Perth Voice Interactive

GARY STEVENSON has been sacked as CEO at Perth city council, just three years after ratepayers were told he was “head and shoulders” above other candidates for the job.

The chief executive was terminated Wednesday morning by a unanimous vote of lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi and councillors, despite having almost two years remaining on his five-year contract. The decision is likely to lead to a sizeable payout.

In a media statement the council said it wanted to “set a new direction”.

Mr Stevenson has been at the helm of the council during the tumultuous mergers process — eventually abandoned by the Barnett government — and through the corruption and crime commission’s expenses investigation and misconduct findings into the lord mayor.

The Voice understands that in the wake of the CCC’s probe into Ms Scaffidi, Mr Stevenson referred actions of other elected members onto the commission — as he is required to do — because those actions may have led to similar misconduct breaches. Those matters are still being investigated.

Ms Scaffidi — who had been a member of the three-member panel that had recommended Mr Stevenson’s appointment— told journalists the CEO’s termination was unrelated to her issues with the CCC.

“The issue is completely mutually exclusive or separate to that issue, not related, and I think that’s confirmed in the unanimity of the decision,” the ABC reported her saying.

Planning director Martin Mileham is acting CEO.

by DAVID BELL

PERTH lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi is the co-owner of a development site fined by Vincent city council over mounds of dumped rubbish.

The land at 285 Vincent Street is owned by a company called 285 Vincent Pty Ltd. More than two-thirds of the shares in that company are owned by LisaJoe Investments Pty Ltd, which is co-owned by Ms Scaffidi and her builder husband, Joe, according to ASIC. The property owners were recently fined $1500 by Vincent council over the amount of garbage on the site, much of which appeared to have been dumped there from another location says Vincent CEO Len Kosova.

The garbage — which had included soiled mattresses according to neighbours — was recently removed.

Mr and Ms Scaffidi also own a building in Wellington Street, Perth, that has been trading as the Grand Central Backpackers.

The building is currently undergoing significant renovations, with a change in signage and the removal of various materials.

The Voice asked Mr and Ms Scaffidi if any material from the building had been dumped at Vincent Street, but we received a “no comment”.

This week Kay P Collinson, office manager for 285 Vincent Pty Ltd, wrote to the Voice to complain about last week’s front page coverage.

She blames sub-contractors for working outside allowed hours, and a previous owner for leaving garbage on-site.

“The article is full of factual errors, which we realise does not concern you as this is a weekly occurance (sic),” she wrote, “but we would urge you to, in the future, focus on who was at fault and not guess or suggest it was people, that in this case had no involvement, in creating “the tip” that was referred to.”

by DAVID BELL

PLIE, en pointe, and repeat — seven hours a day, five days a week.

That’s life right now for 16-year-old Bronte Pike.

The ballerina spends 40 hours a week practising her craft at Osborne Park’s Perth School of Ballet, co-directed by her mother Simone Jackson-Pike.

When not dancing and training, Bronte’s nose is in books: she’s completing year 12 by correspondence.

When conversation turns to boys and parties, she notes, “those things are just not important to me”.

Mature and career-driven, she’ll travel through Europe and the US from March to July to audition at some of the world’s most renowned ballet schools, such as Germany’s Hamburg Ballet.

Bronte’s mother notes just 12 other students have been offered career opportunities like this in her 25 years running the Osborne Park school.

Bronte is determined to become a professional dancer but doesn’t want to let go of her studies: leaving school was a tough decision but one she made to pursue her dream.

“I don’t know how I’ll do it,” she laughs of the juggle required. “But you’ve just got to give it a go.”

Bronte is asking for help to get her overseas via gofundme.com (“Perth ballet dancer heading abroad”) and so far she’s raised $1200.

by EMMIE DOWLING

AT least one Northbridge landowner will lose property to accommodate a bus layover for the new underground busport.

Despite the $209 million project starting two years ago, the first mention of the layover was in last month’s mid-year budget review.

The proposed layover site is just south of Graham Farmer Freeway, with James and John streets as access points.

WA transport Minister Dean Nalder says up to $5.5 million can be spent acquiring land.

“It was always required that additional bus layover area be created somewhere in the CBD,” Mr Nalder says.

West Swan Labor MP Rita Saffioti claims the minister is “making it up as he goes”.

“Yet again the minister has no idea what is actually going on.”

She says she’s talked to local business owners who were oblivious about the layover until news broke this week.

by EMMIE DOWLING

THE WA government has rejected the Mt Hawthorn community’s concerted campaign to ban flats in their back streets.

Ninety per cent of surveyed residents supported the Vincent city council’s proposed amendment to its town planning scheme to ban multiple dwellings in residential streets, restricting them to main perimeter roads.

But WA planning minister John Day has knocked back the amendment request, stating existing rules are good enough.

