At the Eurobodalla Council meeting of Tuesday 28th March 2023 the Councillors voted unanimously to the motion:
THAT Council supports the General Manager’s review of Bay Pavilions operations and receives a report detailing the results of the review once complete.
The motion came about by way of a Mayoral Report that said:
The purpose of this Mayoral Report is to seek Council’s support for a thorough review of the Bay Pavilions operations and for that review to be reported back to Council. The review is already identified in the General Manager’s 2022 - 23 performance plan and early work has commenced.
However, given the importance of this matter I wish to make it clear to the community that the results of the review will be reported back to Council. In this way the review is transparent for councillors and the community, and the results of the review will be in the public domain.
Pulling it apart it appears that we are to expect "a thorough review of the Bay Pavilions operations".
There is no doubt the driving reason behind this review is the revelation that the facility is costing ratepayers around $4 million per year.
In layman's terms the facility isn't covering its costs to the tune of $4m per year and that money is coming straight out of ratepayer's pockets, whether you use the facility or not.
If you are a long term reader of The Beagle you would know that The Pav has been under The Beagle microscope from Day 1.
To catch up from Day One you might like to explore the articles HERE: https://www.beagleweekly.com.au/mackay-park
In a nutshell the reading will reveal years of behaviour that you will find despicable, ego driven, oft times irrational, politically disgusting, down right deceptive, Oedipal, and less than subtly manipulated. Worst of all it was all done under the watch of nine councillors who were either lazy, gullible, ignorant, inept, indifferent, tired or alienated.
The most unfortunate aspect of the Mayor's recent request of a review is that it will be focused on 'a thorough review of the Bay Pavilions operations' and will not venture to discover how a series of blinkered decisions by the elected few ended up costing the ratepayers of this shire $4m per year.
Will heads roll? Not likely. The decks of the Good Ship Eurobodalla are being cleared of the rot and detritus that was evident towards the end of its last voyage. The toxicity that once stained very fabric of its once proud sails has been flushed, leaving the Good Ship Eurobodalla to set a new course that will hopefully see us leave the rocky shoals that we were nearly smashed upon.
There are still some of the old crew left, but they are teflon coated by the fact that the decision to go ahead was made by a majority of the previous council, based on all the information they had been provided. What were they provided? No-one actually knows as it was all deemed Commercial in Confidence to keep it away from scrutiny.
The review will not mention that Council's own Audit Committee was not privy to the financials and that Council had refused to provide its business case under Freedom of Information on several occasions to the general public, and more importantly did not provide same to a specific request by the Office of Local Government.
The PAV has had a very nasty smell from Day One and Councillors were warned time and time again that the business case they had was outdated and had major flaws with its income and expenditure projections. Those warnings fell on deaf ears and those in the community who questioned the council were discredited as being the Usual Suspects with nothing good to say about the facility.
Eurobodalla Councillor Anthony Mayne has posted the following to his social media page July 25th 2020:
Diving in the Deep End!
This Tuesday at Eurobodalla Shire Council we vote on the $55m plus Batemans Bay Mackay Park proposal (pool, gym, arts/entertainment facility).
Thank you for your questions and feedback in preparation for the debate.
Major themes:
How much will it cost in total?
How will Council/Community pay for it?
What assets will we sell to cover the shortfall?
What is the opportunity cost (e.g. what will you go without now and into the future to pay for this project)?
What is the ongoing operational costs?
Can we see the business case?
Will Council still sell the Batemans Bay Community Centre?
And the answer to each of the above = Commercial-in-Confidence.
I voted against the sale of our community owned #Moruya horse racing track mainly because we could not tell you the sale $ price.
I had the privilege of working with the community to keep its Centre in the Bay, to try and stop the sale of green spaces (Durras, Broulee etc), to preserve parks (e.g. Pretty Point). So if Council is to sell off such assets across the Shire to pay for the facility in the Bay, then our community needs to know these details.
Batemans Bay is a major population hub. The $51m in grant funding is terrific. Yet the entire Shire will fund any shortfall in the build cost through the sale of its assets. Any shortfall in the operation costs will be paid for by your rates.
How can Council represent you and your views and wishes if you do not know the price and how any shortfall will be made up? So what is the entire Shire prepared to forgo now and into the future to ensure that the Mackay Centre can proceed in the Bay?
We are a resilient community. The bushfires led into covid and now we find ourselves in a recession. So as a community that has gone through so much together, I hope we can have a transparent and engaging debate on Tuesday so that we can best represent your desires for our future together.
I will ask each of the questions listed above on Tuesday to that we can hopefully have as transparent a debate as possible on what is a major project for our community.
Duty First.
Anthony
