When you bite the hand that feeds you

J. the brat had a long silver spoon
And was eaten by envy and greed
His baby face and voice so soft
Made it easy for him to deceive

This shallow man without compassion
had money from mummy and pop
it expressed thro him a tyranny
which proved too hard to stop.

No one knew what happened
You couldn’t see the source
Compatible energies blended
By some magnetic force.

The ghosts of convicts on the hill
Seeped through the market floor
Driving out the good folk
Til there were no more.

Many felt the evil air
And wondered what took place
The laughter of a yesteryear
Became a nameless face.

The townsfolk showed their discontent
By staying well away
The place has lost its soul
Is all they had to say.

I will fix this when I can
The old mayor once lamented
Proving what they all had thought -
That he was quite demented.

A rally in the market square
Cried out with cheers and bells
Something’s wrong in city hall
Something really smells

Bureaucracy – a wimpy lot
Hid behind their writs
Cowering in closets
A bunch of feeble twits

Good men fought until they fell
Hearts were torn away
Karma spoke with justice
“I will have my day!”

What’s happened to my cash cow?
J-boy knits a frown
He didn’t even notice
When it all fell down

I demand some loyalty
I demand respect
What was he ever thinking?
What did he expect?

If you bite the hand that feeds you
You lose much more than money
A man can lose himself as well
Isn’t life too funny?


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Starting or buying a business at Freo Markets

According to FMPL:
“The Markets’ philosophy is that a wide range of traders should present goods of quality, value and interest at competitive prices. Fremantle Markets is an entertaining place, whether you are visiting or bargain hunting.

Fremantle Markets is a community amenity and meeting place, and over the past 35 years has become an outstanding cultural, entertainment, restaurant and retail centre, without equal in the State.”

The tricky spin or blatant propaganda is just mind-boggling. Value at competitive prices and bargain hunting? The massive rent hikes drove out almost 30% of the tenants and the rest have had to index the cost into product prices.
Community meeting place and cultural centre? It used to be the community hub of Freo, but now it’s just a few plastic chairs, hiding empty stalls, that they refer to as relaxed sitting areas or now a community meeting place.
Is there a restaurant in there?
Entertainment? They must mean the buskers outside the market wall or the music in the bar which I believe is provided by the bar owner not the market management. Perhaps they think that the food hall in the mall is theirs as well.
Well, it all sounds good and might impress a naïve potential tenant and that’s what it’s all about. A nice little lead in to their Expression of Interest application form.

It doesn’t quite come right out and state that before you get to see the lease agreement the need to supply your first born child as collateral but it comes pretty close.

It is really hard to sell a business in the markets for a number of reasons; high rents and lack of facilities being the most obvious.

A lot has been said about people who have signed onto a 5 year lease because they thought that it offered secure tenure and that would make selling a business more viable or at least more stable for the buyer. Many of those people now feel stuck; locked in for 5 years with no way out. It’s no secret that due to the amount of empty stalls the management is now offering those spaces at no cost to new tenants. The bottom line of course, is that they are only interested in the rent coming into their pockets. The value of an established business is of no concern to them and might in fact hinder their agenda.

Some people have employed a business broker and others have advertised businesses for sale. A number of people have found a buyer and then the sale has fallen through when they have contacted the management to discuss the lease.

I am not even going to mention the lease other than to reiterate what I have said before, “Get legal advice before you sign.”

What many stallholders did not realize is that the potential buyers must sign an expression of interest form before they are offered a lease. Basically, the form is to guarantee the management that the potential buyer has enough assets to cover them if they should fail. I wonder if FMPL would provide the same information to their tenants. What guarantee do the tenants have should FMPL go bust?

What really concerns me most though is that FMPL demands a trail period. So, if you are lucky enough to find a buyer, your buyer pays you for your business, fits out the shop, buys stock and then after 10 weeks they can be told that they are unsuitable!!!!

If you haven’t read through the EOI form have a look at these excerpts:
Tenant Licence Agreements.
The successful applicant will be required to enter into a Licence Agreement with Fremantle Markets Pty Ltd for a period of 10 weeks to see whether it is successful for both parties. Nearing the end of that time both parties can sit down and discuss the option of entering into a long term arrangement.

Or this little beauty which says it all:
Whilst an attempt has been made to ensure that information contained in this document is accurate at the time of publication (April 2010), Fremantle Markets Pty Ltd does not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of information contained in this document.

What Happens Next?

Applicants will not automatically be offered an interview and it is therefore important that you complete the attached Application Form as fully and accurately as possible. Photographs and other information relating to your proposed merchandise will assist in reviewing your application.

The assessment of application takes approximately 1 month and all applicants will be notified in writing of the outcome of their application.

The decision and outcome of your application is not open to appeal.

Please provide an itemised listing of your proposed product range (You must include photographs of merchandise to be sold).
What are your unique selling points?
What type of products could you could sell at cost price as per the Market Rules?
“Tenants must have at least 1 item of goods made available for sale to customers at Cost Price as an attraction to patrons on each trading day.”

