GIVE A TREE A HUG, BUT WATCH OUT FOR THE CHAINSAW.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
No…………………………………..

BETWEEN

THE SHIRE OF YORK

PLAINTIFF

and

JAMES BEST BBC PTY LTD TRADING AS STAR CONSULTING
ANTHONY SIMPSON FORMER MINISTER FOR THE DEPARTMENT
OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITIES.

DEFENDANTS

March 30, 2017
Mr. Paul Martin
Chief Executive Officer
Shire of York
1 Joaquina Street
YORK WA 6302.

GIVE A TREE A HUG, BUT WATCH OUT FOR THE CHAINSAW.

So Paul now it is time to find a lawyer named Sue!
Nearly two decades ago dozens, maybe a hundred tree huggers and hobby farmers, tired of city life headed for a home among the gum leaves, trees, whatever. Also some were trying to get as far away as they could get from the Australian Tax Office.

Hear how these stories go:-
In early 2005 one couple decided to sell their business in Katrine near Northam and move to the exciting, historic, burgeoning community of York which had more Real Estate Agents than New York
with one agent the physical size of Manhattan with the business ethics of Mephistopheles.
It is one of numerous similar newbie stories.
Originally they looked at places such as Laurelville and Hope Farm but decided against getting back into the tourist industry.

Instead one became Branch Manager of a bank in York and one was asked to be a Parliamentary Research Officer for the Avon. 

He tried to champion the cause of giving a percentage of net revenue raised in a region back to the region and delivering cheap, piped natural gas to the Wheatbelt and the Avon. His name was not Brendon Grylls.

The reason was to attract light industry and population by making commercial and domestic gas prices three to four times cheaper .In other words-make it more economically viable to develop industry and communities in the Avon and the Wheatbelt.

The gas could have come from the Eastern Goldfields Pipeline at Leonora right through Southern Cross , Merredin to Northam through a 440mm pipe, or the 219mm Mid-West Pipeline from Geraldton, via Three Springs, New Norcia and Toodyay .

Or it could have come from the big bugger, the 660mm Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline.

There were numerous insurmountable obstacles.

The State Government did not want to, the big natural gas producers were selling 1 cubic litre of liquefied gas to the Japanese for around 1 to3cents per litre that was making them billions and, supposedly, to bring a gas pipeline from Perth through the Darling Scarp would involve blowing up Mundaring.

The pipe had to go underground and the base rock was too hard and no one really gave a shit about the Wheatbelt anyway.

 In fact it was all too hard and much too expensive for the gas companies when they could charge over $100, plus delivery, for an 80 litre bottle of domestic gas to everyone not on a reticulated supply.

He then asked the Shire of York to give its support to a new Hot Air Ballooning business at York to stimulate the tourist trade. The hot air in York at that time was Ray Hooper and the Council who could not even spell balloon.

His other suggestion was for York to celebrate its 175^th Anniversary. It did go ahead-just- but at no stage did Gavin Troy or Ray Hooper attend the meetings and Pat Hooper dropped in once.

Having worked for one of Australia’s largest shareholder companies this person resigned because he refused to discuss the spending of ratepayer’s money on a project without the appropriate authorities being there.

But the couple still went ahead and invested around $655,000 in York over a period of 18 months in both their own home, renovations and an investment property.

The bank value of the original home was quoted as being $395,000 with the ability to subdivide the block (r40) for three additional apartments.

This was around 2009 when the Shire of York was in full, but well hidden, failure!

At that time market value was probably somewhere between $430,000 and $440,000.

However the owners were more interested in building a granny-flat and retain the whole 2000 square metres block to look after elderly parents.

The block itself was basically worthless because it would cost more to subdivide, put in utilities such as required underground power, both to the new block and the original home- plus the site-works.

It was also required that you had to knock down a 5m x 4m shed if you wished to subdivide because they thought people would sneak in and happily live there. What a Jacky Jurmann crock of shit!.

Through Ray Hooper, Tony Boyle and a monolithic, corrupt Compadre, Colin King, they were told no-way.

This was because Hooper, et al, was trying to develop a new suburb that would not allow an infill regime in York. If you don’t think it was shonky? - Guess-what, then Colin King is not hiding out from his creditors behind a double decker bus somewhere in Perth.

The current value of a $350,000 home bought, in a place like York, over 12 years ago should be around $550,000 to $700,000 in normal circumstances, in a thriving country town so close to the Metropolitan Area ,with access to purchase historic home-sites.

It is actually worth about 200 Guatemalan Quetzals (and two goats droppings) and the owners are starting to get extremely shitty- and in a nasty, nasty mood.

Like most they are incensed with the $625,000 paid for a collapsible Convent School by a Nut Job, who employed himself to use his Chrystal ball which is a massive Conflict of Interest.

He was also the Loan-Lone Ranger who (allegedly) cleared the shire of any previous wrong doings
logged in the Fitz-Gerald Report.

There is one thing wrong here. Under the Corruption Crime & Misconduct Act, 2003, there are two arbiters, the WACCC who (under the act) prevent, identify (find locate discover, capture etc.) and deal effectively and appropriately with those who engage in serious misconduct within the public sector. The other is the Public Service Commission which does wrist smacking.

