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Western Power - 363 Wellington St, Perth, WA 6000

[1]YouTube  [2]Twitter  [3]Facebook  [4]LinkedIn  [5]Instagram  [6]westernpower.com.au

[7]Western Power

Ngala kaaditj Noongar moort keyen kaadak nidja boodja.
Western Power acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we
operate, and recognises their continuing connection to lands, waters and
communities.

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References

Visible links
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2. https://twitter.com/westernpowerwa
3. https://www.facebook.com/westernpowerwa/
4. https://www.linkedin.com/company/western...
5. https://www.instagram.com/westernpowerwa/
6. https://westernpower.com.au/
7. https://westernpower.com.au/powering-our...

Thanks for your email

We have received your email request and will process it as soon as we can.
Western Power - 363 Wellington St, Perth, WA 6000

[1]YouTube  [2]Twitter  [3]Facebook  [4]LinkedIn  [5]Instagram  [6]westernpower.com.au

[7]Western Power

Ngala kaaditj Noongar moort keyen kaadak nidja boodja.
Western Power acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we
operate, and recognises their continuing connection to lands, waters and
communities.

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. https://www.youtube.com/user/WesternPowe...
2. https://twitter.com/westernpowerwa
3. https://www.facebook.com/westernpowerwa/
4. https://www.linkedin.com/company/western...
5. https://www.instagram.com/westernpowerwa/
6. https://westernpower.com.au/
7. https://westernpower.com.au/powering-our...

Hi Casey,

Thank you for your email.

Very much appreciate your efforts in co-ordinating with the council.

Happy to pay the $30 if the information is not released in 2 weeks as
promised.

With Thanks

Keith McWhae

From: FOI Coordinator <[email address]>
Sent: Wednesday, 3 June 2020 10:40 AM
To: [email address]
Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] Re: Freedom of Information request - Kardinya
South Underground Power project

Dear Keith,

Thank you for your email.

Following on from our previous email communication, I have made contact
with the City of Melville directly this morning and they have advised that
the survey results will be released to residents in two weeks’ time.

If you still wish to submit a Freedom of Information (FOI) request with
Western Power, a valid access application under the Freedom of Information
Act 1992 (WA) must be made which includes an application fee of $30
(pursuant to section 12 of the Act), and confirmation on the scope of
documents you are seeking access to. A 45 day processing period for the
application will also apply.   

Alternatively you are welcome to wait for the survey results to be
released by the City of Melville directly at no charge.

Please advise if you wish to proceed with an FOI application or if you
have any queries in relation to the above.

Kind regards,

Casey Miller

Freedom of Information Coordinator

A 363 Wellington St. Perth 6000  |  T 13 10 87

E [1][Western Power request email]

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Thank you for this information.

Like me 61% of residents don’t think this project is good value. Not quite
the vote of confidence the program requires and I still don’t understand
why this information wasn’t released 6 months ago! For what it is worth,
 if the underground power rollouts could be combined with an NBN fibre
rollout or the current natural gas pipe replacement highly likely the
economics would work out better.

Much appreciated Jon,

With Thanks

Keith

From: Jon Prunty <[email address]>
Sent: Wednesday, 26 August 2020 4:07 PM
To: [email address]
Subject: 20200008 Freedom of Information - Notice of Decision - Keith
McWhae - Kardinya South Underground Power Survey - 13 July 2020

Date: 26 August 2020

Enquiries: Jon Prunty

Our Ref: 20200008

Keith McWhae

20 Aleppo Drive

Kardinya WA 6163

Dear Keith

Freedom of Information Request – Pursuant to Freedom of Information (FOI)
Act 1992

I write in response to your Freedom of Information application received by
the City of Melville on the 13 July 2020. Your application stated that
“…the request is to advise survey results from Kardinya South Underground
Power project”. This is in reference to the survey results from the recent
survey in December 2019 regarding the Kardinya South Underground Power
Project.

Decision

I, Jon Prunty, Information Officer, Information Services, have reviewed
the information that you seek a copy of, and my decision made today
Wednesday 26 August 2020 under the Freedom of Information Act 1992, is to
provide full access to the information that you seek.

The following data has been taken from information that is currently being
reviewed by Western Power and relevant feedback considered by the City of
Melville. This specific information is within scope of the applicant’s
Freedom of Information request and hence provided below:

“…survey results indicated that residents did not support the project at a
higher average cost, with 53% (378) response rate, 39% (146) of property
owners supporting the project and 61% (232) of property owners not
supporting the project”.

Searches were conducted using the City’s Pathways Building Support System
and also the City’s Electronic Document Records Management System. A copy
of the statistical information was provided by the City of Melville’s
Manager of Engineering upon request.

Rights of Review

The Act also requires that I advise you of your appeal rights should you
not be satisfied with my decision.  These rights are outlined below.

