It was reported on WIN TV news last evening (Wednesday 29 April) that WCC Administrators will be using a 5% increase on our rates to fund projects such as the refurbishment of the Crown Street Mall. [Have they heard of the global economic recession? There should be no increase to our rates at this time.]

If this report is correct, ratepayers across the City should seriously consider if we really do want to see our rates spent on renewing this ongoing WCC white elephant.

Each of our communities has far more important needs (such as neglected aging infrastructure in the shape of drains, footpaths and roads – not to mention new needs) which require urgent attention. Any increase in rates should be spent renewing these local needs first.

What we are witnessing with the present decision-making in Council by the Administrators and the General Manager is a form of out-moded and unsustainable thinking which is part of a world-view belonging to the last century. These people sacrifice our needs by directing our rates, as a form of tribute, to a concentrated commerical ”centre”.

That old way of thinking privileges an imaginary city centre at the cost of the real centre of our lives – our neighbourhoods and the community we can reach within walking distance. As they slip out of their offices in Burreli Street they imagine what they need is more life in the one place – where they are when they visit from Sydney.

But the life they imagine is fashioned to fit with their own self-image – not that of us as the people of the city of Wollongong. We have heard endlessly from them about their ambitions to revitalise the city. They have proven themselves incapable of realising that WE (who live away from the CBD) are the city – not the shopping mall in Wollongong.

The lack of elected Councillors and of effective WCC Precinct Committees means that our communities are not adequately represented when it comes to prioritising how our rates are spent.

The decision-making power now concentrated in the hands of these old fashioned bureaucrats, with their unsustainable 20th century world-views, will continue to mismanage how our rates are spent for some time to come.

With a pandemic upon us which advises against coming together in crowds – and travelling in public transport to get to remote CBDs – we urgently need to get some new thinking into our local Council. I take it they have heard of that!

WCC Media release: Tuesday, 28 April 2009

Wollongong City Council is getting back to basics with a new Management Plan that puts
a priority on providing value for money services and increasing the amount we spend on
updating roads, buildings, footpaths, parks and basic community infrastructure.

Copies of the draft Management Plan and Strategic Directions are available at Council’s
Administration Building, all branches of the Wollongong City Library, and at
www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au.

Council staff will be attending all Neighbourhood Forums during the month of May to discuss
the draft plans and to answer questions.

Submissions in writing can be sent to Council via mail to Council’s Organisational Strategy
and Improvement Division, Locked Bag 8821, Wollongong 2500; via fax of 4227 7580, or
via email to managementplanning@wollongong.nsw.gov.au

Council is also hosting nine community engagement kiosks across the city to meet with
residents to explain the Plan and collect feedback. (read more for details)

Read the rest of this entry »

WCC Media release: Tuesday, 28 April 2009

“Revitalising the heart of the city centre

Wollongong City Council’s Administrators tonight voted to revitalise the city centre
through a series of major upgrades to Crown Street Mall, Town Hall and the Civic Plaza.
As part of a $17 million project, Council will keep the Crown Street Mall closed to traffic
and revitalise the area with new paving, improved lighting, street furniture, more greenery
and continuous awnings along each side.

Sightlines and visibility will be improved in the Mall by removing the birdcage and
installing a new playground, performance space and chess set. Council will also improve
access by opening Keira Street to traffic and relocating the bus stops to Burelli Street.
In a coordinated approach to the city centre, Council will also move forward on plans to
transform Civic Plaza with more grassed areas, trees, seating along the edges, improved
lighting and limited access to cars.

Administrator Dr Col Gellatly said together with upgrades to the Wollongong Town Hall,
these improvement projects will give our city centre a much needed boost to reach its
potential as a leading regional centre.

“During community consultation late last year, residents emphasised the need to update
the Mall and reinvigorate the city centre,” Dr Gellatly said.

“Council has taken this on board and sought the advice of the NSW Government Architect
to develop plans to revitalise not just the Mall, but the Town Hall and the Civic Plaza.
These works, combined with the Inner City Parking Strategy, will all overlap to add
vibrancy to the city centre as a place of work, living and leisure,” Dr Gellatly added.

