City of Yarra Councillor Watch

05/05/2022

We are big believers in giving the system a chance to work. Late in 2021, a monitor was appointed to prepare a report on Yarra City Council. That report is due soon, but sometimes things come along that can't be ignored.

We ask you - does this reflect a councillor who is showing respect for the opinions of others - the residents, ratepayers and his fellow councillor?

When a councillor openly attacks and disrespects a prominent resident's group, we hope the monitor is paying attention.

Because the councillor himself realised he had crossed the line and deleted the post.

Little lesson in how the internet works Councillor Landes - once it's on the internet, it stays on the internet.

So while you were trying to hide your indiscretion, we were still here watching.

So for the record everyone, this is the published opinion Councillor Landes is now seeking to hide:

23/01/2022

With council returning this week, it's time to get the conversation going again.

And what a place to start...

Anab Mohamud for Langridge Ward get a job. There are plenty on offer right now. That's how the rest of us support ourselves and our families.

15/12/2021

😂😂😂

Top Tip Thursday: Always take an extra 20 seconds to read your caption before posting to avoid embarrassing mistakes.

Perhaps the Councillor of Convenience was too busy chatting with Acland Street traders about their tram woes to take the time for a quick proof read. How exciting to discover Acland Street is now part of City of Yarra. Time well spent...

While we're here - a quick shout out to the new Monitor. Word on the street is that CC is going to be passing along all the criticism he has received online. Because that's why the Monitor is there - as a shoulder to cry on for councillors because "people don't understand/appreciate them". 🙄

04/12/2021

9 days without comment from the new mayor...

(Full disclosure, she did slip a little something on Insta about open libraries, but pretty much nada when it comes to her new roles as the Mayor).

04/12/2021

Just for the record. Shaunna Wilson could you please confirm if you are suggesting Yarra, and if so, how you meet the eligibility? You have indicated on this page that you live in an adjoining local government area, but have multiple residences (like most people???????).

Who tapped you on the shoulder? It was intriguing for about four seconds then we lost interest.

PS - yes we know the Councillor for Bridge Road blocked us for responding to his inaccurate claim about this page with one word - Bunkum. The sole word we have EVER contributed ot his page (and we thought he'd like that seeing as he's happily used it here). Ironic really, because we have allowed him to voice his opinion without censor on this page regardless of whether we agree (which in most cases we don't). Do we care. Yes - not because we want to post on the page, but for all the right reasons, because he nibbled up the kibble we laid down and provided another example of unacceptable councillor behaviour to add to our record.

03/12/2021

Herschel Landes has accused this page of sharing details of private correspondence and prejudicing his role on Council in a decision making process.

We respond to this allegation with proof that this is complete nonsense.

No details of private correspondence were ever shared on this page. In fact the reference, the only reference, is to a "wee sook about the people questioning whether he has an undisclosed agenda with the Greens". This was clearly contextualised as: "Heard on the streets" which means: To hear or learn of something through an informal means of communication, especially gossip.

That aside, how could a post prejudice his role in a decision making process that he had already PUBLICLY abstained from?

Please review the post he is referring to, which contains a screenshot of his public disclosure that he would not be participating in the Mayoral vote.

We fully intend to push back on any and all attempts by Mr Landes to troll us.

https://www.facebook.com/Yarra.City.Council.Watch/posts/263797089112647

29/11/2021

Interesting choice by Yarra City Council to send out an eNews update this morning. Considering the biggest news is actually the appointment of a monitor by the State Government, it looks like they are either avoiding the news or just can't get their act together fast enough to properly inform the community.

Waiting with interest to see how (or if) Yarra communicates this.

29/11/2021

Hilarious.

The State government appointments a monitor for Yarra City Council, publicly stating it is to improve governance and ensure the council acting in the best interest of the people it represents.

The response from Councillor Caulfield - to suggest the monitor should concern themselves with those justifiably calling out poor behaviour and choices by the council... a typical lack of self-awareness and accountability on his part.

