ANOTHER DOG’S BREAKFAST

You should never let an arsonist play with matches or a local government make its own local laws which are already offences in common or criminal law.

Time and time again critics of local government tell administrators and councillors not to make up local laws, by-laws, statutes. principles and guidelines as a knee-jerk reaction to situations they have  no ability to handle, or should keep their noses out of.

Too often these laws such as the new Local Government Property Amendment Local Law 2018 are a cut-and-paste miasma with many questioning what T.F does it mean and who T.F will actually enforce it.

One absolute classic is in Division 4-Aerodrome (Airport) 5.6 regarding the restrictions the shire places on you when you and your beloved pooch arrive at Terminal 2, at York International Airport.

Your dog is not allowed unless-
(a) the animal is being air freighted from the aerodrome
(b) the animal has been air freighted to the aerodrome
(c) the person is authorised to do so by the local government (read Shire of York here.)
     (probably as a sniffer-dog to locate the stash of meth-amphetamines)

You can probably add goats, chooks, cattle and sheep to those not permitted. However there may be sniffer-pigs.

You could probably ask David Wallace or your local councillor- or your cheery administrator, such as Paul Martin, what airport are they referring to- and why do they have such a fetish about when, where, how, why and with what aeroplanes fly within shire airspace when it would be in everyone’s best interest if they left it to the Department of Civil Aviation and its determination of the Civil Aviation Act 1988. (Aeronautical airspace is Commonwealth property and the Shire of York owns bugger-all of it.)

In Part 1 Clause 1.2, the definition of ‘Boat” has been deleted. Possibly because most sane people would not put a boat in the murky depths of the Avon River in and around York.

The rest seems to be mainly targeting aquatic facilities such as the dilapidated York Swimming Pool and the Health Act so they can charge culprits $125 who are caught peeing in the pool- beyond a reasonable doubt.

‘Reasonable’ seems to be a Shire of York buzz-word.

So what is the Shire’s definition of a reasonable person and what could be considered by the shire of York as deleterious to the reasonable physical, mental or social well being of a person (whether reasonable or not)?

Is a reasonable person considered to be someone who is taking their medication to combat chronic schizophrenia or has their Post Traumatic Stress Disorder under control?

Who then is the arbiter of reasonable, Mr. Wallace? Mr. Martin? Or both- as each one is a signatory to the documents?

The Shire of York uses the word ‘nuisance’  to define a person who it thinks is not a reasonable person and who  needs to be fined at least $125 for their indiscressions and/or inappropriateness for the 13 prescribed offenses.

So the decision is if a person stands up at the next monthly Council Meeting and asks Paul Martin ‘has he found another job yet?’ is he being a nuisance? and be fined $125 under the clause ‘all other offences not specified’?

In 12 Part 3 Clause 3.9 in subclause (2) the Latin term ‘Mutatis Mutandis’ has been substituted for ‘as though it were a substitute for a permit’ because no-one at the Shire of York speaks Latin. 

It sounds very much like a deadly disease but Mutatis Mutandis sort of means something that is very much the same but with some differences. So ‘as though it were a substitute for a permit’ could mean it might be a substitute for a permit, but actually is not and is to be determined by the Shire of York at your expense.

The Shire of York is more than happy to call expenses ‘Costs’ which includes its administrative costs but does not explain what they actually are.

Just so you know the Xmas Grinch has arrived- you are not allowed to ‘ conduct or take part in any gambling game, contest or bet’ presumably on local government property so forget Bingo at the Town Hall and the staff Melbourne Cup Sweep in the Shire of York Offices.

Despite Same Sex Marraige becoming law. The Shire of York does not appear to have moved with the times.

Transgender people beware-the highly competent designated authority from the Shire of York may fine you $125 if this reasonable person believes you have acted unreasonably by ‘ entering a toilet block or change room facility of the opposite gender’ because you identify with a gender and he or she does not agree with your choice.

To cap it all off the Shire of York intends to fine you $125 for being under the influence of alcohol or a prohibited drug.

When , where, how and who is going to arrest you, breathalyse or drug test you to establish you are drunk or drugged to the eyeballs is unknown.

In the case of a drug offence- this could well be a criminal offense with penalties far greater than $125.

The most offensive offense listed is , Behaviour detrimental to property’. You can assume this means local government property and can be anything from graffiti to urinating on the grass in Peace Park. The fine is $350.

