1.

Meeting Details

Chair: Simon Harvey

Minute taker: Fran Araneda

Location: Zoom Meeting, 7:30-9:30pm

2.

Housekeeping

·       Welcome to the 2020 AGM.

·       General business suspended to allow for guest speaker Ellen Sandell and the election of Officers, Steering Committee and Advisors.

·       Present: Simon Harvey, Fran Araneda, Maritza Araneda, Rilke Muir, Tony Ceddia, Austin, Therese Fitzgerald, Geoff Cox, Moira Yffer, Marti Block, John Widmer, Geoffrey Paterson, Paul, Sheila Byard, Stephen Amos, Kym, Liz Forbes, Brian and Nikki Gaskell.

·       Apologies: Rohan Leppert, David Ettershank.

3.

Confirmation of Minutes

·       Minutes of the 2019 AGM confirmed as read and correct by Maritza and Moira.

4.

Special Guest: Ellen Sandell

·       The pandemic has taken up most of Ellen’s time over the past six months. Key priorities:

1.    Making sure the community is aware of the risks associated with COVID, particularly those who do not speak English as their first language;

2.    Being in direct contact with the Premier’s office and the Health Minister’s office, giving them feedback on how restrictions are impacting the community. Has also worked on a number of initiatives including money for artists and live music venues, grants for some sole traders, clarifying rule changes around childcare, and activating grants for renters who are at risk of being evicted;

3.    Directly assisting people who have needed help by connecting them to the right services;

4.    Playing a role in parliament, voting on key decisions in relation to changes in laws;

5.    Supporting public housing residents, particularly those in the housing towers that went into hard lockdown. The Greens have also called for an enquiry into the lockdown to see how the process can be improved should it happen again.

·       Ellen is continuing to work on other causes/issues that the community is passionate about including:

o   Climate change and the environment: The Greens have costed plans for a program of infrastructure spending that the Government could adopt now to assist with climate change and some of the ecological impacts of the bushfires. Prior to COVID the Greens used their numbers to push for a parliamentary enquiry into the state of extinction and threatened species in Victoria.

o   Kensington Station: The waiting rooms are now open.

o   Funding for South Kensington Station: Happy to talk to the community about how it can ramp up this campaign to secure additional funding.

o   Closure of Childers Street: Understands that this has caused a lot of concern. She has put a number of questions to the new minister for Public Transport and will be following this up in Parliament next week.

o   Acknowledged questions have been sent through in relation to the Arden-Macaulay Structure Plan. Her office has had briefings from Council. Whilst still at conceptual stage, concerns remain about open space, density, school provision and the affordable housing provision (only a target at this stage with no mechanism to achieve this). She also raised with Council the issue of re-assessing density levels post-COVID.

o   Continuing to campaign for more public housing. Her office has been successful in getting the Government to increase the % of public housing on renewal sites and getting the Government to move overcrowded families out of housing towers and into bigger homes.

o   Council elections: Government still supports the system that businesses get two votes whilst residents only get one vote. Government backed out on their proposal to ban developer donations to councillors.

Questions from the floor:

·       Sheila: Asked Ellen to comment on the public release of the City of Melbourne’s (“CoM”) Municipal Emergency Management Plan. Sheila expressed concern that a lot seems to be left to the SES, with no reference to fire in the CoM’s Emergency Management Plan. Ellen will follow this up.

·       John: Asked Ellen for her views on the parliamentary enquiry on the environmental infrastructure for growing populations. Ellen has been raising this issue with those governmental departments. Are they re-examining their thinking around density? We are going to see a significant movement of the population away from the city (more people working from home and aware of the risks around higher density living). She has not heard anything to give her confidence that they are re-examining their thinking. John asked whether it was possible for Ellen to put in a request for the Association to be called as a witness to this enquiry.

·       Therese: Concerned that there does not appear to be a co-ordinated approach with how the Government is dealing with the South Kensington Station. We’re throwing a bit of money at it now but it’s going to need a lot more down the track and it seems like a waste of resources that people aren’t thinking about this area in a more holistic way. Ellen agreed that this should have been done before they started work on Metro Rail. But there is still a lot more that can be done. It needs the campaign to be bigger and better and the community to be a lot more active.

·       Rilke: East West Link (EWL) seems to be back on the agenda. Will the Greens be coming out with a statement on this? Ellen commented that in his press conference Dan Andrews made it clear that he is not about to re-open a project that was so resounding rejected by the Victorian people. The Government seems to be holding strong on this so the Greens haven’t needed to come out and put as much pressure. At any sign of wavering, the Greens will be out ‘all guns blazing’.

·       Simon/Therese: There is a lot of angst around the Childers Street closure. Residents were initially told it would be weeks and now it seems to be years. The justification for extending the closure by 12 months does not appear to be there. Another issue is the lack of, and inadequate, public consultation with residents only being advised 2 days beforehand and short zoom meetings with almost no time allocated to questions. Ellen confirmed that they will make a bit more noise to RIA (have already put a bunch of questions to the Minister). She will keep the community informed if she hears anything (KA will do the same).

·       Fran: Residents have been unable to get any data around truck movements to validate their concerns around unacceptable numbers unless they sign strict confidential agreements. Is there anything that can be done around this? Ellen confirmed that these questions were put to the Minister in the last sitting week of Parliament.

5.

AGM Reports

Treasurer’s Report – Tony Ceddia

·       Our finances dropped by approx. $5,000 over the year, largely due to the revamp of our website (supplemented by a $3,000 CoM grant and a  KA contribution of around $1,900 in addition to in-kind costs). Other movements included costs associated with storage and insurance. We managed to half our storage costs during the year following our move from North Melbourne to National Storage in Kensington which included a clean out of non-essential items.

