Yarra residents call for council to be sacked for ‘sneaky’ meeting move

Yarra residents will take to the streets to protest a shock move by the Greens-run council to slash the number of public meetings.

Yarra residents will take to the streets to protest their local council’s shock move to have fewer public meetings, sparking calls for the council to be sacked.

Ratepayers will hold their own meeting outside Richmond Town Hall on Friday, angry at the latest debacle at the controversial Greens-run council.

“Yarra is officially in revolt,’’ dissenting councillor Stephen Jolly said.

The rally is in protest at a “sneaky” moveby Greens Deputy Mayor Edward Crossland to change the council’s meeting schedule, a development that blindsided councillors and residents.

Yarra councillor Stephen Jolly opposes reducing Yarra Council meetings. Picture: Alex Coppel.

The inner-city council voted on Tuesday by a 5-1 margin to reduce council meetings to once a month.

Before the Greens took over the council in 2020, the City of Yarra would meet once a fortnight.

A bid to overturn the reduced meeting will be considered in an online meeting on Friday.

As the storm unfolded, it can also be revealed:

• Cr Crossland only revealed the meeting timetable proposal to fellow councillors at 6.02pm on Tuesday, ahead of a 6.30pm meeting.

• A residents’ group said the council should be sacked and urged Local Government Minister Melissa Horne to intervene.

• Greens councillor Amanda Stone has opposed the move and is believed to be concerned at her political colleagues’ actions.

• Cr Crossland said that if councillors Stone and Jolly were so concerned they should have attended the meeting, even though his motion was not anticipated. Cr Stone is attending an overseas conference on council business and Cr Jolly’s daughter had just given birth to twins. Both councillors sent apologies to the meeting.

The unexpected change introduced at this weeks Council meeting to reduce all Council Meetings, with no warning or community feedback, demands that the community should be given a chance to be heard.

This Friday, BEFORE the voting on the rescind motion. @[e-mail]/MQmI8J6esL

— Yarra Residents Collective (@yarraresidents) December 7, 2022

Yarra Residents Collective spokesman Adam Promnitz said it was time for the council to be booted out.

“We’ve held off making that (sack) call before but given the behaviour and lack of maturity and governance, there is now no other option,” he said.

“There’s a lack of fairness and a lack of due process.’’

Residents are also questioning why the matter cannot wait until a replacement councillor is announced in coming weeks.

That councillor will take the place of Gabrielle de Vietri, the former mayor who stood aside from the council to contest and win the state seat of Richmond for the Greens.

It is expected that a non-Greens candidate will win the countback from the 2020 poll, eroding the Greens’ previous 5-4 majority, although new mayor Claudia Nguyen, who is independent, has voted mostly with the party.

Yarra council ratepayers protest outside the Richmond Town Hall in October. Picture: Ian Currie

In September, Yarra council decided not to have a meeting because it said it had nothing to discuss.

Residents held their own informal meeting outside Town Hall on the scheduled night, making a list of concerns from their community.

Cr Crossland said the changes would lead to greater community engagement, not less.

“This is about increasing community access to counsellors and creating more informal opportunities for the community to engage with council,” he said.

“So when we come to a council meeting or decision making forum, we will have a more informed position.”

Cr Crossland said it was “normal practice” to introduce alternative motions into council meetings without notice.

He added: “If (the absent councillors) felt passionately about the matter, you would have thought that they would have been in a chamber for this actual decision, knowing that this was the last council meeting of the year where this decision had to be made.”

Former mayor Sophie Wade said of the changes that it was “time to try something new!”

The change to the meeting schedule included more informal engagement by councillors with residents, instead of formal meetings.

Cr Crossland’s plan was for more “conversations” or “listening post” style events.

But it’s feared that it would not be appropriate to conduct formal business in informal places.

Cr Crossland’s motion passed 5-1 but three councillors – Jolly, Stone and Bridgid O’Brien – later lodged a rescission motion which will be considered at 5.30pm on Friday.

A spokesman for Ms Horne said: “This is a matter for City of Yarra Council.”