As part of a strategic approach to revitalise the city centre, Council also voted to establish
a new Wollongong Centre Improvement Fund. This includes appointing a Place Manager
and Wollongong Centre Advisory Committee.

The Place Manage will co-ordinate work around the whole of the CBD to ensure it is an
attractive place to do business and that Council delivers value for money to the
community.

The Place Manager and Committee’s role will involve seeking new funding opportunities,
coordinating the revitalisation of the Mall, supporting businesses, attracting new
businesses and establishing a five year rolling capital works program for the CBD.

From WCC “We’re calling for nominations from Aboriginal Community members for Council’s Aboriginal Reference Group. The appointment will be for 4 years and meetings will be held quarterly.

For more details, a copy of the Aboriginal Reference Group Charter, selection criteria and nomination forms can be downloaded from Council’s website at

http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/ (if you can find where, exactly, you’re doing better than me – BR)

or by contacting 4227 7253.”

Nominations close Friday, 15 May 2009

WCC has now told me:

In regards to finding the Aboriginal reference group charter please follow the links below from Councils website www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au

then click Careers @ council then click Expressions of Interest for positions then click Aboriginal Reference Group members then look to the right of the page at Related Documents – Aboriginal Reference Group Charter (which is in a PDF document) here you will also find the Code of Conduct and Nomination forms documents as well

Posted for the record, as this new Neighbourhood Forum has now met but the other content of the media release may be of interest. It seems that all areas now have Neighbourhood Forums in place. WCC Neighbourhood Forumsontact details via WCC website,
http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/contactus/neighbourhoodforums.asp

————–
WCC Media release: Thursday 9 April, 2009

Residents are invited to drop into the Unanderra Community Centre at 7pm on
Thursday 16 April to discuss safety issues in the local area at a new neighbourhood
forum.

Council’s Community Safety Officer, Radda Jordan, will listen to your safety
concerns and answer any questions that you may have regarding local safety issues.
This meeting will be the first Neighbourhood Forum meeting held in area 6 which
includes the suburbs of Unanderra, Farmborough Heights, Cordeaux Heights, Mount
Kembla and Kembla Heights.

After the formation of the area 6 Neighbourhood Forum Council will have a network
of neighbourhood forums that stretch across the entire Council area.
Council’s Public Relations Manager, Susan Wardle said establishing new
neighbourhood forums is very important for both community and Council.

“Neighbourhood forums give residents an opportunity to work in cooperation with
Council, as well as giving feedback on Council’s projects and raising issues of local
concern.”

If you would like to know more or wish to discuss local issues with your community
members then please come along.

If you can’t make it to the neighbourhood forum but would still like to have your say
on projects, plans and issues relating to the Wollongong local government area,
please contact Council’s Community Engagement Team on 4227 7096 for more
information.

Or head to Council’s website: http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au” (full link supplied by WCC did not work!)

Crown St Mall here to stay but birdcage goes
BY BRETT COX Illawarra Mercury
24/04/2009

Crown St Mall will remain closed to traffic and the contentious “birdcage” shelter removed under Wollongong City Council’s $17.8 million plan to revitalise the CBD shopping precinct.

The city’s administrators will end decades of debate – prompted by some 20 studies on the mall since it opened in 1986 – when they decide on its future on Tuesday night.

Full story:

http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/crown-st-mall-here-to-stay-but-birdcage-goes/1494907.aspx

My comment:

Minutes of Neighbourhood Forum Convenors’ Meeting with Administrators

Date 3 March 2009

Meeting Purpose The Neighbourhood Forum Convenors’ Meeting with Administrators aims at facilitating open discussion between community leaders, Council Administrators and Senior Management staff by offering a regular community consultation opportunity in an informal setting.

…

Item 5 Local Government Elections
• This is a matter for the State Government. No further action.

…

Next Meeting date: 2 June 2009

The presence of Bill Barnetson on the Wollongong Showground Trust for a long period after his time as an ALP Councillor demonstrates that this area of Illawarra life is part of the vast field of patronage of the NSW ALP. He was always a good ALP party man who obeyed his master’s voice in Sydney, if curiously deaf to the concerned voices in the local community.

