One of the great challenges faced by the association is obtaining relevant factual information from council.
Dealing with a culture that responds to straight forward requests for information by prevaricating, pontificating & obfuscating, while using other blocking/delaying tactics, such as “that information is not recorded”, “it would require a lot of work to gather the information” or,
“you will need to submit a GIPA Application for that information”, are intended to frustrate & discourage the curious from trying to peel-back the layers of secrecy that council uses to shroud its incompetence & inefficiency.
Council-watching residents & ratepayers would have noticed that
council's Director of Assets & Operations tabled a report on April 29th this year, recommending that council enter into a five year lease for 700 square metres of additional office accommodation in
Bega, with cost of the proposed space running to $125K annually, as well as one-off fit-out costs of $100K.
According to the Director’s lengthy & complicated report, the need for additional office space in Bega is essentially being driven by the need to renovate & modernise its administrative building in Zingel Place, Bega. In addition, the Director confirmed that the proposed additional accommodation would overcome existing staff overcrowding in the administrative building, original designed to house 85 staff but more recently has exceeded 140 staff.
The association’s response to the above was to wonder how efficiently council was managing the use of its existing accommodation, in particular as the Director’s report acknowledged that council is in the process of developing a long-term “Staff Accommodation Strategy”.
The association was also mindful of council’s then stated plan in 2015 to accommodate upwards of 80 staff at the newly acquired Regional Learning Centre building in Merimbula.
While the association does not profess to have superior expertise in such matters, it is aware that office accommodation generally requires between 8-12 square metres of space per employee, suggesting that the proposed 700 square metre office lease would be sufficient to house between 60-90 employees.
The association wrote to council again & pressed its inquiry &
again council responded almost immediately, but again with little in the way of factual information, although it did acknowledge that the maximum number of staff that can currently be accommodated in the
Bega administration building under
Covid19 restrictions is 52, suggesting that the aggregate accommodation shortfall involves around 90 employees, consistent with the capacity of the proposed new leased premises in
Bega & also the original planned deployment of staff in the
Regional Learning Centre in 2015.
The association subsequently submitted a GIPA Application for the information it had requested, the bulk of which council claimed not to have or would require such an application because of the work entailed in assembling it (the association is bemused by this latter claim given that council appears to have sufficient information to work-out its immediate accommodation requirements & formulate its long-term Staff Accommodation Strategy).
Now the association acknowledges that it opposed the acquisition of the Learning Centre building in 2015 & continues to hold the view that the investment is not justified,
Council acquired the 3,400 square metre building for $1.293M + GST & a trailing mortgage of $556K, against a Valuation of $2.1M & using borrowed funds: doing so without worrying about a Building Report.
As best the association can establish, the Centre has operated at a small loss or break-even since being commissioned, although there has been a suggestion that it recorded a profit in 2019-2020. Needless to say, taking account of borrowing costs & a once-off $80K to rebuild a retaining wall, the association believes that council would need to sell the building for $1.9M to break-even.
Having said that, the association thinks that in considering the Centre’s future, council would have done well to have contemplated using the Centre for temporary or even long term accommodation, as was originally intended at time of purchase, rather than leasing additional accommodation.
Taking account of the $125K annual cost of the new leased premises in Bega, the potential value of the Regional Learning Centre to council does not appear to have been fully recognised.
Instead it appears that our cash-strapped council is more interested in liquidating assets to access as much cash as it can.
John Richardson
Secretary/Treasurer
Bega Valley Shire Residents & Ratepayers Association
Tel: 0264945669
Email: secretary@begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au
Website: http://www.begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au