- Darebin increasingly dysfunctional: council monitor
- By Clay Lucas
- 26/06/2015 Make a Comment
- Contributed by: MrNatural ( 11 articles in 2015 )
A council chief executive on almost $400,000 a year is failing to keep councillors and staff on track.
Poor decision-making processes mean council meetings are often rescheduled and residents having to attend multiple meetings.
Thousands of dollars are being spent by councillors on mobile phone calls and Cabcharges.
Councillors attend a significant number of events and repeatedly fail to declare them on the council's gifts and hospitality register.
Welcome to Darebin Council, the subject of a new report by the inspector appointed to monitor the dysfunctional northern suburb municipality.
In his report tabled in parliament on Thursday morning, municipal monitor Peter Lewinsky found special council meetings were having to be held regularly at Darebin as a result of "poor governance practice and decision making".
And such is the acrimony that has developed between the nine Darebin councillors that Mr Lewinsky has told Local Government Minister Natalie Hutchins that there was "a significant threat to ensuring good governance at the council" and a "lack of trust between some councillors and the chief executive", Rasiah Dev.
Darebin is already under investigation by the local government inspectorate over Mr Dev's appointment, and the manner in which his annual salary of almost $400,000 was awarded earlier this year.
Ms Hutchins on Thursday requested the appointment of two special inspectors to take over from Mr Lewinsky, whose term has finished, to improve Darebin's "governance culture".
Ms Hutchins stopped short of sacking the council, instead saying that elections would be held for Darebin in October next year, along with the rest of the state's local governments.
She said the community would "ultimately hold the council to account at the next election".
The opposition said the Andrews government needed to carefully select the two special inspectors to replace Mr Lewinsky.
"There's an ugly mess in Darebin," opposition local government spokesman David Davis said in parliament on Thursday night, demanding that Labor's special minister of state Gavin Jennings reveal who would oversee affairs at the council.
"It's no use appointing mates, we need independent people who can clean up the mess," Mr Davis said.
Poor decision-making processes mean council meetings are often rescheduled and residents having to attend multiple meetings.
Thousands of dollars are being spent by councillors on mobile phone calls and Cabcharges.
Councillors attend a significant number of events and repeatedly fail to declare them on the council's gifts and hospitality register.
Welcome to Darebin Council, the subject of a new report by the inspector appointed to monitor the dysfunctional northern suburb municipality.
In his report tabled in parliament on Thursday morning, municipal monitor Peter Lewinsky found special council meetings were having to be held regularly at Darebin as a result of "poor governance practice and decision making".
And such is the acrimony that has developed between the nine Darebin councillors that Mr Lewinsky has told Local Government Minister Natalie Hutchins that there was "a significant threat to ensuring good governance at the council" and a "lack of trust between some councillors and the chief executive", Rasiah Dev.
Darebin is already under investigation by the local government inspectorate over Mr Dev's appointment, and the manner in which his annual salary of almost $400,000 was awarded earlier this year.
Ms Hutchins on Thursday requested the appointment of two special inspectors to take over from Mr Lewinsky, whose term has finished, to improve Darebin's "governance culture".
Ms Hutchins stopped short of sacking the council, instead saying that elections would be held for Darebin in October next year, along with the rest of the state's local governments.
She said the community would "ultimately hold the council to account at the next election".
The opposition said the Andrews government needed to carefully select the two special inspectors to replace Mr Lewinsky.
"There's an ugly mess in Darebin," opposition local government spokesman David Davis said in parliament on Thursday night, demanding that Labor's special minister of state Gavin Jennings reveal who would oversee affairs at the council.
"It's no use appointing mates, we need independent people who can clean up the mess," Mr Davis said.
Source: https://www.theage.com.au/victoria/darebin-increasingly-dysfunctional-council-monitor-20150625-ghx8o9.html
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