How would your stall and product contribute to a vibrant and interesting Market? (Please give a full explanation eg. it is not sufficient to merely state that you are or have previously been a Tenant for any period).

Who are your competitors and what are the main points of difference that you will offer? (You should consider competitors both internal and external to Fremantle Markets)
Who is your target audience/customers?
In what ways will you ensure your stall operates in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way?
How many staff do you intend to employ?
What other tasks relating to the stall do you do during non-trading times and how many hours are spent on them?
How do you intend to train your staff so they will add value to your business and the Fremantle Markets as a whole?
What is your merchandising theme/display method and how do you propose to continuously improve your stall setup?
What capital improvements will you make to the stall including signage? What improvements will you make to the appearance of the stall? Please include estimated costs of improvements together with a detail plan of proposed changes. Please staple proposed plans to this application.
What is the proposed maintenance and cleaning program for the stall?
Briefly describe your marketing plan. (Other than relying on passing trade or word of mouth, how do you plan to get information about your product to your prospective customer?)
Please provide details of any previous retail business owned by you or retail experience (in each instance please provide dates). Include any relevant details such as qualifications or awards.

Financial Background
Plant & Equipment (currently owned and situated in stall, if any)
Already Owned – Item – Market Value – Service Cost

Plant and equipment to be purchased and installed in stall if application successful
Item – Purchase Price – Service cost

Personal Assets and Liabilities of Applicant
You Own: Cash available, Own Home, Other Real Estate, Superannuation, Savings/Shares, Furniture, Personal Effects, Vehicles, Other Assets. Total Value?
You Owe: Bills unpaid, Home Mortgage, Other Mortgage, Credit Cards, Vehicle Loan, Other Loan. Total?

What was that about a place for artisans, hand made products and an incubator for new start up businesses? I don’t think so…

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Cr Doug Thompson's mysterious abacus

Fremantle market business owners have often commented that they feel that they have been thrown to the dogs by Fremantle Council. That, and a whole lot more, but I’ll use this as the milder version of the general dismay and overall frustration and disappointment repeatedly expressed.

To hear themselves referred to as ‘dislodged’ or their diabolical treatment described as ‘unintentional consequences’ is sickening and abhorrent. How can they claim the consequences were unintentional when they were made aware of them loudly and publicly right from the beginning?

When the swearing, anger, outrage and confusion subside there are always the questions: why, what’s going on? How did it happen? What don’t they get….?

Of course, there are conspiracy theories; who is in bed with…? Are they incompetent, lazy or ignorant? Is it personal? Was it deliberate?

Well, I don’t have any concrete answers myself, but like many others, I have held the belief that at some level they all know they did the wrong thing, and providing they can find a solution which saves them publicly admitting fault or being held accountable or liable they would, at the very least, try to band aid what they could.

Last months council meeting ended any delusions we might have entertained; the meetings, reports, mediation, blah, blah and blah…

I have been contacted by people who were appalled at Robert Fittock’s comment, and one person said:

…Cr Fittock of course had his turn. What a nasty piece of work he is. He has obviously forgotten he was elected to assist the people of the community, instead he relishes in demeaning and insulting the disenfranchised stallholders. He stated - the disenfranchised stallholders made their bed! I can’t remember if he actually said 'they deserve what they get, but he certainly inferred it. He was definitely out of line and the mayor should have told him to pull his head in.

However, the real knife in the heart came from Doug Thompson. Crowing like a Cock in a hen house, he delivered his facts about the 43 ‘dislodged’ businesses:

4 left before negotiations
16 Sold their business at an average $59,000.00
3 Retired
5 signed a new lease
1 on a new agreement
6 were month by month due to future relocation
7 were casual and
1 was terminated

Jamie Murdoch’s outrageous claims that the average takings per stall was $10,000 per week-end, 40,000 customers each week spend around $35 per head, average rent at $300 per week and that only one person has been evicted. Council has accepted all of this as fact and we have not only disputed this but given truer figures. Why won’t council do the numbers themselves?

The stallholders association not only counted the 43 but publicly read them all out by name. They didn’t even include the employees in that count and as that was a few months ago we could now add more names and numbers.

None of our 43 people had signed any new lease so please explain how 12 of your ‘facts’ are classified as having left the market whilst at the same time signed onto new agreements?

If Thompson asserts that he has factual knowledge of 16 people selling at an average of $59,000 then I ask him publicly to supply us with the names of those people. Also, was this ‘one termination’ (eviction) Steve, Richard, Colin or Ed?

After two public rallies; one on council steps, dozens of letters and emails from stallholders, council meetings overflowing with angry stallholders, countless media articles and the obvious vacant spaces at Fremantle markets, I can not accept Cr Thompson is that ignorant - it appears to be malicious or deliberately incompetent.

Mayor Pettitt, Cr’s Fittock and Thompson would serve the people of Freo more effectively if they were to visit the office of Adele Carles and do a thorough tally of the financial losses reported to her office and gain some insight into the trauma and heartache of their actions rather than crow out Murdoch cronyism.

Or, for that matter - read through their own transcripts!