Internal review of decisions as to access

Should you be aggrieved by this decision you may in accordance with
Section 39 and 40 of the Act request an internal review.  Section 39
(1) states that a person who is aggrieved by a decision made by an
agency in relation to an access application has a right to have the
decision reviewed by the City.

Section 40 prescribes that an application for review has to —

                  (a)     be in writing;

                  (b)     give particulars of the decision which the
aggrieved person wishes to have reviewed;

                  (c)     give an address in Australia to which notices
under this Act can be sent;

                  (d)     give any other information or details required
under the regulations; and

                  (e)     be lodged at an office of the agency.

An aggrieved person may lodge an application for review within 30 days
after being given written notice of this decision.

External Review Rights

If you are not satisfied with the internal review decision, you have the
right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner seeking
external review of that decision.

You are required to lodge your complaint with the Information
Commissioner's office within 60 days of receiving this notice.

A complaint to the Information Commissioner must -

 be in writing;

 have attached to it a copy of this decision; and

 give an address in Australia.

There is no charge for lodging a complaint with the Information
Commissioner's office.

The address of the Information Commissioner is:

Office of the Information Commissioner

Albert Facey House

469 Wellington Street

PERTH WA 6000

Should you have any further queries or require any further information
about your review

rights at this stage, you may contact the Office of the Information
Commissioner by telephone on 6551 7888 or facsimile 6551 7889.

Yours sincerely

Jon Prunty

Information Officer

Jon Prunty
information Officer (Records)
[1][email address]
[2]www.melvillecity.com.au

City of Melville, 10 Almondbury Road, Booragoon, Western Australia 6154

[3][IMG]

[4]Facebook [5]Twitter [6]YouTube [7][IMG] [8]Subscribe to eNews

The City of Melville acknowledges the Bibbulmun people as the Traditional
Owners of the land on which the City stands today and pays its respects to
the Whadjuk people, and Elders both past and present.

show quoted sections

FYI Additional info released.

From: Jon Prunty <[email address]>
Sent: Friday, 8 January 2021 5:23 PM
To: [email address]
Subject: PART 1 - 20200040 Freedom of Information - Notice of Decision -
Keith McWhae - Underground Power Program - 15 November 2020

Dear Keith

Freedom of Information Request – Pursuant to Freedom of Information (FOI)
Act 1992

I write in response to your Freedom of Information application received by
the City of Melville on the 15 November 2020. Your application after some
refining of the scope stated the following:

Request is for documents held related to the City of Melville underground
power programs. For each district within the council area. Specifically:

1.               Listing of districts – Listing of underground power
program districts within the council area including the pilot program
area. Eg Kardinya South, Melville North, Alfred Cove East etc

2.            Completed areas – to the extent available financial
statements for each district comparing budget to actuals costs and
revenues combined with any non-financial key performance indicators such
as FTE. (Full time equivalent staffing), numbers and type of premises
serviced, average cost per property etc.  Funding proportions eg Western
Power, Residents etc. Variance analysis between budgeted and actual
outcomes. Any internal or external audit reports indicating any
irregularities in the program.

Limit to a sample of districts for 1 and 2 above:

Applecross

Attadale South

Melville South

3.            Areas planned - Budget costs and revenue combined with any
non-financial key performance indicators such as FTE. (Full time
equivalent staffing), numbers and type of premises serviced, average cost
per property. Funding proportions eg Western Power, Residents etc.

Kardinya South only

4.            Copies of letters sent to residents of each district, in
relation to the program.

Applecross

Attadale South

Melville South

Kardinya South

5.            Meeting minutes of Steering Committee (for 2020 only) with
agenda and any meeting documents.

6.            Outcome results of a survey of residents for Kardinya South
that closed on 2 October 2020.

Decision

I, Jon Prunty, Information Officer, Information Services, have reviewed
the information that you seek a copy of, and my decision made today Friday
8 January 2021 under the Freedom of Information Act 1992, is to provide
full access to the information that you seek. As a result of your request
I was able to compile 23 folios that have been listed in attachment 1. The
only exception is Folio 13 which is for Edited Access.

Where Exemptions are applied

Folio 13 contains details that reveal personal information about a third
party. Folio 13 is deemed as personal information and prima facie exempt
under the FOI Act. As such this document has been released to you with
this kind of third party information redacted.

After due consideration, I believe that the information marked for
redaction is in the spirit of the legislative safeguards for personal
information contained in Clause 3(1) of the Act, which states:

Schedule 1 Clause 3 (1):

            3.         Personal Information

 1. Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal personal
information about an individual (whether living or dead).

Limitation to Clause 3 is based on a public interest test on whether or
not disclosure of exempt matter would on balance be in the public
interest. However, on balance I am of the view that safeguarding the
privacy of individuals prevails over other issues in favour of disclosure.
As a result, I have redacted matter that constitutes personal information
of third parties in accordance with the provisions of section 24(b).

