From AVAAZ

Dear friends,

A massive online campaign by the Avaaz community in Brazil has just won a stunning victory against corruption.

The “clean record” law was a bold proposal that banned any politician convicted of crimes like corruption and money laundering from running for office. With nearly 25% of the Congress under investigation for corruption, most said it would never pass. But after Avaaz launched the largest online campaign in Brazilian history, helping to build a petition of over 2 million signatures, 500,000 online actions, and tens of thousands of phone calls, we won!

Avaaz members fought corrupt congressmen daily as they tried every trick in the book to kill, delay, amend, and weaken the bill, and won the day every time. The bill passed Congress, and already over 330 candidates for office face disqualification!

One Brazilian member wrote to us when the law was passed, saying:

I have never been as proud of the Brazilian people as I am today! Congratulations to all that have signed. Today I feel like an actual citizen with political power. — Silvia

Our strategy in Brazil was simple: make a solution so popular and visible that it can’t be opposed, and be so vigilant that we can’t be ignored.

This victory shows what our community can do – at a national level, in developing nations, and on the awful problem of corruption. Anywhere in the world, we can build legislative proposals to clean up corruption in government, back them up with massive citizen support, and fight legislators who try to block them.

France’s Le Monde called our “impressive and unprecedented petition” campaign a “spectacular political and moral victory for civil society.” And while this victory may be a first, we can make it the precedent for global citizen action.

Amazingly, our entire Brazil campaign was made possible by just a couple of Avaaz team members, serving over 600,000 Avaaz members in Brazil. The power of the Avaaz model is that technology can enable a tiny team to help millions of people work together on the most pressing issues. It’s one of the most powerful ways a small donation can make a difference in the world.

5.6 million of us are reading this email — if a small fraction of us donate just $3 or $5 per week, or 50 cents per day, the entire Avaaz team will be funded and we can even expand our work on corruption and a range of issues. Click below to become a Sustainer of Avaaz and help take our anti-corruption campaigning global:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/ficha_limpa_reportback/?vl

We’ve seen the heart-wrenching movies about street kids and desperate urban poverty in Brazil, and we know that across the world political corruption preys on our communities and saps human potential. In Brazil, our community has helped turn the tide and usher in a new era of transparent, accountable politics. Let’s seize the opportunity and begin to fight corruption everywhere it’s needed today.

With hope,

Ricken, Luis, Graziela, David, Ben, Maria Paz, Benjamin and the entire Avaaz Team

SOURCES:

The Economist, “Cleaning up. A campaign against corruption”:

http://www.avaaz.org/economist_ficha_limpa

The Rio Times, “Anti-Corruption Law in Effect This Year”:

http://www.avaaz.org/rio_times_ficha_limpa

The story of Brazil’s Clean Record law has yet to be told widely in English language media. Here are a few stories in other languages that capture the campaign:

Le Monde, “Operation “clean sheet” in Brazil”: (French)

http://www.avaaz.org/le_monde_ficha_limpa

Correio Braziliense, “The arrival of 2.0 activists”: (Portuguese)

http://www.avaaz.org/correio_braziliense_2_0

At the last Neighbourhood Forum i attended (NF2 July) i gained the distinct impression that the new attending Council officer was attempting to tell me how i should think, and she sought to argue the toss with me about some important matters of record and of process.

I consider this kind of attitude quite out of line. The previous Council officer had understood very well what her role was. The role of the attending Council officer is to act as a liaison between our community and Council, ensuring a timely flow of information.

They are not active participants in community discussion (see the WCC media release below which stresses that NFs are independent from Council).

The new Council officer also seemed not to understand that when we request information from Council her job is simply to make an accurate record of it and process it. Doing this is not at her discretion.

The WCC Neighbourhood Charter says:

Format of meetings

Each Neighbourhood Forum meeting will be run according to the following format and allow for a maximum two [2] hours duration of any meeting:
· The meetings will be attended by a Council officer.
· Discussion will be about Council related business.
· The Council officer will provide information, record issues for action and provide follow up information.
· The Council officer will act as a liaison between meeting participants and Council where required.