Cr Fittock was honest enough to admit that he didnt read through all that mail but this seems to suggest that Doug Thompson hasn't seen, heard or known anything and yet he claims to understand everything.

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Freo councils unintended consequences

Whenever I speak about Fremantle Council I feel I should add a disclaimer. Some members of the council have given us so much support that I want to exclude them from the generic term of council. For the purpose of this blog I say Fremantle Council as a body or as a process, rather than as a collective mix of members.

I think it is important that the people of Freo know who has or will have the integrity to fight for them; after all, isn’t that why people vote for their members?

Kudos to: John Dowson, Georgie Adeane, Donna Haney, Sam Wainwright, Bill Massie, Andrew Sullivan and I will also still include Les Lauder for his enormous contribution.

The genuine depth of compassion, the tireless work and attention to detail, the stress and opposition they have endured and the ongoing tenacity is awe inspiring.

Reading through this month’s council minutes I feel we are all trapped in ‘groundhog day’. The issues or the arguments appear to change but basically it comes down to this:
Half the council know they screwed up but want to put it to bed and move on.
The other half tried to prevent it before it happened and have spent all this time trying to fix it.

John Dowson has spent months trying to create an alternate trading environment for the victims of the new market lease debacle. His vision not only offers great prospects for the stallholders but will potentially bring more visitors into the area and actually compliment the other market.

But, as is the way with bureaucracy, it all appears to be nit picked to death; the customary reports, meetings, financials, legal implications, proposals, terms and conditions, strategies and blowing smoke rings in the air. It will end up where it always ends up – just shredded paper for the next ticker tape parade – probably the next mayoral election.

It has already taken months to get it to ‘consideration’ stage. It will take at least a year before it could possibly become an actuality. If and or when it ever gets an affirmative we will find that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put humpty together again.

Glen Dougall will probably write something along the lines of: due to the severe lack of public interest, the decline of the Fremantle Markets and the disinterest of ‘dislodged’ stallholders we have deferred making further considerations - but will continue to monitor the situation.

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Fremantle councils dislodged stallholders

In my last post I referred to the ‘pollie speak’ of Fremantle Council. In a carefully worded document they explained they were unable to include a representative of the stallholders association into the working group because the association no longer had any members left. Then they went on to say that they will continue to monitor the situation. (Really?)

In layman terms what this means is:
Due to the fact that we have been fart-arsing around for a year the problem seems to have gone away.

This month’s council minutes offers this gem:
“…or is council seeking to provide support for those stallholders that have been dislodged by unintended consequences of the new lease at the Fremantle markets…”

Dislodged stallholders? Unintended consequences? Oh please!

In layman’s terms:
Dislodged stallholders means: Shafted stallholders.
Unintended consequences means: Predictable outcome of our big F up.

For the full report see page 148 http://www.freofocus.com/council/resource/2010.03.24_Council.pdf
As usual, it seems that Freo Council are never sure if they are coming or going; on page 165 Cr Fittock gave us an insight:

LATE ITEM
At 8.28 pm Cr R Fittock left the meeting and returned at 8.28 pm.

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Fremantle Council and Fremantle Markets. What Tha?

Fremantle Council’s Report for March 2010 re Update on Fremantle Markets Alleged Breaches. For full report see:
http://www.freofocus.com/council/resource/Council%20Agenda%2024%20March%202010.pdf Page 84.

It just gets sillier as we move forward. The ex mayor pretty much wrote the proposal for the Murdoch’s as we saw in a 2006, Fremantle Herald front page article. He strongly promoted the idea of turning the market into a food venue. In that same article he even suggested that if the Murdochs opposed his vision he was prepared to buy them out of the remainder of the lease. When you look at the Murdoch proposal it almost looks like Tagliaferri could have written it himself.

Rather than put it out for tender council allowed a one horse race. The new lease was renewed years before the old lease expired; there was no urgency other than the fact that the ex mayor was soon to be vacating his seat and a well publicised threat by the Murdoch’s that they would run the markets into the ground, and some mention of flimsy litigation. More than one councillor later stated that they took these threats seriously and were persuaded to vote for the Murdoch’s on these issues. Some have since said that they regret that decision. Others stated that it was the very reason they strongly opposed the Murdoch application.

When hundreds of letters and emails were sent to council opposing the renewal, one councillor had to ask twice before she and the others got to see them. Another councillor later stated that he did not have time to read them. That same councillor recently stated that to his knowledge only one person had been evicted from the markets! I very clearly remember that councillor sitting in on all of the meetings in which stallholders spoke of evictions and being forced to walk away from businesses. Clearly, there were scores of articles about this in the papers and two public rallies. The last rally included the reading out of forty five names of people who had left the market since the new lease agreement.

The chairperson and the secretary of the stallholders association were evicted. When Mark and Gerry came on board and spoke publicly about their plight they were defamed in newsletters, had their stalls downsized, rents increased and offered only a monthly tenancy instead of the 5 year lease previously promised by both the Murdoch’s and the council; all making it impossible to continue and in effect ‘bullied’ into walking away from previously successful businesses with nothing. Many others who spoke out have also left due to similar treatment.

