Perth Voice Interactive

ONE of the founders of a new resident and business group in Vincent says they’ve discovered an undercurrent of deep discontent about how Vincent council is being run (“Coy RASBA ruffles feathers,” Voice, October 7, 2023).

Businessman Greg Johnson, who has run Tredway Shoes in Mt Hawthorn for decades, said anger about a trial that saw free one-hour parking scrapped across the city was just the tip of iceberg.

Mr Johnson said he met fellow business owners, including Shawn Offer from Fresh Provisions and Siena’s of Leederville part-owner Andrew Parissis, at the council meeting where they pleaded unsuccessfully for the council to abandon the trial.

He said they were furious when CEO David MacLennan trumped their call by suggesting Vincent charge just $1 for the first hour instead of the full fee, which was embraced by the majority of councillors.

There was also anger that paid parking was in breach of an agreement with Mt Lawley business owner Gerard O’Brien, under which the council controls the car park but doesn’t charge his customers.

“How much was accrued?” Mr Johnson wants to know.

“Why wasn’t it returned?

“The auditor general might qualify the audit knowing the revenue raised is in breach of a legal agreement.”

Mr Johnson said following the meeting the businessmen decided that they should form a new association, as there hadn’t been a local chamber of commerce since the greater Perth council was broken up and Vincent council created in 1994.

They formed the Residents and Small Business Association of Vincent and got a website and a Facebook page up not long before campaigns kicked off for the local government election, ruffling some feathers amongst candidates who felt they weren’t getting a fair go.

Mr Johnson said that pales into insignificance compared to those who’ve joined because they’re not happy with the status quo.

“Every day there’s new people signing up,” says Mr Johnson, scrolling through his social media accounts to prove the point.

But he says while the parking issue kicked things off, members’ concerns had since morphed and they’d been looking into them since being raised.

Rates

First was the rates. He says while the council adopted a 4.5 per cent rate increase, following a revaluation by the valuer general, some residents’ bills were actually closer to 17 per cent higher, which he feels is excessive.

That’s been exacerbated by what he sees as an overly-ambitious capital expenditure budget. While Vincent hasn’t managed to spend more than $10 million in the last decade, and regularly has to carry over unspent money, this year it has budgeted for around $15 million.

Mr Johnson says on its regular form, that means the council has unnecessarily collected $5 million from ratepayers already being squeezed by rising cost-of-living expenses.

And for the candidates who complained RASBA gave preference to mayoral candidate Ron Alexander (who’d voted against the paid parking trial) and ward candidate Ashlee La Fontaine with profiles on its website, Mr Johnson said it was mainly because they’d announced their candidacy early. After that, he said, RASBA merely pointed people to all the profiles on the council’s election webpage.

by STEVE GRANT