Mayor John Carey says his staff advise that’s baloney, with several suburban sites in Mount Hawthorn having the potential for flats. The amalgamation of adjoining blocks also gives rise to their potential.

“I am deeply disappointed,” Mr Carey says. “I think the planning minister is out of touch on this issue… it’s arrogant to say ‘we know best’.

“The community campaigned heavily on this issue, there was an overwhelming response for the ban on multiple dwellings.

“This is not the NIMBY brigade, because the City of Vincent is meeting our density targets along our transport corridors. High density along transport corridors makes sense, then allow lower density character areas behind them.

“Our ban on apartment blocks didn’t prevent infill: you could still do townhouses, you could still subdivide your block.”

Richard Morup says the government has treated the community with “contempt”.

“We look to our local council planning scheme to protect our neighbourhood,” he says.

“I’ve heard the minister tells councils that they need to update their scheme to better manage infill development pressure, yet here our council is trying to do so and he knocks them back.

“From the perspective of ordinary families, you buy a home in a character area with the expectation that character is protected by the planning scheme, and a locally elected council is controlling the local planning decisions.

“People invest in the area with the expectation of some certainty from the planning system.”

by DAVID BELL

OVERSEAS trips at ratepayers’ expense will be banned if Bayswater councillor Brent Fleeton gets his way.

Fresh from convincing colleagues late last year to slash clothing expenses the new councillor — elected in October — now has council-funded trips in his sights.

In the two years to July 2015, former councillor Mike Anderton and Cr Barry McKenna made three trips between them — each costing between $3500 and $5700 — to Auckland to attend accounting and engineering conferences.

“The annual jaunt to New Zealand, which some of my colleagues have enjoyed for years, should be a thing of the past,” Cr Fleeton says. “With pensioners under increasing cost of living pressures, rates continuing to rise above acceptable levels, are we really going to keep saying every year that funding council and staff junkets is a priority? I wouldn’t have thought so.”

Cr McKenna, who is now mayor, did not answer the Voice’s calls before the paper’s deadline.

Budget cut

Cr Fleeton, a Liberal party staffer, also wants to limit trips within Australia. He says staff should only be allowed on “one-off” trips across the country.

He wants the mayor’s $15,000 annual travel budget cut to $10,000 and councillors’ budgets slashed from $7500 to $1500.

Bayswater residents’ association president Tony Green says video can replace a lot of travel: “Time to move with the times, Bayswater, and to cut out all the unnecessary costs in local government,” he says.

But council spokeswoman Julia Kogan suggests the council may not be ready to embrace virtual attendance.

“Human interaction is diminished and the technology is not suited for entire conferences where break-out sessions and elective workshops are the norm and group dynamics important,” she says.

“The value of this networking should not be underrated, as it provides elected members with an opportunity to keep a ‘finger on the pulse of the industry’ and consider innovative solutions to service delivery.”

by EMMIE DOWLING

WHY did Perth city council cover up this artwork by famous street artist Anthony Lister?

We have no idea and Perth city council media man Michael Holland says he’s simply far too busy to answer questions.

Last Thursday a worker was spotted in Shafto Lane painting over the mural.

We asked why, wondering if it was a balls-up or if the building owner requested it (there’ve been stuff ups in the past—neighbouring Vincent council last year painted over a huge Stormie Mills piece that was rightfully allowed there).

We gave the council 18 hours’ notice but Mr Holland says it’s not enough time given he’s dreadfully, dreadfully busy with the lord mayor’s bushfire appeal: “Priority/urgent matters such as the bushfires appeal take precedence.”

While the council’s not talking the public has been vocal about its feelings, hitting up the popular public art page Streets of Perth to express disapproval.

“I put this on par with burning books,” Siobhan Irwin opined, somewhat melodramatically.

“Maybe clear up the litter on the ground before spending money on bland shitty paint,” Chris McCormack said of the cover-up job.

by DAVID BELL

ALONG with the lamb chops and oi! oi! oi! flag capes, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures will be marked this Australia Day down at Ozone Reserve. The Survival Perth event is at Ozone this year because the usual spot at supreme court gardens is undergoing extensive upgrades to make it nice and shiny for Elizabeth Quay. The concert starts 3pm with a welcome to country and flag-raising and runs through to 7.30pm with musos like Richard Walley, Gina Williams and The Merindas and it’s all free (and alcohol-free) alongside Langley Park where you can also hang to watch the fireworks and laser show at 8pm. January 26 is controversial as it marks the founding of the colony of NSW in 1788, and is known by many as Invasion Day for the deaths and mistreatment that followed.

VOICE photographer Matthew Dwyer spotted some guerilla sculpting down in Leederville, with some arty sort making the best of a dead grass tree and turning it into a three-storeyed artwork. A local tells us the Stamford Street trees were put in by council but despite their hardy nature all four died.