At no stage is it mentioned that these investigations may be delegated to public servants, commissioners etc. who may, or may not have a vested interest or the ability to conduct such an investigation.

James Best certainly did not have these investigative credentials. He could only sign cheques with his signature to and for himself and at least two much loved sycophants.

There is known to be one letter addressed to John McKechnie QC, also the Parliamentary Inspector, Mr. Murray Alder, that bore any relationship to the Fitz Gerald Report 2014 dated in September, 2015.

It was regarding a letter sent by a Ms. Barbara Inglis, of the WACCC on August 22, 2014 at 1.58 pm to the Shire of York Customer Service (that is not a correct office address) to Acting CEO Michael Keeble.

For correspondence regarding an investigation into financial wrongdoing to be sent to a non- existent address where its content would be passed around the Shire of York Office to be viewed  by everyone and his dog is WTF?

Former Premier, Colin Barnett, covertly thought McKechnie may be an expensive clown and I believe these sentiments may have been shared by Police Commissioner, Karl O’Callaghan.

The correspondence contained a false allegation that the WACCC tried to defend as a legitimate, legal function under section 33(1)© of the  Corruption, Crime and Misconduct Act , 2003

Ms Inglis  was seeking information regarding the Fitz Gerald Report from Michael Keeble who had no idea what he was talking about and that included anything and everything. (Other than Boyle, Hooper and Duperouzal whispering in his ear,) Men he claimed to dislike intensely.

The WACCC was so stupid it had dates wrong but still interviewed Mr. Keeble at their Perth Offices on Thursday August 21, 2014. They were far more interested in who publically released what should have been a community-owned document- than the accusations the Fitz-Gerald Report contained.

You know who released it and if the WACCC had asked they would have been told, accompanied by some choice epithets, followed by a few weeks in a slammer.

It would appear that the WACCC then commissioned James Best to investigate any financial wrongdoings by Shire of York Officers when by law it should have been WACCC Investigating Officers who had to identify (find, locate, discover) and then possibly charge Councillors and public officers if necessary.

As it did later in the Dowerin -and Port Hedland cases.

Instead of the WACCC publically stating the Shire of York had no case to answer it was James Best with his bulging wallet and his own huge case of conflict of Interest who said there was no evidence of misconduct among staff. No mention was made of Councillors who were also named.

So when you next amble over for tea and Tim Tams with CEO, Paul Martin, tell him its time to take James Best to a court of appropriate jurisdiction.

Remind Paul that the Shire of York has a responsibility to its ratepayers, tell him to take a shot of testosterone and initiate proceedings to seek pecuniary redress against James Best when acting as Commissioner of the Shire of York under the auspices of Tony Simpson and Brad Jolly of the DLGC,

This would be that he seriously and deliberately  breached his contract of employment, including but not specifically limited to:-

(1) failing to act ethically professionally , correctly and in good faith in the performance of his
     required duties including acting unconscionably and illegally by paying himself an additional
     income of some $40,000 without due authority

(2) engaging in fraudulent embezzlement of municipal funds by knowingly purchasing a unrequired
      property for twice its value with no known financial security arrangements to cover the Shire of
      York for he large difference between true market value, sale price and required, future
      restoration work.

(3) requesting and allowing police to attend to an official Shire of York Council meeting wearing
     firearms to intimidate, unnerve, bully and, tyrannize ratepayers into the perception that they, and
     their right to freedom of speech, was being threatened and disallowed.

(4) Publically intimating that some Shire of York ratepayers were a form of urban terrorist intent   
      on destabilizing and thereby harming the York community. Deliberately emotionally distressing
      these persons because he, and everyone else, was fully aware to whom he was referring to and
      his intent was to humiliate and disgrace them.

At the time of his employment as Commissioner to mid-2015, Mr. Best’s company was BBC (Pty Ltd);

He is now the Executive Director of a business called STAR Consulting.

So Paul, old boy, what should your legal team be hitting Best with?

Firstly any handouts he gave himself for anything he was not commissioned and entitled to. That is around $50,000 including a fine, plus the Shire’s court costs.

Then the difference between the true market value of the unwanted property and the preposterous, corrupt price paid for it. This should be around $350,000 including the fine and the Shire’s court costs.

 As he could be charged with knowingly providing false and misleading information of the valuation of the property to the lender, a twelve (12) month suspended sentence may well be appropriate.

Do not forget that his mentor Tony Simpson is now lining up at CentreLink and Brad Jolly is probably skating on very thin ice at the moment.

However before you crack the “Moet” I would like to remind you that as of February 2017, you still have outstanding rates of $1,839.900 that is only $135.000 less than last month (and the YRCC will end up like the Syrian city of Mosul, stormed by hundreds of irate ratepayers.)

At this rate you may have collected it all by April 2018, if you do not include the sundry debtors of $348,000. As of July 1, 2017, it all starts again so someone may have to take a pay cut?

So far I have not seen your new demographics website that casually mentioned York had 3668 people in 2012.

The REIWA Site still claims there are only 2387 people living in their extremely vast aerial map of the York town-site and surrounds. Does this mean there are over 1,000 people living on farms or hiding in sheds?

