on
this should i choose to do so what
recourse does staff have if they're
criticized publicly they have the right
to feel safe in the workplace and if we
allow councillors to criticize staff ceo
cannot protect their safety and only
last week a monitor was brought into
another council for this exact reason
a staff member's feeling of safety far
outweighs any media grab a counsellor
finds to raise their profile thank you
councilman any final speakers councillor
scott thank you mayor i support this
proposal because it meets the
expectations of our community who don't
want to see the media used for political
points warring or being brought into the
day-to-day operations of council
activities
as councillors we've been elected to
provide a governance function over
council strategic decisions
we're here to ensure that the interests
of the community are held in the highest
regard councillors are not elected to
run to the media to sow division or
disharmony to criticize colleagues
because they disagree with them and
misrepresent their views because it's
politically expedient our role as
councillors is not to use the media to
increase our public profile nor is it
our role to take advantage of the
privileged privileged position that we
hold on council
as a latter decline for higher political
office
unfortunately however some are only
interested in their very unrealistic
political ambitions they've been elected
to council on a false pretense and have
betrayed the very people who voted for
while some councillors attempt to make
as many issues as possible a media event
i'm here to work with each councillor or
around this table to provide the best
possible outcomes for our community not
to create media hyperbole and
distraction from what really matters
residents know that and they know that
our time is best been serving their
needs for a stonington that is future
ready the people of stonington deserve
better than this
i get to speak and more importantly
listen to our community every single day
on chapel street in community meetings
attending council run community events
like i did on the weekend at the los
alamos found
events in central park or last week's
events at the council sponsored raven
mad at parent square when i'm out for a
coffee on a saturday morning i listened
to people with people because that's
what they elected me to do
let's keep political points scoring and
media mayhem out of our new party
councillors are elected to govern the
city of stonington and lead us all to be
better i encourage other councillors to
support this policy and show respect for
the mayor and the deputy mayor in
fulfilling their role as spokespeople
for our council and our community
thank you council scott any other
speakers to promotion
everyone's spoken so eloquently and
beautifully we're all saying singing
from the same book i'm not going to
repeat it all so i'll ask that you put
it to the vote all right
so
firstly all those in favor please raise
your hands all goes against the policy
that's carrick we'll do it again all
those in favor councillors healey vader
goal coast said scott morgan and class
and all those against councillors lou
and griffin the policy is carried
thank you councillors that brings us to
the end of general business and move to
either nine correspondence is getting
into
this evening
i'm typing an email from a resident
regarding wall street road and the
serious accident that took place on the
22nd of march 2022
the resident raises several valid
concerns regarding speed limits on model
tree road pedestrian traffic signals the
increase in pedestrians on model tree
road crossing opposite the north and
central
tram drivers constantly ringing their
bell
at cars who speak past when they
shouldn't be and people trying to access
the car parks and a number of other
reasons
specifically though they raised a
concern around that wall tree road
is
still
60 kilometers an hour where some of the
other
arterial roads that run parallel are all
40 kilometers an hour so a lot of cars
and trucks are now using oil tree road
too because it's faster for them um so
i've asked um mr quasi through you may
have to look into this
um that would like to take all this
correspondence okay so that's not the
position oh okay right uh counselor
griffin yeah just a quick one there it's
nice to say something positive towards
the end of a meeting um and particularly
to mr quasi for having fixed the
woodside present footpath issues so
quickly a very grateful resident thank
you
good to hear
any other correspondence to table
councillors
no fantastic i'm ten tabling petitions
and trade letters i am aware of at least
one and council scott does it relate to
the correspondence you just tabled it
does right do you want to just quickly
add anything to it i will and so
i'll read the front paragraph which
pretty much contains
the content
or the purpose of the petition but can i
say that 188 people have signed on to
this edition which is quite significant
we're the undersigned here by petition
the stonington city council to review
and pursue changes to traffic controls
in waterfront road to ensure greater
safety for drivers and pedestrians
noting that such changes have already
been implemented in the nearby arterial
roads of high street more than two wreck
roads
we have a concern that a serious
accident on the 22nd of march in which a
pedestrian attempting to board a
trampler's critical injury has
highlighted the urgent need for a review
i will excellent any other petitions to
table councillors can i just have a
movement in a second and to adopt the
petition or accept it has the same move
seconded by councillor griffin any
opposition to adopting that petition
no we'll take that as carries thank you
there are no notices of motion under
item 11 tonight so we move to item 12
reports by councillors we have two
we have a record of councillor briefing
held on the 4th of april 2022 is
and seconded by pastor healy anything to
