Fremantle electors call on City to ‘step up’

ELECTORS last night called on the City of Fremantle to ‘step up’ and ask the State Government to abandon its unpopular traffic bridge design proposed by MRD.
They also demanded the City explain why it had allowed the costs of the Walyalup Civic Centre to blow out by nearly $20 million, including more than $5m in architect costs.
Electors expected to be presented with the annual financial report, including the latest audit report, both missing from the agenda Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge put down to oversight rather than a breach of the Local Government Act.
Despite a lack of answers from City staff, the annual meeting did produce several admissions by Mayor Fitzhardinge including she had prior knowledge of the MRD bridge design and new traffic route before the State Government announcement.
“Yes. We had a number of briefings to elected members about the options leading up to it. It’s not our project so we obviously were not at liberty … those meetings are confidential,” she said, adding a full account of the City’s role will be included in the agenda of the October 12 meeting of FPOL.
South Fremantle resident and a former councillor Ian Ker said it was shameful the latest version of the new bridge, “flows from a suggestion by a Fremantle councillor that Canning Highway traffic should be separated from Queen Victoria Street for entry into the centre of Fremantle”.
He said: “It is shameful that the Fremantle community and apparently many elected councillors were allowed to be blindsided by the announcement supported by the mayor of the complete redevelopment of the southern river foreshore. The purpose of this motion is to put council on notice that we are fed up being taken for granted. We expect to be represented more effectively.”
Fremantle Society president John Dowson agreed and called on council to show leadership and resist the destruction of the city’s only piece of river frontage and heritage.
“We really want to see the council step up on this issue,” he said, describing MRD as ‘bullies’. “We want an outcome that solves some problems rather than destroy the escarpment.”
Mr Ker said the City could redeem itself by requesting MRD cease activities associated with the realignment of Canning Highway and oppose any attempt to rezone parks and recreation reserves.
His motion seconded by South Fremantle resident Marija Vujcic was carried and included that a special electors meeting be held in November.

Lessons learned?

MAYOR Fitzhardinge told electors last night that, “if we had our time again we would have structured the contract with the architects differently”.
Commenting on concerns over the $5.1 million architect’s bill for the new civic centre (originally $1.8m), she said she agreed with the Office of the Auditor General’s finding that the right governance was not in place. The Auditor found the architectural services contract failed to provide sufficient oversight required to monitor costs to ensure value for money.
“All we can do is take that lesson learned and apply it moving forward in how we structure our contracts. It’s historical,” she said.
This contradicts her comments at the previous council meeting when she said after the vote to accept the Kings Square business plan report: “This for me is the line in the sand. The construction contract was an incredible outcome. It was the biggest contract by a long shot and when you read though this half of the lessons we should be taking forward is how we do that again because that was incredible.”
She added: “This project allowed us to fundamentally change Fremantle. Good governance speaks in the language of we not you or I … so I think moving forward we need to act collectively and speak collectively, as effectively the board of the organisation.”
Mr Dowson said last year Cr Fitzhardinge was chair of the finance committee and did not attend the electors’ meeting: “She has not been held accountable for the parlous state of Fremantle’s finances, despite being chair of the finance committee since 2016.”
Mr Dowson also questioned why the meeting was advertised online three days ago: “I don’t see how this meeting is in a position to pass something that they haven’t had until they walked in the door.”
High Street resident Craig Ross said it was extraordinary electors were presented with a five-page extract of the City’s 62-page 2021 financial report. The CEO would not say why.
CEO Glen Dougall replied, “if the group don’t feel they are of the opinion they can vote for it then I would say don’t vote for them”. The incomplete financials were rejected by electors.
When Cr Vujcic asked whether local government standards had been met, Mr Dougall said he believed so.
Mr Ross was allowed three minutes to present 16 questions including why the meeting agenda excluded the full financial report disclosure notes, financial breakdowns and capital expenditures other councils provide in full in their elector meeting agendas.
“It is poor transparency not to include the full financial statements in the agenda,” he said, Mayor Fitzhardinge stating his questions would be taken on notice and included in the minutes.
Mr Ross also highlighted the secrecy over the total project costs of the civic centre, which had blown out by nearly $20 million: “The council made excuses during 2021 that the total project costs will not be made available until the FY21 audit was finalised and the City has only provided incomplete information for the building construction costs when asked. This deliberate action to only report to ratepayers the building construction costs rather than total project costs has allowed project costs not to be properly scrutinised.”
He said the City in August reluctantly provided a summary of the total project costs which revealed a huge budget over-run, including architect costs. These costs do not appear on the monthly project council agenda payment listings.
“Why should ratepayers accept a lack of business acumen, poor budgeting and contractual control practises by the City?” Mr Ross said.
When Mr Ross asked whether the City met the September 30 auditor’s deadline for the FY22 draft financial statements, the director of city business refused to give an answer except to say the auditor had all the information it needed.
“I will take that as a no,” Mr Ross said.