At each meeting of Hume City Council, members of the public can submit written questions for council staff to answer. Approved questions are answered by council staff who read carefully prepared statements. Here are the questions and answers from Monday 9 September 2024.
Question: Hume City Council states on their website “It is not legal to park a vehicle on a nature strip in Victoria. Council officers can issue infringements to vehicles parked on nature strips under Road Safety Road Rules 2017, rule no 197.
How many parking fines has Hume City Council officers issued to residents in 2023/24 for Parking on nature strips?
RESPONSE: Chief Financial Officer In 2023/24 there were 3,955 parking infringements issued for parking on nature strip offences.
Question: How many parking fines have Hume City Council officers issued to construction workers parking on the nature strip at the front of the Sunbury Day Hospital in 2023/24?
RESPONSE: Chief Financial Officer Officer’s are unaware of the occupation held by those who receive infringements, this is not a consideration when issuing parking infringements.
Question: Prior to the opening of the New Council Chamber in the Hume Global Learning Centre, Broadmeadows, what has been the full cost of conducting hybrid meetings to allow Councillors to attend remotely this term?
Please include production costs and IT support costs and any other associated costs in full, along with the Zoom subscription.
RESPONSE: Chief Financial Officer This question will be taken on notice and the cost of delivering Council meetings will be responded to at the next council meeting. In this term of Council, Council has commenced live streaming its meetings to support transparent decision making. This requires additional AV and IT costs to support delivery of streaming.
However, officers can advise that the only additional cost or the 2023/24 period, required to facilitate hybrid Council meetings was $279 for an additional Zoom subscription in addition to that were costs associated with internal IT support staff.
Question: Noting the above response, what has been the cost in total and the breakdown per public meeting which had been held in hybrid mode?
RESPONSE: Chief Financial Officer This question will be taken on notice and responded to at the next Council meeting.
Question: For this term of Council, how many meetings has each Councillor attended in person?
RESPONSE: Chief Financial Officer Meetings throughout this term of Council commenced in November 2020. Between November 2020 and December 2021, sixteen Council meetings were held online only due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The number of Council Meetings Councillors have attended in person between November 2020-August 2024 is as follows:
Cr Jarrod Bell 55
Cr Trevor Dance 0
Cr Joseph Haweil 47
Cr Chris Hollow 46
Cr Jodi Jackson 6
Cr Naim Kurt 55
Cr Jack Medcraft 51
Cr Sam Misho 44
Cr Carly Moore 47
Cr Jim Overend 54
Cr Karen Sherry 54
Question: For this term of Council, how many fines have been issued in relation to dumped rubbish?
RESPONSE: Chief Financial Officer There have been 480 infringements issued for depositing litter across this Council term. There has been a further 300 infringements issued for failing to comply with notices.
Question: Has the state parliament been contacted to review their laws of the Domestic Animal Act 1994 as these may also be antiquated and this affects all of Victoria. HCC must be the lead for the future and if yes, did you have a positive response and if no, will you now involve them please?
RESPONSE: Acting Director City Services and Living Officers have engaged with the Department of Agriculture following the recent dog attacks in Sunbury.
At this stage Council has not requested a review of the Victorian Domestic Animals Act 1994. However, once Council completes its review into the matter, we will identify any potential amendments to the Act that would strengthen Council’s ability to intervene early in instances of irresponsible pet ownership and dangerous dog behaviours.
These findings will be shared with the Department of Agriculture for their consideration and response.
Question: Has HCC contacted RSPCA to set up a better “Working Together Program”, to ensure these incidents of where there is concern for animals in an unhealthy environment/ potentially dangerous environment.
This would allow both authorities to control the removal and not wait for when a situation is out of control and animals are no longer able to be rehabilitated or rehomed and end up euthanised and if yes, was the response positive and if no, will you now involve them please?
RESPONSE: Acting Director City Services and Living Officers have not yet contacted the RSPCA regarding the recent attacks. However, officers agree that there is significant opportunities to explore how Council and the RSPCA can collaborate to support earlier intervention in instances where dogs are not being properly cared for by their owners, or where poor handling may result in dogs becoming dangerous to others.
Officers will be reaching out to the RSPCA to explore these opportunities further.
Question: Investigation of the Hume City Council Domestic Animal Management Plan.
Will this be internal Hume City Council only or will there be an independent contingency on the panel to provide an additional perspective?
RESPONSE: Acting Director City Services and Living Officers have commenced a comprehensive review that will include reviewing Council’s dog attack procedures, incident alert and response systems, and identifying possible legislative changes that might support improved outcomes and give Council more powers to take earlier action against irresponsible pet owners.
Council is seeking to engage an independent perspective in this review process to ensure all opportunities and learnings are identified.
Question: Would Hume City Council be prepared to be the leaders for change and submit a motion to state parliament a change to Animal Act 1994
Motion reading: Mandatory for all owners of alleged dog attack.
Owner immediately not permitted to own an animal and no animal to be on the property of where the offending owner resides and if yes – when can motion be submitted for consideration and if not – why not?
This should not have to be deemed by a court for every incident.
RESPONSE: Acting Director City Services and Living Officers have engaged with the Department of Agriculture following the recent dog attacks in Sunbury.
At this stage Council has not requested a review of the Victorian Domestic Animals Act 1994. However once Council completes its review into the matter, we will identify any potential amendments to the Act that would strengthen Council’s ability to intervene early in instances of irresponsible pet ownership and dangerous dog behaviours.
These findings will be shared with the Department of Agriculture for their consideration and response.
Question: Improvements and Education for Animals in the Community The review has already commenced into the policies and procedures held by Hume City Council for the Domestic Animal Management Plan.
As many of the Sunbury Community are now walking in fear as they do not believe the system actually works to protect them from dog attacks.
Has Hume City Council identified improvements already that can be implemented now and if yes, when will they be implemented and what are they?
RESPONSE: Acting Director City Services and Living Council has identified immediate opportunities to improve the information and education materials included on Council’s website to make it easier for residents to report their concerns regarding dangerous dogs in Hume.
In addition to this, a comprehensive review has commenced to identify any improvements that can be made to Council’s dog-attack responses, investigation
and enforcement practices, this will include measures that may assist in preventing future attacks or supporting responsible pet ownership.
Once this report has been finalised, recommendations will be presented to Council for consideration. It should be noted that Officers will enact any immediate operational improvement opportunities as soon as they are identified, to best support community safety outcomes.
Question: Information to make a safer community. Can a flyer be created to be distributed to the community of Hume, either via rates notice of Australia Post distribution with a reminder every year on the back of animal registration form:
Be a responsible owner
Community instructions on making a complaint or voicing a concern to ensure it is actioned
RESPONSE: Acting Director City Services and Living Thank you for your suggestion. As outlined above, Officers are seeking to make immediate improvements to information and education materials to ensure residents know how they can easily report concerns regarding dangerous or threatening dogs.
In addition to making this available on Council’s website, officers will explore the opportunity to include this information with registration renewal notices.
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