Shonky Local Governments WA

Seems there are still issues at tge City of Melville?

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/qnaFsEHT7pZ2EXgW/?mibextid=WC7FNe

Cr Tomas FITZGERALD appears to have been naughty and is being held to account. The MRRA don’t know the specifics of the subject Standards Panel complaint, and we will likely have to wait to the 10 am September 2, 2024, SAT hearing to find out. SAT hearings are open to the public, people just need to show up.

The MRRA has experience with Tomas’ poor conduct. For example, in an internal City of Melville email, in response to an email we directed to Mayor Katy MAIR and CEO Gail BOWMAN, Tomas stated:

“I am sure you agree that this email is quite unacceptable. Any elected member who sent this email could expect to be disciplined for breach of the code of conduct.”

“I asked what plan we had in place to deal with continued inappropriate behaviour from the MRRA if they did not change.” [ ie that is the MRRA asking questions and quite reasonably expecting answers]

The MRRA rejects Tomas’ adverse statements. Our “crime”, in Tomas’ eyes it appears, was to politely and factually write to the Mayor and CEO complaining that the MRRA's public questions put to February 20 Council meeting, about serious concerns with respect to the City’s poor FOI performance, its building compliance enforcement functions and advice from McLeods Barristers and Solicitors, were mishandled and not answered properly.

Our email concluded:

“This is yet another example of the City’s poor transparency, oversight and governance, and should be added to the Department of Local Government's growing list of governance concerns for further investigation [https://www.melvillecity.com.au/CityOfMelville/media/Documents-and-PDF-s/COM-Letter-from-DLGSC-Governance_November-2023_1.pdf ]. We are tied of the City’s persistent poor handling of public questions.”

It appears Tomas took exception to the MRRA expressing an opinion about the community’s poor view of Council’s governance, transparency, performance and accountability demonstrated by some City officers. Tomas was the previous Chair of the Council Governance Committee, at the time the DLGSC raised serious concerns about the City’s governance.

The DLGSC conducted an Authorised Inquiry from 2017-2019, because of the community’s concerns, which made adverse comments about the City. It is clear from the DLGSC’s more recent letters some material issues are still to be resolved. The MRRA still has serious concerns about Council’s oversight and governance of the City’s administration.

Tomas should not denigrate the MRRA, as it appears he has, or other community members that express their opinions and seek to uphold the community’s expectation of transparency and properly answers to public questions; something Tomas and other Elected Members are elected by individual residents to oversee and govern.

Tomas’ adverse reflections are inappropriate and unwarranted. Had we known about Tomas’ February email earlier we would we have submitted a Minor Misconduct complaint to the Standards Panel about him. This not the first time Tomas has made untrue and adverse comments about the MRRA.

Cr Tomas FITZGERALD please add your comments if you feel we have omitted or misrepresented anything material. Feel free to apologise here for your February email.

Please see:
DLGSC Governance Concerns: https://www.melvillecity.com.au/dlgsc
DLGSC 2019 Authorised Inquiry Report: https://www.dlgsc.wa.gov.au/docs/default-source/local-government/inquiries/report-of-the-inquiry-into-the-city-of-melville.pdf?sfvrsn=7ead4f05_1
Council February 20 minutes: https://www.melvillecity.com.au/our-city/our-council/agendas-and-minutes/ordinary-meeting-of-the-council/2024/february/ordinary-meeting-of-council-minutes-20-february-20

















Note: The MRRA has raised the above issues and expressed its opinion on matters which it believes are in the public interest based on information available, all in good faith to promote a healthy democracy.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT BUILDING COMPLIANCE FALLACIES - A clutch of WA local Council administrations are spruiking fallacies about their building compliance roles. Such behaviour says such administrations cannot be trusted to unbiasedly carry out the much needed 5 point inspection regime for new homes, or other enforcement.

Three major fallacies wrongfully spruiked are :

1. That the 2011 Building Act removed from local councils their responsibility and authority to carry out inspections of buildings that they issue building permits for.

