SUNDAY ROAST: Let's Carve Up An Envirosocialist Community Crusader Busted in Sleazy Multi-Million Dollar High Density Housing Con

Socialist Left big-knob local government guru Mike Hill has been exposed as a rorter and scoundrel who abused his position of public trust as a local councillor to screw his own community and turn himself into a multi-millionaire.

The nation's most popular newspaper the Sunday Herald Sun (click here to see in its glory)has reported on this atrocity this morning and the OC can report its own findings on an extensive and protracted investigation into the prominent inner urban Left-wing ALP powerbroker.

Chris "Scoop" Tinkler's key points in his excellent takedown of the comrade include the following facts of shame:

■ Mike Hill stands to make $15 million in sales from apartments and townhouses on a former primary school site; (OC: This is a conservative estimate, our experts say $16M is a minimum and it could be much higher if the Council continues to let him get away with blue murder)

■ The Hill-ionaire publicly led opposition to the sale of the land which occurred during his reign as Councillor, Mayor and numbers-man on the Brunswick and Moreland Council; (OC: Nothing got past Hill on that Council for many years)

■ Hill is a key member of the Labor Party and has been given rare paid Government board appointments due to his powerful friends within the Labor Left and fellow travellers like State Environment Minister John Thwaites; and

■ In the ultimate act of betrayal and chutzpah, Hill appears to criticise his own Party's actions in the last state election when they roughed up Ted Baillieu for his involvement in the sale of school assets saying "there were a lot of thing he did not condone during the campaign" and "I'm a Labor member but it doesn't mean I support everything the party does." He supports them though when John Thwaites appoints him to cushy paid Government board appointments. Otherwise he's quite ambivalent, especially when they bolshie up and insult property millionaires like himself and Red Ted.

THE OC INVESTIGATIONS UNIT REVEALS EVEN MORE SCANDAL
The OC's own findings reveal that Millionaire Mike Hill stands to profit by at least $4-5 million from the development, but apparently refuses to discuss his likely windfall with the press or disgusted members of the local community. Local informants understand that he chooses to celebrate windfalls such as these by quaffing imported beer, and is known for particularly savouring the Becks brand.

It's an astonishing turn of events given Hill's dominant role in turning the Council into a sanctuary hotbed of rabble-rousing Marxist anti-development loons. One nose-ringed activist told the OC on the condition of anonymity and on the solemn promise that we'd never her ring again "Mike Hill is persona non grata in Brunswick progressive circles, he's a complete political fraud and lightweight. The arrogant way he handled local objections to his development scam showed his true colours. There's a very big local stink about all this."

The OC Investigations Unit has also made a number of other disturbing discoveries about Hill which establish a degree of banditry from the public sector unsurpassed outside of kleptocracies such as Saudi Arabia and Cuba.

Local sources in the Brunswick community have confirmed to the OC that former Mayor Mike Hill played an active role in subverting the sale of the taxpayer owned Brunswick West Primary School site which had been closed by his friend Joan Kirner when Education Minister. It was later sold by the Liberal government after a brief experiment as a Greek based private school run by now Liberal MP Nick Kotsiris.

HOW MIKE HILL BECAME STINKING RICH // GREEN BACKS NOT GREEN BACKED
Despite Hill's denials today, the OC has been told that Hill opposed the closure and most certainly appeared to vigorously oppose the sale of the site while secretly planning his own coup d'avidité (greed).

Press reports at the time confirm that the Hill controlled Moreland council voted to give a local anti-school-sales community group $10,000.

That same group, co-ordinated through the Council's own offices, led a frenzied public protest against the sale. This campaign included Council officers being directed not to assist any interested parties proposing to develop the primary school site. This was a crucial aspect of Hill's corrupt campaign to subverting the sale process of a publicly owned asset as the combination of loud public protest, strong opposition from the local council and a large degree of uncertainty about what could be developed on the site all served to drive away interest in purchasing the taxpayer owned land.