…

10 Minutes

The Council Officer will not record minutes of each session however a record of actions required will be made on an Action Template. The actions will be responded to by an appropriate Council Officer. Council will send the completed Action Template to the Neighbourhood Chair and members of the Neighbourhood Forum. The completed Action Template will also be placed on Council’s Website. The Council Officer will also endeavour to address each action at the next meeting.

WCC Media release: Wednesday, 14 July 2010

Following requests from residents living in the southern suburbs, the Area 7 Neighbourhood Forum is now meeting at Berkeley Neighbourhood Centre to provide a greater opportunity for residents to attend.

Area 7 Neighbourhood Forum has held their meetings over the past 15 months in Windang and had regular community members from Berkeley, Port Kembla and Windang attending. The move to Berkeley will broaden the scope of the Forum.

A Neighbourhood Forum is a community group independent from Council which meets to discuss local issues. A Council officer attends every monthly meeting and a guest speaker is often organised to discuss issues and answer questions.

Community Engagement Coordinator, Jodie Healy said the Neighbourhood Forums have been running across the city for over 15 months and have received high attendance rates.

“We’re delighted with the high attendance at the forums – from April to November 2009 more than 1100 community members attended one of the eight Neighbourhood Forums,” Ms Healy said.

“The forums give residents the chance to meet monthly and have their say on local issues that affect their neighbourhood area.”

“It is important that the community as a whole is able to consult with Council, the forums provide one of a variety of opportunities for this to happen,” said Ms Healy.

To find out more about Neighbourhood Forums please visit Council’s website or contact the Community Engagement Team.

The Berkeley Neighbourhood Centre is located on Winnima Way, Berkeley. The next Neighbourhood Forum Area 7 meeting is scheduled for Thursday, 15 July at 7pm.

Neighbourhood Forum Area 7 meets the third Thursday of the month at 7pm.

Last night i attended my local Neighbourhood Forum (NF2) in relation to a local matter and, during the course of the meeting we touched on Council’s review of its community consultation policy.

I asked the attending Council officer for Council to inform our group (at our August meeting) about how it will be progressing the two recommendations which are particularly relevant to NF2 (since they arose in relation to the events surrounding the Dogs on Sharkey’s Beach CCNC/NF2 meeting last year).

Those two recommendations relate to – who can speak and vote at at Neighbourhood Forum meeting and what is the area of Neighbourhood Forum.

See below for the Council resolution about consulting the community about these important issues. These are, of course, important issue for everyone who lives in Wollongong and for every Neighbourhood Forum.

I asked how Council would be consulting with the wider constituency of Neighbourhood forums – the residents and ratepayers in our area who do not attend regularly (as opposed to the tiny number of people in our community who do attend regularly).

There is a real risk with NFs that, due to the lack of real resources to do the job expected of them by Council, they become a sort of ‘closed shop’ with a small group of people making decisions in the name of the community – without the community ever knowing about it. NF2, for example, does not have the resources to handle putting out media releases to the Northern Leader.

What is needed is some real resources from Council (in return for our rates, taxes and – increasingly – high fees and charges) so we can carry out community business in an effective way. We are miles away from this at present.

What emerged in the course of the discussion about these issues with the attending Council officer was her completely wrongheaded attitude to community consultation and community engagement.

The failings of Council’s community consultation process to engage with our communities was the fault of the everyday members of our community, apparently.

In other words, rather than maturely being able to recognize that Council has a communication problem – and taking professional steps to address – it is easier to invent imaginary defects in people who are not present to defend themselves and to blame them.

I was appalled to hear such ill-informed views coming from within Council’s community consultation section – tantamount to burying their heads in the sand.

Rather than blaming people for not being aware of the community consultation avenues available, for example, via Neighbourhood forums, the challenge for Council is to find creative ways of getting its messages through to people.

It will be fascinating to see how Council implements their own recommendation to ‘consult with the community’ in relation to these key Neighbourhood Forum issues.

I will be watching closely.