Note to CC: it's kind of strange to say you're not going to make a comment. Then make a comment. And last time we checked, just because you don't like the truth you are hearing, that doesn't make it defamation. People in bully houses shouldn't throw bully stones.

As a courtesy to free speech, we won't limit comments on this post - unlike a certain no comment/comment councillor.

29/11/2021

Sorry/not sorry to break this to the new mayor Councillor Sophie Wade and her deputy Edward Crossland for Melba Ward but the leadershp of Councillor Gabrielle de Vietri has not put Yarra City Council on good footing for the year ahead. It has led to the State Government appointing a municipal monitor.

This is the team behind a banana sculpture in Fitzory funded by a TAC grant (which it's pretty clear the TAC didn't intend for street art). And that's just the latest in a long string of poor choices.

You might want to get your house in order before this all rubs off on your mate Adam Bandt at the Federal election.

29/11/2021

BREAKING NEWS

The Supreme Court has thrown out Anab Mohamud's attempt to go up the chain to stop the Inspectorate having her step down while criminal charges are pending against her, and is sending her case back to VCAT where a decision will be made, as it should've been in the first place.

AND the Victorian government has appointed a municipal monitor to help guide good governance and forge a strong future for the municipality and its residents.

https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/municipal-monitor-appointed-yarra-city-council?fbclid=IwAR1o6T8XAu5eZ7aH7LnyqZI1X6-nJVaENYqTBAxVG3gtVqS_N1_61dJrg3M

A municipal monitor will be appointed to the Yarra City Council to help guide good governance and forge a strong future for the municipality and its residents. Minister for Local Government Shaun Leane made the announcement today to ensure the council has the guidance it needs to perform its role su...

25/11/2021

Looks like Sophie Wade finally figured out how to improve her 'poorly paid' position as a Councillor.

Hopefully she'll also figure out how to update the record on how much the Greens really donated to her election campaign (which is on the record via Facebook Ad Library).

25/11/2021

At 8pm tonight, the Yarra Councillors met to vote for a new Mayor. Councillor (Caulfield) was absent 'on leave'. Yet at that exact same time, he was more than capable of logging on to Facebook to spit the dummy at this page over the commentary regarding his recent behaviour surrounding the vote. How ironic.

25/11/2021

No words. Okay got words. Looks like Councillor Caulfield has a buddy in the flip when it suits me club.

24/11/2021

We're all for people going on leave.

But if you can find time to post on Facebook whining about your fellow counsellors, doesn't logic dictate that you could find a few minutes to log on to the meeting and actually vote?

This post is utter nonsense. Thank goodness for the TRULY independent counsellors who are actually listening to the people.

20/11/2021

Heard on the streets - Councillor Caulfield is having a wee sook about the people questioning whether he has an undisclosed agenda with the Greens.

Let's take a little look.

Today he announced he's taking prearranged leave (fair enough) but, and it's a big but, just a couple of days ago he was planning on attending the Mayor vote and had allegedly agreed to back the majority (AKA the Greens candidate).

So why the about face today Councillor Caulfield. Have you shared your reasons for no longer attending with the other councillors? And if so, in the interest of transparent represenstation, will you share them with the people of Yarra?

Oh, and back to that claim of "I have no agenda; there are no deals" well, history tells us that there is a public association between Councillor Caulfield and the Greens - and the letter to prove it is below.

Now mate, stop spitting your dummy and man up. If you didn't flip flop around on issues like a stinky dying fish, people might not give you as much of a hard time.

12/11/2021

If we had a say, here's why we'd say no (even though it's slim pickings).

Let's start with this post - a whole lot of problem, but not a lot of solutions. And more money to be spent on an external review.

There's a lot of big ticket items here, yet when residents (dare) to complain about cuts to services, they are fed a line about all of us having to pay the price because of COVID.

Anyone else think it's time to bring in an administrator and fix the problem at Yarra City Council once and for all?

