MARK DUPEROUZEL RISES AGAIN, AND I WISH HIM GOOD LUCK

Remember Mark Duperouzel?

He’s the motor mechanic and former York councillor—Deputy President, no less—who conspired with his colleagues Tony Boyle and Pat Hooper to suppress the Fitz Gerald Report, in which like his co-conspirators he had received unfavourable mention.

To make matters worse, he did so behind then Shire President Reid’s back after seeking advice about the said report from Ray Hooper—also unfavourably mentioned, to put it mildly—who had resigned from the position of York CEO a couple of months previously but continued to influence his acolytes in York from his citadel in Alexander Heights.

You can bone up on that sorry story by reading my article The Truth is Out There, posted on this blog on 11 January 2016.

On top of that, Mr. Duperouzel voted to support SITA’s plan to dump millions of tons of metropolitan rubbish in our agricultural zone.  He did so at a meeting in the Town Hall attended by hundreds of angry residents strenuously and vociferously opposed to the landfill. 

He must have had a very good reason for voting in that way, because many of his regular customers, disgusted by his action, decided to take their business elsewhere.

Still, we shouldn’t dwell on the past.  Move forward, as I always say. 

Let’s see if a soufflé really can rise twice.

Mark Duperouzel, minibus entrepreneur

Minibus Hire

Mr. Duperouzel is currently reinventing himself as proprietor of a business known as Avon Minibus Hire.  The website is http://avonminibushire.com.au/.

As well as hiring out its two minibuses ‘with or without a driver’, the business aims to provide guided tours of York’s tourist and heritage sites, picking up passengers at weekends from a designated parking bay on Avon Terrace.

Mr. Duperouzel’s preferred choice of parking bay is in front of the Bendigo Bank.  He has obtained a letter from the Bank to say that it doesn’t mind.  (There’s no reason why the Bank should mind, because it’s closed on Saturdays and Sundays.)

This afternoon Council’s ordinary meeting over at Greenhills will consider Mr. Duperouzel’s application for a permit to operate a commercial business in York and for the exclusive use of a parking bay, with signage, while the business is operating its guided tours.

You can study the details of Mr. Duperouzel’s application, along with the Shire officers’ recommendations, on pages 41 to 45 of the agenda for today’s meeting under the heading SY122-10/16 – Avon Minibus Hire.

I’m sure Council will view his application sympathetically, and so it should.

Parking in Avon Terrace

As the Shire's officers point out, the application is consistent with relevant provisions of the Strategic Community Plan and if approved, will promote tourism and is unlikely to hinder the operation of other businesses.

However, the officers are clearly less than happy about Mr. Duperouzel’s choice of parking bay.  They suggest other locations might be more suitable, like in front of the Community Resource Centre or the TransWA bus stop across the road from the Shire offices in Joaquina Street.

That’s not a matter on which I feel qualified to comment.  Still, in fairness to Mr. Duperouzel, I have to say there may be a precedent of which he is entitled to take full advantage in pressing his case. 

I’m talking about the decorated green vintage van, belonging to one of York’s most exclusive munching and swigging stations, that can be seen plonked for hours at a stretch at various locations along Avon Terrace over weekends and occasionally at other times. 

As other less obvious parking is usually available, I presume that the purpose of parking the van in Avon Terrace is to advertise the owners’ business to visiting connoisseurs of luxurious accommodation, delicate viands and fine wines.

I also presume that the owners of the business in question have secured Council’s permission to park their van as I’ve described.

Subsidy

Where I take issue with Mr. Duperouzel’s application is with his request for Council to waive all fees associated with it.

The officers state that such an application ‘would generally incur an application fee of $44, and application fees [sic - I think they mean ‘parking fees’] of $11 per day, $121 per month or $1,202 per year’.

For the life of me, I can see no reason why those fees should be waived.  On the contrary, I see every reason why they should be collected.  The most obvious reason is that Council should baulk at setting (yet another) uncomfortable precedent.

What Mr. Duperouzel has in effect requested is that Council should subsidise his proposed business.   The amount is small, but the principle isn’t.   Helping out administratively is one thing.  Handouts are another thing altogether.

A waived fee is still a handout.  Money may not change hands, but a financial benefit is conferred to the detriment of ratepayers and looks like favouritism if it isn’t extended to other businesses in town.

The officers have not recommended waiving the fees. They merely note that waiving them is an option available to Council.

Please, councillors, think carefully before voting on this aspect of Mr. Duperouzel’s application.  If Cr Randell moves to waive fees on the grounds that Mr. Duperouzel is the scion of an old York family, flog him with a handful of emu feathers until he promises to be a good boy.

POSTSCRIPT: The officers’ recommendation was that Council should approve Mr. Duperouzel’s application ‘in principle… subject to determination of an exact location outside the parking region’ and to conditions covering the display of an A frame sign.

At the meeting last Monday 24 October, Cr Randell moved acceptance of the officers’ recommendation.  Cr Walters seconded the motion, which was lost by a majority of 4 votes to 3, with Cr Heaton throwing in her lot with the losing side.

Cr Saint successfully moved, with Cr Smythe seconding, to defer considering the application to the November OCM, on the grounds that Council needed further and better particulars before making up its mind.

 

KNOW YOUR ENEMY: THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT MANAGERS ASSOCIATION

If you want a career in Western Australian local government, it pays big dividends to join the LGMA (WA)

This organisation is the state division of a nationwide network, the LGMA. 

It describes itself as ‘the peak representative body and leading voice for local government professionals in Western Australia’ and ‘a community of professionals working to shape the local government sector’.

Like other ‘professional’ associations, only more so, it is really a trade union, aiming primarily—you might think exclusively—to ‘shape’ (in the sense of ‘inflate’) the salaries, emoluments, perquisites and career opportunities of local government bureaucrats. 

