No surprises in planning review
A “warts and all” planning review contained “no surprises” when it was publicly released, and councillors declared Baw Baw Shire “has nothing to hide”.
The redacted report, prepared by consultant Andrew Wegener in September 2021, was released at last week’s council meeting in response to a Freedom of Information request by The Gazette.
While several councillors expressed surprise or disagreement at its release, ultimately several noted it contained no surprises.
The report, commissioned by council last year, cost $54,450.
Cr Annemarie McCabe, moved the motion to note the planning service review report, stating Freedom of Information was a wonderful thing as “it brings to light information”.
Cr McCabe said council knew there were problems in planning from stakeholders, data and community feedback and “the way I see it, this report is nothing but a good thing”.
Never intended to be a public document, she was unsure of what the community was hoping to uncover.
“Council has nothing to hide,” Cr McCabe said. “We received a report, we are acting on that report and we are improving services because of that report. I’m confident, over time, we will continue to see improvements in planning.”
Ms McCabe said the report was redacted to protect privacy of individuals who contributed information on the assumption their responses would be private and confidential.
“You need to make it safe for frank and fearless input,” she said.
Cr Danny Goss strongly declared councillors had not previously read the report which “confirmed the suspicions and evidence we had seen” of planning issues between 2018 and 2020.
“As mayor at the time, I was briefed on the executive summary and councillors were briefed on a summary of the findings. We certainly didn’t see the report.”
“No, we didn’t see the report, no, we didn’t read the report. We read it last week before it was put on the agenda,” Cr Goss said.
“I know that the usual suspects will love this report. They want to criticise and that’s what a critic does. It adds to the narrative of hopeless councillors, hopeless staff, hopeless directors.”
“If it was really, really easy to fix, it would have been fixed. It’s so much more complex than people want to break it down to.”
Cr Goss also expressed confidence in new planning director Leanne Hurst and manager John Ciavarella.
Cr Joe Gauci said systems and communication were key to planning department improvements.
“I just personally find this a little bit crazy in the way this has all gone down,” Cr Gauci said of the report’s release. “There was not one surprise...it was a validation of works that had to happen.”
“No, we didn’t get to see the report as councillors when it came out,” he added. “We were given a rough idea that there had to be improvements done.”
Cr Gauci said a current slowing due to economic conditions may impact the number of applications received and resolved.
Cr Keith Cook praised chief executive officer Mark Dupe for his initiative, labelling it “a bold and fearless approach and money well spent.”
“It demonstrates good management practices to seek an external, professional report to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of our planning department,” Cr Cook said.
He noted recommendations had been implemented, with 68 per cent of planning applications now completed on time, representing a 22 per cent increase in performance.
Cr Cook said town planners faced a challenging job, and “they have my full support”.
Cr Tricia Jones said planning concerns were across many municipalities but “we bit the bullet and decided to go down the route of an external review”.
“There’s no getting away from the fact that planning has been an area to cause council concern over the last few years.
“The planners have made headway in a number of areas. But the mindset must be on continuous improvement and result focus, and it certainly is,” Cr Jones said.
Cr Darren Wallace said the focus on planning came as Baw Baw experienced extraordinary growth and, unfortunately, a high turnover of staff. He said turnover was a country-wide phenomenon across the industry.
“I don’t necessarily agree with an internal report going out,” he said. “But, having read the report, there’s actually not that much in there that we didn’t already know.”
“Thankfully the privacy of those people who have been brave enough to contribute to the report for all the right reasons...have been redacted,” Cr Wallace said.
Cr Peter Kostos believed Baw Baw’s proximity to Melbourne meant council had attracted young planners seeking experience. The downside, he said, was they later applied for jobs offering greater profile and more money.
“The young ones these days tend to leave and go to another job very, very easily,” he said, noting turnover was “not because we are potentially dysfunctional”.
Cr Michael Leaney thanked everyone who contributed to the “warts and all look” at planning and commended Mr Dupe for “bravery to commission it”.
“This report clearly identifies a way forward to make it better, get better results. But it’s not going to happen overnight. It will take time.
Cr Leaney said multiple planning positions were currently advertised but unable to be filled, with cadetships an option to draw new people in.
He said local government was unable to say no to people putting in an application, regardless of whether the team was working at capacity. “It can be a frustration for people sometimes at the time it takes to get through planning. It would not be correct to say planning is easy, because it’s very, very complex.”