In chairing her first ordinary meeting of council, the Mayor, Cr Tapscott, stated that one of her objectives is “to ensure that the community has a full understanding of the financial position of this council”.
The association would respectfully suggest to Cr Tapscott that she could take immediate steps to publicly explain council’s 2018-2019 financial results, in particular the causes of the $14M net operating deficit in council’s General Fund & the almost $10M net operating deficit in the entity overall.
The association does not believe it is necessary to establish a Finance Committee to do that.
In spruiking her Mayoral Minute, Cr Tapscott asserted that since 2017 council has worked to reduce our asset portfolio, review services, divest of land and buildings & consider increases in revenue including
SRVs. Council has also resolved to restructure the staffing of the organisation twice to reduce operating costs; we have suffered five natural disasters (including the current pandemic), we have received unprecedented levels of funding for capital projects, several which we have not even had on our asset management plans. Council is working to reduce our expenditure and not reduce services further.
The association would like to know why, if Council has done all of these things, expenditure has continued to increase significantly year on year. Why has it taken 3 out the 4 year term before anything has been done to address the issues? If staffing has been reduced twice, why have staffing costs increased year on year? If assets have been reduced, why is the cost of operating them going up year on year?
Numerous claims are made by council about “savings”, “gains” & “efficiency dividends” but the association cannot recall seeing a single report to council on any of the initiatives allegedly being pursued, confirming precisely what has been achieved.
The BVSRRA believes that it is clear that councillors do not have a clue as to the true state of council’s financial affairs while many do not care anyway.
As far as the association is concerned, the real challenge for council is just not that difficult: it simply must learn to Budget within ratepayers’ means & to contain expenditure within its approved Budget.
And finally, the association continues to be disappointed by the failure of the local media to publicly pressure council to operate within its means, rather than acting as its eager apologist.
John Richardson
Secretary/Treasurer
Bega Valley Shire Residents & Ratepayers Association
Tel: 0264945669
Email: secretary@begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au
Website: http://www.begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au