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Shock, horror, more bad news on the quality of private certifiers

Details: Published: Thursday, 31 July 2014 09:59

The shortcomings of the private certification system continue.

The ACT Auditor-General Maxine Cooper has conducted an investigation into development assessments and made observations about “potentially improper” relationships between builders and certifiers. Oh no, another “we told you so” moment.

“Dr Cooper has called for more auditing of certifiers’ decisions, more training for certifiers and a public register of demerit points against them”, according to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald by authoritative local government editor Harvey Grennan on 22 July. The Herald reports that the Auditor-General’s office conducted seven case studies and “found that two dwellings should have been subject to a full development application and three others gave rise to consideration of disciplinary action against certifiers.”

Dr Cooper criticised the inadequacy of penalties against certifiers and prominent authority on construction liability and certification, Kim Lovegrove, Melbourne solicitor and partner in a building and planning law firm Lovegrove Smith and Cotton, observed that “the Auditor-General has hit on a number of serious issues which extend beyond ACT borders.”

“Last year my colleague Stephen Smith called for a number of reforms to private certification more generally, including not only mandatory auditing and continuing professional development for certifiers, independent peer review, more oversight powers and higher penalties but also a regulated floor on certifier fees to ensure these cannot drop to a level which would compromise professional standards”, Professor Lovegrove said.

The Herald observes “the Canberra findings mirror some of those of the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal in a draft report on local government compliance and enforcement released in May. This found inadequate penalties being imposed. Disciplinary action was taken against only 1% of all accredited certifiers and 0.1% received more than a fine and a reprimand. No action was taken on 72% of all complaints.”

There have been no adverse findings against accredited council employees.

Farooq gets Farooqed

Details: Published: Monday, 28 April 2014 12:18

GM Farooq Portelli and Mayor Ned Mannoun in happier times

GM Farooq Portelli and Mayor Ned Mannoun in happier times

If you choose to live by the sword, you die by the sword. What a great biblical reference (Matthew 26:52, if you would like to check) and one where Wikipedia helpfully provides a non-literal interpretation, “if you use violence, or other harsh means, against other people, you can expect to have those same means used against you.”

So, true to those ancient words, no one should have been too surprised to see the Liverpool GM get Farooqed himself.

As a reminder, it was only in 2012/13 that the local government unions were brawling with Liverpool City Council over their plan to spill their director and manager jobs, make some people redundant and employ the new second and third levels of management as senior staff under the Local Government Act on the dreadful statutory senior staff contract. Easier to sack people that way.

During the course of the dispute, Liverpool Mayor Councillor Ned Mannoun confessed at a UDIA breakfast that they didn’t want to waste time performance managing duds out of the place, because “that can take up to 18 months”, so putting people on the term contract mandated by the DLG meant they could just get rid of people whenever they wanted, without even having to explain why and the payout to sack GMs not performing badly is only 38 weeks’ pay.

Regrettably, a timid Judge of the IRC rejected our request to require the Mayor to come and say those same things in the Commission as part of the proceedings in the dispute. After all, GM Portelli hadn’t been game enough to confess what we all knew to be true.

We last covered developments at Liverpool in our March 2013 issue (which included the picture of the GM and the Mayor above) but things didn’t really go too well for Farooq after that. Running battles with the councillors followed for the remainder of the year and the Mayor tried unsuccessfully to sack him in December.

Rumours were flying in early March and on 1 April the Sydney Morning Herald revealed all under the heading “Senior public servants sacked without explanation”.

You almost have to feel sorry for Farooq. His venal and punitive approach to setting up people on employment contracts who can be removed with no checks or balances created a dangerous precedent that would make more people vulnerable to unfair treatment - and his sacking by Liverpool made him the ninth GM sacked because of politics after the local government elections two years ago.

Former Labor Mayor Wendy Waller criticised the way things had gone and said “the Mayor basically gave a testimonial in regards to the general manager’s performance, yet it’s his mayoral minute that basically cancels the contract”.

“So I think “hypocritical” is the only word I see as being appropriate.”

Karma is a more appropriate word. If you use harsh means against others, expect them to happen to you.

