Thursday, June 30, 2011

GESAC update -basketball allocation put on hold

At Tuesday nights council meeting the following motion below was passed unaminously which basically puts everything on hold until independent legal advice is obtained.
I feel at this stage it was the best possible motion that could have been passed.

Earlier in the night a petition of 781 signaturies in support of the Mckinnon Basketball Association and its bid for weekend allocation at the the new GESAC sports and aquatic facility was presented to Council - in front of a packed gallery of several hundred families and players,

As noted in previous postings I have been advocating strongly for a better outcome for our local community clubs and will continue to do so.

Item 12.4
Crs Lipshutz/Magee
That Council;
1. Reiterates Council’s desire to maximise community use of GESAC.
2. Recognises the expressions of interest of both Warriors Basketball
Association and McKinnon Basketball Association in supporting Council’s objectives at GESAC.
3. That Council seek independent legal advice as to whether the communication between Council and Warriors Basketball Association;
(a) constitutes a legally binding agreement; and
(b) stops Council from cancelling the allocation awarded to Warriors Basketball Association at GESAC.
4. That pending receipt of the legal advice Council not execute any agreement or contract with respect to the allocation of the basketball courts at GESAC.
5. That this resolution be incorporated within the public Minutes of this meeting.
The MOTION was put and CARRIED unanimously.

blog posting 4.45pm fri 1/7

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Local Govt electoral review -

Over the past four months an electoral review of Glen Eira has taken place. These reviews are undertaken through-out Victoria on a rotating regular basis.

An information night was held in February with submisssions subsequently invited. Several electoral models/variations were proposed that revolved primarily around the number of councillors in total and per ward, the ward boundaries and the naming of the wards.

The final report not unsurprisingly supports the present arrangements with some minor changes in the Camden/Rosstown boundary. Since the last review which introduced the present system little has changed. All the reasoning behind changing the then Mackie and Jasper wards to the now Tucker and Rosstown ones and aligning the boundaries with like suburbs I feel is still very relevent and welcome this final report which can be viewed in the links section - bottom right.

Friday, June 17, 2011

GESAC - local basketball association misses out

As has been reported recently in our local papers the local Mckinnon Basketball Association has not been awarded the weekend usage rights for the new Glen Eira Sports and Aquatic centre in Bentleigh.

This decision was taken at an admin/officer delegated level not by Councillors -
However myself and other crs are certainly very concerned that the usage of a new rate-payer funded facility has been awarded to an out of municipality association - the Oakleigh Warriors


I would certainly prefer to see our local families and kids benefit from this excellent new facilty- at last Tues weeks council meeting the following motion was passed- I will certainly be working hard in the coming weeks for a better outcome for local families,

Item 10 – URGENT BUSINESS

Crs Magee/Pilling

“That Officers report to Council on the awarding of the use of GESAC basketball courts. This report should include details of requests for Expressions of Interest letters offers and acceptances copies of draft contracts, and responds to the claims contained in the letter by James Cody Treasurer of the McKinnon Basketball Association of the 1st June 2011 and should also cover the capacity of the Oakleigh Warriors to honour their commitment.

2. That the report include by way of separate appendix a copy of the proposed contractual terms to Oakleigh Warriors and Council not submit any written contract to Oakleigh Warriors until Council has considered same.


3. That this resolution be incorporated in the public minutes of this meeting, and

4. The report should include the cost of hire of like courts at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.”
AMENDMENT

Crs Hyams/Tang

In part four delete the word ‘at’ and replace with the word ‘including’.

The AMENDMENT was put and CARRIED on the casting vote of the Chairperson and on becoming the SUBSTANTIVE MOTION was again put and CARRIED unanimously.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Carnegie outdoor pool - our other swim centre


With much of the current attention focused on the opening and usage of the new Glen Eira sports and aquatic centre (GESAC) at years end it is timely to consider the present arrangements and funding for our other pool at Carnegie in Koornang Rd.

Similar to previous years $205k is allocated in this years draft budget for maintenance and repairs. In April 2010 Council passed a motion that supported the present situation - and noted that any potential refurbishment of the centre would be considered after the opening of GESAC.

There will come a 'crunch decision' time most probably early in the next council term when councillors will have to decide the future of the Carnegie Pool - The age and state of the present facilities mean a significant refurbishment is required.

My concern has always and remains that the cost ($45m) and success of GESAC will be used as a reason in future not to invest in this upgrade. This much loved and used community facilty should be upgraded as soon as reasonably possible - There are many attractive features of the pool including the space and its unique diving section - features that will compliment not compete against the new Bentleigh facility.

