Shire CEO, Paul Martin, said he wanted an Asset Management Officer to ‘capture’
those illusive local historical, economic and social investment and development
indicators called ‘Assets’.
The Shire of York may have now tracked down the one to hunt York assets that have been on the loose since the early 21st Century, with some long since morphing into liquidity liabilities through past council policies of insanity.
The chosen one’s role will be to arrest road damage and decay, hunt for historic sites, pursue parks, gardens and public property, catch-up with culverts, seize a swinging bridge and swimming pool, tackle technology failures and wrestle with the wreckage of the YRCC. (The YRCC is one asset that is known to exist because Executive Manager Corporate & Community Services, Suzie Haslehurst, has said so.)
A possible candidate, Mr. Andrew Crotty’s work related resume is quite impressive.
He has engaged in Road Asset Management System’s Operation and Management, Road Asset and Pavement Condition Data Analysis, Data Capture Technology and Systems and Information Management and Data Flow Processes on behalf of ARRB Group, a road engineering consultancy specialist.
This means he can provide concrete advice and solutions for bad roads, poor pavements and the Shire’s near to non-existent and inefficient data technology and documented information management systems.
The last problem, totally dysfunctional and lax records management, was proven by former President, Tony Boyle, when he publically besmirched the character of some ratepayers by bitching that it cost $90,000 to cover simple requests for FOI information from the Shire’s database.
These were records lost, trashed or were being deliberately suppressed for which he threatened dire public retribution to those who asked for them.
This was just prior to the DLGC discovering that the Shire of York was in breach of the standards of records retrieval required under the State Records Act, 2005
Even now, in 2017, Ms. Suzie Haslehurst claims she is still trying to find the records of the YRCC dating back to when the doors opened.
Having left ARRB Group in 2014, from January to October 2015, Mr. Crotty has amused himself at the City of Stirling developing asset management principles and practices for the council’s building department.
This was followed by his current stint collecting data for the building department of the Town of Cambridge to be used for asset management purposes.
Mr. Crotty was obviously extremely efficient in his time at Stirling Council or they actually had the mandatory up-to-date Asset Register for him to review- that the Shire of York apparently does not have.
He has spent an average of 16 months in his past three positions and appears to have been unemployed or holidaying between October, 2015 and March, 2016. (Maybe this is because asset management is not considered to be a full time, or long term appointment within metropolitan local government councils?)
Should he be the one who takes up the Shire of York’s, apparently permanent challenge, he will have a hard local road to travel with collapsing edges, missing bitumen and heavy haulage problems created by the closure of Tier3 grain rail lines.
Since 2011, when the Shire of York allegedly diverted road funding to the YRCC glass mausoleum, there has been continuous, contentious, systemic and perpetuated failings in the design, construction and maintenance of York’s local road system and related structures.
At the same time there has been no appropriate measurement of the Australian Road Safety Standards required to be met by Council for its roads and related structures.
As of May 2016, the Shire had a 60% annual shortfall in available funding to keep York’s roads in their current condition, with nothing left for improvements.
As a Local Government Area it bears a responsibility and duty-of-care to all road users to ensure they can travel safely, at the speed limits on its road assets.
Any necessity for the Shire of York to have permanent Asset Management Officer dates back to 2004 and the advent of Ray Hooper. It is for sure and certain that Hooper would feel no need to create or maintain a Shire of York Asset Register.
Known asset grant stripping to fund the creation of another asset was a game that Ray Hooper later played with the full cooperation of President’s, Pat Hooper and Boyle, supported by a majority of councillors.
It is another case of the past haunting York’s present, and future- with the need for another hired hand to seek and shift the deckchair assets on the Titanic.
Paul Martin took over the position of CEO with local expectations that he would turn deficiencies into efficiencies. This resulted in the removal of Tyhscha Cochrane, Gail Maziuk and Gordon Tester.
This is where the efficiencies may have ended with the hiring of two Executive Managers, Paul Crewe and Suzie Haslehurst, another senior officer in Esmerelda Harmer and the soon to be appointed Asset Management Officer.
In the efficiency modelling scheme of things, four senior employees replacing three is an overall financial administration negative- not a positive.