Barry Farooqs himself

Details: Published: Monday, 28 April 2014 12:03

You’ve dropped the Grange, Barry

You’ve dropped the Grange, Barry

The resignation of Premier Barry O’Farrell on 16 April took everyone by surprise. His resignation followed assurances to the ICAC the day before that he had not received a bottle of 1959 Grange from Liberal Party identity and Obeid connection, Nick Di Girolamo.

This, despite evidence presented to him that the wine had been bought, delivered to his house and shortly afterwards he had a short phone conversation on his private mobile phone with Mr Di Girolamo. He denied it, and he denied it strenuously and repeatedly.

But, as often happens in the theatre which is the ICAC, up pops a thank you letter in the Premier’s own fine fountain-penned hand thanking “Nick and Jodie” and signed “Baz and Rosemary”. Uh oh …

At least he had nice manners. His Mum should be proud.

There are lessons in this for employees in local government. There are no longer any secrets. People have ways of finding everything you would rather not found and doing so at precisely the wrong time.

While some are trivialising the circumstances of the resignation by claiming it was all about forgetting to declare a bottle of wine, it was much, much more than that.

Not just breaches of guidelines for ministers and politicians, not just the blurred line between what’s acceptable when you’re running for power and what’s acceptable when you’re in government, not just a failure to acknowledge phone calls nor the extent of relationships, and not just attempting to withhold information about meetings, their frequency and their purpose.

Then there was the unfortunate timeframe of the gift he can’t remember receiving with the Premier’s subsequent intervention over his Water Minister’s portfolio to look after a mate and benefactor and the subsequent revealing of his office taking steps to recommend Di Girolamo for a Government Board only two weeks after the gift was delivered and the thank you letter written.

In the end, it’s hard to get away with anything that is anything less than appropriate and proper and satisfies guidelines for governance and propriety. Don’t try it.

Fearless leaders copy everyone - Local Government Managers becomes Local Government Professionals! (But nothing changes)

Details: Published: Monday, 28 April 2014 11:39

If you don’t have the answer, copy from someone who does

For an organisation constantly boasting about their leadership to the industry, LGMA, or LGPA in its new disguise, is pretty short on original ideas. We don’t mind consenting adults getting together to pleasure themselves in a group, so we’ve always been bemused by the organisation that started representing the interests of town or shire clerks.

The Town Clerks Society, the Institute for Municipal Management, the Local Government Managers Association and now the Local Government Poseurs. Oops, while that might be more accurate, it really is Professionals.

It was never a good business model to be a little organisation covering Town or Shire Clerks (there were never going to be many of them) so it makes sense for them to keep expanding and sucking into their vortex more and more of the hapless and the gullible. Still, rubbing shoulders, or whatever part of the body you prefer, with the self-important and particularly the “leaders”, does provide a degree of pleasure associated with it.

When we changed our name from the Environmental Health and Building Surveyors Association to the Development and Environmental Professionals’’ Association in 2003, they should have woken up. The true leaders did it all back more than a decade ago. It’s hard to boast about being the leaders in the industry when you do something that we did 11 ½ years ago. Still, nice to know we influence them in some way.

Committed to parenthood statements like management excellence and all that stuff, the LGMA really needs to get its act together about what it is, and what it does.

We remember it most as the organisation responsible for lying back and thinking of the Empire and allowing their members to get well and truly rogered when they jointly developed the first statutory general managers and senior staff contract with the DLG and the LGSA.

This is the contract that prohibited the continuation of payment for untaken sick leave for anyone who had it (because they didn’t understand the provision in the Industrial Relations Act that does allow the continuation of payment for untaken sick leave other than in an industrial Award and took the advice of other people who didn’t know) and which famously thought it made sense to introduce a provision to allow the termination of good people by paying 38 weeks’ pay. What an achievement.

That meant that the concept of a standard contract, and its content, was developed by permanent bureaucrats in the DLG with all of the protections of the public sector and no expertise in industrial relations, the LGSA representing councillors (yes, the people who would employee general managers) and the IMM, purportedly representing the interests of people who would be employed under the contract but completely ignorant of employment law and industrial relations. Still, they were probably there representing management excellence.

The IMM always loved contracts, this was the first organisation that thought they should be introduced for general managers so that the status of the general manager would be better acknowledged. Wasn’t that fabulous vision and leadership! Nine GMs, with no performance problems at all, sacked in the last two years and with no protection or defence.

