A summary of the Council meeting held on 17 December 2013

 

There were 10 councillors in attendance.  Councillor Paterson was absent on maternity leave.

 

Question time

 

A total of 20 questions had been received from members of the public for the meeting.  I advised that the 20 questions would take longer to deal with than the 20 minutes allowed for question time by our Meeting Procedures Local Law No 1 (Local Law No 1).  As I had foreshadowed at the November meeting, I reiterated that Council would start enforcing the 20 minute restriction for question time in accordance with our Local Law No 1.

While we did manage to get through most of the questions within the allocated time, written answers to the questions not able to be dealt with within the period available were provided to the questioners immediately following the completion of question time.

A copy of the questions and answers is available at the end of this document summarising key decisions made at the meeting.

 

Key decisions

 

Some of the key decisions made at the meeting were:

• Item 4.1 – Sustainable street lighting: Council resolved to accept the recommendation of the Director Infrastructure to replace the current inefficient street lighting throughout the municipality with energy efficient lighting.  Council agreed to an amendment proposed by Cr Dimopoulos to commence a tender process as soon as possible for the purposes of selecting a provider to begin a roll-out of the new lights in 2014/15 and referring to the 2014/15 budget process the question of whether the cost be funded by debt or cash.  This amendment signalled Council’s intention to get moving with the project as soon as possible rather than waiting for its 2014/15 budget process to be completed.  It is anticipated that this project will have significant environmental and financial benefits for Council.
• Item 5.1 – Project to review vegetation across the municipality and identify appropriate management control: Council resolved to refer to the 2014/15 budget process the scope of work identified by officers in relation to vegetation protection and management.  The scope of work had been prepared in response to a recent recommendation to comprehensively review vegetation across the municipality to determine its value and to identify the appropriate form and level of management control.  The recommendation had been made by the Planning Panel which rejected Council’s proposed changes to make the Vegetation Protection Overlay (VPO) fairer for impacted residents.
• Item 5.2 – Planning application at 1 Kennedy Street, Glen Waverley: Council resolved to oppose the application for a development of a three storey apartment building containing 20 dwellings with basement car parking because it was out of character with the surrounding area and would have a negative impact on local amenity.  There had been a significant level of local interest in this application.
• Item 7.3 – Monash Leadership and Integrity Award (in honour of former CEO, David Conran): Council endorsed the recommendation of the Monash Leadership and Integrity Award Committee and resolved that Lucas Skelton (Council’s Coordinator, Active and Passive Reserves) is the inaugural recipient of the 2013 Monash Leadership and Integrity Award.  Lucas was selected for the award because he has consistently demonstrated excellence and outstanding performance in the leadership of his team and in driving initiatives which have enhanced the quality of our parks.
• Item 8.2 – Residential Aged Care – confirmation of process to be adopted for Council’s final decision on its divestment of its residential and retirement living portfolio: Council accepted my recommendation that its final decision on this matter be made in confidential business due to the commercially sensitive information which will need to be presented to the meeting and based upon the advice of Council’s external advisers.  Once made, the decision and the key aspects of any sale which is approved will be immediately announced publicly along with how councillors voted on the matter.

 

Conflicts of interests – aged care matter

 

During Council’s consideration of item 8.2, two councillors made statements in respect of conflicts of interest:

• Cr Nolan noted that she had previously declared a potential conflict of interest in this matter as she works for a residential aged care provider and did not know whether they would participate in the Expression of Interest process.  She advised that as she was now aware that her organisation does not have an involvement in the process she no longer has a potential indirect conflict of interest and would be participating in future consideration of the matter.
• Cr Dimopoulos informed the Council that he wanted to declare a ‘conflicting personal interest’ in this matter pursuant to s 79B of the Local Government Act.  He made the following statement to Council:
  

  The reason why I feel I have a ‘conflicting personal interest’ in this matter is because recently, and since the last Council meeting, I have become the endorsed Labor candidate for Oakleigh.  The leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party has made it clear that he does not support the current Monash Gardens and Elizabeth Gardens sale process being progressed by Council.
   I feel I have a genuine conflict in relation to this issue, between my duty as an endorsed Labor candidate to support the Parliamentary Labor leader on one hand, and my duty as a Monash City Councillor to make decisions in the best interests of the community and free from any other outside interests.
   As such I think it is appropriate for me to declare this ‘conflicting personal interest’ and to seek to be exempted from voting on this matter tonight and on any subsequent occasions.   

  A ‘conflicting personal interest’ is dealt with by the Local Government Act 1989 in a slightly different way than a ‘conflict of interest’.  The Act requires Council to vote on whether or not to consent to an application by a councillor to declare a ‘conflicting personal interest’ in a matter.  Council resolved to approve Cr Dimopoulos’s application.

 

 Points of Order

 

After the flurry of points of order raised at the November meeting, it was a welcome change from that and previous meetings that there were no points of order raised at this meeting.

However, there was one quite unreasonable and totally disorderly interjection from the public gallery during the consideration of the aged care matter.  The person responsible apologised for her outburst following the meeting.