MEDIA RELEASE 2.11.2020 - COUNCIL WELCOMES ADMINISTRATOR – BACK TO BASICS
The Peninsula Chamber of Commerce has today welcomed the appointment of Administrator Dick Persson AM to Central Coast Council following recent revelations that the Council has seen its budget deficit blow out to $89M.
“The Chamber welcomes the appointment of Dick Perssons and we are also pleased that Mr Persson will bring with him Rik Hart, a highly experienced former local government general manager to oversee the council’s operational recovery”, said Peninsula Chamber President Matthew Wales.
“Both have an impressive history of rebuilding dysfunctional councils with Dick Persson having previously acted as administrator at Warringah Council in 2003, Port Macquarie Hastings Council in 2008 and Northern Beaches Council in 2016” .
“Clearly the Council had lost its way and had forgotten its community obligations to providing basic services”, said Matthew Wales.
“We believe that the Council under administration needs to cut back on activities that don’t relate to the provision of core services and focus on functions such as roads, footpaths, waste management and community facilities especially on the Peninsula where roads and roads maintenance is a priority”.
“Over the last few years we have seen Central Coast Council drift off into non-core areas including social programs that duplicate functions of the State Government”, said Matthew Wales.
“The Council needs to be a lean and streamlined organisation that focuses on those services that support ratepayers and deliver revenue opportunities to the Council. Teaching kids how to build skateboards does nothing to ensure the effective collection of waste or the maintenance of roads”.
The Chamber has expressed grave concerns that the Councillors had no idea that the Council’s deficit had reached nearly $90M.
“It is simply not good enough for the Councillors to claim that they did not know the financial situation was so dire”.
“Equally, Councillors cannot blame the Council amalgamation for the current crisis when the previous NSW Government appointed CEO Rob Noble left the new Central Coast Council in a sound financial position before handing over the new organisation to the newly elected Council. Once handed over, it was the Councillors responsibility to ensure that the newly created Council continued to run in a fiscally responsible manner. No other amalgamated Council in NSW has found itself in such a dire situation”, said Matthew Wales.
“Like any Board of Directors, the Councillors are ultimately responsible for the running of the organisation and the overseeing of the budget and therefore responsible for any consequences”.
“This Council employed the previous CEO Gary Murphy and were responsible for ensuring that they were briefed in all aspects of the running of the business. It’s almost inconceivable that you would not know that the Council was so far in debt and that you did not even have enough cash to pay the staff wages when you have such a vast array of professional staff there to keep Councillors updated”, said Matthew Wales.
“Something has gone seriously wrong with Central Coast Council. There is no point blaming amalgamation, drought, bushfires, flooding, storms and COVID-19. All Council’s are experiencing these abnormal pressures but are still managing to run their organizations responsibly”.
“Administrator Dick Persson has been appointed initially for a period of three months in which time we all hope that his new team will get to the bottom of why Central Coast Council is a fiscal basket case. We congratulate the Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast Adam Crouch (Member for Terrigal) for acting quickly in requesting the Minister for Local Government Shelly Hancock to step in and appoint an Administrator”, said Matthew Wales.
“It was the only solution and absolutely the right action”.
Matthew Wales
President
0415 634 232