Dutch professor Lars Coenen to leave City of Melbourne post early
A ‘resilience’ academic who has cost a Melbourne council’s ratepayers about $400,000 is leaving his position with two years left on his contract amid questions over the effectiveness of his work.
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A “resilience” academic co-funded by inner-city ratepayers to the tune of $137,000 a year will leave his Melbourne University post early as a council report raised concerns about some of his work.
But the City of Melbourne report has urged councillors to find a replacement professor costing $700,000 over several years.
The report on Dutch professor Lars Coenen cited the “poor visibility” of his research and for not focusing enough on the priorities of the council which substantially funds him.
Prof Coenen, who is the City of Melbourne chair in Resilient Cities at the university — which aims to improve “the city’s resilience to sustainability challenges” — recently criticised Australia in a tweet for being among the world’s “dumbest/least value-add economies”.
At a meeting on Tuesday, city councillors will decide whether to replace Prof Coenen after he leaves later this year after serving three years of a five-year contract.
His tenure has cost ratepayers about $400,000, while the university has stumped up the same amount over the three years.
In his report to councillors, the municipality’s chief resilience officer Toby Kent recommended that the council co-fund a new professorial chair with broader focus costing $140,000 a year over five years.
Mr Kent said that Prof Coenen had done good research work and had attracted “world-renowned urban scholars to Melbourne, but the university had had mixed success in communicating his contributions.”
“And council, specifically, has had poor visibility of the outputs and results achieved by the position,” he said.
Mr Kent also highlighted a lack of research focus on city council priorities and initiatives, despite Prof Coenen getting “multiple offers” to be briefed on programs and opportunities.
Prof Coenen told the Herald Sun he was returning to Europe for family reasons, but he would retain a link with the university as an honorary professor.
“One of the wonderful things I was able to do here while in Melbourne was connect international networks with the exciting work of researchers in Melbourne, and I will continue to do that,” he said.
Ratepayers Victoria president Dean Hurlston said the council-funded position was part of an endless cycle of local government wasting public money on “fanciful, virtue-signalling consultants and reports”.
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Mr Hurlston called on the state government to ensure councils were more accountable about the deals and costs involving external appointments and reports.
A council spokeswoman said the partnership with Melbourne University had been overwhelmingly positive, while Prof Coenen had brought tremendous insights into urban resilience challenges amid prolific academic output.
“In the course of offering balanced advice to council, officers have considered all strengths and weaknesses of the work to-date. The report recommends a new partnership on the basis of the strength of the partnership fronted by Professor Coenen,” she said.