1. QuickTimeª and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Grin and bear it: One of the council signs.
Don't worry, be happy!
By CHRIS TINKLER and MATTHEW SCHULZ
12feb06
COUNCIL spies are counting smiles on
Melbourne's streets as part of a bizarre
ratepayer-funded program to foster
friendliness.
Green "smiles per hour" signs have also
been placed across Port Phillip.
The smile spies -- council staff and
volunteers -- have spent hours analysing
faces in 28 streets to establish each hub's
grin rate.
The initiative, which may spread to other councils, is aimed at prompting
residents to acknowledge each other more, improving their sense of
community, self-esteem and health.
But some residents have dismissed it as a bad joke and an insult to
struggling ratepayers.
The average rates bill in Port Phillip has risen to $1060.
Port Phillip Mayor Janet Bolitho said the study was important.
"These might be trivial issues to some people, but we take them very
seriously as they indicate just how connected a community we are," she
said.
But Elwood resident Andy Lear was not convinced, saying: "This is total
nonsense spending. I wish I had a few thousand dollars to throw away. It
makes me really angry."
After the first round of smile studies, Albert Park and Middle Park have
emerged as the friendliest areas, with an average of 18 smiles per hour,
QuickTimeª and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

2. while in serious St Kilda Rd, you won't find a smile anywhere.
A Sunday Herald Sun survey of local government found the state's chief
executives are earning nearly 25 per cent more than they did four years
ago.
Top earners include Melbourne City Council chief David Pitchford, on
more than $310,000 each year; Boroondara's Peter Johnstone, $290,000
and Greater Geelong's Kay Rundle, $280,000.
EDITORIAL
The joke is on us
12feb06
THE campaign to count smiles is a demonstration of contempt for
Victorian ratepayers – an unfunny exercise in giving residents the
raspberry as their taxes are flushed down the drain.
To read the Sunday Herald Sun report on Port Phillip Council's secret
army of smile counters is to realise how over-governed we really are.
This municipal government has the resources to assign staff and organise
volunteers to check what it laughingly calls smile rates and to erect signs
pitting one precinct's sense of humour against another.
No wonder its rates are among the highest. No wonder residents are fed
up.
If other municipalities are giving thought to following suit, as the smile
checking coordinator indicates, then we want an investigation into the
shamefully wasteful ways of local government in Victoria.
Councils are slugging property owners far too much if they have funds to
measure mirth.
If they think they can go off on more of these Monty Pythonesque
tangents while raising rates this year and boosting the salaries of their
chief executive officers, voters should wipe the silly grins from their faces
come the next local government elections.
We would rather they simply emptied the bins and swept the gutters.