Bruce Reyburn
8 July
———————————————

ORDINARY MEETING OF COUNCIL
HELD ON
TUESDAY 25 MAY 2010
AT 5.00 PM

PRESENT Administrators Dr C Gellatly AO (in the Chair), R McGregor AM and R Colley

IN ATTENDANCE General Manager – D Farmer, Director Corporate and Community Services – I Halliday, Director Environment and Planning – A Carfield and Director Infrastructure and Works – P Kofod

….

GENERAL MANAGER’S DEPARTMENT

ITEM 11 – COMMUNITY CONSULTATION POLICY REVIEW (CB-010.01.005) – REPORT OF GENERAL MANAGER (JH) 15/04/10

Minute Number 61

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY that –

1 The community be consulted about potential revision of Neighbourhood Forum boundaries.
2 Council consult with the community in relation to membership attendance at Neighbourhood Forums.

…

Neighbourhood forum leader quits over Dapto project
BY NICOLE HASHAM
06 Jul, 2010 Illawarra Mercury

A community advocate plans to resign over a major road building program at West Dapto, claiming authorities have steamrolled the views of residents.

Dapto Neighbourhood Forum convener Gordon Cooke said Wollongong City Council had ignored public concerns over the West Dapto Access Strategy.

The $72 million project, including a new bridge and roadway, is designed to open up new housing and create employment for 17,500 extra residents over the next two decades.

Construction will begin in August, and will include a $16 million bridge and roadway from Fairwater Dr to Cleveland Rd and an extension of Fowlers Rd to Marshall St.

The work was fast-tracked in January after the council accepted a $26 million loan from the State Government.

It was a condition of the loan that work be completed within 18 months.

But Mr Cooke claims residents have been sidelined in the rush to do the work.

….

(WCC General Manager David Farmer) … defended the council’s record of community consultation, citing a public meeting held at Horsley in May and numerous drop-in sessions and information kiosks, which had attracted 360 people.

full story
http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/neighbourhood-forum-leader-quits-over-dapto-project/1876896.aspx

Gigliotti could face jail for misleading ICAC
BY LAUREL-LEE RODERICK
06 Jul, 2010 Illawarra Mercury

Prosecutors will ask a Sydney court to send Frank Gigliotti to jail after he yesterday became the first former Wollongong councillor to be convicted of misleading the state’s corruption watchdog.

Magistrate Carolyn Barkell found Gigliotti, 50, guilty of two counts of intentionally giving misleading evidence to the Independent Commission Against Corruption on August 1, 2008.

full story
http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/gigliotti-could-face-jail-for-misleading-icac/1876900.aspx

In what amounts to a vote of no confidence in the people of Wollongong, the Illawarra Business Chamber puts its cosy relationship with Council bureaucrats ahead of the timely return of a democratically elected representatives.

In an interview on 97.3FM radio (Monday 5 July 2010) Greg Fisher, the Chief Executive Officer of the Illawarra Business Chamber, opposed the timely restoration of our elected representatives at Wollongong City Council next year.

When pressed for specific reasons as to why the Illawarra Business Chamber, representing its members, was opposed to a return of an elected Council, Mr Fisher replied that he imagined that the Administrators had a mapped out a four year plan for cultural change.

Imagined? What kind of business model are we dealing with here – where is the four year plan which clearly identifies the actual problem, positions the current situation, with specific objectives we need to attain and details the equally specific criteria by which we can actually assess when we have arrived at the desired point.

Imagination is not sufficient in a situation where our democratic rights have been suspended by the NSW ALP government. We have long asked both WCC and the NSW ALP government for a clear and unambiguous program for these reforms, and they have never been able to produce one.

We have asked for this clear and unambiguous reform program so we could identify exactly what part of it (if any) could not be done with the presence of elected Councillors. There has never been a satisfactory answer.

My considered assessment – it’s all bull-shit, folks. And bull-shit which, while rubbishing our democratic rights, suits some other interests very nicely.

Councils spend endless energy on revising their corporate plans, and their lack of a clear reform plan can not be left to our imaginations. And Mr Fisher should know better than this. According to the IBC website he has worked in senior management with WCC:

“Mr Fisher brings 20 years of strategic planning and project management experience to the IBC. He has extensive experience in local government, including senior roles at Wollongong Council and Director Corporate and Community Services at Wollondilly Shire Council.” (from http://www.illawarrabusiness.com/page/old-pages/ibc-appoints-chief-executive-officer/)

What emerged from the interview was that the Illawarra Business Chamber currently enjoys a very cosy relationship with the Administrators and things are doing quite nicely thanks without elected Councillors to represent our wider community interests.