Within a year the stallholders association collapsed due to key people being evicted or shafted and no one else is now prepared to step up or speak out. Both the Murdoch’s and the council have robbed the market of any feedback, advice or protection from the people at the front line – the collective voice of the association . Stallholders are now as potent as pawns on a chessboard and are treated as such.

Brad Pettitt campaigned hard to be elected new mayor and made sweet statements about his concerns and made wishy washy promises about mediation and moving forward. Within weeks of being elected there was no stallholders association left and the best he has had to offer is a glib comment about the personality conflict between the parties. Meanwhile, more businesses have failed, customer numbers have greatly declined, businesses throughout the CBD are claiming it has impacted on them and there are now a number of official inquiries in progress.

Wouldn’t you think that the mayor and elected members would be scrambling to put things right? No. Everyone is blaming someone else and there is plenty of covering their tracks going on. But, getting back to the report and a very clear insight into the mindset of Glen Dougall, Director Corporate Services:

“Part 3 of the resolution of council in March, 2009, sought for a Working Group to be expanded to include a representative of the Stallholders Association. Whilst this matter has been discussed with FMPL on a number of occasions no agreement has been reached. The main reasons are that during the process the Stallholders’ Association were no longer viable due to lack of committee nominees and now lack of committee members. The City is of the opinion that it will continue to monitor the situation. With City officer members of the working group meeting with stallholders from time to time it is thought that any significant issues involving stallholders can be raised by the working group or by stallholders to ensure that matters are considered by the working group.

Officers will continue to monitor the situation and take action where it is deemed that FMPL are not operating in accordance with the Head Lease or the Operating Strategy. Any action will be so under the direction of the City’s legal team.”

It has taken them a year to talk about this one issue; private enterprise would have had it sorted in fifteen minutes. When you look back on all of the fart-arsing around that FCC has displayed you can only conclude that they deliberately stall making decisions knowing that if they wait long enough the problems will go away. This time - They are soooooooo WRONG. We will chase them down like rats in a drainpipe until we get answers.

It's all just another example of pollie speak and seeming to appear...I am so staggered by this that I am speechless.

Only one comment left in me, “Is this legal team the one who put the lease and the operating strategy together?” Of course it is.


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Fremantle markets - fair suck of the sav

Oh Jamie, “Fair suck of the sav old mate”. A little Aussie slang we little people use as an exclamation of incredulity. Truly, I was gobsmacked at your Feb ’10 report. (Interestingly, this report was only handed out to selected tenants: why?)

Quote:
“We have seen outgoing tenants working hard to generate negative publicity for the Markets, and to deliver on a prominent ex-stallholders promise to ‘do as much damage as possible before we go.’ In this they have received a lot of support from certain Councillors who should know better. The very public campaign against Fremantle Markets that has been waged by these people through the media, the internet, public protests and misguided comment in Council Chambers has had a negative impact on attendance numbers, and this is unconscionable*.

Be very clear – some outgoing tenants and misguided Councillors have demonstrated by their actions that they do not give a damn about the future of Fremantle Markets or the welfare of the current stallholders. They would like nothing more than to see the Markets fail.”

Oh dear, everyone in the world is conspiring against your good will and genius visions.

Facts:
When Donaldson and Murdoch Seniors ran the markets they were popular, successful, profitable to all parties and world renowned.

They did not compete nor compare with others. They were iconic within their own uniqueness.

Leases were frivolous but behind them was a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ or a handshake that gave many security of tenure which held for twenty or more years.

No one needed to wear a name tag to contrive an insincere relationship with customers.

Stallholders mentored and nurtured each other and worked as a community within a community. No marketing guru will ever formulate or sell this X factor – it evolved over many, many years and included the hearts and personality of real people.

Previous management knew not to try and fix what wasn’t broken. Businesses relied on customer feedback for direction. Quite simply, if it didn’t sell, the business folded. Books do not teach anyone how to read a customer – only experience does.

Markets by definition must be good value for money with lots of atmosphere and offer an exhibition style of shopping. You have engineered it into a structured and disconnected meccano set. You can’t even figure out your trading hours.

Instead of supporting or protecting your tenants you have repeatedly bought in competitors who not only fail but take other well established businesses down with them.

You have relocated stalls into inappropriate positions and that has made it impossible for them to trade. They are a good number of the people who have been forced out of business and you have further robbed them of the right to sell what would have been a substantial amount of goodwill for a previously good business.

You have bullied people into dismissing their staff and you have demanded that some stop stocking some of their most popular lines. In some cases you have allowed others to then take on those same lines.

People have signed onto a long term lease believing they could sell the security of that only to find that you are now offering free entry into other vacant stalls. The promised security of tenure has now become a shackle.

The nepotistic advantages afforded Ms M's daughter has created a lot of acrimony and greatly disadvantaged the other coffee shop and to some degree other traders. This covert destruction and manipulation is being closely watched…

You doubled rents, increased outgoings, reduced advertising, relocated and reduced stall sizes. In doing this you forced product prices up and lost customers as well as successful traders. Some claim that this is now having a negative impact on other businesses throughout Fremantle.