With the WCC General Manager on the Wollongong Showground Trust there is the real risk of the public perception of a form of corruption every time Council is required to give approval for any event or development which is of benefit to the Trust. This is made exceptionally pronounced in the absence of elected Councillors.

Under the present undemocratic arrangements at Wollongong City Council tremendous power has been concentrated in the hands of the General Manager, working closely with the three State Government (ALP) appointed technocrats.

There will be more ‘games’ in play at the showground trust than those taking place on the field.

No junior Council officer, knowing their boss is on the Trust, will be able to objectively assess any Trust matter which comes before Council.

In the absence of our community representatives on Council – without Councillors to keep a watchful and informed eye on what is going on behind the scenes – we have a devil’s playground for many subtle forms of corruption (which include ego massaging and possibilities of future career advantages for ambitious General Managers).

In the absence of elected Councillors it cannot be ‘business as usual’ for those who remain in well-paid positions of power in Wollongong.

The Illawarra Mercury reports that the Wollongong Showground Trust has new members, who include:

“… media consultant Nick Hartgerink, Wollongong City Council general manager David Farmer and council executive officer Lynette Kofod. They join chairman Chris Christodoulou, Judith Henderson, Ian Hunt and Vicki Tiegs.”

We pay the Wollongong City Council General Manager a very large amount of money indeed to run Wollongong City Council.

It is a full time position with no time left over to attend to business (with attendant onerous duties of care) which result from membership on a Trust Board for another large enterprise.

If Mr Farmer wants to have time off for membership on other boards his salary should be reduced accordingly, and his position made part-time, so that another senior officer can perform to Wollongong City Council duties which must be attended to in the General Manager’s absence.

Ditto for any other senior Council officer. The WCC GM sets the precedent. If he can take on these extra workloads, without it interferring with his ability to preform his duties (or salary), the resulting slackness runs all the way down the line for all Council officers and workers.

At this time of crisis we cannot afford to have less than 100% performance from Council’s General Manager (or any other senior staff).

We pay them for a 100% of their time. We are short-changed when they start playing other games during working hours.

(see (Illawarra Mercury story

http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/bill-barnetson-bails-out-from-wollongong-showground-trust/1489440.aspx)

Barry O’Farrell, Leader of the Opposition, has said on ABC 97.3FM radio (17 April) that we, in the Illawarra, are being placed at a great disadvantage during the present economic collapse, by not having elected Councils to raise our interests.

In effect, our communities have been lobotomised by the NSW ALP government at exactly the moment when we most need to have a fully functioning local Council – with elected Councillors playing their key role – working to maximise our economic survival chances. Job losses here are the worst in NSW.

Wollongong and Shellharbour are now running on the administrative ‘hind brain’. Council meetings are now a very tame form of theatre indeed.

Administrators and bureaucrats on their own lack what it takes to fully activate the best community based approaches to dealing with crisis.

What we need to attract new investment to our area is signs of a vital community with a living creative life of the kind which comes from the ‘frontal lobes’ of live Councillors debating issues in real Council meetings, and doing much of the real hard work out of sight between meetings.

LOCAL ALP STATE REPS – STUNNED MULLETS

The local ALP State representatives have totally failed to press for a rapid return of elected Councillors in Wollongong. They look on, mutely, like stunned mullets as minor funding announcements are made by their latest leader (who does not know the Illawarra line from the South Coast line).

Paralysed, no doubt, by the role of their own party in corruption in WCC, they clearly have no idea of what is required in the new economic situation as we go further into the gurgler. We cannot afford that paralysis and silence from those who are paid to represent us at the State level.

If there are concerns which do require additional measures in our Councils to combat corruption, then some creative solutions of the ‘both-and’ approach are required. For example, have elected Councillors and some role for State appointed Administrators for a number of years.

But the simple fact is this – the longer we are left without Councillors who are up to speed with the needs of our communities, the harder it will be to deal with the local effects of an economic crisis which is just starting to reveal its true extent.

The State Government needs to move without further delay – immediately – to get our local Councillors back on the job by way of democratic elections a.s.a.p..It’s time for real action.