Council moves to legitimise ‘tent city’ debacle

THE City of Fremantle will legitimise volunteer events such as ‘tent city’ under a new ‘Voluntary Goodwill Service Provider Policy’ to be presented to full council on Wednesday.
The proposed policy will include a registration process to provide, “a place based response to meet community needs while ensuring the City discharges its duty of care”.
Elected members involved in the 29-day Boxing Day political fiasco the CEO said damaged Freo’s reputation as a safe and family friendly destination will vote on the recommendation. So much for Local Government Minister John Carey’s reform push for accountability and transparency in WA.
According to the agenda at https://bit.ly/3FzvZzl, the officer’s recommendation stems from a council decision at the February 24 council meeting regarding issues raised over the Pioneer Park ‘camp out’ from Boxing Day until the WA Government on January 23 forcibly closed the site opposite Labor Simone McGurk’s office.
“Included in that decision is that consideration be sought on the development of a policy for social service groups providing service to ‘at risk’ persons in Fremantle, on Council controlled property, to ensure they are delivered appropriately.”
The officer’s recommendation moved at FPOL by Cr Jenny Archibald and seconded by Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge reflects the policy line proposed and moved at the February meeting by then Acting Mayor Andrew Sullivan, who since early December 2020 shared space at his Pakenham Street office with tent city organisers Freo Street Kitchen.
At the same meeting, council considered part one of the CEO report into tent city, moved by Cr Sullivan, seconded by Cr Doug Thompson (https://bit.ly/3FIk3eN): “The report is the first of two parts, a second report will be provided to council providing any findings from a review of a process of approval for voluntary goodwill groups seeking to undertake activity in Fremantle and any associated policy to support such a process.”
The CEO report stated: “The camp was clearly a regrettable event. It was not of any long term benefit to the vulnerable people camping, presented a poor public image of the City, had a negative impact on a number of adjacent businesses and users of the City, caused a considerable diversion of City resources from other normal workload, and incurred unplanned costs in terms of additional rostering of security staff, toilet cleaning and waste removal,and rehabilitation of the park.”
Additionally: “The CEO will be conducting a review of the process of voluntary goodwill group approvals to ascertain whether changes to process need to be made to avoid a situation like this ever occurring again.”
In the same breath, it states: “Without wanting to pre-empt this review the difficultly will arise in that on the one hand the need for greater formality could readily be included in approval process, but thus will have to be weighed up against the benefit to the broader community of an easy, responsive and low cost community support approval process that enable the occurrence of many beneficial community support services with low levels of formality.”
Part two of the CEO report is not mentioned in this week’s council agenda (presumably not finished yet), suggesting the City will ignore calls for an independent inquiry, including by Fremantle electors who at the annual general meeting this year called on council to produce part two of the tent city report.
Having declared at the February 24 meeting he chaired that he had no proximity interest as tent city no longer existed, Cr Sullivan dismissed a motion by Cr Marija Vujcic to investigate tent city (www.streetwisemedia.com.au/nothing-to-see-here-council-buries-tent-city-inquiry-call).
Current mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge, who campaigned on safety in Fremantle yet did nothing to stop tent city degenerating into crime, dismissed what she described as, “a witchhunt being dressed up in independent clothing. I guess I’m interested in where that went wrong in terms of the last-minute intervention by the Premier, but by and large we should be putting this matter to bed and focusing on issues that will actually enhance Fremantle”.
That is, sweep it under the carpet.
Anti-red taper Cr Rachel Pemberton even suggested being taken advantage of by FSK despite having been approached on December 23 by organiser Jesse Noakes for permission to open a community kitchen at Pioneer Park on December 26.
 Both Cr Pemberton and former mayor Brad Pettitt have said they did not give permission, nor did they direct Mr Noakes to https://bit.ly/2ZeHQDs (above).
Cr Pemberton not only put Mr Noakes in touch with police and staff at the City, she sat in on meetings leading up to the Boxing Day event.
Councillors including the former Sam Wainwright, who knew as early as December 18 of FSK’s intentions, did not invoke at any time their powers as elected members to investigate tent city or at least call an emergency meeting to resolve the escalating situation that attracted nearly 80 calls to WA Police for public help, including the sexual assault of two teenage girls.