A MOUNT Gambier City councillor has made an unsuccessful eleventh hour bid to delay adoption of council’s 2020/21 budget until elected members are briefed on the timeline and cost of the community and recreation hub.
Just a week out from the start of the 2020/21 financial year, Cr Paul Jenner refused to endorse the annual business plan and budget at a special council meeting on Tuesday night.
Instead, he put forward an amendment calling on elected members to wait until June 30 so they can be briefed on the community and recreation hub.
The hub’s tender process was expected to be finished by the end of March, however in April, council chief executive Andrew Meddle said it may be extended due to impacts of COVID-19.
Two months on, the tender process is still hanging in the balance.
“Council and the community have no idea of the actual costings or build timeline for the community and recreation hub,” Cr Jenner said.
“The community want to know what is going on with the build and what is the cost, I personally cannot authorise this budget in this form when I do not know myself if such a large amount of it is correct.”
Mr Meddle indicated elected members would be briefed on the cost at an inconfidence informal gathering tonight.
“It is a huge project for this council to be undertaking and as soon as I can finish the briefing paper, you’ll have a better understanding of the quantum,” Mr Meddle said.
“You still will not have a figure, but you’ll probably have a maximum figure that we will seek to negotiate down from.”
However, Mr Meddle said delaying adoption of the budget would have implications on council’s operations going forward.
“Not a financial implication in terms of the budget, but there is in terms of time frames, we are looking to enter into contract negotiations, which if you wish to enter the complex in the time frame expected in late 2021 then we will need to execute the contract by July 16,” he said.
“Obviously it takes two to tango in terms of executing a contract.”
With over $26m – a combination of government grant and council funding – allocated for works on the hub in next year’s budget, Cr Jenner said he required more information about the project, which initially carried a $39.1m price tag.
“I am standing here with the biggest project this council has ever done, but I do not know anything about the cost,” he said.
“The build of the community and recreation hub needs to be transparent and accountable, which I feel it is not.”
Cr Steven Perryman expressed his support for the amendment and cited a number of potential savings in the budget expenditure.
“Running through the budget, I have tabled somewhere around $600,000 worth of expenditure that council could and should review,” he said.
“If we were able to go through and save that $600,000 that would be around about a 3pc or 4pc reduction to rates.”
In opposition to the amendment, Cr Max Bruins said there had already been ample time to raise these issues and make changes.
“The budget has gone out to public consultation, the time to raise all these issues was before it got sent out to the public, not at the death knock,” Cr Bruins said.
“I’ll be voting against this amendment and proposing that we review it at the first quarterly budget review which we have said previously will be far more in depth than it has been in previous years.”
Mr Meddle said if significant changes were to be made to the budget now, it would be incumbent to undertake another three-week consultation.
Crs Jenner, Perryman and Christian Greco voted for the amendment, however it was lost four to three after Crs Ben Hood, Frank Morello, Sonya Mezinec and Bruins voted against.
The original motion was put forward and the budget was adopted following a favourable vote of four to three.
Cr Kate Amoroso was an apology at the meeting.
