The personal information referred to is subject to secretive, conspiratorial Confidentiality Agreements within the Shire of York, between it and third-parties, regarding termination of staff employment where activities occurred that could give rise to external punitive actions being taken against the signatories to these agreements in a court of appropriate jurisdiction. The covert nature of these agreements have the intent of attempting to prevent and/or minimize the potential for such legal action.
1. Legal Fees (FOI)
The
Department of Local Government and Communities has stated that the Shire of
York has failed to retain important documents, under the the State Records Act 2000, as
being the full and accurate records of the Shire’s business
decisions and transactions to meet all legislative, business, administrative,
evidentiary and historical requirements. This would include evidentiary information directly pertaining to
Freedom of Information requests. It also infers that it has not retained
with all due care, in its custody and control, the personal information of third parties that
could be withheld for any legal reason as being too much personal information.
Even more to the point- most FOI requests directly involve certain staff and councillors. Given this- let us
say that the reason for the expenditure $15,000 legal fees to prevent staff
from giving out personal information is a possible ‘Churchillian, terminological inexactitude’.
2. Consultants to Replace Staff.
The
replacement of staff by consultants using any form of Confidentiality Agreement
to withhold the terms and conditions of their contractual arrangements to the
exclusion of any and all, fair and reasonable knowledge that should be provided
to the ratepayer, in the best interest of the community, is undemocratic and
unacceptable.
3. Staff Payouts
The use of the term ‘sacked’ was published in a financial record (Appendix A) attached to the Minutes of the council meeting of July 6, 2015, sourced from the Shire of York, and, being used twice, is not a typographical error. If, as stated, it is totally incorrect then it is a false, misleading and potentially malicious statement, released by the Shire of York Administration, that is personally detrimental to the future employment prospects of the person or persons who have recently left their employment at the Shire. What occurred was the entering into Confidentiality Agreements for Termination of Employment to protect the guilty from legal action and means ‘not being sacked- on a technicality’.
4. PPR
Professional Public Relations, based in West Perth, is an award winning, integrated, channel agnostic public relations agency not far from where James Best plies his trade as a strategic facilitator, idealation and envisioning expert at Hames Sharley, urban designers of Subiaco. PPR is a costly agency to hire its services and would be a distinctly expensive-overkill in providing ‘branding’ and other public relations advice to a council such as the Shire of York.
5. Exclusion
The
common reference for “Corporate knowledge” is the overall knowledge gained and
retained by agents within a system and their ability to co-operate with each
other in order to meet their goals. The role of Public Sector Officers,
including Shire Council employees, is to assist in the facilitation of
corporate knowledge by providing a platform of proper compliance with statutes, laws and governance that they are
required to administer by oversight and with accountability. Knowledge of Shire
activities (?), local issues, does and don’ts (?) and local history are not the province of Shire Council employees
nor is it any sort of fundamental or mandatory requirement in their contract of
employment. The Elected Member of a Shire Council is the arbiter of local, so-called corporate
knowledge and it is their role to use it, when necessary, in the best interests
of the ratepayers who elected them and for the community overall.
What this all means is that the next Chief-Executive-Officer employed by the Shire of York may have the same, or even less, so-called corporate knowledge than the current, Acting Chief-Executive-Officer. In the current case it is not a necessity, but it may be felt as a good excuse. Whatever corporate knowledge and its past co-operation with each other by agents within the system of the Shire of York has brought, it certainly has not met any goals expected by the York community.
David Taylor.
3. Staff Payouts
The use of the term ‘sacked’ was published in a financial record (Appendix A) attached to the Minutes of the council meeting of July 6, 2015, sourced from the Shire of York, and, being used twice, is not a typographical error. If, as stated, it is totally incorrect then it is a false, misleading and potentially malicious statement, released by the Shire of York Administration, that is personally detrimental to the future employment prospects of the person or persons who have recently left their employment at the Shire. What occurred was the entering into Confidentiality Agreements for Termination of Employment to protect the guilty from legal action and means ‘not being sacked- on a technicality’.
4. PPR
Professional Public Relations, based in West Perth, is an award winning, integrated, channel agnostic public relations agency not far from where James Best plies his trade as a strategic facilitator, idealation and envisioning expert at Hames Sharley, urban designers of Subiaco. PPR is a costly agency to hire its services and would be a distinctly expensive-overkill in providing ‘branding’ and other public relations advice to a council such as the Shire of York.
5. Exclusion
 |
Graeme & Gail
swotting up on corporate knowledge
|
What this all means is that the next Chief-Executive-Officer employed by the Shire of York may have the same, or even less, so-called corporate knowledge than the current, Acting Chief-Executive-Officer. In the current case it is not a necessity, but it may be felt as a good excuse. Whatever corporate knowledge and its past co-operation with each other by agents within the system of the Shire of York has brought, it certainly has not met any goals expected by the York community.
David Taylor.