PERFECT STORM OF PROTEST SCARED AWAY RIVAL BIDS
Having created a perfect storm of chaos and hostility against any development on the site, Hill swooped. With a number of partners he purchased the site for $1 million, an incredibly small amount for the size of land involved. Locals familiar with the process and appalled by subsequent events told the OC that based on prevailing land prices in the area at the time that the site was worth at least $2 to $3 million.

Given that the site was to be used for communal living among its partners and for community use, few in the community at that stage objected to the sale. Many - the OC has been told - welcomed it as Hill promised all and sundry that it was his wish to retain its principal community use.

The con didn't last long.

SLEAZY DEAL
According to Hill's own website, he and his partners quickly tired of maintaining the heritage buildings for little economic return. So Hill and his de facto and fellow Moreland councillor Lorna Pitt offered to buy them out at cost, a deal few were happy with but all felt compelled to accept. Hill again assured his partners and the community that he would protect the site from rapacious developers.

The OC has learned that Hill and his de facto Lorna Pitt proceeded with a planning application to build apartments on the site shortly after they bought out their comrades. One local told the OC "Hill barely waited for the ink to dry, the bastard." Indeed, someone on the Council knew something was up as it disclosed in one document that:

The school ceased operations in the 1990's and was purchased for residential development. Click here to see [PDF]

A different story from what the Hill-ionaire had told the comrades.

SHAFTED LOCAL RESIDENTS
Millionaire MIke Hill's proposals for high density housing on the site faced strong objection from neighbours. It was an amazing transformation for Hill, a firebrand crusading opponent of pretty much every development proposal he ever laid eyes on was now championing a property development that sought to screw every last dollar of value out of the joint.

Council documents obtained by the OC reveal that the one-time local hero has now turned into the hated face of hyprocritcal "eco" developer greed.

Among the objections, filed by practically every residential neighbour to Hill's development include [PDF] according to the Council included serious concerns about :

■ Impact upon neighbourhood character of such a high-density development
■ Building bulk, height and setbacks of Millionaire Mike's plans
■ Impact upon the Heritage significance of the site including very old buildings which Hill continues to boast he's protecting while locals complain he's defaced them
■ Inadequate car parking provision which he justifies on enviro-grounds but in fact cause neighbourhood chaos by forcing his apartment residents to attempt to find parking in the street
■ Increased traffic and subsequent safety issues
■ Overdevelopment from the avowed opponent of most development in the area
■ Reduced amenity, shafting residents who once trusted Mayor Hill to defend their interests
■ Construction noise, again shafting residents who've had to put up with major works on the site for several years with years remaining
■ Inadequacy of street infrastructure to cope with a project on the scale envisaged by the HIll-ionaire and his council mates
■ Conversion of pergolas into balconies and
■ Location of water tanks

ONE LAW FOR THE HILL-IONAIRES
Complaints from annoyed local residents such as these typically trigger a fire-storm of decisive opposition from the notoriously anti-development Moreland council. There are many developers known to the OC who avoid the area like the plague because of the bolshevik approach of local councillors and council officers.

And yet curiously, the Moreland council consistently and repeatedly supported Hill's proposals which according to Council documents have been amended at least half a dozen times. Unlike practically every developer in the area Hill's scheme has been given an easy ride all the while riding roughshod over the concerns of neighbouring owners.

MIKEY'S MATES IN MORELAND
Not only has the council waved through Millionaire Mike's property project, they even promote Hill's scheme on the Council website as a "eco-friendly village" in one what sounds suspiciously like an advertisement. An unpaid one at that.

The Council conveniently provides a link through to Millionaire MIke Hill's website which all but admits - in sugar coated form - the essential facts of MIke Hill's sinister conduct including his involvement in disrupting the sale process, his move to completely buy the property and his multi-million dollar up-market residential property development plan.

No amount of our patented OC editorialising can do this website justice. Read this venal man's own words and weep:

You might wish to be part of a tour of the project. When the current building activity is completed Lorna and Mike intend to run regular tours and you could contact them to see if they are able to accommodate you. It is intended to charge a fee for these visits.

Does it get any greedier than this?

The OC intends to produce a series of reports on the disgraceful life and slimes of Mike Hill over the next week, ahead of our demands for the appointment of a Municipal Inspector to investigate these corrupt dealings.

Game on.