You have even changed the nature of the markets - the very thing that made it a market.

On your one month to decide to “take it or leave it lease” many were unable to sell but in the few exceptions almost all of them who managed to sell, sold at less than cost. You had the audacity to write a cheerio in your newsletters making mention that they had sold and moved on. Truth: you forced them to sell out – they lost their livelihoods, their much loved business and their goodwill as well as most of their initial investment. Not to mention that most walked out with nothing at all.

Almost 25% of the stallholders have gone since you took on the new lease. A greater percentage of customers have also disappeared. Probable reason: they think the market is crap now!

Ann Meyer acts as your ventriloquist dummy and as irritating and disruptive as she is it is still your deeds which she does. You are backing her now but I suspect that she will be the fall guy when the ‘nice us up’ campaign gets underway. You are slick and you are in damage control. Miss M had better remember the many stallholders who backed you, campaigned and promoted for you - who you have now betrayed, dismissed and finacially devestated. Beware Miss M - the nature of the beast.

You sat in council and took names of all the people who had something to say about the predictable outcome of your megalomaniacal overtake. All but one or two of those people have since been shafted. You have systematically culled the people who opposed your ideas. They were right in their predictions and had you have been more open minded you would have realized that they were working to protect stallholders and trying to prevent this current chaos.

But now, seeing the insolence of your suggestion that stallholders should be entitled to expect you to be:
Helpful, friendly and ready to listen and;
Prepared to counsel, in a positive manner
Or that you ask them to:
Work with us as a team
Listen and respond and;
Avoid negative comment

Holy Moley you actually said:
“If you feel there are areas that need attention within the market please know that we are only a call away, or an email. We will make time to meet you to discuss your concern…We are committed to take all comments seriously.”

Excuse me, but wasn’t that what the stallholders association was all about? Do you honestly think that after the public flogging they received that there is anyone brave enough to offer any view that is not in line with your own dogma. Glaringly obvious, is the high rent. Do you wish to discuss this or can we take your quote from your Guru John Stanley’s website, “Jamie Murdoch, one of our clients in Fremantle, has just discovered a great article on “Only Losers Cut Their Prices”. Sounds pretty set in concrete to me….Discuss anything but the outrageous rents - the real issue!

This and your continued assertions that the rent is justified is ridiculous* when as soon as a rival and cheaper market was put on the drawing board you bleated something to the effect that stallholders would walk away on a daily basis. How can that be, I ask sarcastically, when you have said over and over it’s just a matter of ‘more professional traders’ Surly a new market housing your ‘cast offs’ is of no threat to your empire?

You talk about bullying in the workplace and yet most of the people there are intimidated by the victimization of all those who have been evicted or bullied into walking away. Such tensions currently exist that at least two assaults have occurred within the markets; bitchy and sarcastic comments are rife and even Ms M and Councillors have mentioned intimidation and feeling threatened – such is your leadership. This is all about you or because of you. How dare you suggest that ex-stallholders are ‘the trouble makers’? Let’s remind you once again that it was You who threatened to run the markets into the ground if You didn’t get what You wanted. You created bad blood with councillors and between stallholders and You gave the press the stories to write - they simply recorded your actions. There is a huge difference between retaliation and aggression – don’t you dare boo hoo when people push back!

Talk about intimidation, you have wiped the floor with the very people who fed you for most of your life. You glare and posture as people pack up and walk away, having lost everything, and in so many instances you felt the further vindictive need to stand security guards nearby to intimidate or humiliate; you changed locks prior to vacation, you made access difficult and gave limited time and extra pressure to get out. You didn’t even afford the decency to offer a note or word of thank you or good wishes.

Even your own parents put energy, effort and expertise into the market. They worked with stallholders to make it the success that it was – the successful enterprise handed to you on a plate. Can’t help but link that to your comment about 'in nature they eat their young!' I wish…

As for your inflammatory comments about ex-stallholders trying to damage either the markets or other stallholders I take strong objection and reiterate the intention has always been to fight you in regard to fair market rent and secure tenure. Reread your press coverage, this blog and the council transcripts – it is there over and over again. Ex-stallholders have lost their businesses and could easily move on without the aggravation but they are still campaigning collectively to fight for the success of Fremantle Markets (as a real market) and the security of all stallholders.

You are trying to suggest that there are 2 camps of stallholders and you are deliberately trying to pit them against each other. We are not so foolish that we don’t see that for what that is. We don’t consider ex stallholders and current stallholders as being on different teams. All stallholders are equally respected; many are very close friends and the new guys are as vulnerable as all of the rest. Our position is also inclusive of the customers and the Fremantle community as a whole.

Oh, and to blame everyone else for the decline in customers is just pathetic. Customers rarely complain officially or verbally, they simply walk away – doesn’t that say something?

You claim that the media, the internet, the public and the council are campaigning against Fremantle Market. What don’t you get? Let me help you with this with a very clear statement; we all loved the market – We dont love greed, ineptitude, arrogence, victimization or betrayal. Where or who is the common denominator?