When Suzie Haslehurst’s responsibilities include managing assets such as information technology, the YRCC, the swimming pool and the public library it makes you start to wonder?
When Paul Crewe’s responsibilities include asset management and asset planning, works and services, which should include road and road asset infrastructure maintenance, parks, gardens and public buildings and capital projects, which is the creation of new assets, it makes you wonder what the hell is going on?
It is a legitimate question-especially when Paul Martin oversees everything, there is a Curator of Cultural Heritage looking after York’s historic museum assets, there is a Manager of Works and Services and a Planning Officer to assist Paul Crewe, and last but-by no-means least, Esmerelda Harmer, to assist the CEO.
So what is actually left in the asset department to capture other than the place names and locations of assets that are probably known to all and sundry?
Why are not Executive Managers, Mr. Crewe and Ms. Haslehurst, perfectly capable of locating, managing and, where necessary, improving the assets that are their responsibility within their management portfolios?
The release of the Minutes for the Ordinary Council Meeting in February, 2017, will be a momentous occasion that should allow ratepayers to prove if a pleasant Shire Council Administrative regime is any better, for York, than extremely unpleasant ones that engaged in, among other misdeeds, empire building?
The accompanying discussion papers delivered at this meeting, their content and presentation must be first class for that question to be answered!
David Taylor.
The Shire of York may have now tracked down the one to hunt York assets that have been on the loose since the early 21st Century, with some long since morphing into liquidity liabilities through past council policies of insanity.
The chosen one’s role will be to arrest road damage and decay, hunt for historic sites, pursue parks, gardens and public property, catch-up with culverts, seize a swinging bridge and swimming pool, tackle technology failures and wrestle with the wreckage of the YRCC. (The YRCC is one asset that is known to exist because Executive Manager Corporate & Community Services, Suzie Haslehurst, has said so.)
A possible candidate, Mr. Andrew Crotty’s work related resume is quite impressive.
He has engaged in Road Asset Management System’s Operation and Management, Road Asset and Pavement Condition Data Analysis, Data Capture Technology and Systems and Information Management and Data Flow Processes on behalf of ARRB Group, a road engineering consultancy specialist.
This means he can provide concrete advice and solutions for bad roads, poor pavements and the Shire’s near to non-existent and inefficient data technology and documented information management systems.
The last problem, totally dysfunctional and lax records management, was proven by former President, Tony Boyle, when he publically besmirched the character of some ratepayers by bitching that it cost $90,000 to cover simple requests for FOI information from the Shire’s database.
These were records lost, trashed or were being deliberately suppressed for which he threatened dire public retribution to those who asked for them.
This was just prior to the DLGC discovering that the Shire of York was in breach of the standards of records retrieval required under the State Records Act, 2005
Even now, in 2017, Ms. Suzie Haslehurst claims she is still trying to find the records of the YRCC dating back to when the doors opened.
Having left ARRB Group in 2014, from January to October 2015, Mr. Crotty has amused himself at the City of Stirling developing asset management principles and practices for the council’s building department.
This was followed by his current stint collecting data for the building department of the Town of Cambridge to be used for asset management purposes.
Mr. Crotty was obviously extremely efficient in his time at Stirling Council or they actually had the mandatory up-to-date Asset Register for him to review- that the Shire of York apparently does not have.
He has spent an average of 16 months in his past three positions and appears to have been unemployed or holidaying between October, 2015 and March, 2016. (Maybe this is because asset management is not considered to be a full time, or long term appointment within metropolitan local government councils?)
Should he be the one who takes up the Shire of York’s, apparently permanent challenge, he will have a hard local road to travel with collapsing edges, missing bitumen and heavy haulage problems created by the closure of Tier3 grain rail lines.
Since 2011, when the Shire of York allegedly diverted road funding to the YRCC glass mausoleum, there has been continuous, contentious, systemic and perpetuated failings in the design, construction and maintenance of York’s local road system and related structures.
At the same time there has been no appropriate measurement of the Australian Road Safety Standards required to be met by Council for its roads and related structures.
As of May 2016, the Shire had a 60% annual shortfall in available funding to keep York’s roads in their current condition, with nothing left for improvements.
As a Local Government Area it bears a responsibility and duty-of-care to all road users to ensure they can travel safely, at the speed limits on its road assets.
