Perth Voice Interactive

JOHN GIORGI’S 20-year reign as CEO at Vincent ends this year, with the council voting overwhelmingly not to renew his contract when it falls due December 31.

A confidential vote at last week’s council meeting—the Voice was told it was a crushing seven-to-one result—brought down the shutters on Mr Giorgi’s hopes to stay in the job.

Before the vote—during the part of the meeting that was open to the public and the media—the tension in the air was so thick you could taste it.

‘I can only do so much. I’m working extremely long hours. Tonight you’re doing my contract of employment—I can only take so much.’ John Giorgi

A suggestion by Cr Ros Harley that a working group be formed to deal with council merger issues was met with Mr Giorgi complaining he was being worked to the bone.

“You’re putting so much work and pressure and stress on me at the moment that I’m at absolute capacity,” he told the mayor and councillors.

“With all the issues that have been going on recently I am stressed, and this will put further pressure on me. That’s all I’ll say.”

Mayor John Carey replied: “The amalgamation process is stressful for everyone. We’re all under enormous pressure to deliver for our community and this amalgamation process puts all councils under strain.”

Mr Carey said it was vital the working group be formed so the council could make its best case to the government: “If there’s an alternative, CEO, I’m interested in the alternative.”

Mr Giorgi said the proposal should have been raised with him before the meeting.

“To put this up at council without discussing it today is unreasonable,” he said.

“I can only do so much. I’m working extremely long hours, there are a lot of issues in the organisation that you’re well aware of.

“Tonight you’re doing my contract of employment—I can only take so much.”

Cr John Pintabona was the only elected member to vote to keep the CEO.

He proposed a motion to keep Mr Giorgi until the mergers in June 2015, saying an experienced CEO was needed and Mr Giorgi had been through the Perth city council break-up in 1994.

He pointed out Mr Giorgi had scored a 75 per cent satisfactory rating in his most recent performance report and keeping him until mergers happened would mean stability for ratepayers and staff. The motion lapsed for want of a seconder.

In the past 10 of his years leading Vincent (he’s done 20 all up) Mr Giorgi has scored nine “satisfactory” ratings and one “exceed[ing]”. His performance bonus has dropped from $15,000 in 2008 to $5000 in 2013.

by DAVID BELL

The Voice says:

THIS newspaper’s relationship with John Giorgi has been on-again off-again over the years and at times it’s been downright hostile.

He played no small role in the council’s decision some years ago under mayor Nick Catania to cease advertising with the Voice (which we believe was punishment for our robust reporting of council affairs).

That said, we wish the CEO well and believe the people of Vincent owe him a debt of gratitude for his service.

Mr Giorgi hails from the old school of council bureaucrats, for the most part taking a back seat to the elected council and following its lead and directions.

He’s a nuts and bolts manager, leaving the “vision thing” to the elected council while he set about implementing its ideas. There should be more of it: Too many CEOs play politician.

Under his administrative leadership over the past 20 years Vincent has thrived. Facilities are popular and well maintained (until recently Beatty Park was the exception, though through little fault of the council’s), the streets are tidy, retailing, cafe culture and local arts are lively and residents are engaged with their community: Vincent is a lovely place to live and work in—not every municipality can boast the same.

Mr Giorgi may not have been responsible for the policies that are responsible for Vincent’s stunning success as a small city, but neither has he stood in the way of their implementation.

He has, to our mind, been a diligent servant of the Vincent council and deserves its thanks.

JOHN GIORGI started his career in local government as a mailboy at Perth city council, moving through the ranks to become controller of health services, senior health surveyor and records officer.

When Richard Court’s Liberal government split Perth in 1994 to create Vincent, Cambridge and Shepparton (later renamed Victoria Park) Mr Giorgi won the job as inaugural CEO of the newly created town council. He’s worked with mayors Jack Marks, John Hyde, Nick Catania, Alannah MacTiernan and John Carey.

When the spectre of mergers arose Mr Giorgi remarked Vincent had been set up to fail from the very beginning, having a less lucrative ratebase than Perth.

He said nobody had expected the municipality to survive but in its 20-year life it had in fact thrived. In 2011 its population growth to 30,000 resulted in its status changing from town to city.

A soccer referee and cat lover—who has had an on-again mostly off-again relationship with the Voice over the years—was unavailable for interview this week, having taken leave shortly after the council’s decision.

VINCENT’S two most recent mayors have very different opinions on the council’s decision to axe John Giorgi.

Immediate-past mayor Alannah MacTiernan, now the federal Labor MP for Perth, believes the council made the right choice. She’d worked alongside Mr Giorgi for two years.

