UNDERWHELMINGNESS IN LAUNCESTON'S CBD

Reposted from LCC News

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THE UNDERWHELMING BLANK CANVAS was how the Launceston Chamber for Commerce EO, Neil Grose, described the new Brisbane Street Mall when asked on ABC radio on Friday morning after businesses “had done it tough” over the last couple of months. 

What a sad DISGRACE that the Launceston City Council allowed the waste of $26.5m to rebuild the Civic Square and Mall only to be labelled as looking UNFINISHED and BLAND. 

Even the LCC General Manager, Michael Stretton, all but admitted on Tasmania Talks radio that more ratepayers money will need to be spent FIXING the MISTAKES including identified HAZARDOUS structures and confessed to receiving numerous COMPLAINTS from public. 

How much more money has to be spent on this stuff up? Ratepayers will be facing a MULTI-MILLION dollar bill – yet again. 

There is NO allocation of money in the budget for upgrades – the Mall and Civic Square were meant to be the FINISHED projects (despite what Neil Grose incorrectly indicated). 

Surely, then, in the planning process someone would have highlighted to the council the ERRORS of their ways? YES there was, but were they listened to? 

The answer to this question in an open letter to council is a MUST READ on Tasmanian Ratepayers Association…. https://tasratepayers.blogspot.com/2018/09/civic-works-critiques-and-worries.html (WARNING - prepare yourself to be shocked!) 

It is time for a CHANGE in council and it is in DESPERATE need for a clean out!! Please SHARE with your friends so that they too can see the TRUTH that council would prefer to be kept quiet.

'J' A peed of punter

EDITOR'S NOTE Ratepayers seem to have a lot of choice when it comes to the election that is upon us. There are enough candidates to turn every incumbent alderperson out to grass spending more time on other business pursuits and being able to get on with going places etc.

Well it sounds easy and in many ways it should. The incumbents have hardly bathed themselves in glory in their four years. That four year timeframe was supposed to allow them the opportunity to achieve something without the distraction of being held to 'electoral accountability'. 

It is now evident that without that 'distraction' you can manage to achieve very little beyond generating a humongous debt - $20Million!. 

Spending ratepayer's money is as they say 'dead easy' but getting VALUE for it is another thing. It is especially hard if you listen to the wrong 'experts' who themselves have found quasi experts who will agree with them and underpin their 'expert advice' and 'deem' it to be 'ridgy-didge, spot-on, the full bottle, whatever.

Apparently, going by the outcomes, Launceston has been blessed with such an expert with all the appropriate connections. Trouble is, corners have been cut, thought bubbles taken seriously and the constituency has been sidelined on the strength of a perception that they are bunch of 'know nothing hicks and wannabes'. 

THE INCUMBENTS well they just stood back and collected their stipends while they allowed the tail to wag the thylacines in Town Hall, around in the Mall and in other places. OUTCOME? A strategic mess. Ronald Reagan, always said that the "status quo" was Latin for 'THE MESS WE'RE IN'.

THE CHANGE PARADIGM AND ELECTIONS

THE STORY

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COUNCIL ELECTIONS: Now that council elections are coming up I have to ask who in the George Town municipality is worth voting for? 

As a country resident I know only one councillor who has stood up for us and fought for our needs. As far as I know the rest of them couldn’t care less. 

 If they want my vote and those of the rest of the country areas, how about taking the time to visit these areas and discuss their needs and grievances and show they are capable of doing more than just increasing the rates every year. ......................... Malcolm McCulloch, Pipers River.


WHY VOTE IN COUNCIL ELECTIONS?

Bloody good question! The increasing level of disconnects between aldermen/councillors is concerning. It has become more so with the all-in-all-out-four-year-terms that Tasmanian now have been saddled with. 

There was a time when you could laugh off say the excesses of Launceston's Robin McKendrick who was so very often quoted as saying, paraphrased, 'we were elected to make decisions let's get on and make them' and 'if they do not like it then they can vote us out.' It's the stuff of legends and it never really passed the pub test.

This world view of local government in Tasmania seems to be as prevalent in George Town, Launceston, Hobart, Southern Midlands as it might be anywhere. However, if you use Launceston as lens that would frighten the pants of kangaroo.

The thing is, frightening the punters into compliance, no matter how absurd, is where we have come to. It all boils down to doing whatever is, being 'done to' the constituency rather than 'for or even with' the people – and at 'Council's convenience' no less.

At $35K a year it seems that is what you get in an alderman. So, it is very much a case of 'being extremely careful about what you wish for' especially when you consider voting for the 'rusted-on crew'.

