LORD mayor Lisa Scaffidi’s strongest ally gagged any debate about transparency at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Scaffidi critic Reece Harley had moved a motion that could see the lord mayor prevented from chairing the council’s audit committee.
The committee, which Ms Scaffidi currently heads, is responsible for keeping a close eye on the city’s “corporate governance and ethical considerations”, along with “legislative obligations”.
In a highly unusual move, Janet Davidson asked for the motion to be voted on without discussion, known in standing orders as a “procedural motion”.
It went through unanimously, as did a bunch of others where debate was similarly gagged.
Cr Harley’s motion asks the CEO to review the audit committee’s terms of reference and membership.
It notes “all other capital cities of Australia have an externally appointed and suitably qualified member as chair of their audit committee”.
Other motions that went through without a peep included:
• Cr Harley’s move to record council meetings and make them available publicly within a day;
• James Limnios’ request for a report on “examples of best practice accountability measures” used by other councils; and,
• Jemma Green’s motion for an online travel register with the date and duration of council travel, including costs, locations and purpose.
THE Greens are promising to double Perth’s tree canopy by 2040 under an “urban forest” plan.
Various councils like Vincent, Perth and Bayswater have policies to increase the dire coverage of trees over barren streets, but Greens WA senator Scott Ludlam reckons the issue is so serious it needs federal attention.
• Battery Park in New York: The Greens cite this as similar to green trails they’d like to see in Perth.
Bushland lost
Perth’s lost 75 per cent of its bushland and about a third of what’s left is at risk.
The Greens say this increases the intensity of heatwaves, which kill more Australians than any other natural disaster.
Climate change modelling suggests there’ll be twice as many heatwaves in Australia by 2050.
The main measures in the Greens plan are:
• protecting remaining bushland;
• planting green trails through Perth’s arteries;
• auditing trees every three years to measure canopies and health;
• a city-wide strategy to replace bitumen and concrete with turf, garden beds and rain gardens to reduce heat retention and runoff into rivers; and,
• $1.2 million a year to facilitate at least 10 per cent of buildings to have a ‘green’ roof, wall or facade.
Flashy graphics show people will have to give up a bit of their front lawn to reach the canopy target (something that could see blood in the streets given the Aussie sense of ownership over a patch of Sir Walter), but the policy outlines this would be via encouragement.
Aboriginal elders have been brought in to help design the plan and it sets aside $800,000 a year to engage elders to help map out where the urban forest will go and work in cultural trails.
KINGS PARK’S guides have been crowned WA’s community volunteer organisation of the year.
Last year the 125 volunteers took more than 48,000 visitors through the park, pointing out odd plants, rare wildflowers and signs of the shy animals like quenda or monitors that live in the park.
Volunteer Ann Newman has been doing it for 30 years.
She joined because she’d long been interested in plants, having worked at the herbarium in South Perth on the weekends.
Even when her working hours increased, she’d still put aside time to volunteer as a guide.
“I’m a people person, I like being with people,” she says.
• Ann Newman, a 30-year veteran of Kings Park’s guides, holds their volunteering award while Jennifer Weston, Chris Olney and Ursula Keel enjoy the bushland surroundings. Photo by Steve Grant
Thirty years ago when she signed up “it was very different, because the guides didn’t receive training of the same calibre that the guides of today receive”.
“We were out on our own. It was still a very interesting place but I think the park has improved immensely in making the experience for visitors better.
Ms Newman says one of the best changes in her time has been the move from the Mediterranean and English-style gardens to native bushland at the top of the hill near the visitor’s centre.
“People who used to come here would get this international experience, but now they get a truly Western Australian experience.
“It’s so much more appropriate.”
Ms Newman says she usually guides eastern states or overseas tourists, who are surprised by the park’s diversity.
“Because it’s so close to the city it’s such a unique experience for people.”
When it comes time for longer bushwalks that’s when Perth people show up.
COMPLAINTS about a Vincent Street block part-owned by lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi and her husband Joe continue to flow in.
Since December neighbours have complained about the clang of construction work outside permitted times at 285 Vincent Street.
The latest complaints allege the developers used noisy dewatering equipment throughout the night.
On May 4 Vincent city council issued a $250 fine and warned the builder to keep the dewatering process quiet or face fines up to $25,000.
• This build site has caused no end of grief for neighbours.
Vincent CEO Len Kosova says the city’s “considering taking further action in response to a noise complaint and is also now assessing an alleged breach of the Noise Abatement Direction”.
Meanwhile Vincent council is still chasing the owners for non-payment of two of the three $500 fines it issued after the block was used as an unauthorised inner city tip.
Mr Scaffidi’s assistant claimed the garbage was left there by previous owners but evidence found onsite suggests it came from the Scaffidi-owned Grand Central backpackers building, cleared out ahead of its recent renovations.