It certainly means that the current commercial and domestic rate valuation should be reduced by no less than 20% for the 2017-2018 Financial Year.

Regarding the Community Scorecard Result for 2017 it reads like the report cards of Grade 3 children with learning difficulties and suggests York will be close to a ghost town in a decade.

Regarding legal action, Ray Hooper of Mukinbudin is definitely a rabbit in the spotlight and if Jacqui Jurmann of Beverley is actually Jacky Jurmann of York she should start checking up on legal aid.

To say that there is an astonishing disrespect for the Shire of York regarding its attitudes, performance and accountability would be an understatement. Because comments are not published on a particular website it does not mean they are not read.

Some think that because you were not here when actions bordering on the criminal took place, they believe it absolves you of any wrongdoing.

You would be a fool to think that. Even four years down the track, if you are aware of any evidence of, and in particular have witnessed any material thing that suggests fraud or any other criminal malfeasance, that you have deliberately withheld from investigation by the appropriate authorities you would be up the proverbial shit-creek without a paddle. (It is called being an accessory after the fact.) .

This is a friendly warning.

Kind regards

David Taylor.

A SITE FOR SORE EYES! THE NEW WEB IS HERE.

It is neat, tidy, reasonably easy to access, navigate the menu and so far appears to be devoid of the ludicrous, stomach churning lyricism that won it the World’s Worst Website for 10 years running- and it is now here on your laptop.

Is it brilliant, revolutionary or innovative? No!  Is it particularly interesting? Not yet. Does it seem to potentially have the right amount of ingredients- Yes!  The right amount of information? Not yet!

So far, it appears to have removed the prehistoric demographics that suggested a discrepancy of 1000 people in York’s population between 2012 and now. That means less-not more.

It would be best to source this information from the contaminated Australian Bureau of Statistics than the Avon Sub Regional Economic Group that may have featured ingenious academics like Tony Boyle. The Shire of York then could have a pedagogical leg to stand on.

Personally I believe it should be more interactive to encourage additional community participation and possibly have an educational section to encourage local school participation.

As usual the Shire of York as shown its understanding of parts of its role is at best mediocre. It chose a company called Market Creations, mainly based in Geraldton that created shire websites for Boddington, Narrogin, Kojonup, Dundas and the City of Geraldton.

No real inventive, ingenious Avant Gard ‘Geeks’ at work here, but they do the job that they are asked to do.

One of their promoted contracts was to produce the Shire of Broome Annual Report.  Maybe that is how the Shire of York got to hear about Market Creations, from CEO Paul Martin who was the Deputy CEO of Broome a little less than a year ago.

So the Shire of York should feel extremely lucky that Mr. Martin appears to know so many available staff and contractors to get things done.

Local Government service employees appear to survive very well on two old maxims ‘ it is not what you know but who you know’,  if you are caught ‘you know absolutely nothing’- or just change your name.

Many of you may well know that the Shire of Beverley has a Planner and Acting Manager, Health and Building Services called JACQUI JURMANN who works with someone called TIM JURMANN.

If you Google the name JACQUI JURMANN you get nothing. However if you Google JACKY JURMANN this person  suddenly becomes JACKY JURMANN, one the Shire of York’s senior Planning Managers and Development Managers whose assistance in enhancing the York Recreation and Convention Centre is listed high on her Curriculum Vitae. She was also allegedly sacked from some employment on or about July, 2015.

Obviously JACQUI is an entirely different person.

David Taylor.

***********

York’s WONDERFUL NEW SHIRE WEBSITE (coming sooner-or much later) 

Friday, 17 March 2017

why?  No-one knows, 49% 0f the population suffering from advanced myopia think it is great.

Otherwise cyber excitement is at fever pitch, York is to have a wondrous new website the envy of everywhere that is rural regional and remote. Not only that- it is going to be full of current accurate information and whimsical odes to its beauty and excitement. (Much sourced from the Avon Sub Regional Economic Strategy 2012, five years ago when York had around 300 more people than it does now.)

This information certainly came straight out of a senior horse’s mouth!

Right at the top will be the famous slogan “Demolishing our history to destroy our Future”.

But they get even better.

a) “A place to visit where there is little work, you may not find somewhere to play. Rest is out of the question because most of the accommodation has closed for good and its best to head off to Northam” to see if the new Dome Café is open.

b) “A place of vibrancy and energy, but one of tranquility and safety” (Lesson one- to the idiot who wrote this, it is either one or the other. It is rather hard to be vibrantly, and energetically tranquil.

c) “A place of growth where local business find opportunities to thrive, but normally die like the Imperial Hotel, The Carriage Diner, Faversham House, Laurelville, the Saints Diner and many others.

d) “A place of relative safety for sleazy entrepreneurs such as Peter Briggs who found some sanctuary in York after being jailed in 1987 for tax evasion. There are more names that could be added to this list.

e)”And of course the best of all- a place is a community and a community is a place. So “A place of community (which means a place where people live- in a community) where lifestyles chosen are important and where community matters” is a place where a community lives in a place that matters because it is a place that is a community. Or maybe the community is the place?

