Melanie Riley
THE CITY of Mount Gambier held a Special Council meeting this week to discuss submissions made through community consultation in relation to the Draft Annual Business Plan and Budget for 2024/2025.
At the end of May, the City of Mount Gambier released three key plans for community review including their Draft Annual Business Plan and Budget for 2024/2025, Draft Long Term Financial Plan (LTFP) for 2025-2034 and Draft Asset Management Plans for 2025-2034.
Community consultation followed the release, where the community were invited to review the documents and were able to ask questions and provide feedback via an online submission, hard copy feedback form or email.
Two drop-in information sessions were also held during June at the Mount Gambier Library and submissions were accepted until 5pm Thursday June 13.
The public consultation process saw 11 submissions on the three key plans, including 10 individuals and 1 group.
The submission key themes were rate increases, hardship and expenditure, Wulanda and transparency from council in relation to Wulanda and other projects.
There were five verbal submissions requested for the meeting, with three of the five attending the meeting.
Graham Walkom, Vivian Hooper on behalf of Shayne Haggis and The Mount Gambier and District Residents and Ratepayers Association all shared concerns at the meeting about the rate increases and affordability.
Mount Gambier and District Residents and Ratepayers Association chairperson Di Ind spoke on behalf of the group about the core issues that were repeated themes in relation to the Draft Annual Business Plan and Budget for 2024/2025.
“One – trust, two – communication, three – open and transparent government,” she said.
Ms Ind said the community had expressed concerns about the impact of Wulanda on the financial stability of the City of Mount Gambier for many years.
“Council has repeatedly stated that the Wulanda building would not impact on rates – this would appear to be untrue in the communities’ eyes,” Ms Ind said.
She spoke on the costing of the building of Wulanda and said “council would not have garnered the support of the community if ever escalating costs were disclosed prior to the breaking of the soil.”
“This has formed the basis of mistrust.”
She went on to say that it is the belief of the association that the Wulanda debt and the upcoming Escosa review have been significant contributing factors to the rate rise.
“It is inconceivable that council’s plan to pay down over 30 million in loans over two years will not have an impact on rates and services,” she said.
“This does not take into account the operating losses, the interest payments or the depreciation of the facility, which further puts strain on the operating budget.”
She said while Wulanda is built and there is no going back, the financial secrecy and the debt that “must be shouldered by the community” are the concerns, and said the community had a right to know and understand the exact financial ramifications of the build.
“Unfortunately a large part of the community has misgivings about the timeliness of the information released from council to date,” she said.
“We would encourage council to engage an independent auditor to review the figures so the community can understand the problem and how we deal with it.
“This will go a long way to restoring the trust in the council by the community.”
She said the group is of the opinion that all discretionary spending should be deferred until the council is in a better financial position rather than “impose a massive rate increase” and used the Beacon Art Project as an example.
Following, anyone else was invited to submit a question or give feedback and community member Peter Harpas echoed concerns about the priority of the Beacon Art Project given the financial effect on ratepayers.
“Could this project be postponed until the council is in a better financial situation and what alternatives has the council investigated to severely minimise the cost of this project?” Mr Harpas asked.
Chief executive officer Sarah Philpott said the project was a resolution of council from a number of years ago which is only now coming to fruition, and some of its funding will be spent this year, and the remainder of $66,000 will be carried forward into next year’s budget.
“That project has gone out for expressions of interest and will be determined in the next few months, but has been a long-standing project as a consequence of council’s resolution,” Ms Philpott said.
F McIntyre and Greg Lockwood were not in attendance despite requesting verbal submissions, but shared concerns in relation to the rate rise.
In the last minutes before the end of the meeting, community member Jenny Smith shared her concern in relation to rate rises.
“I think it’s exorbitant,” she said.
“I would like a list of why the ratepayers have such an exorbitant increase in the post – a justification of why our rates are going up so much.”
Mayor Lynette Martin confirmed the information is supplied for public access and directed Ms Smith to the council’s website in response.
Community member Solange Goodes expressed her concern regarding the jurisdictional rights of the council in relation to the rate increases, stating “the South Australian government and the federal government haven’t been able to provide any evidence or sovereignty of jurisdiction.”
Ms Philpott assured Ms Goodes the City of Mount Gambier operated under a legislative basis, referring to the Local Government Act 1999.
“That act provides council with a series of both obligations in terms of what each council must do, and it also provides councils with the capacity to rate and undertake the services and facilities that provide infrastructure on behalf of the community,” she said.
“It is under those authorities which this council, and every council in SA draws its powers and puts into effect its obligation including its obligation to rate accordingly.”
Further consideration to all feedback will be given at a workshop prior to the adoption of the final budget.
The Draft Annual Business Plan & Budget 2024/2025 will then be presented and the budget will be adopted at a special council meeting on June 25.