In this respect, it has enjoyed outstanding success, to the overall detriment of ratepayers in most if not all of our cities, towns and shires.

When speaking of blue-collar trade unions like the CFMEU or MUA, we wouldn’t hesitate to use the phrase ‘feather-bedding’ to sum up the nature of the LGMA’s services to its 800 members in WA.

Because LGMA is a white-collar union, we are bound to treat it with the same degree of indulgence as traditionally the legal system has extended to white-collar crime.

I wonder how much influence the association had on the drafting of provisions in the Local Government Act which exempt local government employees from direct public questioning and criticism—turning them, in effect, into a protected species.

 Signs of the times

If you study the association’s website (http://www.lgmawa.org.au/) you will find scant indication that its members are employed to provide services to the ratepayers and residents of the local government areas where they work.

What you will find is the curious slogan ‘Without fear or favour’ and a drawing of a signpost with four arms bearing respectively the words ‘Ethics, Respect, Integrity, Honesty’, all pointing in different directions. 

I’m not sure what we are expected to make of that.  It appears that members may choose any one of those directions, or none of them, as they set out on the golden road to ratepayer-funded prosperity. 

You will also discover that the association has 11 regionally based branches and offers professional development ‘events’ including one entitled ‘Ignite Programs’—presumably relating to the burning of heretics wanting to add a fifth arm to the signpost, one inscribed with the word ‘Transparency’.

‘Networks’

Members can opt to join one or more of 9 national networks, with names like ‘Governance’, ‘Human Resources and Workforce Development’, ‘Age Friendly Communities’, and my favourite, ‘Integrated Planners’.  I bet there are hundreds of integrated planners, each one employed by a local government, busily networking away across Australia, though I’m not sure what an integrated planner is or does or how anyone gets to be one.

It goes without saying that the association enjoys a cosy relationship with the other state members of the local government club, WALGA and the presiding geniuses of the DLGC.  They share activities and preoccupations, and their representatives enjoy the hospitality of one another’s annual talkfests. 

I’m reminded of Adam Smith’s famous observation that ‘People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices’.

Awards

The association likes to award certificates of appreciation to members who have distinguished themselves in some way, for example by having paid their dues on the nail over a very long period of time.

Last year, while he was drawing a salary as Acting CEO of the Shire of York, Graeme Simpson received such an award.  Readers may recall that he was a fellow of the association (FLGMA)—a privilege for which he would have had to pay a bit more than if he had remained a mere member (MLGMA).  

Here’s a photo of him clutching his certificate. 

Graeme is the one on the right.  I don't know who his friend is.

And here’s the accompanying citation.  (I have left the stale cliches, awkward phrasing, questionable grammar, eccentric punctuation and wonky syntax exactly as I found them, while rearranging the paragraphing to make the citation easier to read.)

Graeme Simpson, is currently the Acting Chief Executive Officer at the Shire of York.
However, this hasn’t been his only tough job in recent years.  

  

Becoming a Fellow of LGMA in 1999, Graeme has had a long and successful career in local government.  

But retirement, hasn’t stopped him coming back for more, having taken on a number of difficult temporary or stop-gap postings, in the Shire of Lake Grace, and the Shire of Boddington and now at the Shire of York. 

Graeme has been a steady hand in difficult times, his experience invaluable.  

On these occasions, Graeme’s first thought is to ensure that the local government officers working under him have the support they need to do their jobs.  

His quiet, affable nature, and firm approach to leadership is remembered by all who know him.  

York people may be surprised to learn that the LGMA considers York to have been a tough assignment for Mr. Simpson.  If it was tough, that was because he and his companion in arms Commissioner James Best made it so.

They will be less surprised to learn that Mr. Simpson’s ‘first thought’ was not, as it should have been, for the welfare of the shire’s ratepayers and residents, but instead to support the Shire workforce—regardless of how well or badly they were performing.

Remember his kneejerk defence as Acting CEO of his ‘exemplary employees’—some of whom, later subjected to wiser scrutiny, are now seeking their fortunes elsewhere?

 *******

POETRY CORNER

The Ballad of Grababyt Swansong

Have you heard about Grababyt Swansong?

He was Acting CEO

Of the Shire of Outer Mongolia

Not so many moons ago,

And most of the people who live in the shire

Wept buckets to see him go.

He’d held that exalted position

In several shires before:

Those postings were tough, rough and difficult,

But he kept coming back for more,

Relying on a pittance—about four grand a week—

To banish the wolf from his door.

As kingpin of Outer Mongolia

He teamed up with Jimmy the Rat,

Who conjured grotesque ‘ideations’

From the depths of his ‘visioning’ hat,

Convinced, so it seemed, that the ratepayers

Would be happy to fork out for that.

His ‘quiet and affable nature’

He hid from the popular view,

But he kept a firm hand on the tiller

And always supported his crew:

Propping them up was priority one

When brickbats from ratepayers flew,

For the Shire was an unsafe workplace,

The most hazardous under the sun.

Every day came a fresh nervous breakdown,

Not a day would go by but someone—

Feeling threatened by truths that popped up on the blogs—

Reached for pills, poison, rope or a gun.

He wasn’t as smarmy as Jimmy,

He didn’t suck up to the nobs

Like Lord and Lady Ecstasy

And other establishment snobs,

But he’d hold up two fingers like chopsticks

At the sight of us yokels and yobs.

So here’s to old Grababyt Swansong!

Long may he prosper and thrive!

He’s one of the world’s great survivors,

He knows how to duck, weave and dive:

There’s hope for us peasants out here in the sticks

While fellows like him are alive!

© Norah, Lady Rapture of Favorsdone Hall