Brimbank City Council
By Josie Vine
Wow! These new councillors in Brimbank are sure showing some … er … passion?
So passionate in fact, that Cr Daniel Kruk jumped the gun and started on his fiery sermon on illegal dumping before anyone had the chance to move the motion on council’s new strategy to combat the issue that costs ratepayers more than $1million per year.
The Westsider reported on the increasing scale of ‘fly tipping’ in December last year.
Cr Kruk said his “blood” was “boiling” over illegally dumped rubbish, which has been allocated a more than 50 percent increase under council’s draft budget plan (currently out for community comment).
Cr Kruk said he had been contacted by residents complaining about illegally dumped rubbish and “knew” they were “mad as hell too”.
“So much so that I’d love nothing more than to get up here today, channelling the emotions of residents and business owners, and start swearing and slamming the table.”
Last year, nearly 9500 dumped rubbish incidents were logged at Brimbank Council, costing ratepayers more than $1 million. “Just to pick up after other people who can’t be bothered doing the right thing,” Cr Kruk said. “Brimbank has a dumping problem and it’s out of control.”
He said dumped rubbish included mattresses “dumped on nature strips” and builders’ waste “chucked in our reserves”.
“Our parks, streets and open spaces aren’t dumping grounds.”
Cr Kruk described the new plan to combat dumped waste as a “full scale crackdown” and included “tougher” fines of up to $1800 for individuals and $9000 for businesses, as well as increased CCTV and surveillance.
“Let me say this clearly,” he said. “Putting rubbish on your nature strip without booking a hard waste collection is illegal, it’s not council’s job to make it magically disappear.”
Cr Kruk said he’d “love” to “storm through the streets of Brimbank”, yelling “off with their heads” to every serial dumper out there.
The motion to implement the plan, which will cost ratepayers $580,000, was passed unanimously.
To see more of the draft budget, please go to yoursay.brimbank.vic.gov.au/budget-action-plan.
Maribyrnong City Council
By Ruby Fox
This month’s Maribyrnong council meeting saw lots of questions from the public regarding the proposed budget for 2025/2026. Cr Mohamed Semra encouraged the public to provide feedback on the proposal, “at a meeting to be held on 26th of May 2025 at the Town Hall in Footscray”.
Cr Semra pointed out that the proposed budget passes through “the rate cap of 3% which is set by the Victorian government” and includes “a municipal charge of $20 for each rateable property for the rating period, no increase in waste service charge, an increase to the council’s pensioner rate rebate of $670, drawdown of $7.28 million from the open space reserve for open space improvements and new capital and asset improvement investment of $46.139 million to maintain, redevelop and improve services and assets”.
Public submissions and recommendations to adopt the proposed budget will be considered at the council meeting on 17th of June 2025. Semra again encouraged feedback from the municipality, to “make sure that this budget is really reflective of this community’s needs and values”.
The New Horizons: Creative Maribyrnong strategy was also discussed. Cr Lam admired our “diverse population”, saying it plays “a significant role in the area’s reputation as the innovative centre of creativity and culture”.
“Council must do something creative for everyone” said Cr Cuc Lam, encouraging community to provide feedback about “what you would like council to do for you”.
Cr Bernadette Thomas echoed this statement, saying “Maribyrnng has enjoyed living in a creative community for decades” and will keep “opening up spaces for relationships to grow and creatives to grow”.
After discussion last month about how the council is to pay tribute to the late Cr Sarah Carter, Cr Lam announced that council “approved the naming proposal of Sarah Carter kindergarten”. Cr Semra showed his appreciation for this, saying Cr Carter was “supportive of empowering young people and children so I think it’s fitting”.
A big issue that also surfaced this month was the lack of filtration on ventilation stacks for the West Gate Tunnel.
Cr Thomas insisted that filtration is needed to “protect the health and wellbeing of all Maribyrnong and inner West residents”. She said “the Minister needs to step in” and “use their powers under the act to set up conferences of interested persons”. Other councillors agreed, with Mayor Tiwari saying “Maribyrnong has some of the worst health statistics in Australia with the highest hospital admissions for young people with respiratory illness at 171% higher than the national average”.
Finally, Council discussed how to pay tribute to the late Les Twentyman. Council considered naming a meeting room at the Civic and Community Hub in honor of Twentyman, recognising his “enduring contribution to our community” said Cr Lam.
“Raised in the western suburbs of Melbourne, dedicating his life to helping Australian people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds to find a positive future”, Les twentyman is thought to be “Australia’s best known youth worker” said Cr Lam.
While all agreed on Twentyman’s “lasting impact”, Cr Thomas rebutted Lam’s idea of naming the meeting room, instead suggesting something that “has a closer link to the work that Les did”, “like a basketball court at RecWest”.
Lam disagreed, saying “I have thought long and hard about this and I think he’s worth more than that”, “I dont think a basketball court or anything like that would be appropriate”. “The room in the council is appropriate for him”.
In the end, council voted, with Crs Semra, Lam, Yengi, and Mayor Tiwari voting in favour of naming the meeting room, and Crs Meredith, Pereyra and Thomas voting against. The motion was carried.
Wyndham City Council
By Jack Sutton
The low attendance at Wyndham’s last meeting, with only four people present, did not reflect its importance. It appears that they anticipated this as there were noticeably fewer chairs set up.
The meeting got off to a wholesome start, with the councillors presenting the Annual Community Satisfaction Survey; the overall performance, with a satisfaction score of 7.3 out of 10, proving to be the highest score in recent times.
