Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting of the Greater Geelong City Council held at the Council Conference and Reception Centre - City Hall on 11 November 2014, commencing at 7:00pm.
Colin Wallace
Janice Pocock
Cr D Lyone (Mayor)
Crs:
T Ansett
L Ellis
J Farrell
K Fisher
B Harwood
M Heagney
J Irvine
S Kontelj
R Macdonald
D Frost (Acting Chief Executive Officer)
M Kelly (Acting General Manager Corporate Services)
P Bettess (General Manager Economic Development, Planning and Tourism)
G Van Driel (General Manager City Services)
J McMahon (General Manager Community Services
P Jane (Acting General Manager Projects, Recreation and Central Geelong)
K Fulton (Acting Manager Financial Services)
J Brown (Manager Administration and Governance)
R Bourke (Co-ordinator Governance & Legal Services)
J Merlo (Senior Media Officer)
A Paterson (EO - Mayor)
The Mayor declared the meeting open at 7:00pm.
The Meeting observed a one minute’s silence in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts.
Council acknowledges Wadawurrung Traditional Owners of this land and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People who are part of the Greater Geelong community today.
E Kontelj
R Nelson (Leave of Absence)
A Richards (Leave of Absence)
Cr Harwood moved, Cr Irvine seconded -
That Leave of Absence be granted to Cr Macdonald from 12-23 November, inclusive and Cr Lyons (Mayor) from 13 December 2014 to 11 January 2015, inclusive.
Carried.
Cr Ansett moved, Cr Ellis seconded -
That the Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting held on 28 October 2014 be confirmed and signed.
Carried.
Nil.
Question Time is an opportunity for questions to be addressed to Council and while the minutes record the general content, they do not purport to be a transcript of what was said by individuals. Likewise Councillor or Officer verbal responses are in summary form only. Views expressed may not be the views of Council.
Council's practice is to provide a separate document on its website setting out questions and responses including any more detailed written responses which may be provided subsequent to the meeting.
Colin Wallace asked:
At the 9 September 2014 Council Meting, I asked why the opportunity for members of the public using the publicly accessible Council website geelongaustralia.com.au to access by themselves Minutes from before 2012 was taken away and if that access would be restored. The subsequent written response signed by Acting General Manager Corporate Services Mike Kelly encourages the belief that the decision to take away this access coincided with a change to PDF and that the cost of converting to PDF the Minutes from prior to 2012 was not justified, given the use members of the public were making of these Minutes, according to some apparent monitoring. In fact, when the access as described was taken away in December 2012, the Minutes going back about ten years were already in PDF, so whatever cost there would be in converting to PDF the Minutes of the period going back about ten years from December 2012 had already been incurred. Therefore, simply and starkly what happened was that members of the public used to be able to access by themselves on geelongaustralia.com.au the Minutes from before 2012 going back about ten years, but in December 2012 – straight after what was the last Council Meeting of that year and just the third ordinary Meeting in the mayoralty of Keith Fagg – that public access was taken away and you have to wonder why a government that purports to run democratically would do that.
In light of this and, recognising that the officer responsible for providing the written response for Mike Kelly to sign is Manager Administration and Governance John Brown and the officer responsible for forwarding this letter to me is Manager Customer Service and Councillor Support Tim McDonald, also that in December 2012 John Brown and Tim McDonald between them had responsibility for taking away public access to Minutes as described and diverting members of the public seeking access to such Minutes to customer service centres which were then and are still within Tim McDonald’s department, and in further recognition that Mike Kelly bore no line responsibility for what was done as described in December 2012 and that it would be unfair expecting him to know that the belief to do with PDF encouraged in the letter he signed was bogus, would Mr Kelly consider that he was misinformed by officers within the City of Greater Geelong, with particular responsibility at the feet of two managers in his division reporting directly to him, Manager Administration and Governance John Brown and Manager Customer Services and Councillor Support Tim McDonald?
Michael Kelly responded he would take the question on notice for a further written response.
Janice Pocock asked the following in respect of the Whittington War Memorial Kindergarten:
In relation to the above kindergarten, there was for many, many years photographs of the five men who passed away in the Second World War displayed in the old infant welfare centre. My question is: where are those photos now and would like them to be put back in their rightful place?
The Mayor took the question on notice for a written response.
Nil.
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