The owners of the site, 285 Vincent Pty Ltd, didn’t respond to queries.
LORD mayor Lisa Scaffidi reckons her breaches of the local government act haven’t damaged public confidence in Perth council, but its Facebook page is being hammered with calls for her to resign.
Even innocuous posts such as an article about the Perth Swing Dance Society are attracting sledges.
“SACK THE LORD MAYOR” Mark New commented with all-caps fury, while Wendy Watson volunteered; “If the City of Perth mayor Lisa Scaffidi truly thinks the West Australian public hasn’t lost confidence in her she truly has her head in the sand, and has lost touch with her constituency.”
Likewise a post about volunteers at the city’s visitor information booth got a couple of “Lisa needs to resign” comments, while older posts have had comments attached to them deleted.
When a Corruption and Crime Commission report came out last year finding Ms Scaffidi had engaged in serious misconduct, she still attracted a fair chunk of support in online discussions.
With a new report finding 45 instances where she failed to declare travel-related gifts or contributions, that support’s hard to find in today’s chatter.
So far online reviews of the City of Perth page (which affect its star rating) haven’t been too affected: We found two one-star reviews calling on her to resign. One roped in her husband, developer Joe Scaffidi.
Other one-star reviews complained about the number of homeless people living in the city, weeing in the streets and the eternal bugbear — parking (although many wrongly finger the city when it’s private operators gouging them).
Meanwhile in other online backlash, a troll (an anonymous troublemaker) has been tweeting as @Lisa_Scaffidi, quickly filling the Twitter account with satirical posts about the lord mayor.
One tweet included a picture of her at the hair dressers with the line “Cheers to the people of Perth for paying for all of my haircuts over the years!” and other, far cruder jibes.
The account has now been suspended and the tweeter’s identity is unknown, but the depth of information being drawn on suggests either an insider or a well-informed council watcher.
AUSTRALIA’S most jetsetting Australian lord mayor, Perth’s Lisa Scaffidi, is off again to China at a cost to ratepayers of $4,400.
The four-day tour of sister cities Nanjing and Chengdu is being organised by StudyPerth, a peak industry body for education institutes that aims to promote Perth as a good destination for foreign students.
Cr Jemma Green voted against sending Ms Scaffidi, saying she’d already called for the lord mayor to step aside pending an SAT investigation.
Cr Reece Harley was also a nay, saying StudyPerth already receives a substantial council grant and should pay for the mayor’s trip.He also wants the state government to contribute since the trips are supposed to benefit the whole metropolitan area, but Perth’s ratepayers are footing the whole bill.
Cr Lily Chen is originally from Nanjing and said sister city relationships are very important to the Chinese. Cr Chen said they have a deep respect for authority figures and the lord mayor going along would give the delegation gravitas and help open doors.
The spend was eventually approved and Ms Scaffidi defended her other trips — 112 in seven years according to the department of local government report.
She said 14 trips were for personal travel and 18 were related to her position on the Australian Press Council.
But the remainder still overshadow Australia’s second-most flighty mayor: Melbourne’s Robert Doyle was elected the same time as Ms Scaffidi but has been on 34 trips in the same period.
Ms Scaffidi said: “I appreciate the numerical number is confronting to some people, and some people would like to think these “trips” are holidays. They are work-related trips.”
BIG buildings projects approved by development assessment panels have had their billboards vandalised by opponents.
The contentious seven-storey Yolk Property Group project “Heir” at 11 King William Street in Bayswater had its virtues overwritten with descriptions of “27 POXY FLATS” for sale, with “ONLY ONE PARKING BAY”.
Another of Yolk’s DAP-approved mixed use developments near the corner of Scarborough Beach Road and Loftus Street in Mt Hawthorn was also targeted, with warnings about parking problems scrawled across the sign.
• The Heir project on King William Street has left some locals unhappy. Photo by Slim via Worst of Perth
Overruled
The five-storey mix of apartments and offices was one of the cases where the two elected members of Vincent council on the DAP were overruled by the three state-appointed members.
Yolk took quick action, covering the criticism in unsubtle white paint.
Before the vandalism popped up, Yolk responded to criticism from the community by telling the Voice a lot of interest in the project was actually coming from locals.
Director Pete Adams “is pleasantly surprised by the number of locals and investors looking to buy”, a release from the company said.
Yolk’s also let small creative businesses operate out of the property for free in the leadup to construction, due to start in five months.
BAYSWATER council is to resume recording its meetings and will now upload them to its website.
In 2010 the microphones were switched off at the height of internal squabbles which saw one councillor referred to as “poodlebrain”.
At the time former councillor Graham Pittaway claimed councillors were trawling through the recordings to find minor verbal errors made by factional enemies which were then used against them.
“Some newspapers even print this rubbish” he’d said.