*Unconscionable: Unusually harsh and shocking to the conscience; that which is so grossly unfair that a court will proscribe it. When a court uses the word unconscionable to describe conduct, it means that the conduct does not conform to the dictates of conscience. In addition, when something is judged unconscionable, a court will refuse to allow the perpetrator of the conduct to benefit.
*Ridiculous (John’s favourite scrabble word)
worthy of or exciting ridicule; absurd, preposterous, laughable, or contemptible

(Im sure all stallholders can drop by the office and ask for the full version of the progress report - in case they missed out on being given one)
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John and Jamie Murdoch - Too many Chiefs and not enough Indians

I wonder if this guy will work out that the rents and high costs have killed the markets? (Probably too simple.)
I wonder if this guy will see that the markets have become a food hall and no longer hold appeal to people from outer suburbia or the tourist industry? (Not even the locals are returning)
I wonder if he will feel the resentment and disrespect that the Murdoch’s have created?

Will he:
Crunch the numbers on the futility of mid-week opening. (It’s guaranteed rent increase for the Murdoch’s but pure loss for the stallholders)
Check the authenticity of the outgoing costs or take seriously the expertise of the stallholder?
Can he work with the Murdoch’s blind resistance to the idea that costs and stallholders concerns are vitally significant?
Will he be ‘directed’ to conduct his surveys to come up ‘within the range’ of possibility.
Can people speak candidly and anonymously or will they be intimidated into saying what they need to say to appease their rulers.
Will he acknowledge the contribution and value of long term (and evicted) stallholders?
Will he study the lease agreements – secure both parties?

Maybe he is just another expert being paid big bucks to write yet another biased justification for the filing system. How many experts does it take? And is this where the ‘advertising’ fees are being absorbed?

I heard that one guy, when asked how he viewed the markets and the management, went into a tirade of its all F…ed

And is he just another Ms M or is this the end of her?

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Fremantle markets. Golden goose is a swan song

It's a new year. Last year there was hope and an opportunity to turn things around but the time has come to accept what is and walk away. Too many talking and too few listening. I think it's important to speak up and it's important to fight against injustice and or stupidity. It's important to throw all you have at it. But there comes a day when you must accept that there are higher pictures in place and quite often good things come from bad.

Future consequences are usually preditcable from past experience if one maintains awareness. Empathy is an excellent teacher but for some, failure, loss or grief needs to be experienced before they get the lesson.

When people are in the right place it feels right. When stress, fear, worry and anger take over your life it's time to move on. There are infinite ways to make money or replace money. There are infinite ways of enjoying your life. New pathways rarely appear if you won't turn the corner.

The Murdoch's were given the goose that laid the golden eggs. They jumped on its belly to see if it would lay more. I don't get it, you don't understand it, we all tried to explain that if they fed, nurtured and protected it they would have eggs for ever. We warned them that they would kill it. We sceamed when they jumped. But, that's just the way some people are...

For reasons very different to Brad Pettitts - It's time we all moved on.

http://sonyagreen.blogspot.com/

a typical example of pollie speak at Freo council

Fremantle council June 24th meeting - questions and answers (?)

The Deputy Mayor, Cr John Dowson declared the meeting open at 6.00 pm and
welcomed members of the public to the meeting. He made a special welcome to
Fremantle MP Adel Carles and former Fremantle Councillor, Frank Acacella.
(Adel spoke passionately about her concerns about the Fremantle Markets but I was unable to find anything in the minutes to refect her statements)

Deputy Mayor Cr J Dowson made the following statement:

With reference to the front page story in the current Fremantle Herald where the Mayor
accuses me of ‘blatant politicking’, of putting three notices of motion to Council knowing
that he and Cr Thompson would be away, and of preferring ‘to talk to his Liberal mates
rather then his fellow councillors’, I wish to set the record straight.

Firstly, in terms of politicking, I am simply trying to have Council deal with urgent and
important issues which the Mayor has ignored.

Secondly, I did not know that the Mayor and Cr Thompson would be away. I did not know
that Cr Thompson would be away until I sat down with him to discuss my Notice of
Motion regarding the SMRC. And, the Mayor certainly never told me he was going to be
away. In my four years as a Deputy Mayor he has never had the courtesy to give
adequate notice of any absence.

"The Mayor is absent tonight for the forth full Council meeting in a row (except for one appearance during public question time)."

Regardless of their presence or absence, the three Notices of Motion I have tabled are
urgent and need to be dealt with.

Thirdly, it is to be deplored that the Mayor, who ran for the Labor Party in the recent state
election, brings party politics into this chamber by deriding my talks with two
parliamentarians for the areas affected by the SMRC plant, who just happen to be from
the Liberal Party.

Mr Richard Murphy spoke in relation to the Fremantle Markets on a clause in the Head
Lease in relation to the protection of the stallholders and asked where that clause came
from? He also asked who is responsible for there being no adequate protection for the
stallholders in the head lease?

