Toodyay Herald

A proposed rate increase advertised last year resulted in nine public submissions, 20 pages of comments and a 2000-name petition which the council ignored.

This year’s proposed 2.5 per cent rates increase was moved by Cr Rob Welburn and seconded by Cr Judy Dow.

It applies to all rateable properties in the shire, regardless of valuation category.

Shire President Brian Rayner announced to the meeting that a recommendation published in the agenda to exempt about 2000 properties on minimum rates from the 2.5 per cent increase would be replaced by an alternative recommendation to apply the increase to all land owners.

However, visitors in the public gallery were not given the revised calculations on which councillors based their decision.

The agenda papers – which showed no minimum rate increase – estimated that a 2.5 per cent rate increase would raise $6,542,030 in the 2019-20 financial year.

The proposed new rates include commercial (0.14020 cents in the dollar), town residential (0.12943) and industrial (0.12483).

Hundreds of ‘lifestyle’ landowners on relatively small blocks in rural residential subdivisions such as Morangup face a new rate of 0.11260 cents in the dollar.

Farmers on much bigger properties who pay tens of thousands of dollars in rates face a new rural rate of 0.008969 cents in the dollar.

The Perth Transport Authority (PTA) will also build a new controlled railway crossing suitable for disabled people west of the railway station.

The bridge was closed in May last year after a local resident was injured in a fall on the uneven walkway.

A PTA spokesperson said the works would repair critical parts of the bridge, including replacing parts of the pier columns, repairing mesh inserts on the handrails and broken railings, and replacing degraded parts of the bridge decking.

Depending on the weather and subject to required rail safety approvals by freight rail operator Arc Infrastructure, work should begin in September.

WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said she knew how important the footbridge was to the people of Toodyay and that many users were looking forward to it reopening.

“Ensuring there is a safe option for passengers and community members alike – particularly those with a disability – to cross the tracks is an important initiative,” she said.

Local Labor MP Darren West said he had lobbied the State Government for this outcome and was delighted that the parties involved had reached an agreement.

“I thank the Minister for this investment in the Toodyay community and for her ongoing support of the AvonLink Train Service.”

Local WA Nationals MP Shane Love described it on Facebook as “great news for Toodyay residents”.

“I have actively lobbied the Transport Minister on this important issue for some time now and this is a great result,” he said.

“I thank the Minister for her support.

“This is a good long-term and workable solution that ensures Toodyay residents – including the young, disabled and elderly – can safely cross from one side of town to the other.”

Toodyay Shire councillors voted 6-1 behind closed doors last month (Cr Bill Manning against, Cr Ben Bell overseas on business) to add Mr Scott’s $20,800 annual housing allowance to his new base salary, which increases his ratepayer-funded superannuation to more than $25,000 a year.

Perth’s Consumer Price Index (cost of living) rose by 1.1 per cent in the 12 months to March 31.

Cr Manning’s motion for no pay rise lapsed without debate when no other councillor responded to President’s Rayner’s call for a seconder.

Mr Scott left the chamber only after Cr Manning queried why the CEO was being allowed to stay and watch while councillors decided how much to pay him.

Earlier, two State Government investigators conducting an ‘authorised inquiry’ into the Toodyay Shire Council introduced themselves to Shire President Brian Rayner and remained in the chamber when the public gallery was ordered to leave for four items of ‘confidential’ business, including the CEO’s contract.

President Rayner later told The Herald that Cr Manning had sent him five pages of “cosmetic changes” to the CEO’s contract the day before the council meeting.

“Council accepted those changes as they did not alter the meaning of the contract,” President Rayner said.

“There were also four amendments to the contract to be added.”

Cr Manning, a former WA Government senior lawyer who helped prepare multi-million-dollar State contracts, said the draft CEO contract contained several inconsistencies that needed to be corrected.

The contract also required about half a dozen “substantive” changes that councillors debated and accepted, he said.

President Rayner said he was unable to provide a copy of the CEO’s new contract to The Herald as a public document under local government law until a revised copy was signed by himself and Mr Scott.

The claim states that Cr Bell is represented (which he is paying for himself) by international law firm Squire, Patton Boggs.

At a June 12 shire public meeting attended by 24 local residents, Mr Scott said “no fees have been paid” when asked about Cr Bell’s appeals against the Local Government Standards Panel findings against him after Mr Scott made a series of formal complaints to the panel about Cr Bell’s Facebook posts.

These include a July 24 post last year in which Cr Bell accused Mr Scott of a “cash grab” for seeking to raise rates by 2.2 per cent instead of 0.9 per cent agreed by councillors the previous month (see Notice of Public Censure, Page 12).