11/11/2021

Deeply disappointed to report that of the four (active) Greens Councillors, only two acknowledged Remembrance Day yesterday on social media.

We would like to thank Amanda Stone, Nicholls Ward Councillor and Edward Crossland for Melba Ward for stepping up. Herschel Landes of Richmond also posted.

Sadly, our other 'representatives' - Mayor Gabrielle de Vietri, Councillor Sophie Wade and Stephen Jolly - did not pay respects to all those who have served.

10/11/2021

The non-resident councillor with the big garden at home is still prattling on about budget holes.

His solution is to cut services to residents.

Maybe better financial management (a key platform he campaigned on) would be preferable.

And if you think it's just our opinion that Yarra is flushing money down the toilet, have a read of this comment left on one his posts by a former staff member.

05/11/2021

BREAKING NEWS: Anab has her (second) day in court, with more to come!

Not that she bothered showing up. She left it to her lawyer to represent her at the virtual Magistrates Court appearance.

The charges are:
Unlawful assault
Public Drunkedness
Offensive behavioiur

From the Herald Sun: Ms Mohamud allegedly yelled “f--k the LG family” and “I swear to Allah if I lose my eye I will make sure all these faggots die”.

She's due in court to present a defence in April 2022.

Then there is the OTHER case on another criminal matter - part 2 is due on 13 December.

We respect her right of innocence until proven guilty.

We hope she respect the rights of the people of Yarra to have actual representation while she sorts this mess out.

05/11/2021

Careful Councillor Caulfield. You're wearing your non-resident status on your sleeve with this one.

It seems fair to ask: Why should residents maintain council land? Because nature strips are owned by the council.

But back to our visiting councillor. Here's a helpful tip. Just like rubbish bins, many homes and MUDs just don't have space for a mower (electric or not). Small terrace houses in particularly rarely have garages or even sheds.

Now when you live in a rather large abode in Caulfield, this probably isn't obvious.

17/10/2021

Big thank you to Mayor Gabrielle de Vietri and the Victorian Greens for running ads to promote her across Facebook and Instagram right now. (Maybe you'd like to STATE your reason for that spend?)

If it wasn't for that effort, we might not have dug a little deeper into some of the previous ad campaigns.

It took awhile to unwind this, but here's the jist:

Victorian Greens spent approximately $15,000 of the $18,681.90 it contributed to its four candidates for Yarra on Facebook platform advertising. Details are available on the Facebook ad platform.

Now this is where things get murky. Ms Wade had $2555 in ads paid for by Victorian Greens on her page (plus more on their own page). But on her election campaign donation return summary, only $1936.38 is listed.

Now we can already hear her people bleating that some of her individual supporters might have given the money to the Victorian Greens for her campaign. But that's not have it works is it. If the Victorian Greens spent the money on her page (and even more on their own), then they should be listed as providing the donation. That's what transparency is all about.

Now when you break all the figures down, it makes you kind of wonder how any of the Greens candidates actually covered any other costs, because even with the other small three figure donations they each received (pretty much from the same people), it doesn't really add up the way you would expect. Receipts please!

Yarra City Council

11/10/2021

Get out and enjoy our beautiful area. A good tip for spotting a non-local - they'll call it Dwight instead of Dight Falls ;)
https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/places-to-see/sites/dights-falls-loop-trail

The Dights Fall Loop Walk highlights the rich history and versatile landscape of Yarra Bend Park. Discover a former lunatic asylum, the River Red Gum dominated landscape of Galatea Point, the former Deep Rock Swimming Club, and heritage-listed Kane’s Bridge.

11/10/2021

On Tuesday 5th October Yarra Council voted 4-4 (4 Greens vs all the other Councillors) to implement the HIGHEST parklet fees in Victoria.

Please take a moment to read more about how the tiered fee structure works and why this is considered unfair by many traders (who are not trying to dodge extra fees forever - just looking for a fairer system and some support as they rebuild).

