Elisabeth Champion
A MOUNT Gambier councillor has again asked for more transparency regarding the Wulanda Recreation Centre construction.
Councillor Paul Jenner raised the issue of the hub and what he believed was a lack of communication at this week’s council meeting,
He moved a motion that a council report on the centre as presented on 16 August be noted, that the administration provides a report to council on the confidential items for the centre and when the information will be released to the public and that the General Manager City Infrastructure provides a verbal report in open council on the Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre construction progress each month.
It was passed unanimously after discussion.
Councillor Sonya Mezinec raised concerns about the releasing of confidential documents, however it was clarified that the purpose of the motion was simply to better communicate when the information in confidence will be able to be released to the public.
As a result of the motion, General Manager City Infrastructure Barbara Cernovskis gave an verbal update on the build, describing it as “progressing well“.
She said that the build was in a position now for more updates to be shared with the public.
“Now that there is a lot more happening a lot quicker, and it’s more visually appealing and visually exciting to see what’s happening, the communications team will regularly be on there to be able to get the images and start pushing all that excitement and be able to really share that with the community,“ she said.
“We are in a great place to be able to do that.“
Speaking outside of the meeting, Cr Jenner said that he supported the project, but had concerns about the lack of information released to the public during the build.
“When I first got on the council, we had a workshop and then a full council meeting and I said to council that I believe two things need to happen – one is we need to communicate with the community every month, at the full council meeting on what is happening on the site and what is happening generally that might affect the building, and secondly, about the handling of all the financials, because that is just so important that the community knows what’s going on with financials because it’s their money,“ he said.
“Unfortunately, it hasn’t been happening.
“To me, council needs and must be accountable, transparent, honest, and have total integrity. I just believe I’ve done all I can to ask for information to go to the community.“
