Terry demeo9/20/2023 ![]() Fragmentation is perpetuated further by the implementation of land-use controls such as conventional zoning, which focuses predominantly on protecting individual landscape elements rather than integrating them with adjacent landscape elements and land uses. However, this traditional form of identifying and protecting ESAs inhibits the potential for connecting them into a greenway corridor for many reasons: (1) the rationale for identifying and protecting ESAs is based on an exclusionary process that designates areas not appropriate for development (2) the procedures for assessing ESAs are based predominantly on their geographical distribution, with little consideration of their functioning or the flow of nutrients, species, and energy between the landscape elements (3) the identification and protection of ESAs focus on individual landscape elements such as flood plains and steep slopes, resulting in habitat fragmentation. Communities, therefore, develop local comprehensive plans that identify the geographical distribution of ESAs, and specify land-use strategies and regulations for protecting them. By implication, the planning process which communities use in protecting ESAs could serve as a template for developing greenway corridors.Many communities faced with the pressures of balancing economic development with environmental protection recognize that uncontrolled development may lead to an irreversible loss of ESAs. When ESAs are interconnected, they could form greenway corridors consisting of networks of linked landscape elements that provide ecological, recreational, and cultural benefits to a community. They include wildlife habitat areas, steep slopes, wetlands, and prime agricultural lands. Mr Neville Ivey has been appointed Acting CEO while Ms Linley is on leave.Ĭomment below to have your say on this story.Environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs) are landscape elements or places which are vital to the long-term maintenance of biological diversity, soil, water or other natural resources both on the site and in a regional context. It said Ms Linley was and Mr Demeo would be on leave while Council is considered its formal response to the report. “Such allegations do not align with the City of Ballarat values and governance practices,” it said in a statement. The Ombudsman also found council had “carved up” $300,000 worth of repair work to the Ballarat City Oval to deliberately avoid a public tender, something for which other senior officers including Mr Demeo were ultimately responsible.Ĭouncil said it was “deeply concerned and disappointed” by the allegations and the findings of the Ombudsman’s report. The report recommends disciplinary action against Mr Demeo and “appropriate action” against Ms Linley. “They set a culture in which demonstration and acceptance of poor practice can become the norm,” she said. Ms Glass said it was crucial for senior leaders to lead by example. Not all the allegations against Ms Linley were held up. The investigation was sparked by a series of whistleblower complaints “alleging a director was hiring his mates and his boss hiring hers”, the report said. “The heady whiff of favouritism tainted reputations, regardless of individual merits,” Ms Glass said. In one case, she advanced her friend, “Officer D”, doubling her salary, and she appeared to have given preferential in the employment of “Officer E”, whose salary was increased by $50,000 six months after he began at council. ![]() The CEO, Justine Linley, meanwhile, was involved in employment decisions about two staff “which were unwise at best and may have been improper”. He also chaired a panel that selected a friend’s company as a supplier. In one case Mr Demeo changed a job description for “Officer C” whose father was known to him, after HR said she wasn’t qualified for it. One them, “Officer A” moved from a full-time job worth $93,000 a year to part time work for which his company was paid $400,000 over three years. Mr Demeo had previously worked with all three at Geelong Council before he joined Ballarat in July 2014. “The heady whiff of favouritism tainted reputations, regardless of individual merits” – Ombudsman Deborah Glass The ombudsman heard evidence that “there was a perception amongst staff that: Oh yeah, Terry’s hiring his mates”. In a report handed down on Thursday Ombudsman Deborah Glass found council’s director of infrastructure and environment Terry Demeo was improperly involved in recruiting three mates to senior roles at Council. The state ombudsman has found improper conduct by a senior officer and possibly improper conduct by a CEO in its investigation of “jobs for mates” allegations at a Victorian Council.
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