Director Corporate Services, Glen Dougall replied that he would have to take the first
question on notice and believed that the second question was rhetorical.
Seems pretty clear to me - where is the rhetoric? What was that answer?

Cr Dowson asked why he still has no response to his questions asked to the Mayor now
two meetings ago.

(Q1 Resignation: On 14th April I wrote to you concerning the Fremantle By-election
and asked that you resign your position as mayor immediately because you are a
candidate for a Labor Party seat and that in my view your resignation would be “in
the best interests of focused and clear governance.” I have not received a
response to my question. Will you please answer my question.
Q2 Governance: Council passed a resolution that the mayor could not meet with
government or business leaders without the presence of the relevant Senior
Executive model. It appears that this Council resolution has been ignored. Please
indicate:
a) How many times and on which occasions you have breached this resolution?
b) Why the Council resolution has allegedly been breached?)

Director Corporate Services, Glen Dougall replied that under the Local Government Act
an Elected Member is not required to answer a question asked by another Elected
Member. Mmmm

Mr Colin Wright spoke as the secretary of the Fremantle Stallholders Association at the
Fremantle Markets, he spoke in concern to a number of breaches he believes that the
Fremantle Markets Pty Ltd have committed and are continuing to commit. He asked the
following questions:

1. Does the City have the power to enforce the Markets not to increase rent until the
alleged breach has been resolved?
2. Why has the Working Group ignored the quarterly meetings set up by the
Stallholder Association to discuss various issues?
3. Mr Wright has been told by the Murdoch's have now identified another 20-30 stalls
that are incompatible with the new direction of the markets, what will happen to
these stallholders?
4. Why have all of these breaches, other than the rent increases, not been
addressed as a matter of urgency?
5. Who developed the Terms of Reference? Did the City engage Hochkin Hanly?
Why didn't the City prepare the brief?
6. Can he get a copy of the Terms of Reference?

Director Corporate Services, Glen Dougall replied that as a result from meetings with
lawyers and Fremantle Markets Pty Ltd it was decided to concentrate on the rent
increases as it was considered as the most urgent issue as some of the other issues
were being challenged. Mr Dougall will provide Mr Wright with a copy of the Terms of
Reference.
Nice little side-step. Howerver, Deputy Mayor Dowson caught it and gave confirmation that the information would be emailed asap (Dowson should run for mayor in the upcoming election - right on the ball!)

Mr Nicholas Gerr asked the following questions:

1. On what basis can the Mayor or any Council Officer arbitrarily refuse to answer a
question or questions asked of them during the question time of a Council
meeting?
2. Does the CEO of the City have the authority to demand that the Mayor or Council
Officer provide an answer to a question or questions asked of him during the
question time of a Council meeting?
3. On the occasions that a question is Taken on Notice what is the usual time
interval before a response can reasonably be expected to the question?
4. Are there any legislated penalties applicable to those Council staff and/or Officers
who refuse to answer a question or questions presented to them by the public
during question time?
5. I would like to take the questions asked to Mayor by the Cr Dowson two meetings
ago on as my own. Which are:

Q1 Resignation: On 14th April I wrote to you concerning the Fremantle Byelection
and asked that you resign your position as mayor immediately
because you are a candidate for a Labor Party seat and that in my view
your resignation would be “in the best interests of focused and clear
governance.” I have not received a response to my question. Will you
please answer my question.

Q2 Governance: Council passed a resolution that the mayor could not meet
with government or business leaders without the presence of the relevant
Minutes - Ordinary Meeting of Council24 June 2009Page 4
Senior Executive model. It appears that this Council resolution has been
ignored. Please indicate:
a) How many times and on which occasions you have breached this resolution?
b) Why the Council resolution has allegedly been breached?

Director Corporate Services, Glen Dougall replies:

1. Questions taken on notice at public question time are supposed to be responded
to on a reasonable basis.
2. The Local Government Act is the governing body that requires for questions to be
responded to that are taken on notice.
3. Under the Local Government Act it states that a reasonable response in a
reasonable time is to be provided. Generally a month is considered reasonable.
4. There are no penalties I am aware of provided under the Act for failure to answer
questions that are taken on notice, however I am sure the Department of Local
Government to the issues and they would look into it, if it was raised with them.
5. I have also noted that you have now taken Cr Dowson’s previous questions on
notice.
I also notice it has still not been answered


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John and Jamie Murdoch- Fremantle Markets

ABOUT 100 stallholders crammed into the Fremantle council chambers last week for a special meeting to review the Fremantle Markets head lease, but half the councillors did not even attend.

Council agreed to review the head lease following allegations of breaches relating to the terms of subleases, the negotiation of fair market rent, quarterly meetings with stallholders and having constructive dialogue between stallholders and management.
A report will be made to council later this month and no further rent increases or lease and license terminations will be made until all the alleged breaches are resolved.

Mayor Peter Tagliaferri said he would attend the meeting but pulled out at the last minute while other councillors known to be supportive of the Fremantle Markets’ directors, John and Jamie Murdoch, were also absent.

