By Luke Voogt
Victoria’s Local Government Minister has declined to dismiss Geelong council monitors this week despite mounting pressure from councillors and ratepayers.
Minister Adem Somyurek met with deputy mayor Peter Murrihy on Tuesday following repeated calls by Geelong Mayor Bruce Harwood for the state-appointed monitors to go.
“I think the need for monitors no longer exists,” Cr Murrihy told the Indy.
“I think we’re doing a great job as a council, we’re working well together and we’ve got a great culture.”
Mr Somyurek “gave no indication at all” of how long the monitors would remain at council, Cr Murrihy said.
Ratepayers Geelong, a group normally at loggerheads with council, backed the call to remove the monitors, who have cost ratepayers more than $77,000 to date.
“They were given a job to do, assess whether they’ve done the job, and if they have, then we no longer need them,” the group’s president Jim Collins said.
Mr Collins called for more transparency from the monitors, who produce quarterly reports for State Government.
“You’re spending our money,” he said.
“How do we know they’re doing anything? Why aren’t they accountable?”
The $77,000 could go towards fixing potholes or other works, Mr Collins said.
Mr Somyurek declined to say if the monitors had addressed the “dysfunction” State Government cited in its sacking of Geelong’s council in April 2016.
He said government appointed the monitors until the 2020 election to ensure council reached the “highest standards”.
“We’re continuing to monitor the council’s performance and listen the community whilst I consider council’s request.”
The Andrews State Government appointed the monitors from 14 November 2017 until October 2020.
Originally the government had planned to hold Geelong’s municipal election in 2020 but parliament forced it to move the poll to 2017.
Principal monitor Jude Munro defended and explained her and colleague Peter Dorling’s roles, costing ratepayers $1200 per day worked.
“We do a deep dive to explore areas to see if there are issues,” she said.
“For example, I attended a meeting held in a street near a proposed childcare centre to look at traffic issues.”
In November Ms Munro held confidential interviews with 16 of 24 senior managers at City of Greater Geelong, she said.
“This was undertaken in order to identify if there were any issues in relation to governance, organisational culture and executive support in council.”
On average she visited Geelong’s council one day a week, spending 12 hours reading reports, attending community, council and executive meetings, chatting to staff and addressing issues raised with her, she said.