There’s even going to be a “Best Picture of the Week” section featuring “Pavarotti” the Parrot singing “Nessun Dorma” , a one legged sheep called “Almost Legless” and some local deviant  killing his pet kangaroo with a piece of iron pipe.

The current real estate statistics will blow your mind so much you will try to get a bank to give you a deposit. They won’t.

The median house sale price in York is $295,000, average rental value is $200 per week and the current yearly growth rate is -2.5. Affectively this means if you buy a $300,000 house in York tomorrow, at the current growth rate, it could be worth $275,000 in 2027. How lucky can you get!

Obviously if the Imperial Faversham and Laurelville actually sold the median price of housing in York would be$1.3 million. Good luck!

NOW EVEN BETTER WE HAVE THE “MEERKAT” COMMUNITY SCOREBOARD February 2017.
By Catastrophic Pty Ltd.

Unfortunately it is previously documented and signed by CEO Mr. Paul Martin, that he would not use contractors to do surveys. Do you remember that one Paul?

Some of the data cannot be compared to anything that vaguely resembles anything else in other Shire Councils. But there is enough left to choke on your toast over.

As the governing organization the Shire of York scored 43, 13 below the WA Industry Standard.

A lot of the most important ones are worse.

Communicating decisions 20, economic development 27, clear vision 28 and value for money 29 all well below 50% that should be the minimum pass mark.

Ratepayers do believe the rubbish collection regime works well and getting a book out of the library is not that hard.

Does the Shire listen and respond to resident’s questions?- a mark of 31. Do current Councillors have a good understanding of community needs?- another score of 31. Obviously some believe that the silence of the responses are deafening.

Going on this style of statistical information that is usually rabbit out of the hat stuff, illustrated with segmented party pies, there may be some of the York upper local government echelon who should be working at the tip.

However it seems that less than 10% of the population of York helped develop a Benchmark Matrix that came up with an Overall Performance Index Score being + 4.5 out of 95% as the actress said to the bishop.

Then we have the other problem of the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data from the last census that was totally compromised. Who would use it? Someone in Marrakech knows you have a son named Elvis and a daughter named Gertrude.

Based solely on the low scores of communicating decisions, economic development, clear future vision and perceived value for money performance then the Shire of York’s Offices will close on March 17, 2017 and we become the Municipality of York/ The Shire of Northam.

Mr. Wallace and Mr. Martin will both receive their personal copies of this telling them to do what they feel is best for 2,000 people not , 341.

DAVID TAYLOR.

SHIRE OF YORK LG PERFORMANCE CRITIQUE

Date March 26, 2017

Hon David Templeman
Minister for Local Government and the Wheatbelt
Hon Mark McGowan
Premier of Western Australia.

Your Ref : - APPENDICES MARKYT COMMUNITY SCOREBOARD 2017
                      SHIRE OF YORK LG PERFORMANCE CRITIQUE

Gentleman

Firstly congratulations on your landslide victory .  It was totally predictable and showed the former Premier that you need both small and large brush strokes to paint the exorbitantly expensive Barnett ‘big picture” for the average voter to swallow, and the water to a children’s hospital should not be contaminated with lead.

In fact, in part, it could be called a ‘waterslide’ victory because the day Colin Barnett claimed it was unwashed, unclean WA children contaminating the new Elizabeth Quay Water Park was when the underlying  general public loathing of his arrogance and ignorance really set in.

I know some of the churlish acolytes Mr. Barnett closeted himself with in is ‘Alice in Wonderland’ world. One is the infamous Dixie Marshall, his Strategic Communications Director, news reader and football commentator whose actual ability was non-existent and had the foulest language on the planet. If she had ever said to me what she said to some of my former colleagues she would be hiding out in a cave in Nepal.

It is highly likely that the Water Park ‘Watergate” was one of Dixie Marshall’s strategic communications Machiavellian manoeuvres that failed miserably.

It will take at least four years for the “Mitchigan Mauler’ Mike Nahan, to turn the Liberal Party back into anywhere near a cohesive, competitive unit, that may attract more than just public ridicule.  That is if he has the ability- which I highly doubt. Currently the party is too fractured.

As always- it will be the media that will turn news molehills into mountains, especially when Kerry Stokes controls most of it - if you have not got Foxtel or Netflix.

But Channel 7 does have some problems, a scandalous bed-riding CEO ‘Tim Worner’ and Stokes who allegedly had serious open-heart surgery at the Mount Hospital before Christmas,’ This alleged heart valve transplant may have been triggered when Stokes heard about Worner’s ‘long term ménage a deux employee’ who was not his wife.

Kerry Stokes’ who has close to a monopolistic multi-media empire, print media executives have already started to call The Australian newspaper the Rupert Murdoch rag to deflect the fact that Stokes major publications The West Australian and The Sunday Times have an average readership of between 2% and 3% across both print and on-line platforms. Then Tim Worner, head of Channel 7will probably be sacked  when ‘his Fifty Shades of Grey” episode is finally released across the nation.