And when the standard contract came up for renewal through a working party, they sat there mute while the three unions argued to remove term employment for general managers and improve the capacity for bonuses and other flexibilities in remuneration. Even at the meeting that coincided with the unreasonable termination of a good GM at Camden, all they could say was that it’s unfortunate when their relationship problems between the GM and councillors. Unfortunate! The real leaders wanted to do something about it.

No interest at all in protecting senior staff as employees and, change their name as they might, no interest in in protecting professionals generally either.

And now they run HR conferences. Move on, nothing to learn here.

If they were really looking for a P word, there are plenty of better and more accurate options.

The three last reasons why you would remain a member of AIBS have gone

Details: Published: Monday, 28 April 2014 11:36

Margaret, Bill and Shelley

The final, blundering and sad purge of the NSW office of the AIBS is complete. On 24 March the goths and vandals from the National Office waved goodbye to the remaining staff, bundled up some important stuff in boxes and shut the office for good.

NSW Chapter EO Bill Burns had worked for the AIBS for more than 20 years. Bill was a highly respected, admirable and decent bloke with a distinguished local government career and a long history as a member of the Committee of Management and President and of depa. Goodbye, Bill.

Administration Manager Margaret Bayliss had worked for the AIBS for 15 years and membership Officer Shelley Melville had worked for the AIBS for 12 years. Goodbye Margaret and Shelley.

Not just three good, faithful and reliable employees, but all that corporate knowledge lost in a federal takeover that will leave no familiar faces and no lasting relationship in the Pymple office with anyone from NSW.

More importantly, the power wielders in the Federal Office made no real attempt to explain what they were doing to members, who were left wondering as one-by-one, Margaret, Bill and Shelley disappeared.

Many members of ours are also members of the AIBS. We don’t really understand why, but they are, but they must really be wondering why they would bother now.

Don’t ask Bill, Margaret or Shelley because, as most of you will know, employees affected by the closing down of offices and businesses often end up with a Deed of Release which, amongst other things, pledges confidentiality and no disparagement.

Suffice to say, because Bill is a life member of depa, we provided access to our lawyers to assist in his exit, and advice to Margaret as well who, luckily for us, is now our Office Manager. It was messy, antagonistic and offensive, but it’s done.

You would have thought that NSW would have some influence on the Federal Executive, that the NSW representative would have gone in to bat for those three loyal employees but you would have been disappointed. He’s a diplomat, you see, in the grand Federal scheme of things. Peace in our time and all, that sort of diplomat.

So now NSW is just like the other states. No proportional representation (always a mistake when the BSI was first abandoned because the smart people in AIBS at the time thought you needed to be part of a federal body) will always mean that while NSW might have half the membership nationally, it gets the same vote as the Tasmanians.

And if that voter thinks his role means he has to be a diplomat and that, in turn only means appeasing the aggressors, then there is no hope.

Bill Margaret and Shelley all deserved a better departure.

Goodbye Don, hello Paul

Details: Published: Monday, 28 April 2014 11:29


Former Minister Don Page		New Minister Paul Toole

We are sorry to see the removal of Don Page as Minister for Local Government as part of the new Cabinet of Premier Mike Baird.

Far too many ministers for local government have come and gone over the years. Having presided over the current reviews into local government, it’s a pity Don Page couldn’t see the job through. All those outstanding recommendations demanded the continuity and commitment the previous Minister Don Page could provide.

He also seemed a decent bloke, accessible and understanding of local government and its issues and with capable and accessible staff as well.

Sorry to see you go, Don.

But welcome to the new Minister Paul Toole, member for Bathurst and another member of the National party.

At least he’s had some local government experience - even if it was only as a councillor and Mayor.

We will try to see the new Minister when things settle down and when it’s clear who will be supporting him in his Parliamentary Office. My great-grandparents are from Bathurst, so that should help opens doors. Hey bro!

O’Farrell/Christian Democrats deal to reduce smut and innuendo behind removal of BPB’s Neil Cocks and Margaret Hole

Details: Published: Tuesday, 01 April 2014 00:01

The disappearance of BPB CEO Neil Cocks into the Department of Planning and the removal of BPB Board member Margaret Hole was acknowledged today as part of a Government campaign to remove smut, cheap jokes and innuendo from the NSW Public Sector.

