Brimbank Municipality Ready For Election
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- Published on Wednesday, 16 November 2011 06:00
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Photo By Carmel Shute: Peter Lewinsky & Khalid Osman
In September 2009 Mr Peter Lewinsky was appointed as Chair of Administrators to run Brimbank City Council. Mr Lewinsky has specialist experience as an Administrator in reforming troubled organisations; eleven elected councillors were dismissed by the State Government earlier that year and replaced by three Administrators.
In an attempt to bring the African Community closer to local government, Mr Khlaid Osman, an African migrant from Sudan, interviewed Mr Lewinsky at the Brimbank shire office in Sunshine, on Tuesday 17th of November, 2011.
He asked Mr Lewinsky several questions relating to the administration of council affairs and the possible greater involvement of the African community within the Brimbank council.
1. Who are the three Administrators?
Mr. Lewinsky has a background in finance and investment banking, He worked as a consultant for more than twenty years ,as an advisory on major projects for both sides of governments. Brimbank City council is now managed by a team of three administrators, chaired by Mr. Peter Lewinsky. The other two administrators are, Ms Joanne Anderson who has an extensive experience with local government, and Ms Meredith Sussex, with a long and diversified Victorian public service experience.
2. Can you please tell the reader what the Administrators have achieved
Since the administrators took over in November 2009 they completed a review for the council and revisited the budget. In early 2010, they reshaped the council plan aiming to gain get an increase for the amount of public space in Brimbank , implementing and accelerating the “Creating Better Parks” strategic plan. This plan is to ensure that many playgrounds, parks and gardens as possible can be upgraded and refurbished. To achieve this theadministrators looked at the municipality as a collection of five different areas, and examined each of these to find out what were the needs and the gaps. Mr. Lewinsky said, “we wanted also to encourage the community to use those public spaces.” The administrator panels also achieved environmental improvement addressing the issue of contaminated sites within Brimbank. We have launched the major sunshine initiative” Sunshine Rising ” for urban renewal which will include other areas in the municipality. Mr Lewinsky also admitted that there is a shortage of venues for community functions. He said, “ that the lack of community venues is a critical area” and he agreed there is an issue to be addressed regarding the lack of available facitilities. . He said that the administrators had “renovated and upgraded the existing venues”.
3. Your term as Chair of Administrators for Brimbank City Council will end in 2012. Will the municipality be ready for the elections by then?
“The three year appointment term is very short”Mr Lewinsky said. We have identified a number significant short comings and underinvestment in infrastructure for the community and addressed them with short term strategies. We were unable to achieve much in the first six months because we arrived mid budget. a We had only two years of full budgets to work with. . The Panel of administrators conducted a review of the organization which resulted in an increase in resources. The Administrators are also working to identify a number of issues for the coming elected council to consider, and continue with the initiatives the administrators have started. The panel successfully organized a number of leadership training programs to build in the capacity to produce good councillors and leaders. Twelve groups participated in the leadership training. Mr Lewinsky said “building confidence is very important for participation and to produce good leaders and councillors for the coming election.”
4. African community participation in Australian politics is very minimal. How can we secure broader community involvement in order to attain transparency and justice?
Mr Lewinsky said “We are looking at different ways to engage all the community. We welcome the African community involvement and engagement in all facet of the broader Brimbank community. “The panel hired an engagement officer to look at various ways to link the community and its different groups. We have many programs started: the library programs and the programs targeted to our young people. We need the community to tell us what they want. They community should come to and join the council through meetings, advisory groups and other forms of participation.
We are looking at different ways to communicate with community and engage, specific linkage with the local community and council. Mr. Lewinsky expressed great enthusiasm in dealing with the African community and express support for to any effort which will encourage the community participation.