By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
THE City of Casey is the third most complained about council in Victoria -and one of the most secretive.
Last year’s Ombudsman Annual Report revealed 130 complaints about the Casey council were made to the Ombudsman in the 2014-’15 financial year, however not all were substantiated.
The City of Melbourne came in at number one with 149 complaints and the Yarra Ranges second with 131 complaints to the Ombudsman.
But City of Casey Corporate Services Director, Sheena Frost, puts the complaints down to Casey’s high population.
“The City of Casey is Victoria’s largest municipality with almost 300,000 residents,” Ms Frost said.
“Therefore, on this basis alone, is more likely to have a higher number of complaints. Accordingly, the true test is the number of complaints compared with population. On this basis, the Ombudsman receives a very low number of complaints about Casey.”
Ombudsman Deborah Glass has commenced her ‘own motion’ investigation into the transparency of local government decision making, due to the pattern of complaints on the issue.
Casey Council was in hot water last year when a new online tool, Know Your Council, revealed it made more decisions in council chamber meetings that were closed to the public than any other municipality in the south-east region.
The website uncovered that the state-wide average number of council decisions made at closed meetings, known as ‘in-camera’, was 12.20 per cent in the 2014-’15 year.
However the City of Casey made 37 per cent of its decisions behind closed doors, which is a stark contrast to neighbouring Cardinia Shire which made just one decision in a closed meeting during the period.
In a recent statement, Ombudsman Deborah Glass said: “Secrecy in government can create conditions in which improper conduct and poor administration can flourish.
“It also fuels suspicions of wrongdoing and erodes community trust,” she said.
A press release from the Victorian Ombudsman office said:
“Local government generates the second highest number of complaints to the Victorian Ombudsman of any portfolio area. In 2014-’15 this office dealt with 3410 issues about local government.
“All 79 Victorian councils were subject to at least one complaint in 2014-’15, however the number varied widely across municipalities.”