This score is higher than the average of those in other western regions and metropolitan areas of Melbourne.
Cr Jennie Barrera said, “this is a milestone and a motivator”, and Cr Preet Singh took on the feedback from community and said, “we will work as a team to make Wyndham the best place to live.”
All councillors in the chamber had something to say about the Draft Annual Plan and Budget for 2025-2026, with Cr Shannon McGuire beginning by emphasising how much he endorses it, specifically the upgrades to areas such as the Hoppers Crossing Football Club.
Cr Robert Szatkowski however could not have disagreed more with Cr McGuire. His passionate rebuttal dove into the priorities of the budget, and despite the Wyndham City Council’s stance on endorsing gambling, the Hoppers Crossing Football Club has 55 poker machines in operation and recorded $4.5 million in gambling losses.
Cr Szatkowski called this process “contradictory” and spoke about how they should be putting more money into things like dog parks, because of how many people own dogs in Wyndham City.
Cr Jasmine Hill opened with how she will be speaking with “fright and concern” as she did not agree with where a lot of the budget will go. Cr Peter Maynard shared similar concerns but he wanted roads and intersections to be the main focal point of where the money is spent.
Everyone made use of the five minutes allocated to them which was strictly enforced by the ringing of a bell, indicating how much time you have left. In the end, the motion to support the budget was carried.
Hobsons Bay City Council
By Josie Vine
New guidelines for Hobsons Bay CEO headhunt.
And we’re off … yeeha! Giddy-up!
The process of finding a new Hobsons Bay CEO has started after Council unanimously passed an updated Chief Executive Officer Employment and Remuneration Committee Policy at last month’s meeting.
Council also endorsed a new Employment Matters Committee, including an Independent Chair and recruitment consultant to “advise” council on the selection and performance management of the CEO.
Previous Hobsons Bay CEO, Aaron van Egmond resigned at the beginning of April after being suspended over workplace safety issues in January.
It’s hard to quite pinpoint whether or how much the Independent Chair and recruitment consultant will get paid – or even just how much the new CEO will get paid – in the Hobsons Bay draft 2025/ 2026 budget (which, by the way, was also passed last month and is currently out for community consultation).
But we do know the draft budget has allocated about $2.5 million to the CEO’s office to employ about 18 staff. Presumably one of these staff members will be the new CEO and maybe the Independent Chair and recruitment consultant.
After some kerfuffle over a typo in one of the policies, Cr Paddy Keys-Macpherson put the twin motions on the table.
“The employment of a CEO is one of the most important decisions a councillor group can make,” he said. “It is appropriate and necessary that with a new group of councillors, ahead of undertaking a recruitment process for a new CEO, that we refresh and update the policy and the committee terms of reference.”
Cr Keys-Macpherson said the twin documents were a “substantial change” from the previous one policy governing the CEO’s employment.
“A broadening of the policy to better encompass the full lifecycle of the employment of a CEO with clearer sections on governance, employment conditions, and performance planning and review, including the embedding of mid-cycle review,” he said.
He said the Employment Matters Committee would be made up of “all councillors”.
“In a small council such as Hobsons Bay, that is critical and incredibly important.”
Council will receive a report from the Committee on the completion of its role in the recruitment process, and Council will negotiate and finalise a contract of employment with its preferred candidate.
No timeline has been determined for the CEO recruitment.
Former Maribyrnong and Wyndham CEO, Kerry Thompson is currently on a six-month contract as acting CEO at Hobsons Bay.
Ratepayers have a chance to view and make comment on the draft budget until May 21
Please go to https://participate.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/
Update on CEOs
Well we were informed Wyndham CEO Stephen Wall was going to answer our questions for the May edition. And he did!
We’ve been chasing interviews with the CEOs of Wyndham, Brimbank, Hobsons Bay and Maribyrnong since December last year, and they’ve proved somewhat elusive.
Readers may remember last month we reported the CEOs of Brimbank, Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay had politely declined interviews for Rates, Roads and Rubbish.
Wyndham CEO, Stephen Wall, however, had agreed to answer emailed questions, but was waiting on his Chief of Staff’s contribution.
Well, Mr Wall and his Chief of Staff responded to three of the seven questions we put. Unfortunately, they declined to answer the crucial questions five and six, which asked:
5. Traditionally the public was allowed to ask live, unscripted questions during a council meeting. Why can the public no longer do this? Is the process of submitting online questions, which are then exposed to the risk of selection and sub editing, harmful to the principles of local democracy? What are the chances for this process to change?
6. Are you surprised that the Hobsons Bay CEO was suspended? Or is the job so complex that lines between roles and responsibilities are easily blurred?
Anyway, not to worry. We now know that Mr Wall fell into Local Government “quite by chance”. Growing up in country NSW, he didn’t really have a career plan, but found himself starting out in his local council as a purchasing and creditors officer.
“I had very little understanding of the Local Government sector, but quickly developed a passion for community service,” he said. “It was pretty early on that I realised that this sector was exactly where I could see my future.”
Mr Wall said public perceptions that managers made all the decisions in the decision-making process of elected representatives were incorrect.
He said officers were responsible for providing reports, expert advice and recommended outcomes to council to consider, but councillors were the “decision-makers”.
“The decisions definitely rest on the shoulders of the councillors,” he said. “They make their decisions based on their individual priorities and those of the residents they represent.”
He said there were times when councillors vote against council officer recommendations. “That is how the system works.”
And in other news, Brimbank Corporate Service Director, Mark Stoermer, has scored a new job as CEO of the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council.