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell admitted that the Government needed crossbench support from the Upper House and, like agreements with the Shooters and Fishers to allow culling of feral animals in National Parks, an agreement with Fred Nile’s Christian Democrats will have widespread ramifications across the public sector.

“Neil had to go”, the Premier said. “He could so easily have simply used an “x” but the flagrant flaunting of the unfortunate plural was too much.”

CEO Neil Cocks had always been a problem for depaNews with a number of councils refusing to accept any publication where his name appeared prominently but Ms Hole was a risk as well. Nevertheless the names both individually and, particularly, in juxtaposition, was sufficient to distress our moral guardians in the Legislative Council and the Government.

In responding to questions Premier O’Farrell indicated that the process is really just beginning and questionable names would no longer have a place in Her Majesty’s New South Wales Government.

Prominent class-action litigants Slater and Gordon announced they will mount a class action for damages against the Government and inviting responses from others affected and targeting names such as Dick, Dolores, Fanny and John Thomas.

“This is just the start”, the Premier said. We will be clearing up innuendo in names as well as gestures is public.”

Premier O’Farrell and Mr Nile MLC demonstrate gestures no longer allowable in the public sector

O’Farrell/Shooters and Fishers deal to cull more ferals

Details: Published: Tuesday, 01 April 2014 00:01

Premier O’Farrell today announced an extension of the current licenced shooters programme to cull feral animals in National Parks to allow licenced shooters to cull feral demonstrators demonstrating against the Government in Macquarie Street.

“I agree with the Prime Minister’s observation about the important conservation role performed by those who chop down trees, particularly old growth forests, and shooters who take life are similarly conscious of the need to conserve it,” the Premier said.

In the deal announced between the Government and the Legislative Council crossbenchers it was recognised that demonstrations against planning reform, where members of the Legislative Council from the Shooters and Fishers Party had been prominent, would be exempted from the cull.

“We are trying to slash and burn within the public sector and demonstrations against cuts and public sector pay policy will be a priority. This is really just being more proactive and effective”, the Premier said.

Bigot Brandis moves to protect the right to be a bigot

Details: Published: Tuesday, 01 April 2014 00:01

Attorney-General Senator Brandis is under attack from all sides of politics for his initiative to make changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act so that it would no longer be illegal to offend, insult or humiliate on the basis of race and bigots and racists could use race to vilify and intimidate in “public debate”.

“Other Australians have the right to be bigots too”, said Senator Brandis last week. “I’m not going to sit around doing nothing while people are prevented from racially vilifying whomever they like. We’ve been too polite for too long and we have to restore rights to pompous fat white people. The pendulum has swung too far.”

But Senator Brandis has found opposition within his own ranks.

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell last week announced “bigotry should never be sanctioned… vilification on the grounds of race or religion is always wrong and there is no place for inciting hatreds within our Australian society”, the Premier said, drawing a measured response from Senator Brandis.

Ex HSU officials call for investigation into depa’s finances

Details: Published: Tuesday, 01 April 2014 00:01

Ex-President of HSU East Michael Williamson and ex Secretary Craig Thomson this morning called for an enquiry into the financial management of the Development and Environmental Professionals’ Association (depa). Both ex-union officials have been convicted of defrauding the union, in Williamson’s case by millions of dollars.

The HSU has membership fees of almost $600 a year, about 50% more than depa’s fee of $398 - a fee which has remained unchanged for 11 years.

“Members of depa are entitled to ask where the money comes from. We know it just can’t be membership fees as members of our union were paying $200 a year more and that was barely enough for us” Williamson said from the back of a police wagon.

“Officials of that union must live in abject poverty, no wonder I never see any of them at lunch.”

“How can a small union (even its friends sneer at the small number of members) have $1 million in the bank, own its own office and regularly report fully to members openly and transparently? And the membership fee never goes up. Something has to be wrong.”

Thompson suggested that the absence of an official union credit card should be treated with suspicion. “Clearly porn and prostitutes are somehow being paid with cash,” Thompson said.

Meanwhile, members of depa anticipate their individual receipt of the auditor’s statement and the union’s financial statements, as usual, in April.