“I think in this critical lead-up to this restructure the council would be looking for someone that possibly is more focussed on some of the more contemporary issues.

“My read of it is the council is wanting to ensure they have the ability to influence the final shape of the new City of Perth.

“Every organisation needs renewal: It would be most unusual outside local government for there to be a CEO continuing on for that length of time.”

Surprised

Former mayor Nick Catania worked with Mr Giorgi for 10 years from 2001. He’s surprised by the decision and can’t see the logic in it.

“The council, for all intents and purposes, only has a life of about 18 months,” he told the Voice. “They’ve got to pick someone else, train them, and then it’s time to go.”

He’d always found the CEO to be “very professional, very diligent and hard-working, all those attributes that made my job easier”.

“He’s one of the most experienced men in the industry in WA. I think he’s proven to be a man of integrity.

‘He didn’t throw money away, he didn’t splurge’

“I find it strange, and I feel for John because I worked with him for such a long time and we had a professional relationship that yielded many positives for Vincent: Beatty Park, NIB stadium, the work we did on beautifying Vincent, the start of the renewal of Hyde Park lakes.

“We did a lot during that time and it changed the face of Vincent for the better.

“So I’m surprised that they’ve taken that decision.”

When Vincent was first set up it was the poor neighbour to Perth and known as ‘St Vincent de Paul’.

“We were very frugal and that’s an attribute that John had: He didn’t throw money away, he didn’t splurge,” Mr Catania said.

“We were able to hook into local grants from state and federal governments…we were declared one of the sustainable councils and given full marks [for viability], that’s under his guidance.”

As to claims the council needs some fresh blood, Mr Catania says the public and private sectors are “two different animals” and 20 years’ experience counts for much.

“If you’re doing a good job, the old saying is if it isn’t broke, don’t try to mend it.

“If his delivery was fine, and he delivered what his KPIs and contract stated, what’s wrong with staying there 20 years?

“I don’t know what reasoning or logic there is to that decision.”

But former councillor Dudley Maier—who served on council for much of Mr Giorgi’s tenure—supports the decision. He’d voted against renewing the CEO’s contract four years ago.

“I think they’ve made the right decision and it’s been made in the best interests of the community,” he told the Voice.

“Every organisation needs an update and some new blood from time to time. Vincent has some great employees and I think some renewal might be the spark that lets them shine and bring about some really good outcomes.” He’d also consistently voted against Mr Giorgi receiving a performance bonus, saying it shouldn’t be paid on a “satisfactory” rating.

FERVENT disagreement over a shared road between Vincent and Perth has bubbled to the fore, and they’re not even merged yet.

Newcastle Street is the current border between the two councils.

Perth, which controls the south, wants to convert Newcastle Street to four lanes to ease congestion and takes aim at “traffic calming measures” the East Perth Redevelopment Authority installed 10 years ago.

“It’s a 1950s way of thinking that when there is a traffic problem, you widen the roads,”

Vincent says it’s crazy to rip up the trees and nibs and pull out on-street parking that it had chipped in cash to.

“It’s a total step backwards, it’s a knee-jerk reaction to perceived traffic stemming from Elizabeth Quay, as far as I can tell,” Vincent councillor and transport wizard Cr Matt Buckels said.

“It’s a 1950s way of thinking that when there is a traffic problem, you widen the roads,” mayor John Carey said. “This is an example of a clear difference between the City of Perth and City of Vincent.”

He fears that if a Perth-Vincent council merger is announced and Perth councillors are given free reign over Vincent for four months before an election for the new amalgamated body is held, these will be the sorts of decisions rammed through without local representation.

Vincent will tell Perth it does not support the plan.

by DAVID BELL

SUBIACO city council has formally endorsed a plan to merge with Perth city council (as predicted in the Voice, December 14, 2013).

Subi’s first preference is to remain independent and nab a slice of Jolimont, but seeing the Barnett government is dead set on amalgamations, councillors voted “under perceived duress” to submit another option—to merge with the PCC.

If the local government advisory board recommends the merger to WA local government minister Tony Simpson it will put a spanner in the works for Vincent, which is also hoping to marry Perth.

Perth lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi is happier merging with Subi than Vincent. She says Subi has a “very interesting” proposal “warranting diligent consideration”.

“On the surface, having Subiaco within the City of Perth appears to be more logical than having lower-density northern areas of the City of Vincent.

“If the state government were to have taken a sensible and strategic approach to expanding City of Perth it might have made more sense to include inner-city suburban areas like the centre of Subiaco, before including typically suburban areas such as Mt Hawthorn.”

Strong capital

The PCC’s preferred option is to take only a small slither of Vincent, along with Burswood, UWA and the QEII hospital.

