HCC: A nice little side trip

Margot Giblin

Valentine, accompanied by his wife Margaret Laird Valentine, Burnett, Briscoe and Christie, and council officer Heather Salisbury were in Brest, France, all at Council expense, at the time of this meeting. Briscoe, Christie and Salisbury still have the 10th anniversary celebration of sisterhood with L’Aquila, Italy ahead of them. Burnett has a side trip to Denmark awaiting her.
Hobart City Council

Open Meeting

Monday 14 July 08

5pm

Councilors Present: Deputy Mayor Eva Ruzicka, Marti Zucco, Peter Sexton, Philip Cocker, Elise Archer, John Freeman, Darlene Haigh

Leave of Absence: Mayor Rob Valentine, Jeff Briscoe, Ron Christie

Apologies: Helen Burnett, Bill Harvey

RUZICKA, in the Chair, suggested that any councillor needing a break during this meeting should give notice in time for an adjournment to be called so as to avoid ‘finding ourselves inquorate’ mid item.

Valentine, accompanied by his wife Margaret Laird Valentine, Burnett, Briscoe and Christie, and council officer Heather Salisbury were in Brest, France, all at Council expense, at the time of this meeting. Briscoe, Christie and Salisbury still have the 10th anniversary celebration of sisterhood with L’Aquila, Italy ahead of them. Burnett has a side trip to Denmark awaiting her.

Sexton and Zucco were back in their seats after their European and North American sojourns, which, where they could be said to coincide with Council interests were wholly or partially Council funded.

In Sexton’s case it appears that his return business class air ticket and expenses, at a cost of $11,000 was provided by Council because his trip included a visit to Brest, though not at the same time as the Council’s mayor led delegation.

In Zucco’s case $2,000 was paid to help with the expense of going to the Tastes of Chicago and London. The cost of his round trip from Nice, to L’Aquila, Italy to Brest and back to Nice is yet to be established. Neither his trip to Brest nor that to Hobart’s sister city L’Aquila coincided with Council delegations.

Some Agenda Items.

In her Communication from the Chair Ruzicka asked all councilors to be upstanding and acclaim the work done by Council in attaining the gold medal at the recent Australian Business Excellence Awards.

Mr Barry Brannan was the only person to take advantage of Public Question Time. He wanted to know if Council had taken the 2005 UK Home Office Study on CCTV Coverage into account when deciding on installing more cameras in Hobart. The report said that cameras were not only expensive but largely ineffectual.

Council’s answer was that it had not considered the UK report but had taken on board the advice of Tasmania Police. This was that CCTV provides positive outcomes both in deterrence and identification of offenders. Mr Brannan was thanked for his question and his interest.

24 Birngana Avenue Sandy Bay – Subdivision, one additional lot. Application refused.

2 Midwood St. New Town – Extension and alterations to Multiple Dwelling (School Hostel). Application approved.

345 Elizabeth St. North Hobart –Sign. Application refused.

98 Newdegate St. West Hobart. Partial Demolition, House Extension and Carport. Application approved.

362 Park St, New Town – Front Fencing. Application approved.

49 and 61 Augusta Rd, Lenah Valley (Calvary Hospital) – Extension and Change of Use. Not debated.

At most Council meetings at least one councillor has to be absent from some debate due to conflict of interest. Councilor Elise Archer had to leave the chamber for this item which meant there was no quorum, no debate and no decision.

The eight or so members of the public who had come to hear the decision on Calvary Hospital’s application for an extension and change of use had wasted their time.

In advising them that the item would have to be deferred Ruzicka flagged the possibility that the next open meeting, in a fortnight, might suffer from the same difficulties in maintaining a quorum.

Given a three week break (instead of the more usual two), and the recent developments in Sullivans Cove, it was anticipated by those reporting on the present meeting that there would be a bulging agenda and at least some comment on the waterfront. Not so.

The meeting was newsworthy in that it lasted less than an hour.