For example, Launcestonians have been saddled with a $20Million debt that they had no say in. This is outrageous and there is more to come.

Now is the time to tell the 'rusted-ons' around council tables, this merry band of deluded sycophants, that it is time to go spend more time with their families etc. However, when it comes to paying up, being held accountable, the 'rusted-os' will be over the hill and far away along with others around the table who snuck off into darkened rooms to give all this sort of thing a tick.

In the end these 'rusted-ons' just want things to stay just the same. They just want their allowance cheques to keep on being deposited, their fringe benefits to keep on being available, to not really having to worry too much as they give a management recommendations at tick, being able to hide behind confidentiality when things get tough, continuing to be 'seen to being seen' without it interfering with the rust to much.

Therefore, what needs to be done is as some of the smart commentators say these days is "disrupt the status quo". Enough already of the same old, same old! Now let's have some community engagement and then some accountability  and transparency.

Each and every ratepayer/resident voting needs to carefully question themselves in regard to how they are voting, why and who for. Then they need to ask the candidates that they are thinking of voting to vote for why they do it. Having done so, they will surely finfd that there is a myriad of reasons for change.

If you look at what's before you and scrape away the bovine dust you will find multiple reasons to vote for change and then for accountability and transparency – truth and justice if you like as they used to say in the comics.

Tandra Vale

CIVIC WORKS CRITIQUES AND WORRIES

CLICK HERE TO GO TO SOURCE

Brisbane Street Mall FROM THE EXAMINER 27.9.18

SO NOW the Brisbane Street mall is unveiled. 

Some pretty trees, animals that, if one is not paying attention, are very easy to fall over, and strange white and yellow seats. 

In the middle, nothing except a large very bland space.

As a shop owner said to me last week regarding the Quadrant mall “it's like a morgue”. There is nothing to entice the population into the city centre with this refurbishment.

Perhaps if the sad little creatures in the Brisbane Street mall were put on a pedestal in the middle of the bland centre it would add some character, otherwise it's just another blah space created with great inconvenience to the shops and great expense to taxpayers.

Here’s a radical thought, maybe offer free or much cheaper parking in the central business district and people might come in. 

Next time a public space is going for a revamp ask kindergarten children to submit a design. I'm sure they could do better.

Glennis Sleurink, Launceston.

LETTER TO THE MAYOR ANS ALDERMEN

To hear yesterday of the realisation of the inappropriate placement of the ‘thylacine sculptures’ in the Mall, and to see the documentation on FACEbook, and the ‘hoohaha’ on 7LA, it was distressing given that it all could have been avoided – and relatively easily. Indeed, it should have been avoided given that when the first schematic plan was ‘released’ last year I made the effort to point out the ‘specific public danger issue’ – that I believe was well and truly over a year or more ago.

Moreover, I’ve been in several conversations since then, each time the issue of the ‘thylacines tails issue’ was discussed and in particular the unacceptable public risk the sculptures presented in their projected format and placement came up one way or the other. Mostly, it was on nobody’s radar screen – someone else's problem! The clear message I was getting was that “my input” was unwelcome and “what the hell would I know anyway”. It was not for nothing that I was appointed to the Tasmanian Arts Advisory Board – even if some time ago now – to among other things, administer its Arts for Public Buildings Program. In that role, this kind of issue was ‘stock standard.’ Thus, I can claim firsthand experience and some expertise.

So, as things turn out, and given that at that time, my qualifications and experience did not rate for the purposes of SECTION 65 of the Local Govt Act – expertise is something deemed by the General Manager and not to be challenged by the elected representatives.

This tells me quite a few things– and possibly Council now too. In concert with the apparently serial ‘stuff ups’ to do with civic works in the CBD and the ‘forensic audit’(?) that I understand is now going on relative to other issues along with this ‘glitch’, and the apparent extraordinary expense all together is a sad indictment of Council’s ‘modus operandi’. 

Nonetheless, I suspect that it is all bound to be ‘conveniently smoothed over’ along with the ‘Tasmanian Tableau debacle’. The ‘oops, but nothing really to see here, fob off’ just doesn’t cut it I’m sorry to say.

Quite aside from the extraordinary circumstances relative to this set of civic projects that puts ratepayers $20Million in debt, the flaws in the processes and outcomes are going to compound that debt. That the debt’s expenditure in Civic Square and the Mall does not deliberately add a dollar to the city’s income is unfathomable.

To add insult to injury the audit itself suggests that the problems are significant but as likely as not ratepayers will be left to bear the cost – the audit and the mistakes’ costs albeit quantified – as collectively you 'governors' simply shrug your shoulders and just walk away from your accountability as elected representatives and notionally unchallenged. 