The reason for the re-jigging of an old act is obtuse. If it is anything to do with inappropriate behaviour on government rather than public property then there is an easy fix.

It is called an Indecent Act with intent to offend. The word public does not crack a mention.

Someone ‘screwed-up bigtime’!

COMMUTER COMPUTER GAMES

As the new Development Services Coordinator climbs behind the wheel of their fully serviced, mid-range shire vehicle they will have the absolute latest advance in in-car infotainment- the use of their own personal commuter. 

It is a must have- to go with the Bose speakers, leather trim and hands- free mobile phone.

Hang on! Let us rewind here. Commuter means someone who travels to and from a destination, usually from home to their place of work and back, by plane, train and automobile which can include bus, taxi and Uber.

The Development Services Coordinator will already be a commuter as soon as he or she starts to drive so they already have commuter use- so the vehicle comes with commuter use anyway.

Now you would think that senior Shire of York management, who are paid a fortune to get things right when they write anything would actually know the difference between a commuter and a computer.

You would also think if a mistake has been made in an official advertisement, featuring the shire insignia, for and on behalf of the Shire of York ratepayers, they would have enough pride in themselves to rectify that mistake?

No- not yet.

Maybe it would cost too much to change a word, maybe they just do not care when they make even small mistakes on your behalf or maybe they are going to use the vehicle as a Taxi after office hours

& HACKING.

However- the Shire of York may have a far larger problem on their hands than typographical errors.

It appears that a Confidential- Review Remittance document, flagged as being For Your Eyes only, has been transmitted to an unknown number of recipients, delivered from the Shire of York’s computer system, complete with a memorandum apparently sourced from Carly Rundle -Senior Planning Officer from planning@york.wa.gov.au

The text says ‘Carly Rundle has sent you a Remittance to review and sign’.

Remittance means sending money in payment or as a gift.

If you are game enough to try and open the Docsigned PDF to collect or send your remittance- it is 114.44 Kilobytes, which is reasonably large when you consider that the average email is just 10 Kilobytes.

Given that this remittance could be regarding an unknown number of private business planning proposals there is the potential for a shitstorm of private and confidential, commercially sensitive information to be bobbing around in the ether.

The Review Document tells the viewer “not to share this email, link or access code with others” yet the Shire of York may well have no-idea to whom and how many times it has been sent.

It gets worse- with a promotional blurb saying that the Digital Transaction Management platform apparently used by the shire is safe, secure and legally binding- and used across the globe’.

It would be hard to argue that it is safe and secure and legally binding is a real worry.

So you have a commuter that is actually a computer and a private & confidential local government computer system holding the important records of numerous ratepayers which appears to have been hacked. And, unfortunately, the number of recipients certainly does not appear to be confined to the Shire of York Planning Department’s email list.

In a recent article in the Sunday Times the Shire of York was described as an ‘often troubled organization’.  Maybe they got that right.

David Taylor.

ALDI versus YORK

As the York & District Co-Operative Ltd, whose Board is chaired by the brother of Shire President, David Wallace, registers a disturbing loss of earnings and asks for local support, the Shire of York appears to be flush with cash under the Wallace & Martin regime and is hiring like it has just won Lotto.

The latest acquisition will be a Development Services Coordinator with a salary of between $85,000 and $95,000 which actually equates, in salary packaging terms, to between $120,000 and $130,000.

It is assumed he or she will be answerable to the Executive Manager Infrastructure and Development Services, Darren Wallace (just a coincidence) whose package would be around $160,000 -give or take some loose change.

So around $300,000 is earmarked for development services in employee costs only- prior to any new development services being developed.

The shire vehicle supplied to the lucky candidate comes with Commuter Use- whatever that means- but it sounds good. But then maybe the shire employee, or contractor, tasked with creating the advertisement actually meant Computer Use and forget to check the text.

This does not sound like the Shire of York Administration even if it could not spell its own address, Joaquina Street, about six years ago during the Hooper years .

Also there may be some local concern with the potential ambiguity of the meaning of ‘Public’ in the legal sense?

So the Shire of York, as an alleged mechanism for its own protection, is creating the Local Government Property Amendment Local Law 2018; to restrain activities that could be reasonably argued to be inappropriate on or in local government property- in this case the Shire of York Offices.

This is highly commendable.

David Taylor.