Any necessity for the Shire of York to have permanent Asset Management Officer dates back to 2004 and the advent of Ray Hooper. It is for sure and certain that Hooper would feel no need to create or maintain a Shire of York Asset Register.
Known asset grant stripping to fund the creation of another asset was a game that Ray Hooper later played with the full cooperation of President’s, Pat Hooper and Boyle, supported by a majority of councillors.
It is another case of the past haunting York’s present, and future- with the need for another hired hand to seek and shift the deckchair assets on the Titanic.
Paul Martin took over the position of CEO with local expectations that he would turn deficiencies into efficiencies. This resulted in the removal of Tyhscha Cochrane, Gail Maziuk and Gordon Tester.
This is where the efficiencies may have ended with the hiring of two Executive Managers, Paul Crewe and Suzie Haslehurst, another senior officer in Esmerelda Harmer and the soon to be appointed Asset Management Officer.
In the efficiency modelling scheme of things, four senior employees replacing three is an overall financial administration negative- not a positive.
When Suzie Haslehurst’s responsibilities include managing assets such as information technology, the YRCC, the swimming pool and the public library it makes you start to wonder?
When Paul Crewe’s responsibilities include asset management and asset planning, works and services, which should include road and road asset infrastructure maintenance, parks, gardens and public buildings and capital projects, which is the creation of new assets, it makes you wonder what the hell is going on?
It is a legitimate question-especially when Paul Martin oversees everything, there is a Curator of Cultural Heritage looking after York’s historic museum assets, there is a Manager of Works and Services and a Planning Officer to assist Paul Crewe, and last but-by no-means least, Esmerelda Harmer, to assist the CEO.
So what is actually left in the asset department to capture other than the place names and locations of assets that are probably known to all and sundry?
Why are not Executive Managers, Mr. Crewe and Ms. Haslehurst, perfectly capable of locating, managing and, where necessary, improving the assets that are their responsibility within their management portfolios?
The release of the Minutes for the Ordinary Council Meeting in February, 2017, will be a momentous occasion that should allow ratepayers to prove if a pleasant Shire Council Administrative regime is any better, for York, than extremely unpleasant ones that engaged in, among other misdeeds, empire building?
The accompanying discussion papers delivered at this meeting, their content and presentation must be first class for that question to be answered!
David Taylor.
With the introduction of an asset manager one would assume the other two executive managers positions will be redefined. Wonder when at at what cost?
ReplyDeleteIf Ms. Haslehurst is having trouble locating the records of the YRCC project, she could liaise with Ms. Maziuk, the YRCC Project Manager.
ReplyDeleteWe all know how highly efficient Gail was - in everything she did - and I am sure she would have set up a second to none filing system for this important multi million dollar project.
I cannot imagine Ms. Maziuk not wanting everyone to see the evidence for the great job she did.
I attended the council meeting when Mrs. Sally Boyle asked the 'Dear Dorothy' question about the $90,000 spent on FOI's. Her husband was the Shire President.
ReplyDeleteThat was the 'comedy item' on the council's Agenda.
All they've done so far is open the visitors centre an extra couple of days a week, some new Christmas decorations,and some new bins.These are positive moves but as for efficiency still a long way off,although thats all we should expect because they haven't developed or implemented a workforce plan yet even with the extra help of consultants.What should we expect of the quality of the workforce plan?
ReplyDeleteDon't expect much Anonymous.The consultants will be there for 5 minutes,Paul Martin will be busy crossing his fingers behind his back just for extra luck whilst Suzie struggles to make her mark. Mr Crewe who knows all about F.A. talks the talk to Allan R. who will never know but its okay because he walks not the walk but a walk.It's only going to get worse though once the new assets manager tells them all in a fancy format what everyone else already knows.
DeleteHere's an idea - why not ask community members to compile a list of Shire Assets.
ReplyDeleteWe know what we own and it could save employing someone from outside.
Mr Crotty's engagements are impressive, also, he has worked here and there so it is said, and in between he goes on holidays. The writing is on the wall while he wracks up the dollars in York he will spend his time updating his resume and planning his next holiday.
DeleteAnonymous 25 January at 17:01 don't boost his possibly inflated ego he is supposed to be believed.
Delete