Seven West Media’s 91% profit drop, the fact that shares are just 70 cents would also tend to make you unwell and no one has dared to  mention how deadly dangerous is a ‘former female lover scorned” with a good QC. It is always nice to know the weaknesses of those who may wish to become your enemy at some stage by publishing low-brow, inaccurate  pap rather than properly researched news.

Over the past years. I have tried to keep you both informed of the sad degeneration of York and the Wheatbelt, much of it caused by Brendan Grylls closest of associates, Mia Davies. Rumour has it that she will be the new leader of the WA Nationals- they would probably better off with Pauline Hanson-Trump.

As you know WA local government has one almost insurmountable problem. There is not enough ratepayers to make many rural, regional and remote shires anywhere near self supporting or financially viable. The predicament is that 2% of Australia’s population live in more than 30 %  of its Shire councils  in 1/3^rd of the continent and over 50 % are administratively and financially incompetent, poverty stricken, or both.

There are 34 Shires with a population of less than 1,000, with an establishment average age of 117 years with up to six generations of families living there within a lot of history.

Western Australian does not have the additional capital to develop a successful demographic algorithm that will solve the problem that Department of Local Government aficionado, Brad Jolly, laughingly called mendicancy.

(Please do not forget the Brad Jolly taught the Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi, all the gift gathering techniques she knows other than how finally not to get caught.)

One immediate solution is to reduce the salaries, entitlements and gratuities of every Executive Officer in the WA Department of Local Government by at least 30%, including the Chief Executive Officers of every Local Government Area in WA. These people are not going to resign- most in the private sector would not want to hire them anyway.

Colin Barnett publically stated  that senior LGA public servants were grossly overpaid- so you it was originally his decision not yours.

A second suggestion is to the number of elected Councillors in rural, regional and remote WA be reduced to  five per shire and they are each paid an absolute minimum salary of $800 per week which is about $25 above the Australian minimum wage.

They are also provided work-related tools of trade such as laptops and IPhone. And its use, for free as LGA  business necessities only. Also they can claim an additional $15,000 each per annum for legitimate travel to attend LGA training, required conferences and sitting on designated LGA committees. The Shire President and the Deputy will be paid extra.

Each potential council candidate should be able to bring to the table a discipline that bears some relationship to the broad spectrum of council business. Accountancy, business acumen, tourism knowledge, primary and secondary health care, basic due process of the law, required liquor industry knowledge, marketing, promotion or communication skills, necessary domestic and commercial land release cognizance, building codes and a good understanding of the community, its wants and needs including emerging demand for domestic and commercial utilities.

There are to be no gifts to Councillors from any third party of any material thing for any personal gain for either party without clearly defined guidelines, being not for any personal profit or gain, other than for the entire community. I am sure the Hon. John Quigley QC, the Attorney General , can create a legally binding, all encompassing clause that will make it a criminal offence for local government officials to accept private largesse.

The Western Australian Local Government Act, 1995, being over two decades old and delivering poor quality governance standards requires revision and amendments. The Auditor General should now be given full remit to audit LGA  annual financial reports and, when and where necessary, ensure charges are laid against councillors, public servants and council auditors for illegal misappropriation or fraudulent manipulation of municipal funds.

The days of semi-volunteer councillors and cake stalls to try to buy a new fire engine are long gone. You cannot have a board of directors, that Councils really are, running a type of charitable , not for profit organization when it is part of a highly competitive industry and when some towns and shires are dying.

All rural, regional and remote shires should retain their entity, identity, their shire offices and specifically their names and familial culture. Each Shire would have a manager and counter staff to provide for the normal day to day administrative needs, fire safety, ambulance facilities and ensure adequate policing.

The five Councillors would all be part of a larger Municipality (administrative division) were there would be a single Chief-Executive-Officer and management group. All shires within this Municipality with a common socio-economic, community background should have all rights in common and equal access to necessary group funding for socio-economic and community purposes.

The acronym ‘ROC” for Regionals of Councils has left a bad taste. It has the connotation that the larger councils would bully and financially dominate their smaller partners. The York Shire Council had every intention of doing this that caused the South East Avon Region of Councils to fail to develop.

There would be thirty (30) municipalities) with the Chief Executive Officer and all the necessary senior management staff, saving millions in employment cost duplication. A Shire with 1,000 people would no longer have a Planning  Officer on a salary package of $100,000 with no plans to implement, other than re-filling the coffee machine.

At least 284 senior local government officials, including most Chief-Executive-Officers, should be removed from rural, regional and remote shire councils that could release somewhere in the vicinity of $80.million in community, capital, infrastructure investment distributed where most needed. Many of these people have no tertiary or professional  qualifications, even in-depth expertise in their management role and meet no reasonable Key Performance Indicators like their private enterprise counterparts must do.

All shires remain, retaining their name and identity, but with access to far greater finances and managed growth, not closed like Mike Baird in NSW tried to do and amalgamated like Colin Barnett failed to do in the Perth Metropolitan Area.

The Markyt Community Scoreboard 2017 (attached) is self explanatory, especially when you do the percentage math between the York  LG performance Standard, the Industry Standard and the Industry High Standard.

It is best described as a mesmeric witches cauldron, filled with benchmark matrix with a few warts and toads tossed in.