We cannot afford to leave the management of our community governance to the sort of playground which results when bureaucrats and commercial business people enter into unaccountable relationships – where things are done behind closed doors and out of sight of community scrutiny. It simply is not healthy.

If the position of their Chief Executive Officer accurately reflects that of their members, we can have no confidence in the Illawarra Business Chamber as a team player in seeking the best for Wollongong life.

O’Farrell says he’ll return councils to people by 2011
BY MATTHEW JONES Illawarra Mercury
02 Jul, 2010

State Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell wants the people of the Illawarra to draw a circle around September 3, 2011, in their calendars.

That’s the day democratically elected councils would return to Wollongong and Shellharbour under a NSW Coalition government, Mr O’Farrell announced yesterday.

Outside Wollongong City Council’s Burelli St headquarters, he called time on the administrators and said the region had been deprived of elected leadership for too long.

“We believe that residents in Wollongong deserve the right to have an elected council,” he said.

A 2011 election would mean a return to the polls more than a year ahead of schedule.

…

Local Government Minister Barbara Perry said early elections would be reckless and would undermine years of work by council administrators.

…

Residents questioned during a Mercury street poll yesterday said early elections would deliver a “fresh start” for the city, although some were sceptical about the difference an elected council would make.

Support for an early trip to the polls was also forthcoming from the region’s peak trade union body.

South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris urged the State Government to step up to the plate and match the Opposition’s plans.

“Do the right thing by the people of the Illawarra and end the collective punishment that’s been meted out … to pay for the sins of corrupt Labor councillors,” he said.

Full story and vote in the poll

# VOTE: Should local government elections be held 12 months earlier than planned?

see http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/ofarrell-says-hell-return-councils-to-people-by-2011/1874380.aspx

Jonovski and Esen cleared of misleading ICAC
BY LAUREL-LEE RODERICK Illawarra Mercury
02 Jul, 2010

Sacked Wollongong councillors Kiril Jonovski and Zeki Esen have been cleared of misleading a corruption investigation about a 2006 meeting with developer Frank Vellar at a Wollongong cafe.

Full story

http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/jonovski-and-esen-cleared-of-misleading-icac/1874402.aspx?storypage=0

Here is yet another interesting example of how Wollongong City Council makes use of the appearance of engaging with our communities without putting in the resources necessary for that to happen.

According to a story on ABC 97.3 radio this morning (1 July 2010), swimming pool users are being faced with new charges from today. Some of them – those who use the pools regularly – found out about this yesterday when notices advising of the increases where put up at a pool.

Faced by yet another clear example of the failure of their community consultation process to actually engage with people affected by their policies, the Wollongong City Council spokesperson explained that Council puts out information about its proposed fees increases. He said, amongst other things, that Neighbourhood Forums were told about the increases.

The bona fides of Council spokespeople who seek to cover up the Council’s own shortcomings by invoking the name of Neighbourhood Forums – as though informing the forums is to inform the whole community – cannot be allowed to pass unchallenged. It is pure spin, not fair dinkum.

Most Neighbourhood Forums consist of a small number of committed people who attend the monthly meeting. They have enough work to handle just keeping things running.

Council does not provide Neighbourhood Forums with the resources to either digest the enormous amounts of information contained in such large annual documents nor does it provide them with the resources to make sure that information in those large and complex documents reaches the great number of local people who make up their forum area.

Rather than Wollongong City Council seeking to bury its head in the sand and pretend it does actually engage with our communities, what is required by them when such clear evidence surfaces is to admit there is a serious problem. And then, to take responsible steps (in partnership with our communities) to develop an effective community consultation process – backed up with the resources required to make it work properly.

Put this on the agenda for the next Council election since it is clear the Administrators and senior Council staff are more than happy with the mere appearance of community engagement, and see no problem with the lack of substance.