Full Council; 26th November 2012

This month's agenda heard a deputation form a person regarding the Capri Theatre and a number of people regarding the proposed closure of Kelvin Ave for a pocket park.
Items of interest include;

• Kelvin Ave; This item was back on the agenda as Cr Saies wished there to be further discussion on the easement that exists over the land. Deputations supporting both sides of the argument were allowed leading to be plenty of debate. Even though at every phase of the consultation the majority of those who responded wanted one form of land scape treatment or another there were always a number of people who were vehemently opposed to project. In the end this group would have been able to end the process when the final consultation results were analysed under the Road Closures Act by DPTI. The motion was refused. A subsequent motion to end any further landscape treatment options was then put and passed. I amended the final motion, with the support of Don, (but not my colleagues) to spend the budget savings on William St's footpaths.While there will now be a further report on the state of these footpaths it was good for people to understand that proposing alternate ways of spending the money is not the way Council works.
• Capri Theatre  Loan Request;The theatre were requesting an interest free loan of $51,000 to allow for the purchase of a new equipment that will allow them to reduce staff costs and to ultimately have more money to spend on the maintenance of the Wurlitzer organ. The organisation have given a detailed plan too repay the money, interest forgone would be less than $5,000. Council has a poor record in getting money repaid in these circumstances so I hope my faith in this group restores some of the balance. Passed
• Access Request 671South Rd, Black Forrest;The owners of this land used Council property to access their back yard for parking in 2004. By doing this they have reduced the amount of parking available on the site to shoppers and parents of BFPS. Charging rent or the land annexed is  a minor charge that will attempt to right this wrong. This was deferred to the next meeting.
• Appointment of a Deputy Mayor; This was again contentious even though Lachlan indicated he would like the support of a deputy ; the decision to have one was still hard fought.. The Dept Mayor is now Bob Schnell.
• Appointments to Centennial Park Board; This board position now carries a remuneration of $6,200 per annum. Although there were many contenders and a feeling that change should happen in the selection  the current members (Lapidge and Hudson) were re-elected to the Board.
• Review of Committee Structure; I dealt with this in  a separate blog, essentially the City Strategy meeting would be replaced by 3 committees with 4 elected members on each. As this was agreed to it will allow for more in depth discussion in areas of particular interest to Councillors. We also decided to occasionally have two Council meetings/ month. The Chairpersons of the new committees are Community and Culture (Michael Saies), Infrastructure  and Capital Projects (Jennie Boisvert) and  Development Strategy and Policy (Michel Hewitson).The Audit Committee (Tipper, Saies ) and Unley Business and Economic Development committee (Koumi as chair and Salaman)have more elected members.
• CEO Recruitment Policy; This has been a difficult one for me and an attempt to get the policy right so that if and when we need to recruit a new CEO there will be some gender equity in the committee and some clarity around what information is confidential and what is not and to whom. This was adjourned for more informed debate at the next meeting.

There were two confidential items, these being;
Recovery of Costs-384 Cross Rd

The Capri Theatre

Centennial Park-Provision of Services