After six years the motion’s been overturned “in what has been a very big win for transparency”, Cr Chris Cornish says.
It was third time lucky for Cr Cornish, who first tried to get meetings recorded back in 2012, and then again in 2014. This time around it was passed nine to one with only Cr Stephanie Coates opposed.
It’ll cost $90,000 but Cr Cornish notes the microphones are in need of an upgrade as there’s been recent complaints that “some people in the gallery can’t hear what is being said”.
Cr Cornish says “I’m proud of the in-depth debate which occurs at the City of Bayswater and believe the wider public should be able to hear it, especially on items which concern themselves,‚Äù.
He says now people who can’t make it to the meetings can listen in whenever they want.
Shorten changed
AGAIN Mr Shorten has promised many more millions of dollars to families and this time it’s swimming lesson for their kids.
I have nothing against kids learning to swim but taxpayers paying for it — I don’t think so.
Then Mr Shorten has promised to spend more millions of dollars on those who lost their jobs as a result of the closure of the car industries.
This decision was made during a Labor government period.
What about all those laid off from the mining industry, closure of small businesses, and those unemployed?
Mr Shorten’s 100 policy website lists spend, spend, spend but how or where he is getting the money from is not so clear. Higher tax and charges?
Mr Short and co are telling the unions what they are going to do for them but nothing about pensioners, retirees, veterans, the homeless, etc.
Mr Shorten I have heard that you are going to cut the pay and entitlements of all Defence Force personnel and reduce the pensions for those on a Dept of Veterans Affairs disability pensioners and war widows. Is this so?
Previous Labor Gov’t’s have! Steven Cruden Edwards St, Leda
For your eyes only
HAVING been reliably informed that letters to City of Bayswater councillors at their council address are, or have been, intercepted by someone other than the addressee, I wrote to mayor McKenna for his assurance this was not the case.
My letter was written on March 9 but to this time I have not received any assurance that the allegation is without foundation.
It is this writer’s belief that letters from ratepayers to their elected representatives should enjoy a degree of legal privilege and that access to to those letters by persons other than the addressee is a breach of that privilege.
Bayswater ratepayers should be assured that letters they write to their ward councillors reach them without interference.
The failure of Cr McKenna to respond to my letter might indicate an inability to offer the assurance that was sought. Vince McCudden Almondbury Street, Bayswater
WHAT a little marvel Garden Cafe on Guildford turned out to be.
It was pure pot luck stumbling across this Maylands newbie, as I was on the non-glam stretch of Guildford Road and in need of lunch between photo shoots. The frontage was a touch unprepossessing (it used to be the hydroponics shop) but the sign promised homestyle food.
I was quite taken aback stepping inside; it was cool. Melbourne cool!
The decor’s simple, bright, and soothing to the eyes after zipping up and down Guildford Road. Bench seats line the walls, with thin tables allowing more people in without anyone rubbing noses. My only gripe was my table was a little wobbly and not adjustable.
• Denise Starr; a warm, friendly welcome.
The welcome was also notably friendly. At first I thought it might be because I was the only customer and they were desperately happy to see anyone in these grim budget times, but it soon became apparent they’re genuinely warm people with a passion for what they do.
Garden Cafe’s owned by Merrellyn O’Callaghan, who spent a miserable year wrapping toasties for tradies in Morley while dreaming of a funky cafe. When the old hydro shop came up, she jumped at the chance. A keen gardener, it’s got a covered outdoor area she’s in the throes of transforming it from a Gaza strip horror into a green oasis. She reckons it’ll be ready in a month or two.
The menu’s not extensive, and heavily weighted towards brunchers, but there’s a good selection of bagels and rolls at the counter ready for taking away.
I went for the angus beef burger and fries ($16.50) and realised that someone in that kitchen really knows their stuff.
The pattie was perfectly juicy and richly flavoured, I can’t even recall biting into the bacon it was so tender, and the shoe string fries were hot, crisp and beautifully salty.
Lifting it all was an oh-so-sweet onion jam that was something special.
Intrigued, I did a little digging and discovered the secret was the divine Connie, out the back whipping fresh seasonal produce into all sorts of delicious food.
And that’s where we get to the baked treats.
It’s citrus season and she’s just produced a batch of lemon curd that’s been baked into the most divine lemon and almond cupcake I’ve ever tasted. The top was thick and crispy and the centre light and fluffy, and every bite with that sweet/sour curd just made my mouth water.
Connie bakes all the cakes, cupcakes and muffins (there’s also gorgeous-looking savouries) in-house and I bet it won’t be long before her fame spreads.
With a couple of mugs of coffee under my now-stretching belt, I walked out $30 lighter, which given the quality of what I’d just eaten, was great value.
by STEVE GRANT
Garden Cafe on Guildford 317 Guildford Rd, Maylands 7am – 3pm, Tues – Sat
Perth Voice Interactive 