Thank you, David T. Adding my immediate slant on it:
ReplyDelete1. Graeme Simpson said "our processes had to be tightened up". Well, tightening the screws is what we have experienced on all sides in the second half in particular of Mr Best's six months; so much so that we lived through committees being shut down and even his new Advisory Groups fading into nothing altogether (except for couple of meetings round the subject of Business) in the last two months, and none of the promised 'feedback' on anything of the brainstorming Mr B 'facilitated'.
2. Employment of consultants also meant evading proper scrutiny required to facilitate choosing people best suited to do the tasks required.
3. The use of the word 'sacked': Graeme Simpson clearly can't have remembered what he wrote or allowed to be written in the Minutes of the Special Council Meeting of July 6th. Well, I speak tongue-in cheek, because it cannot mean 'not sacked' and 'sacked' at the same time. Confidentiality Agreements are, of course, aimed to protect BOTH the 'sacker-non-sacker' and the 'sacked-non-sacked'.
4. Of course Mr G Simpson did not want to know the connection between PPR and James Best. He also pretended to be making some vague and waffly 'best guess' when I asked him about it in and after a previous meeting not long ago.
5. As I stated in a public meeting at the Town Hall towards the end of last year round the time of the reply to the 'Show Cause Notice', we (and the long-term employees of the Shire as well) have in the last 16 or so years put up with: 3 occasions of loss of Council (2 complete changes and one 'standing aside), 2 Commissioners (the first doing better than the second except in his delegating too much authority to Ray Hooper), several CEOs and A/CEOs, several Shire Presidents. We have also had several sets of Committees, Reference Groups, aboiitions of Committees, numerous hard-worked-on reports and plans that have ended up on shelves with each change, and many projects never carried out. Its no wonder that things have got relegated to shelves, and sometimes staff may genuinely have no idea what happened to what. Add to that the occasions when they have been directed from above 'not to know', and no wonder we have a loss of Corporate Knowledge.
And then there are Policies which people were commissioned to write (such as Mrs Oliver and policy on ethical behaviour or such, she informed us on 6th July) that were 'forgotten' and in this case something very similar produced as if brand new under 'someone else's' auspices on 6th July, what is more in an atmosphere of 'blood and thunder'.
How many times are we going to have to start right from the beginning agin, on how many projects, policies and working groups?
Not that I mind being on committees or working groups; its just that its frustrating to see it all wasted. If only it could bear more fruit.
ReplyDeleteDavid, it transpired at last night's special electors meeting that the shire is not nearing insolvency, according to the shire president the shire is s fiscally safe. In scaremongering, James Best was doing what James Best does best, talking shite. What's become blatantly obvious over the last three shire meetings is that James Best is a liar and not a particularly good liar at that. He has made many promises he could not have possibly honoured, or had no intention of honouring.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree about 'corporate knowledge', it should be left to elected members, CEO Simpson and his posse are not overly bright, indeed, after last night's performance they (the administration) came over as idiots, some of Simpson's answers during question time were beyond the understanding of any 'reasonable person', the man is different for sure!
CEO Simpson allowed James Best to make the farcical decision to buy the old school because of his lack of 'corporate knowledge', he was duty bound to inform the Department or any other official body that the decision was flawed, he didn't, he's as Guilty as Best.
Something else that came out of the meeting last night was that the Shire of York administration investigated themselves under the supervision of.......you've guessed it, James Best!
ReplyDeleteSurprise surprise the administration found nothing wrong, reported back to Mr Best who informed the CCC everything was tickety-boo. Bearing in mind that certain senior staff had been part of the alleged corruption it is mind numbing that the CCC would be stupid enough to allow a criminal to investigate him/herself, but when you look at the way the CCC has performed since its conception, nothing would surprise me .
And people still believe we have a Local Government.
ReplyDeleteThe State of W.A. has been taken over by a bunch of Public Servant control freaks who get their jollies off by throwing their weight around.
Those at the meeting last night saw how Public Servant Jenni Law - yes folks, she is nothing more than a public servant - but she thought she was 'the boss'.
It was nauseating to watch.
Love the cartoon - very appropriate costumes for them.
DeleteI doubt either would be capable of standing on one leg for too long though!
Jenni Law did not attend the Electors' Meeting on Monday, anonymous 28/7 at 00.00. Her name card was at the front of the monitors/ mentors table but she never appeared. The lady who was present is Cr Karen Chappel, Shire President, Shire of Morawa.
DeleteHowever, Jenni Law was present at the Briefing Council Meeting on the 22nd. You may recall her sitting on the right side of Best & Simpson at the Special Council Mtg the 2 of them called in the closing hours of JB in York, next to Karen Chappel. Law wears round dark-rimmed glasses and stared glassy eyed and emotionless at the 'gallery' that evening.
Hello Jane, it was Jenni Law at the meeting(s) on Monday she was the large lady dressed el macho . Karen Chappel is half the size of Ms Law and is certainly easier on the eye.
DeleteJenni Law WAS definitely at all the meetings in the Town Hall - she was sitting to the left of the Councillors, exactly where her name card was. She was the closest 'watch dog' to the public!
DeleteNot only has the threat of insolvency reduced us to eating spam, the stink of it must be what has caused us all the bad colds and coughs these days, and not the aerial spraying or the usual microbes.
ReplyDelete