No doubt you’ll be telling your constituents that there is no other way forward and that we’ll be witnessing yet again your disinclination to apologise for the ratepayers’ burgeoning burden whilst you all look away. It is clear that you are  trying to pretend that the toxic culture at Town Hall is but a figment of the imagination of the cohort I converse with from time to time. 

Possibly, the upcoming elections may temper your disinclination to be accountable. It’s with considerable interest that I look forward to your response given the current circumstances and we might even see some fess-ups. Hope springs eternal. Yet one feels there is much more to come!

Ray Norman

Researcher & Cultural Geographer

Launceston

EDITOR'S NOTE; Ratepayers need to be pressing their Aldermen for transparency in regard to what's being described as a "forensic audit" of the civic works in Civic Square and The Mall and possibly other sites. 

It is being speculated that there may well be "significant budget overruns".  If so. it is likely that this will impact upon the city's debt somewhat and consequently ratepayer's debt to be paid via major increases in rates.

At election time claiming convenient 'commercial in confidence' is totally inappropriate and if that call is made ratepayers may well take NO DISCLOSURE as an indicator of the seriousness of what's being covered up.

'

LOCAL GOVT PUBLIC WORKS ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY

Accountability in Local Govt.is being talked about more and more but it is not being delivered on because it is believed that Sections 62 and 65 in LOCAL GOVT ACT provide a let-off for General Managers and others. 

Around Tasmania quite a few GMs have been playing the '62/65 line' and it is starting get just a little tedious, and expensive, for ratepayers. 

Far too many decisions are made behind closed doors well away from public scrutiny and that needs to stop. 

It is often going on it seems against the provisions of the Act as it is currently drafted and the aldermen who let it happen sooner or later become complicit. 

It seems that at Launceston Town Hall there is currently a 'cabal operatives and representatives' playing both ends off against the middle and ratepayers look like they are the least of their considerations. 

So, against this background and the spurious way the city raised the loans for the current civic works – and therefore built upon the ratepayers' debt – Council now finds itself in debt to the tune of $20Million. That is bound to add to individual rate demands and quite soon. 

On top of the debt brought on by loans taken from the State Govt. the hurried works program in Civic Square and the Brisbane Street Mall there is every prospect that the 'works budget will blow out, and in a big way' consequent to the project being rushed in order to have work finished "for the elections". 

Given that the expenditure does not, will not and is not designed to generated income, the growing cost of what are beginning to be called 'monumental stuff ups' falls to the ratepayers almost to the very last cent. There is nowhere else to go unless you have fairies at the bottom of your garden waiting to help out. 

So, what to do?  Accountability and transparency demands that:

1. The extent of these 'project issues' are identified and promptly;
2. The total cost of any 'project budget overruns' needs to be identified and promptly; 
3. The contractual arrangements relevant to the sourcing of materials and design work needs to be investigated and promptly; and
4. The root cause/s of problems need to be identified and made public.

There is no credible way to do these things other by initiating an 'independent forensic audit'. Once such an audit's outcomes are known the tools to deal with 'the issues' will at least be to hand. The appointment of a suitably qualified independent auditor needs to be made outside Council and Tasmania.

In the short term this issue must be an election issue with the current alderpeople being front and centre in regard to accountability in line with Minister Gutwein's 'GOOD GOVERNANCE GUIDE' ... CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Beyond that, candidates for council need to be apprised of the situation that is presenting itself as soon as possible.

THE LAUNCESTON COUNCIL $100 PLEDGE

Aldermen committed to the status quo will give you reason upon reason in regard to how this is not possible and that it runs against standard practice. That is in fact okay and there is no such thing as 'standard practice' in fiscal matters any way. Risk taking is never the safe way, but the 'safe way' is all too often the worst way – especially so cumulatively.

Think about it, if you have been managing your affairs in a particular way and your business is failing, what kind of fool would you need to be to keep on doing what you've always done.

Apologies to those who run their lives the same way without question!

The $100 pledge is quite simple, and once taken there will be all kinds of flow-on consequences. Strangely, once you start to look for ways forward towards a more sustainable fiscal regime all kinds of option present themselves. Quite possibly, more than the pledge itself can actually be delivered.

Traditionally, Council budgets are framed by 'the operatives' who decide what sort of money they want for a comfortable life delivering a program, add a contingency amount and conscript the funds required. 

IT'S TIME FOR CHANGE. It is time that 'operational wisdom' is put through its paces and now would be a good time to start.