At present there are no funds in our ten year Strategic Resource Plan (SRP) for this upgrade - i will continue to strongly advocate on this issue.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Public Open Space in Glen Eira - new strategy needed

packer park
The last public open space strategy in Glen Eira was undertaken way back in 1998-

Much has changed since then!


An increasing population, planning scheme changes, higher density developments and the effects of climate change all have contributed to place greater pressures on our public open space. A new strategy that takes account of these and future changes is urgently needed and I raised this recently at an environment advisory committee meeting on behalf of the local Glen Eira Environment Group.

A thorough upto date strategy is essential especially in Glen Eira's case which is widely acknowledged as having the lowest amount of public open space of any metropolitan municipality-This was documented in the Victorian Evironmental Assesment committee (VEAC) report and findings in 2010.

There are many issues that a new strategy would consider including how to spend the open space contibution levy from new developments- whether this to be used to acquire new open space or simply maintain existing parks, the 1998 strategy suggested a 50/50 split that wasn't acted on.Precisely defining public open space as opposed to park infrustructure is another issue.

As we have seen in recent times on issues like the former Mckinnon bowling club site in Packer Park, Council I feel is making decisions on public open space in an ad hoc manner-and would be better served by a modern strategy that outlines present and future plans for all our open space.

Monday, June 6, 2011

update - Notice of Motion - voted down

As an update to the previous posting unfortunately my alternative motion to introduce a Notice of Motion - the ability for councillors under prescribed guidelines to have items placed on the council agenda - was lost at last nights meeting by a vote of 4/3 against with one cr abstaining and one apology.

Whist not unexpected this was still a disappointing outcome- i argued of the benefits of giving crs the full range of agenda options and against the overstated 'doom and gloom' scenerios that were countered with.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Notice of Motion in Glen Eira- proposed introduction

A Notice of Motion is where councillors in line within prescibed guidelines can have an item placed on a council meeting agenda. Glen Eira is one of a very few councils that doesn't provide for this option in their local laws.

In item 9.11 on this Monday nights council meeting there is a report on this issue- I propose to move an alternative motion that will provide for this in our local law as explained in an email sent to all councillors earlier today.

"I will be seeking support on Monday night for Glen Eira to (re)introduce a notice of motion into its local law- Proposed alternate motion 9.11- that

1. Council supports the introduction of a new local law that provides councillors with a notice of motion provision.
2. Council requests the Local Law Committee draft this new local law .


As i understand the vast majority of councils in Victoria have this option available - as of 18mths ago 76 out of 79 did with Glen Eira ,Port Phillip and Maribrynong the only ones not to. Not aware of changes since then.

The premise of the 9.11 report seems to be that we as councillors aren't capable of responsibily utilising this option-

I would disagree , all our other benchmark councils provide Crs with this procedure of introducing items onto the council agenda.I feel we should be accorded the same agenda options as the vast majority of our fellow crs and have greater faith in us as elected community representatives than the report would suggest.

A notice of motion does give more opportunity for Crs to raise issues that aren't of the 'majority' view or need 'majority' approval- in my mind a healthy and desirable feature of local govt that encourages diverse debate on a wider range of issues and goes some way to alleviate majority blocs controlling agendas -

Both Kingston and Bayside have for example clear guidelines that easily negate any of the so-called technical hurdles raised in the report.

Urgent Business has to be deemed just that - Requesting a report- turnaround is dependent on officers availablity and workload-
- As elected community representatives i feel we are responsible enough to raise any important issue in a constructive and timely way. A notice of motion encourages this and should be reintroduced back into our local law".

welcome your comments and support

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

PROUD exhibition opened at GE gallery



Last night I had the pleasure of opening the latest exhibition 'FOUND'at the Town Hall gallery. Above are examples of work by Lauren Berkowitz nd Donna Marcus respectively.

This is a very interesting exhibition by prominent Melbourne artists utilsing everyday materials to create an impressive array of exihibits.

Found

Opens 10am Thursday 2 June and continues until 5pm Sunday 26 June

Glen Eira City Council’s annual thematic exhibition Found will feature sculptures, installations and assemblages by major contemporary Australian artists Lauren Berkowitz, Louise Paramor, Donna Marcus, Dani Marti and Carl Scrase, united by their experimentation with industrial, domestic and everyday materials.

Curated by Diane Soumilas, works that address current issues relating to contemporary life and consumer culture, recycling and our relationship with the environment, history, identity and memory will be included.

From small and large scale assemblages and sculptures utilising industrial materials and suburban utensils, to dynamic installations created from synthetic and everyday materials, the selection of works will engage viewers, providing a richly layered, immersive effect.

I would encourage everyone to attend this free event over the next few weeks