If you agree that this motion has been prematurely approved, add your name to petition.

https://www.change.org/p/city-of-yarra-council-city-of-yarra-parklet-fees-a-push-for-council-to-re-examine-their-current-fee-proposal

City of Yarra Parklet fees - a push for council to re-examine their current fee proposal

08/10/2021

Does anyone have a copy of 'Being the Mayor for Dummies' they could spare? Asking for a 'friend'.

Explanation if required:
1 - Logic dictates that this photo was during the pandemic 'eye' and not breaking any rules. PR / Leadership 101 is to be clear you're not breaking rules when it looks like you are breaking rules. Maybe mention in the post that it's an old photo.

2 - Nothing like a cheesy grin and booze in the background to send a message to the MANY traders and residents who are upset about how the parklet issue was handled by the Yarra Council Greens of care factor zero.

05/10/2021

Well aren't we the fools. It suddenly clicked. 1 April 2022. It's an elaborate April Fools joke! Nicely played Yarra Council Greens and Mayor Gabrielle de Vietri.

You had us going there for awhile.

After all, what fool would do something like this in the middle of a pandemic, in the most locked down city in the world when no one has a clue what businesses will be facing in six months time, let alone how long it will take them to recover from the 18 months of pain they've suffered already.

Looking forward to your official announcement that this was a bad taste gag gone wrong at 12.01pm 1 April 2022.

05/10/2021

At a time when the focus should be on support and rebuilding, Yarra Council Greens sent a clear message that unless you want to talk about climate emergency, they simply do not care.

Many Yarra residents have the opportunity to make a difference to this nonsense sooner than they think. With a federal election looming, make it clear that the Greens need to back off our residents and traders by sending the leader Adam Bandt packing. After all, if he can't even control his minions in local council training bootcamp, what sort of a leader is he anway? (Here's a tip Mr Bandt - it doesn't take a genius to know that the timing of this proposition was downright stupid - so why did the minions push ahead when the negative publicity and backlash is appropriately branded THE GREENS?)

We live in a multi-faceted society. Any group with a stubborn single minded focus will always serve itself before the people it represents. The number one priority should never be fixed. It is possible to have a list of top priorities and shift the focus as required based on current events.

Shame on you Mayor Gabrielle de Vietri. We wonder if you've considered how that casting vote to break the 4:4 tie will come back to haunt you in the future.

So once again, it is back to us to support our traders through this mess. To provide the support our Greens councillors have ripped away from local traders during their greatest moment of need. We are in the depths of an ongoing third wave. Most businesses will not be anywhere close to recovering from the devastating impacts by April, and that's just with best case scenario. Because if this pandemic has taught us anything, it's not to celebrate a battle win, because the war still has a few surprises up its sleeve.

Support local. They need your help to keep businesses open and people employed.

Support local. Because your Green's councillors certainly won't.

04/10/2021

Okay Yarra City Council and councillors, what's your plan?

Sad to note the only councillor that seems to be formally pushing the discussion about vaccination and a covid safe Yarra is Herschel Landes of Richmond.

In the LGA with the worst first dose vaccination rate in the state, we deserve better leadership on this across the board.

28/09/2021

Oh dear. Someone from Yarra City Council forgot to send a test email before they sent out an email blast.

28/09/2021

Is Yarra doing enough to encourage residents to get vaccinated?

Yarra now has the dubious honour of the lowest first dose vaccination rate of any LGA in the state, taking a week longer than Victoria overall to hit 70%.

While some people have reasonably explained this as the lower average age of people living in Yarra, that excuse is past its use by date.

The councillors have stepped up with positive posts on their respective pages. But is it time for them now to tackle this collectively from a whole of Yarra communications effort? Because clearly posts like this are not getting the message through fast enough.

After all, Yarra Council is currently investing ratepayers' money into Facebook ads to promote a climate change event. Why are they not doing at least as much to communicate the importance of vaccination so when the rest of Victoria opens up, Yarra is not lagging behind and vulnerable with lower jab numbers?