Deputy mayor John Dowson chaired the meeting and said the “outpouring of grief and shock” by stallholders at the alleged rent rises and management practices at Fremantle Markets was “upsetting”.

Cr Haney was quick to explain at the meeting that she had not refused to meet with the Murdoch brothers as they had alleged the previous week, and had actually tried to meet with them before the council meeting.

Cr Georgie Adeane said she was particularly impressed with Cr Bill Massie’s suggestion that displaced or adversely affected tenants receive compensation from management for loss of income.

“I have great confidence in the council’s conviction and the ability of the officers to amend the problems and bring the tenants of this iconic building into line,” she said.
Stallholders Association secretary Colin Wright’s speech was met with applause from the gallery.

“Jamie claims publicly that ‘over half have happily accepted these increases’ but what he doesn’t say is this group is predominantly casual stalls who have to be happy,” he said.
“We are already seeing more empty casual stalls, and permanents who have been hit with their increases are starting to feel the reality of falling returns.”

Jamie Murdoch attended the meeting and was booed by several stallholders.
He said the matter hinged on several legal issues, which would hopefully be resolved soon.

http://fremantle.inmycommunity.com.au/news-and-views/local-news/Head-lease-gets-review/7522625/
Fremantle Gazette 7th April 09

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john and jamie murdoch - cameleons?

Fremantle Special Council Meeting Tuesday 31st March 2008

The Stallholders Association thanks the Council for calling this Special Meeting and those councilors who have seen fit to listen to the stallholders and to recognize the markets future is at a crossroads.

As the Secretary of the Stallholders Association, I speak with a lot of stallholder’s and I can tell you tonight that the questions they want answers to are:
“Why is this happening”
“Will my business be viable”.
“What about the future?”

Fremantle Markets is an unquestionable success. It is an elusive mix and as stallholders we are proud of the markets and the community that has grown around it. Its vibrant, unique and irreplaceable.
That’s why we are here tonight and why we are willing to keep coming back…we are determined not to lose what we have helped create.

We are in touch with our customers, hear their comments and intimately know the market environment. The markets are not just “a thing”.. it has a life and that life is the stallholders …..without us it’s an empty building.

We are bewildered by the current mess we find ourselves in.

One question the Council has to ask itself is how has it been allowed to degenerate into this when the Working Group was established to prevent it?

The agenda items are just some of the issues, but, more importantly for the City and councilors to consider are the reasons behind the downward spiral in confidence and morale at the Markets.

At the centre of this are unsustainable rent increases but equally important is the dictatorial style of management. These boys are chameleons, what the council sees is not what we see.

In last years Council survey, 58% of stallholders were happy to enter into a 5 year agreement with management. That’s not overwhelming support within itself but if you conducted that survey today the results would be dramatically lower.

Jamie claims publicly that, “over half have happily accepted these increases”.
But what he doesn’t say is …this group is predominantly casual stalls….who have to be happy!

The rent increases need to be fair and equitable for everyone.
How can it be when you assessed market rent at $550,000, that’s an annual increase of $400 a stall ….. then permanent stalls are slugged an extra $4000,…….. a 1000% hike….. And I’m being very conservative!

That makes our rents right up at the top of the highest market rents in the country. These are rents comparable to major shopping centres. …….THIS IS A MARKET, NOT THE GALLERIA.


As retailers we understand markup and if in the long term, it’s excessive, your customers will desert you because they know, they have been ripped off.
And that’s how the stallholders feel… “RIPPED OFF”.

The Murdoch’s claim that rents have been too cheap… it’s not justification, it’s an excuse as are the wild claims in their marketing plan that stallholders turnover on average half a million dollars a year. Who dreams up these figures?

We are already seeing more empty casual stalls, and permanents, who have been hit with their increases, are starting to feel the reality of falling returns.
Trying to lift your prices to cover these rent hikes is simply not on with the current economic woes,

Two stallholders have just walked away; others sold out of long term businesses for little money. It’s scant return for years of dedication.

Stallholders don’t want to leave… they love the markets but now find themselves re-assessing their future and looking elsewhere for alternative premises. These have been sound successful enterprises just unable or unwilling to pay crippling rents. We can’t afford to lose good people.

For FMPL it’s not just about replacing good long term operators, but keeping them. These people are not just entries in an accounting ledger.

We acknowledge we have to move forward with the times, and new initiatives need to be undertaken, however we do not want Fremantle Markets, a premier market in Australia to fall into the trap of so many others that end up homogonous and boring because interesting and innovative operators are driven out through high rents…..

The Stallholder’s Association recommendation to rectify this is to reintroduce stallholder rents indexed to Council increases. The historic evidence is, this system works successfully. I know management are publicly critical of subsidized rents, however, the Murdoch family have been happy to re-enter a number of long term leases as beneficiaries of it over the past 30 years.

The Council, local businesses and broader community have also profited from the success it brings.

Unfortunately the other issue I raised in relation to the dictatorial management style will not be that easily addressed.

The Stallholders Association, who represent the majority of stallholder’s, urge councilors to vote in favour of the agenda items.


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