In regards to Applecross, Kimberly Brosztl Manager of Engineering wrote:

As noted we are lacking information on the pilot program and I believe the
funding breakdown was different to the later projects as it was a pilot
program.  All other projects have had the 50% contribution from City of
Melville Ratepayers in the program area except for Kardinya South which
has had extra funding put to it from the State Government to keep the
program to the average cost for the areas ratepayers as originally
estimated…. If you need further information on finance this should go
direct to Wayne Nicholls.  Mr McWhae is also welcome to contact Sazzad
Hossain the City’s Traffic Engineer or myself if he needs further
information.

Question 1

See Folios 1 to 3.

Question 2 and 3

See Folio 1 and the following email from Wayne Nicholls Management
Accountant.

Hi Kimberly

I have attached an Excel file detailing information about the projects
requested.

I have provided;

o Funding proportions
o City of Melville budget for its proportion of the project funding
(this is based on the cash calls agreed at the commencement of the
project)
o City of Melville proportion of the final project cost
o Amount refunded by Western Power (variance between budgeted and actual
outcomes)
o Average budgeted cost per property
o Average actual cost per property
o Number of properties budgeted
o Number of properties –actual

Applecross

I have not been able to find anything useful on the Applecross project.
Any financial information is not available in our current computerised
financial systems, which were established after this project was
undertaken.

My understanding that the funding proportions were quite different, with
perhaps 1/3 paid by the City of Melville versus the more recent 50%
contribution. Being one of the projects in the pilot program, I believe
the government of the day wanted to provide incentive for local
governments to participate in the then new State Underground Power
Program.  

Certainly Applecross ratepayers did pay less than those in current
projects, not only because of the different funding arrangements above,
but also because the project occurred circa 1996/1997 and obviously costs
for materials and labour would have been different at that time.  

Staffing numbers (FTE) required for each project.

o As the projects are not actually undertaken by the City’s staff, I
cannot provide the number of FTE’s required for each project. Indeed,
Western Power use a combination of their own project managers and
contractors to undertake the work so it is possible that even they
might not have this information.

Internal or external audit reports.

o As the projects are not actually undertaken by the City, it is Western
Power who will have any audit history on these projects.

Kind regards

Wayne Nicholls
Management Accountant
[1][email address]

Question 4

See Folios 4 to 24.

Question 5

Kimberly Brosztl wrote the following:

With question 5 I have realised the City cannot send this info as we don’t
have the minutes and are not actually on the Steering Committee.  This
would need to be requested from Western Power.

Question 6

You have indicated that you have already received this.

Rights of Review

The Act also requires that I advise you of your appeal rights should you
not be satisfied with my decision.  These rights are outlined below.

Internal review of decisions as to access

Should you be aggrieved by this decision you may in accordance with
Section 39 and 40 of the Act request an internal review.  Section 39
(1) states that a person who is aggrieved by a decision made by an
agency in relation to an access application has a right to have the
decision reviewed by the City.

Section 40 prescribes that an application for review has to —

                  (a)     be in writing;

                  (b)     give particulars of the decision which the
aggrieved person wishes to have reviewed;

                  (c)     give an address in Australia to which notices
under this Act can be sent;

                  (d)     give any other information or details required
under the regulations; and

                  (e)     be lodged at an office of the agency.

An aggrieved person may lodge an application for review within 30 days
after being given written notice of this decision.

External Review Rights

If you are not satisfied with the internal review decision, you have the
right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner seeking
external review of that decision.

You are required to lodge your complaint with the Information
Commissioner's office within 60 days of receiving this notice.

A complaint to the Information Commissioner must -

 be in writing;

 have attached to it a copy of this decision; and

 give an address in Australia.

There is no charge for lodging a complaint with the Information
Commissioner's office.

The address of the Information Commissioner is:

Office of the Information Commissioner

Albert Facey House

469 Wellington Street

PERTH WA 6000

Should you have any further queries or require any further information
about your review

rights at this stage, you may contact the Office of the Information
Commissioner by telephone on 6551 7888 or facsimile 6551 7889.

Yours sincerely

Jon Prunty

Information Officer

show quoted sections

From: Jon Prunty <[email address]>
Sent: Friday, 8 January 2021 5:24 PM
To: [email address]
Subject: PART 3 - 20200040 Freedom of Information - Notice of Decision -
Keith McWhae - Underground Power Program - 15 November 2020

show quoted sections

From: Jon Prunty <[email address]>
Sent: Friday, 8 January 2021 5:24 PM
To: [email address]
Subject: PART 2 - 20200040 Freedom of Information - Notice of Decision -
Keith McWhae - Underground Power Program - 15 November 2020

show quoted sections