At the last meeting of Eurobodalla Council Councillors Mayne, Constable and McGinlay showed their concern around the cost burden to maintain and operate the new $70m facility.
Councillor Mayne clearly asked if the Audit Committee had been given all the facts in regards to the projected costs, projected incomes and projected expenditures. He was advised that the Audit Committee was only an advisory committee and as the information around the projected costs and operating figures were "commercial in confidence" they had not been provided the figures.
The three councillors and many of the public watching via live streaming discovered that while Councillors were trusted with such confidentiality the same trust was not extended to Council's own Audit and Risk Committee.
Council has since advised that it has secured $51 million in grants from the NSW and Australian governments.
To fund the difference, Council say they will use $4 million of loan funds, s94 developer contributions and some cash reserves from the infrastructure renewal, real estate disposal, and crown reserves funds, as well as some proceeds from the sale of Moruya Racecourse and Southern Phone adding that there are land and asset sales proposed to fund construction of the facility.
In regards to questions around Council's capacity to pay for the expected $3 million per year burden imposed by the new facility on Council's budget they have responded by saying:
"Council is acutely aware of its obligation to ensure the new complex is sustainable once
construction is complete. While the work to assess the overall sustainability of the new
centre has not always been visible to our community, an enormous amount of work has
been undertaken to ensure the total cost of the new centre is well understood. "The latest business case cannot be released to the general public as it has the potential to have a detrimental impact on the tender process to source a contractor to operate the new centre on behalf of Council." Council states that "these documents cannot, at this stage, be released to the general public as it will have a detrimental impact on the tender process that will need
to be undertaken to source a contractor to operate the new centre on behalf of Council."
