Latrobe City Council is keeping secret the details of a review which investigated its handling of a major Moe infrastructure plan.
The review relates to “governance processes” associated with the Moe railway revitalisation project and the overarching planning document which sets out long-term goals for the town centre.
But so far this is all the community has been allowed to know.
The matter has twice been discussed during the ‘closed to the public’ proceedings at council’s regular meetings and has been listed on next Monday’s agenda, once again, to be dealt with out of the public eye.
Traralgon resident Anne Murphy last week publicly queried why the matter was being heard in the closed section of meetings, when most other decisions relating to Moe’s revitalisation had been discussed in full view of the public.
“‘Governance’ is how you do something,” Ms Murphy said.
“Why would a review of that be hidden?”
While Latrobe City declined to comment to The Express, it has cited the Local Government Act as its justification for listing the item in the closed section of the agenda, in particular, section 89.2H.
The section states meetings should be open to the public unless they discuss a matter which the council considers “would prejudice the council or any person”.
Ms Murphy rejected this, saying the community deserved to know the details of the review.
“If the review was damning of their processes… isn’t that something the general public should know?” she said.
“It’s something that will make them sit up and take notice.”
Committee for Moe president Manny Gelagotis agreed the review should be discussed in open council.
“If they don’t want to tell people the truth, people are going to speculate,” Mr Gelagotis said.
“I personally believe it’s about something that’s wrong and council don’t want to expose anyone, but they should.”
The governance review was flagged in March towards the end of a separate three-month review which looked at the Moe project itself.
During this process members of the community were able to lodge submissions about which aspects of the revitalisation plan they supported and which they had concerns with.
Four submitters focused their concerns on council’s governance process dating back to the project’s inception more than six years ago.
Council agenda papers on 25 March stated in order to address these concerns and “confirm” that governance processes had been appropriate, an external, independent review would be conducted.
The report stated the findings of the review would be presented to a “future meeting of council”, but did not specify whether this would be in the open section of proceedings.
Also a mystery is exactly who has conducted the review.
The Local Government Inspectorate, which assesses councils’ compliance with the Local Government Act, refused to confirm or deny its involvement in the review, directing questions to Latrobe City, who was not forthcoming.
As part of Moe’s town centre revitalisation, council plans to construct a library, cafe, public meeting rooms and skate park along the George Street railway precinct.
Some community members opposed aspects of the plan, including the relocation of the library from Kirk Street and newly-elected councillor Peter Gibbons last December successfully moved to re-examine the project.
The decision drew fierce criticism and opposition from thousands of residents, resulting in council adopting the project with no changes.