“We firmly assert it is all about shaping a strong capital city,” Ms Scaffidi says, with the council’s hired gun Professional Public Relations selling the message that mergers are a “rare chance to shape Perth”.

Vincent mayor John Carey says “there is no logical argument that says ‘put Subiaco in, but don’t put North Perth or Mount Hawthorn in, it just doesn’t make sense”.

He says Subi’s submission—which includes splitting up his council—doesn’t allow Vincent residents to determine their own future. Submissions are due to the LGAB by March 13.

by DAVID BELL

FOR four months, amidst huge decisions affecting the city’s amenity, Vincent council’s development assessment panel has been missing half its local representation.

When the WA government set up DAPs to supposedly streamline the development approval process for big projects, they were supposed to comprise of three state-appointed expert members and two local elected councillors.

But at October’s election most of the elected members trained and approve to sit in on the DAPs—Alannah MacTiernan, Dudley Maier and Warren McGrath—retired.

That’s left Josh Topelberg on his own.

When the DAP sits this Friday he and appointed members Clayton Higham, Ian Birch and Lou D’Alessandro will consider four projects worth between $3 million and $12.7 million—the latter a gamechanger four-storey project for Charles Street that’s up for approval, and another a five-storey development on Fitzgerald Street.

At its first meeting after the October elections the council voted for three new members to join, but in the four months since the Barnett government has failed to approve them.

WA planning minister John Day says his department only received the council’s submission in December—more than a month after the election—and it has “recently forwarded it to my office”.

“As is the usual practice with DAP appointments, I consider the submission which is then presented to cabinet for a final decision to be made.”

“The appointments will be announced in the near future”.

Cr Topelberg says the DAPs were created to “diminish community sentiment” in planning decisions and having just one elected member rather than two risks thinning it further.

“I don’t see it as a burden for me personally; it doesn’t impact my decision-making being the only one there.

“But for my community I think it’s fair that they have two voices there.”

by DAVID BELL

THE Stay in Stirling campaign is ramping up again as the merger process gets to the pointy end, with submissions to the local government advisory board due March 13.

The council has called for more community meetings opposing WA government plans for a Stirling split up, with mayor Giovanni Italiano urging anyone who cares about their hip pocket and their neighbourhood’s amenity to come along.

“it’s mainly the fear for heritage”

“There’s no point sitting on the fence in this matter, we are fighting for our residents and we are fighting to ensure that the state government doesn’t just decide to carve us up to make the financing of this whole affair more affordable,” Cr Italiano said in a statement announcing the meetings.

“Rates may increase for everyone, services will be reduced, our heritage is under threat and major strategic projects may be put into jeopardy.”

Mt Lawley Society president Bruce Wooldridge told the Voice, “it’s mainly the fear for heritage” which has him most worried. He says Stirling has a good record on its historic buildings with its heritage protection areas.

But chunks of the council could be shipped off to Bayswater which he said has been sending “mixed messages” on heritage, with two old buildings on Guildford Road recently being given the thumbs up for demolition.

“We believe that Stirling has the most effective heritage protection regime in place of any council in Australia, with Bayswater’s (and Perth and Vincent’s) existing approaches and philosophies being fundamentally flawed,” Mr Wooldridge’s submission says.

The next public meeting is at the Bob Daniels community centre, 895 Beaufort Street Inglewood on February 22 from 10am.

by DAVID BELL

BAYSWATER city council (whose motto is ‘The Garden City’) is moving to cut down another tree. Staff have recommended the chainsaw for a four-metre jacaranda on Peninsula Road after a resident complained it blocked light from a street lamp and damaged unspecified “civil infrastructure”. It won’t be replaced. The axing follows Coode Street trees getting the snip after sustaining collar rot, and the removal of an arson-damaged historic tree at Halliday Park.

THE plan for a floating helipad in Perth’s CBD is dead in the water with the WA government refusing to kick in funds.

Perth city council’s been angling for a helipad to service high-flying executives and tourists ever since the old one at the foreshore was pulled up about 10 years ago. Another temporary pad at East Perth was removed when the Waterbank development got underway in 2011.

“I haven’t given up on this”

The PCC has six companies offering to build a new floating helipad in the river, but wants the government to contribute.

“It’s very sad that we can’t get a helicopter service in the city,” Cr Judy McEvoy said following news of the Barnett government’s refusal.

“I think it’s very disappointing, when we had the one at Point Fraser it worked extremely well.”

Lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi says the idea isn’t dead, it’s just resting.

“I haven’t given up on this,” she said, hinting she may join forces with the corporate sector for a PCC-privately funded project.

by DAVID BELL