Geez, it has been a long time since I have written a blog on this site, but the news of EMRC imploding, the potential for that implosion to significantly damage the City of Bayswater, and some clearly conflicted decision making means I can not stay silent.

Ironically, my last blog was ‘Governance takes a dive’ 2.5 years ago; unfortunately it seems Bayswater has kept plumbing new depths rather than surfacing.

So what’s happened?

The City of Bayswater was one of six local governments which established the East Metropolitan Regional Council (EMRC) with the primary objective of handling waste.  The EMRC owns significant assets, and the local governments own a share of the EMRC, hence the assets.

Due to a variety of reasons, the majority of local governments want to exit the EMRC and get their share of the money. Only Bayswater and Bassendean remain members of the EMRC, and we have recently discovered that Bayswater was on track to exit too.    

BUT, on 25 June 2025, the City of Bayswater met, and overturned the previous decision to exit, as well as countering the administration’s advice to exit.

As far as I’m concerned, from a financial perspective, the smart action was to be the first to exit the EMRC and get the money (well done Belmont), and I mooted this back in 2018/19 while Dept Mayor. And the worst position to be in, was to be the last one holding the baby (bad luck Bayswater and Bassendean).

I’m not privy to the current facts and figures, so can’t comment on the wisdom of the Bayswater council choosing to remain in the EMRC. But as at 30 June 2024, we are talking about $38,741,912 in ratepayer assets, so ratepayers had better hope they made the right one.

What I take issue with is, again, the poor levels of governance and transparency from some at the City of Bayswater; it once operated at high levels of transparency and governance and had a genuine desire to do so.

1. Why the secrecy?

I don’t understand why the default position for some Councillors appears to be ‘let’s keep this secret from the public.’ They are after all meant to serve the public.

Cr Assunta Meleca, Cr Steven Ostaszewskyj and Cr Josh Eveson wanted to keep the reports secret from the very people who ultimately own the $38,741,912 – you the ratepayers.

2. What was Mayor Filomena Piffaretti even doing in the room?

Mayor Piffaretti was not just at the Special Council Meeting which overturned the previous Council decision (as well as administration’s recommendation), she actually moved (was the instigator) of the motion to stay in the EMRC.

My issue with this is that she is also the Chair of the EMRC. And this presents a clear conflict of interest when voting to continue Bayswater’s involvement with the EMRC. For if Bayswater left, she would no longer be Chair.

This is especially concerning as the 2024/25 EMRC Budget shows the Chair was budgeted to receive $38,849 per annum.

This is a huge financial interest which should have been declared, and I would say cause Mayor Piffaretti to leave the room.

But there wasn’t even a verbal disclosure of these conflicts, much less leaving the room:

Now, courtesy of the Political Interest Register, we know that Mayor Piffaretti is a member of the Australian Labor Party:

And this could be the reason she feels she can act with impunity.  But who knows, maybe Labor’s Hannah Beazley MLC (Minister for Local Government) will show some impartiality and have this looked into. Because if it is not a breach of the disclosure rules, then the rules are broken. And Mayor Filomena Piffaretti is of course no stranger to claims of poor governance. She made The West Australian over extravagant gifts she received (below), and received widespread community scorn over her Cr resignation in the days leading up to the Mayoral election, thereby ensuring a by-election occurred. Pure politics which cost ratepayers circa $40,000.

Alternatively, perhaps Mayor Filomena Piffaretti will claim the $38,741,912 she receives from the EMRC is inconsequential to her and hence not disclosable. Afterall, she has managed to move the Mayor income all the way up to $177,676 per annum. And we can’t forget her chief supporters, Cr Assunta Meleca, Cr Steven Ostaszewskyj and Cr Josh Eveson (who all voted to stay with the EMRC, and not release the information) also voted to have the ratepayers fork out up to $75,000 for a ‘Mayoral car’ in March of this year. The place (or should that be palace?) is raining ratepayer money.

As far as I’m concerned, there needs to be wholesale changes on the City of Bayswater council. Good governance and transparency is important.