·       At the start of the year our balance was approx. $14,900 as at the 30^th of June the balance was approx. $9,000. Funds in: Membership receipts, $1,500 CoM grant to cover operating costs (meeting room, public liability insurance, storage costs, etc.). Funds out: website, public liability insurance, storage and routine expenditures.

·       No questions from the floor.

·       Report was received and confirmed.

·       A motion was moved by Tony to accept the Treasurer’s report as a true account of the Association’s income, expenditures and asset balances for the 2019-20 financial year. The motion was endorsed by Rilke. Passed unanimously.

Membership Report – Tony Ceddia

·       Slightly down on numbers (~20 on last year due to ‘freebie’ memberships given to those that donated to our fundraising campaign). From a dollars perspective, the numbers are fairly consistent YoY.

·       Report was received and confirmed.

Chairman’s Report – Simon Harvey

·       A full copy of the report will posted on the website.

·       The Association has been involved in a number of major projects this year, including:

o   The Metro Rail Project (led by Therese and Geoff), which has been testing for residents and Association members who have made valiant attempts to hold contractors to account. And more recently, the issue of truck movements is causing a lot of angst.

o   Moonee Ponds Creek (led by John Widmer), with the stalemate and mismanagement of the Creek seeming to go on and on. We will continue to advocate for the Creek and push for the Strategic Opportunities Plan to be prioritised in terms of funding and addressing issues of governance.

o   Submission to the environmental infrastructure enquiry, which has emphasised the importance of open space for the wellbeing of the community.

o   The Kensington Community Network. The strength of this network is that it has a wide spread and it connects us to many other organisations that the Association would not otherwise be connected to.

o   The West Gate Tunnel Project (led by Fran). It is important that we keep abreast of the issues that surround this project particularly around the impact on the Creek and the traffic flow in the area.

o   Submission in relation to the Kensington Recreation Centre.

·       The Associations has also been involved in a number of initiatives, including:

o   The CoM grant for the renovation of the website (thanks to Louis for his great work). Also thanks to Diana who continues to manage our FB page.

o   Impact/community grant (led by Simon and Maritza) to help us do what we do ‘better’ and more ‘comprehensively’. A big part of this is refining our social media action and effectiveness, and co-operating and collaborating more broadly with all members of our community.

o   Liveability working group, which Steven is a key part of. The intention is to use this important issue as a vehicle to ‘rattle the cage’ into the future.

o   The Lord Mayor’s visit to Kensington was significant and helped us further develop our relationship with her.

·       Other significant events that happened during the year included the Arts Show (September 2019), the Community Forum (November 2019) to ‘break-down’ the Racecourse Road divide between Moonee Valley and the CoM, the YoungHusband Development, the comprehensive submission to the Macaulay Structure Plan Refresh (Thank you to David E, Maritza and Peter Cassidy for their significant contribution to that submission), representation on the Bruce Street development (with great support from Nikki and Peter) and the development on the corner of Stubbs and Macaulay (with support from David E and Maritza).

·       Thank you to all committee members for their great support during the year and all other executive members for their input.

·       Simon also singled out his ‘partner in crime’ Toy Ceddia who has always made himself available and Rohan Leppart who has been a great local member and who’s support and guidance has been invaluable.

·       Report was received and confirmed.

·       A motion was moved by Maritza to accept the Chairman’s report. The motion was endorsed by Geoff. Passed unanimously.

6.

Election of Officers, Steering Committee and Advisors

·       Rilke took over as Chair and declared all positions vacant.

·       Nominations received and persons elected:

o   Chairperson – John Widmer nominated Simon Harvey, endorsed by Geoff. No other nominations received. Elected unanimously.

o   Secretary – Simon Harvey nominated Maritza Araneda, endorsed by Nikki. No other nominations received. Elected unanimously.

o   Treasurer – Simon Harvey nominated Tony Ceddia, endorsed by John. No other nominations received. Elected unanimously. Tony also accepted the role of Membership Secretary.

o   Vice Chair – No nominations. As per prior years the role will be filled/rotated as needed.

o   Non-executive Committee – Therese Fitzgerald (PCCC), John Widmer (MPC).

·       To assist the Secretary, the taking of minutes will be rotated, with volunteers to be sought as needed.

7.

Other Business

·       Sheila: In relation to the Women’s Peace Garden, the Neighbourhood House helped set up a zoom meeting with the CoM’s Open Space Planner Fiona Finlayson. The purpose of the meeting was to get a commitment from the CoM to set up a collaborative and consultative community participation program in relation to this space. Plantings initially scheduled for September will take place in March 2021.

·       Sheila: Carolyn Webster will be leaving the Kensington Neighbourhood House.

·       The Association would like to extend its gratitude to Carolyn for her incredible work over the years and her enormous contribution to the Kensington community. Carolyn has worked tirelessly to drive a number of improvements and her incredible efforts, often far beyond her role, are acknowledged. We wish her luck in her future endeavours.

·       Rilke: The Association would also like to formally thank and acknowledge Rohan’s ongoing contribution to the Kensington Association and the community during his term in office.

·       Cathy Oak will not be standing again. The Association would also like to thank her for representing the community and her assistance over the years.

·       Simon: A list of questions will be circulated to all CoM candidates, seeking their views on a range of issues. Responses will be posted on the website.

8.

Next Meeting – Monday 9^th of November (second Monday of the Month)