What it appears to show is ,that in the main York, is a tumbling backwards basket-case.

In this you are defining one of the oldest, most historic, most architecturally significant towns in Australia.

I am sure that you gentlemen realize something must be done, including government assistance in destination tourism to an historic icon that is York.

Kind regards
David Taylor

MEERKAT MAYHEM.

Mr. David Wallace and Mr. Paul Martin.
Date March 20, 2017.

CC Hon. David Tampleman
Minister for Local Government

Your Ref : - APPENDICIES SY124-O317

HOW IN THE HELL CAN YORK ANSWER THIS ONE?

Dear David, I think Mark McGowan said that you all should hit the ground running. If you read the above listed APENNDICIES you will understand why!

There is quite a humorous advertisement on TV where one of the world’s cutest animals,’ the meerkat’ becomes a stupid but lovable advertising marketing executive for an insurance company.

Now The Shire of York has hired one of the myriad hard-cash-munching predators called Markyt Community Scoreboard 2017, Catalyse Pty Ltd who slowly circles a wounded local government body getting ready for a feeding frenzy, or at least a $50,000 deposit. (CEO Paul Martin has said in the past he wanted to do all evaluations ’in-house’ that is why we have the Great (White) Asset Hunter.)

Markyt claims to provide an overview of statutory local government performance, communications, community and economic development, the quality of customer service, the evolution of important community capital works programs as a percentage valuation of a particular local government. Basically- how big a bang the community gets for its buck. There have been 40 lucky local government recipients so far.  I am sure this was during the Castrilli, Simpson and Miles era.

Over a myriad of Benchmark Matrix which alleges there will be an accurate Overall Performance Index Score the Shire of York Produced an absolute shocker, and average 9.54 % and that is if you use 50 % as an average benchmark. That is the York standard for any commercial development and business projects that really do matter.

If you used the Industry Standard evaluated on other local governments entire repertoire in this state you would come up with a percentage figure of 54.7 % overall, that puts the Shire of York 46.16% on average behind these other councils,

The Industry High evaluation, that is rarely achieved, is between 60% and 90% that would put the Shire of York somewhere around 70 % below those who really are their competitors.

The most important evaluations were disgusting. The only services that came close to the quality provided by any of the other shires were general customer service and waste disposal. However the magnificent focal point for York sport, drinking, eating and convententions that never happen did fairly well, the York Recreation and Convention Centre had a local 60 % approval rating. The Industry Average is 74, and the Industry High is 81. Its annual revenue however is way below that of a York business, long since closed and which only traded on weekends.

There were 321 York survey respondents, 61% of who said York is a great place to live, 13 points below the Industry Standard. So what does this mean, at least 13 % of every other town would not have a Forrest Bar and Cafe of living in York. No- it also means 2,161.505 do not want to live here.

Now this is where the Shire of York Council must become very, very careful before turning highly disputable statistical comments into fact. According to the Shire of York Official Website the population of York in 2012 was 3,688. (NEVER QUOTE FIGURES THAT ARE FIVE (5) YEARS OLD.)

THE CURENT REIWA, COM WEBSITE QUOTES THE POPULATION OF YORK AS BEING 2387 – 1,301 less than York’s figures.

I suggest you get off your collective arses right now – and advise York what the population of York really is in March 2017.

I congratulate David Wallace, his council and Paul Martin and his staff for allowing the undertaking of such a survey and allow York’s washing to be hung out to dry

Personally, in the manner it was done by Markyt, did those 321 respondents actually accuatately represent the average attitudes of the community of York? It is too hard to call.

Yours sincerely

David Taylor.

YORK’S WONDERFUL NEW SHIRE WEBSITE (coming sooner-or much later)

Why?  No-one knows, 49% 0f the population suffering from advanced myopia think it is great.

Otherwise cyber excitement is at fever pitch, York is to have a wondrous new website the envy of everywhere that is rural regional and remote. Not only that- it is going to be full of current accurate information and whimsical odes to its beauty and excitement. (Much sourced from the Avon Sub Regional Economic Strategy 2012, five years ago when York had around 300 more people than it does now.)

This information certainly came straight out of a senior horse’s mouth!

Right at the top will be the famous slogan “Demolishing our history to destroy our Future”.

But they get even better.

a) “A place to visit" where there is little work, you may not find somewhere to play. Rest is out of the question because most of the accommodation has closed for good and its best to head off to Northam to see if the new Dome Café is open.

b) “A place of vibrancy and energy, but one of tranquility and safety”. Lesson one- to the idiot who wrote this, it is either one or the other. It is rather hard to be vibrantly, and energetically tranquil.

c) “A place of growth where local business find opportunities to thrive", but normally die like the Imperial Hotel, The Carriage Diner, Faversham House, Laurelville, the Saints Diner and many others.

d) “A place of relative safety", for sleazy entrepreneurs such as Peter Briggs who found some sanctuary in York after being jailed in 1987 for tax evasion. There are more names that could be added to this list.

e)And of course the best of all- a place is a community and a community is a place. So “A place of community"  (which means a place where people live- in a community) where lifestyles chosen are important and where community matters” is a place where a community lives in a place that matters because it is a place that is a community. Or maybe the community is the place?