Mr Scott filed 64 pages of papers with SAT on June 12 claiming that Cr Bell’s failure to pay appeal lodgement fees “appears to be a device to avoid fulfilling his obligations” to stand up in the council chamber and apologise for criticising him on Facebook.

Mr Scott said a 28-day period for Cr Bell to appeal against the panel’s findings expired on May 2.

However, The Herald has seen a SAT email giving Cr Bell until July 16 to pay for his appeals, which he says he will do.

Cr Bell was overseas from June 19 to July 1 as a member of a 20-member Australian Government trade delegation to Europe, including meetings with ambassadors and trade commissioners in London, Brussels, Paris, Wiesbaden and Frankfurt.

He emailed all councillors and Mr Scott’s office on June 2 that “unfortunately I will be an apology” for the June 25 council meeting because of the trade mission.

The SAT claim against Cr Bell includes a copy of his The Insider column in last month’s Herald “in which he claims that the found breaches as (sic) merely allegations intended to stifle community debate”, Mr Scott said.

“This appeal allows the State Administrative Tribunal to make orders for further sanctions under Section 5.117 (Punishment for serious breach) of the Local Government Act.

“It is requested that the SAT make orders under Section 5.117 of The Local Government Act 1995 as follows:

That Cr Benjamin Bell is suspended for a period of not more than six months; or

That Cr Benjamin Bell is for a period of not more than five years disqualified from holding office as a member of a council.”

Cr Bell was elected in 2017 to the shire’s now-abolished East Ward for a two-year term which expires in October this year.

See Cr Michael Southwell letter

“What happens if the inquiry is not finished before October?” Cr Twine asked.

Mr Scott said there was “no way of postponing the elections – until then it is business as usual”.

“The shire will receive a directions notice from the Local Government Department and those officers concerned will provide the required information,” Mr Scott said.

President Brian Rayner said the shire was providing information to the inquiry “as requested”.

Two State Government investigators who sat in the public gallery are understood to have recently completed gathering a large amount of evidence based on extensive interviews with local residents since the inquiry was announced last December.

“Consequently, I have given notice to the CEO of my resignation as a councillor, effective from 30 September 2019.”

Others on the nine-member council whose terms don’t expire until 2021 are Shire President Brian Rayner, who won his seat without anyone voting for him in 2017 when he was the only candidate to stand in the shire’s former North Ward, Deputy President Therese Chitty and Cr Paula Greenway.

Deputy President Chitty told a June 12 public meeting that she had considered resigning to stand for re-election this year but decided that she was lawfully elected to serve four years and would see out her term.

President Rayner said he would stay another two years.

Darren Prater, who was sitting at the back of the Memorial Hall next to his brother, former shire deputy president John Prater, also said that Cr Ben Bell “doesn’t exactly tell the truth, and spin doctors all the time”.

Shire President Brian Rayner, who chaired the meeting, did not call the meeting to order as Cr Bell sat silently to his left.

None of the other six councillors (Cr Bill Manning was absent on council-approved leave) objected to Mr Prater’s comments, and Shire CEO Stan Scott remained silent.

The verbal attack began after Mr John Prater rose near the end of the meeting to congratulate the council for reversing its March decision not to offer Mr Scott a new contract when it was due to end on July 22.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of people in the community and it’s been a major concern,” Mr John Prater said.

He then criticised The Toodyay Herald for not publishing a photo of an “iconic lady” – former Federal MP Julie Bishop – at last year’s Toodyay races “which I run”, he said.

(The Herald published a Page 1 race crowd photo last October, a story and picture of Mr John Prater with the Toodyay Cup winner on Page 9 and a photo of Ms Bishop online.)

“This negativity is starting to hurt our town, we’ve had enough,” Mr John Prater said.

“I congratulate Stan for hanging in there – it’s taken courage, well done guys.”

Real estate agent Tony Maddox said he had received “hundreds and hundreds” of calls – “the result was just amazing” – after he criticised The Herald in his May back-page advertisement for publishing “negative comments about the shire”.

“We have an awesome CEO, he’s probably the best CEO we’ve ever had and he’s in every community organisation you can ever imagine,” Mr Maddox said.

“I don’t think you deserve what the paper writes, it’s not fair on the community – all the business people here tonight want the positive stuff.

“Let’s let him run this town.”

IGA and Victoria Hotel owner Dean Carter said “I’d like to back up Tony on Stan”.

“I’m personally glad he’s still on board and I’d like to thank you (Mr Scott) for the job you do,” he said.

“You should always think about what you’re going to do rather than what happened 10 years ago.”

Shire Deputy President Therese Chitty said she was “pleased to see the business people here” at the meeting – I’m sure we can get past this negative stuff”.

(The shire public meeting was not advertised in the June Herald a week earlier. Other business owners said they didn’t know it was on and disagreed with what was said.)