The last minute funding hiccup with the universally popular $1M Merimbula Basketball Courts Upgrade Project took centre stage at this week's council meeting, with councillors agreeing to put the “hard word” on the Member for Bega, Andrew Constance, to find the $200K shortfall in funding.
In bringing the problem before council, officers recommended that the shortfall be funded by deferring/reducing expenditure on other community projects such as the Merimbula Boardwalk Upgrade, the Quaama Park Playground, the Public Amenities Upgrade Project or the Pambula &/or Bega Sporting Complex projects.
Cr Bain moved a Motion recommending that council approach the Member for Bega to fund the Project shortfall but if the additional funding is not forthcoming, then not accept the $1M funding on offer & abandon the Project.
Former Mayor & new federal Member for Eden-Monaro, Cr McBain, foreshadowed a Motion recommending that if the additional funding was not forthcoming via the Member for Bega, then to pursue the recommendation put forward by council officers.
In response, Cr Bain reminded councillors that they had an obligation to honour the commitments made to the community through council’s Operational Plan & Budget 2021.
Needless to say, Cr Bain’s Motion was lost.
Cr McBain’s foreshadowed Motion was successful after Cr McBain accepted an amendment proposed by Cr Nadin, whereby the matter would come back to council for final resolution, rather than being left to the general manager to finalise.
For their part, Crs Griff & Dodds rejected suggestions that the council was in financial difficulties & could see no reason why council couldn’t borrow the necessary funds to allow the project to proceed.
While doubtless everyone will be happy if the Member for Bega once again rides to the shire’s rescue & coughs-up the additional $200K required to take the Basketball Courts Project forward, what struck the association was the narrowness of the options canvassed to resolve the problem.
While council officers appear content to suggest the possibility of cutting back or deferring other community projects to find the required $200K in funding, it apparently didn’t occur to them, or the councillors, to ask the general manager to find $200K in savings from the council’s almost $50M in operating expenses, including more than $37M in remuneration costs.
It seems that the majority of councillors remain in denial as far as acknowledging & accepting that council cannot continue to operate with a “cargo-cult” mentality, expecting to be able to endlessly spend more than it earns on the one hand, while only ever expecting the consequences to be borne by residents & ratepayers, but never by council bureaucrats.
The association notes that almost a month has passed since council held an Extraordinary Meeting & resolved, amongst other things:
“That Council approach our local member Minister Andrew Constance to request that the NSW Auditor General and the Office of Local Government fund a review of Council’s financial positions as at 31 March 2020 and 30 June 2020 and projected at 30 June 2021 particularly focussing on the restricted and unrestricted reserves and the cash position at each point in time.”
Meanwhile, at this week’s meeting, council’s general manager once again demonstrated her ready appreciation of council’s sense of urgency concerning this matter by confirming that a time & date for a meeting with Mr Constance had yet to be agreed.
John Richardson
Secretary/Treasurer
Bega Valley Shire Residents & Ratepayers Association
Tel: 0264945669
Email: secretary@begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au
Website: http://www.begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au