There’s even going to be a “Best Picture of the Week” section featuring “Pavarotti” the Parrot singing “Nessun Dorma” , a one legged sheep called “Almost Legless” and some local deviant  killing his pet kangaroo with a piece of iron pipe.

The current real estate statistics will blow your mind so much you will try to get a bank to give you a deposit. They won’t.

The median house sale price in York is $295,000, average rental value is $200 per week and the current yearly growth rate is -2.5. Affectively this means if you buy a $300,000 house in York tomorrow, at the current growth rate, it could be worth $275,000 in 2027. How lucky can you get!

Obviously if the Imperial Faversham and Laurelville actually sold the median price of housing in York would be$1.3 million. Good luck!
 
NOW EVEN BETTER WE HAVE THE “MEERKAT” COMMUNITY SCOREBOARD February 2017.
By Catastrophic Pty Ltd.

Unfortunately it is previously documented and signed by CEO Mr. Paul Martin, that he would not use contractors to do surveys. Do you remember that one Paul?

Some of the data cannot be compared to anything that vaguely resembles anything else in other Shire Councils. But there is enough left to choke on your toast over.

As the governing organization the Shire of York scored 43, 13 below the WA Industry Standard.

A lot of the most important ones are worse.

Communicating decisions 20, economic development 27, clear vision 28 and value for money 29 all well below 50% that should be the minimum pass mark.

Ratepayers do believe the rubbish collection regime works well and getting a book out of the library is not that hard.

Does the Shire listen and respond to resident’s questions?- a mark of 31. Do current Councillors have a good understanding of community needs?- another score of 31. Obviously some believe that the silence of the responses are deafening.

Going on this style of statistical information that is usually rabbit out of the hat stuff, illustrated with segmented party pies, there may be some of the York upper local government echelon who should be working at the tip.

However it seems that less than 10% of the population of York helped develop a Benchmark Matrix that came up with an Overall Performance Index Score being + 4.5 out of 95% as the actress said to the bishop.

Then we have the other problem of the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data from the last census that was totally compromised. Who would use it? Someone in Marrakech knows you have a son named Elvis and a daughter named Gertrude.

Based solely on the low scores of communicating decisions, economic development, clear future vision and perceived value for money performance then the Shire of York’s Offices will close on March 17, 2017 and we become the Municipality of York/ The Shire of Northam.

Mr. Wallace and Mr. Martin will both receive their personal copies of this telling them to do what they feel is best for 2,000 people not , 341.

DAVID TAYLOR.

NEW BEGINNING-THE REST IS HISTORY.

On the 17 November, 2014, a letter was sent to the Hon. Tony Simpson, now politically deceased. Over the past two years its content has had some positive and negative results, but many say much of it had to happen and there is more to come.

Whether you like it or not on March 11, 2017, the Labor Party won the election by a landslide and can do pretty much as it wants.

New Government –New Minister, New DLGC- hopefully new code of conduct.

Legal hunting parties may soon be following the spore of some of York’s LGC endangered species and possibly a troll or two. There is no statute of limitations!

Humans, particularly local government officials, when in danger usually do one of two things, fight or flight. There is actually a third option called ‘fright’. Unfortunately the best description of this is they ‘shit-themselves’ because in the end everyone is just a GPS/ Mobile phone location and a courtroom away. Obviously there is also the front door and Centrelink.

Below is the letter, which was extremely long and has been extremely redacted to protect the guilty not the innocent because of one word of potential significance ‘subjudice’. There are added notations.

The description of York below is heartfelt, as are the desires for its future

Hon. Tony Simpson
Minister for Local Government

I call on you as the Minister concerned to stand aside or dismiss two Shire of York Councillors (XXXXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXXXX) who are effectively holding the town to ransom with their intractable, recalcitrant and vengeful behaviour in chambers, and in the street.

BOTH HAVE NOW GONE WITH THEIR REPUTATIONS IN TATTERS WITH MOST OF THE COMMUNITY.
(It took long enough- but it happened and they may even yet make a court appearance.)

The future of Western Australia’s oldest inland town, steeped in history back to the time of the Swan River colony, is in your hands.  As a former Victorian bear in mind that York was settled three-years prior to the first permanent settlement in Victoria and four-years before Melbourne.

It deserves to be nurtured as a historic icon, not to become a victim of the Department of Local Government and Communities inexplicable, indefensible action against the York community.

If you continue to fail to act you will be forever remembered as the politician, whose lack of appropriate intervention, helped severely damage another irreplaceable part of Australia’s rich and diverse history.

(IN FACT YOU PROBABLY WILL NOT BE REMEMBERED AT ALL.)

WHETHER THE NEW LABOR GOVERNMENT CARES ABOUT YORK IS SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO- BUT IT DOES KNOW ABOUT WHAT WAS SAID ABOUT YORK IN THIS LETTER AND MANY OTHERS.

TONY SIMPSON WAS FORCIBLY MADE TO RESIGN ON SEPTEMBER 16, 2016, PAUL MILES, HIS REPLACEMENT ON SATURDAY MARCH 11, 2017. BOTH ARE OUT ON THE STREETS ALONG WITH

BRENDAN GRYLLS WHO’S ROYALTIES FOR REGIONS WILL NOW BE USED AS ROYALTIES FOR LABOR HELD REGIONAL ELECTORATES.