24/09/2021

Great story. And happy to be corrected that this was shared with consent.

14/09/2021

Seriously impressed to see Councillor Sophie Wade stepping up to get vaccinated with AZ - this is a great leadership move that can help dispel vaccine hesitancy. Well done.

14/09/2021

There's that age bias creeping in again for the not so inclusive mayor...

But then we do know the primary target audience for the Greens tends to outweigh her representation of ALL groups in Yarra.

28/08/2021

It never ceases to amaze us how tone deaf the Greens councillors are.

Take the post on the Yarra Council Greens page. Fantastic initiative. Brilliant to see councillors supporting this. But did they completely miss how DIVISIVE it looks when they support this in their own little Green clique? We know why Anab's not there (she's on leave - what did you think we meant...). But how great would it be to see a post like this on the actual council page and featuring ALL the councillors (except those on leave of course).

If you're going to promote inclusiveness, maybe think about starting with the perceptions you're creating by spliting the council down the middle like this. That way if any councillor chooses not to participate, it gives the community a clear understanding of where they stand on these important issues.

26/08/2021

On again off again Councillor Anab Mohamud had a busy week in court this week.

First it was off to VCAT. Then to the Dandenong Magistrates court for the first of her criminal matters. Looks it's going to be a busy year for her legal representatives as the next instalment of that case will now be held in December.

And if you're struggling to keep up, we done our best to piece it together.

1 Anab Mohamud v Local Government Inspectorate (VCAT) - now to be heard in the Supreme Court
2 Alleged incident (Springvale police) on the Magistrates Court Criminal List first mention August, second mention December
3 Alleged incident (Prahran) on the Magistrates Court Criminal list, first mention November

26/08/2021

Nice idea but we couldn't help notice that this very cool project will be in Fitzroy North (Nicholls Ward) and it just so happens that the two councillors on the board of the Yarra Energy Foundation are .... Amanda Stone and Sophie Ward - Councillors for Nicholls Ward. Probably just a coincidence.

25/08/2021

So it's okay for protesters to throw bottles and flares at police while they are breaking the law and putting the community at risk during a pandemic, but it's not okay for police to defend themselves and enforce order (as MOST reasonable Melbournians want them to do).

Good to see which side of the fence Yarra City Council councillor Stephen Jolly sits on this issue.

Wonder what he thinks about the charmers who brought their children and (and even babies) to this protest, fully knowing it was likely to turn violent? Some are saying this is a classic tactic used in riots to defend against police intervention. And yes, that means using the child as a shield.

Next he'll be spewing out the nonsense that no covid infections have ever occurred at a protest. To which we say, show us a protester that would actually get a test voluntarily. And if one got sick and couldn't avoid being hospitalised, we're pretty sure the contact tracers won't be served up any information about attending a protest.

17/08/2021

A query not a criticism (for now):

In four months, the current Yarra City Council councillors have incurred $2446.35 of ''professional development" expenses. (Oct 24 2020 - March 31 2021).

This is many times higher (in just a few months) than what was spent in the previous year by the former councillors.

Perhaps these activities were all for the benefit of a better Yarra, but does anyone else think it would be nice if there was more transparency around what this professional development was?

To be clear - we accept professional development may be justified.

But how can the residents and ratepayers be certain when there is a sharp rise in costs and no detail provided.

https://www.yarracity.vic.gov.au/about-us/council-information/councillor-expenses/councillor-expense-reports

In September 2011, Council resolved to publish the expenses incurred by Councillors on its website each quarter.

16/08/2021

Good to see a councillor actually doing something about this.

Could do with some refinement so make sure you share your thoughts.

15/08/2021

We'd like to hear our councillors come out and condemn this as well.

Interesting to see that the statement issued by Victoria Police and the response by the Premier don't really line up with the wishy washy response from the Instagram influencer who organised this debacle.