say on that counselor
any discussion on receiving the record
counsellors just yes briefly i just um
technically i think wanted to flag i'm
just dipsticking because i hold it there
okay sure all right so just as on the
record so when i do yeah that's
something that's not a requirement but
you can do that if you like so all those
in favor of receiving the records
that's carried and one of same
item marked as 12.3 minutes of the order
and risk advisory community held on 17th
march the recommendation is to just note
those minutes um is there a movement for
that council griffin and secondary
council medical would you like to speak
to that counselor griffin no counselor
any discussion on the minutes of the ar
meeting
no we'll put it to the vote all those in
favor of noting those that is
anyone against no that's carried
wonderful councillors um item 13
questions to council officers are there
any this evening
just a quick one thank you mayor um to
mr classic mr pazak i'm starting to get
some reports about the line e-scooters
someone even left
because a number of people have
mentioned these to me
what we're doing about this and the one
that i've seen myself has been there for
about three days
um
we have an agreement with linebackers
and they have an obligation to once
reported to pick up class within four
schools within 24 hours
um each of the
scooters have gps attached to them um
with that gps they're able to work out
where the bikes are located on scooters
and um
and
they can assess whether they've been
parked in designated apartment areas if
they're causing a problem to residents
or in an area that's in no stopping zone
they'll be picked up once they're
being reported if they're not reportedly
issued they get picked up within four
days
that's in line with the recommendation
with the agreement that we have with
them
yeah that pretty much comes
thank you any other questions counselors
council scott i'm continuing the theme
of road safety i have a question through
you man from
classic the um towards zero road safety
strategy which comes to an end this year
after five years of implementation says
the council will reconfigure speed
limits and infrastructure to align the
traffic system with safe system
principles
given that the strategy is in its final
stage is can we
identify if these measures have been
implemented and successful specifically
in relation to moral treatment
we have implemented many of the
strategies within that
overarching strategy
that's going to be as you mentioned
coming to an end and we're bringing the
revised safety strategy back to council
for consideration
in relation to both
[Applause]
we meet regularly regularly with
department transport and we've
identified the issues associated
asked them to review the safety of that
interception around where years has
occurred we're also finding out more
information through victoria police so
that we can actually be better informed
about the safety issues
so we are working towards trying to
resolve the issue and given the
table in the petition
thank you
any other questions
i've got something under um general
business
uh any urgent business to raise
counsellors
no um i'm 15 urgent business so
councillor coast needs to relate to the
city all the awards and same time that
supplies always a debate so i wanted to
thank officers for getting some public
rubbish bins put in outside sy21 on
chapel street a resident raised that
issue and within about two days i think
officers had those bins put in place so
that's outstanding so thank you for that
i also wanted to acknowledge the work of
officers in liaising with yarra trams
and vic roads over the tram works on
marlin road i know it's causing a huge
volume of work for officers i don't
think the state authorities have done a
great job in communications
and residents are much more comfortable
it seems coming to us and whenever i've
had an email coming from residents i've
forwarded it on to the the transport
area and they're just being magnificent
so thank you for that i'd also like to
acknowledge officers on the work they're
doing at harold halt um swim centre the
work on the dive tower's going ahead
really well
the spa looks absolutely fantastic it's
probably going to last a hundred years
the way rick's built it when he builds
something he builds it to last
it's very impressive and just finally
i'd like to touch on those line scooters
i was the one counselor i think that
voted against council having the
agreement with those i think councillor
griffin moved it i was concerned about
it i had a report just recently that
there was someone on one of those
scooters going through the turret top h
from one of those scooters and i just
think residents are the people who use
the scooters aren't properly maybe
educated on safety what they're supposed
to be doing with them and i was worried
at the outset of another repeat of those
um those horrible yellow bikes so i
remain concerned and hopefully that that
company that lime company is going to
lift its game so let's wait and see
thank you of course any other general
business that needs to be raised
counsellors
no we have confidential business this
evening so um we will need a motion to
move into confidential so moved by
council said second goodbye counselor
scott oh yes so we have that in front of
us so anyone watching our meeting at 9
41 can see um so
the item is council business information
but being released prejudice the
council's position in commercial
negotiations incrementally released and
the ground applies because the agenda
item concerns commercial negotiations
and according to exposure of the
information will be pre-judicial to the
interested council so council said
you're happy to move that council's but
we have a second that
any discussion on moving into a
confidential business
i will put it to the vote all those in
favor moving into confidential business
that's carried so councillors will close
the meeting
you