MIA DAVIES MAY END UP AS THE LEADER OF THE NATIONAL PARTY, BUT WILL BE TOTALLY IRRELEVANT FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS.

MARK McGOWAN has already promised $425 million for destination promotion and tourism.

Since April 15, 2014, when the then Chief-Executive- Officer,  Ray Hooper, resigned amid allegations of misuse of a corporate credit card, his replacements  have effectively been dismissed, the Deputy President of the Shire has resigned and six senior staff members  have either resigned of their own volition or been forced to leave.

EVENTUALLY FOLLOWED BY A CAST OF THOUSANDS. The latest being Works Manager ALLAN ROURKE although according to the Shire of York Website he is still employed.

RAY HOOPER’S ANNUAL CREDIT CARD EXPENDITURE ON RESTAURANTS, BEVERAGES, LUXURY ACCOMMODATION, TRINKETS, AND ATTENDING INTERSTATE CONFERENCES HE HAD NO LEGITIMATE REASON TO ATTEND WAS SIMILAR TO THE AVERAGE ANNUAL INCOME OF AN ADULT EMPLOYEE IN YORK- $27,000 PER ANNUM.

ALL UP, WHAT HE HELPED HIMSELF TO ABOVE HIS SALARY, WAS AROUND $300,000. In tune with Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi’s little problem with the Labor Party that may see her sacked and forced to reimburse at least some of the money.

Five months later you finally authorized a probity enquiry, and on November 5, 2014, the community and ratepayers are at last advised that an employee of the Shire is facing a XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Your claim is that your primary interest is to ensure the Shire is able to perform the functions required and expected by the York community.  Very glib, but how do you and your department expect the Shire of York to function given the circumstances listed above?  This is not a rhetorical question.

MICHAEL KEEBLE as Acting Chief-Executive-Officer position was allegedly facilitated by Michael Fitz Gerald, the author of the damning report on the Shire of York administration that could have been written by Doctor Seuss. This in itself raises the question of why a personal acquaintance/friend of the author of this highly sensitive report was employed to assist in dealing with its outcome. It should be noted here that Michael Keeble applied for a position with the Shire of Denmark. He was not even granted an interview

Mr. Keeble ACTUALLY SAID A COUPLE OF SENSIBLE THINGS.

a) the salary package of $240,000 plus for the Chief-Executive-Officer of the Shire of York is excessive and is no guarantee of the quality of any future applicant.

b) he suggested that based on his own experience and the general perception of the quality of the Shire of York Council by others working in the local government sector, York’s chances of attracting a suitable applicant would take some time. TWO YEARS ACTUALLY.

KEEBLES FAVOURITE DESCRIPTION OF YORK AND ITS PEOPLE WAS ‘SHIT-HOUSE.
That was not sensible.

Around this time COUNCILLOR (XXXXXXXXXXXX) allegedly aggressively pursued certain ratepayers by making potentially slanderous and abusive comments behind their back. This has occurred on a number of occasions in a public place with WITNESSES present.

He allegedly provided pejorative comments to at least one third party who made a written demand to a person to leave (York), stating that this person could be engaging in hydroponics (intimating marijuana cultivation) and inferring the person had an intention to set up a sex shop with his bikie mates. In this instance bikies refers to outlawed motorcycle gangs, in particular the Coffin Cheaters or similar. Once again there are Email addresses and mobile phone numbers to look at. Isn’t high tech tracking such a wonderful thing?

If this type of behaviour does not bring the supposedly highly regarded position of Local Government Shire Councillor into disrepute- I do not know what does. It is absolutely an abuse of power and position that should not be tolerated by you or your department.

(DON’T FORGET THE BIAS ON YOUR BALLS THESE DAYS PADDY).

MS. KATRINA NICOLE WATTS, everybody’s favourite YORK TOURISM WA BOOKKEEPER allegedly had a criminal record that included at least 200 charges over a period of ten years, for which she spent two-years and ten months in jail, and a presiding judge has summated that placing her in front of money is like putting a box of matches in front of an arsonist.

(YOU COULD SEARCH THE WHOLE WORLD OVER TO FIND BIG ENOUGH IDIOTS TO HIRE HER).


Although one was her foster father, another thought she was her “Besty-Besty Friend” and the Former Premier, Colin Barnett, used to kiss her on the cheek and call her “Katie” because she used to raise money for the Liberal Party.

NOW IT IS TIME FOR THE SHIRE OF YORK’S ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM TO STAMPEDE.

a)  Put Commissioner James Best through the legal wringer- if you do not know why and how you never will.

b)  Charge at least two former employees for serious breaches of their contracts of employment on three (3) separate counts.

c)  do the same to with two former Councillors.

Demand compensatory recompense of a total in excess of $1.25 million as a good round figure to start off with.

YES THE YRCC IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE A POTENTIAL NIGHTMARE UNTIL IT FALLS OVER.

It might be an idea that YORK doesn’t fall over first.

David Taylor