Not correct. WA's Building Minister has stated: Part 8 Division 2 of the WA Building Act provides powers to local councils to inspect, test and enter premises where building work is being carried out in their geographic area. The local government also maintains powers to enforce compliance with applicable legislation and building standards.

2. Defective and/ or non-compliant building work is pretty much a property owner’s responsibility and, "by law, a local council has no responsibility for building inspections and therefore cannot accept any complaints about non-compliant building work."

Not correct. Successive Building Ministers have stated: Responsibility under WA’s Building Act for enforcing building permit conditions ( s.27 ) and compliance with applicable standards ( s.37 ) rests with
local councils as building permit authorities.

3. Whenever a retaining wall on or near a property boundary is not addressed under the Dividing Fences Act ( 1961 ), then it can be addressed by the Magistrates Court in parallel with the dividing fence. This jurisdiction comes under the Magistrates’ Court Act ( 2004 ) and is not within a council’s jurisdiction.

Completely incorrect. Numerous Magistrates have stated : "It is not in my power to make orders dealing with an application under the Dividing Fences Act for retaining walls. Retaining walls are not something which are within the scope of the Dividing Fences Act, so there is no jurisdiction to make any orders in respect to them."

See more at: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7109002837904281600/

https://www.industry.gov.au/news/building-ministers-meeting

There are thousands of Western Australians who are wanting a system of pro-active building audits & improved compliance with mandatory inspections for all new residential and buildings.

But moreover WA also suffers from a serious compliance gap with no oversight by the State Building Regulator of local councils in meeting their building permit and compliance obligations. We have hundreds of Western Australians who have suffered serious damage due to failures by some local councils to correctly fulfill their obligations under WA's building legislation.

In addition to continuing education and support for local councils the following legislative changes are required :

1. Proper oversight by the State regulator ( Building and Energy ) of local government authorities in the discharge of their duties under WA's building legislation. This includes permit authority functions, compliance duties, issuing of retrospective building approvals, etc. In particular, for Building and Energy to have the capacity to accept complaints, carrying out investigates, report findings and as necessary initiate corrective action in much the same manner as Building and Energy can do in regard a complaint against a building services provider.

2. Capability for Building and Energy to provide advice to council elected members as to the role & duties of a district building permit / compliance authority;

3. Require Local Government Authorities to include building function performance in their annual reporting. Currently there is no annual building function audit nor building performance reporting to ratepayers. While this enhancement could equally be part of changes to the Local Government Act Part 11 of the Building Act should be amended so as to assist the regulator in achieving the appropriate level of transparency.

4. Improve Building and Energy's oversight and controls of professionals in the building industry; typically building surveyors and structural engineers. Currently there is no mandated code of conduct for Building Surveyors and no regulatory governance of Structural Engineers.

5. Extend legislation & regulations to incorporate retaining walls for both broadfield subdivisions and individual lots. Also extend legislation to address unapproved changes to natural ground levels thereby closing the current gap that has allowed developers / builders to avoid prosecution when illegally making changes to natural ground levels prior to any building approvals.

6. Adopt specified ' design life ' structural warranties ( already offered by a number WA builders ) in order to discourage delinquent building behaviour and support consumer confidence. Where ' design life ' is a guaranteed structural life stipulated as part of the of the building contract.

[email protected]
Citizens for Building Reform WA

Western Australians Against Corruption in Local Government predicted some months ago the re-emergence of the strategy of punitive action against wronged ratepayers who dare to speak up as has been perpetrated against ratepayers by the new CEO at the City of Swan.

Whistleblowers and the like need to be thanked and protected; not bullied and persecuted. The laws need to change to protect those that call out bad government. https://www.hrlc.org.au/whistleblowers-on-trial-richard-boyle-and-david-mcbride

In 2023 what any ratepayer who is concerned about these attempts to silence wronged ratepayers should be doing is taking their concerns about such tactics by some local government administrations and their desire for more honest, transparent and accountable local government to their local state MLA and MLCs.

Pick up the phone and make an appointment to speak with your elected parliamentarians and let them know what you think of the dishonest behaviour that occurs in some local government administrations here in WA.

Geoff Keally
[email protected]
West Australians Against Corruption in Local Government