Dear MBA members,

By way of background, it is worth pointing out that we (MBA Executive) have always had one major issue with the Council’s decision and that is that throughout their process we were continually told that any submission we put forward had to offer at least $50/court/hour.  Given that this was substantially higher than we currently pay, we felt it important to seek the view of our delegates and that view was, unanimously, that the MBA could not afford these rates.  Consequently we advised Council that we would not enter a proposal at those levels.  It is easy to see, therefore, why we were so dismayed to learn that Council had in fact accepted an offer from a much smaller Association (presumably with far less capacity to pay) at a rate much less than $50/hour.  Had Oakleigh offered Council $50+ then we would still be questioning council on the grounds on which the allocation was made particularly around community benefit and hours of operation, since we were told we needed to scale back our proposal and the justifications given for being unsuccessful simply did not add up.

We have been actively lobbying Glen Eira Council to persuade them that the exclusion of McKinnon Basketball Association from GESAC is nonsensical.  Council have sought support from Basketball Victoria to facilitate a mediation between Oakleigh and McKinnon in order to determine whether there is the possibility of agreeing a means by which both organisations could use the space.  This mediation will take place soon.  In the meantime, in an attempt to see if we could shortcut the process, we approached the Warriors direct to see if we could agree a way forward between ourselves.  We made it clear that the only workable joint allocation of time would have to see McKinnon occupy the facility on Saturdays.  The Warriors subsequently presented a proposal to us which provided us with Saturdays but whereby they would be granted access to two existing McKinnon courts on a Saturday as well as a number of other conditions.  Whilst we felt there was a workable way forward with most of the conditions, several were simply unworkable.  Consequently we have respectfully declined the offer and will move ahead with the mediation process.

Some of you may have read an article in The Saturday Age last weekend which suggested that members of the McKinnon Executive had in some way promised to reward Councillors with votes at the next election if they grant access to GESAC to McKinnon.  The quote used in the paper was taken from an email to Councillors which Council have confirmed was NOT provided to the Warriors under the Freedom of Information Act as the article suggests.  It remains a mystery as to how the Warriors came into possession of this email but suffice to say that the quote was accurate but taken out of context.  The article also suggests that Jim Magee, among other Councillors, has been in some way retained by McKinnon to help fight our cause.  This is simply not true.  McKinnon Executive members have had one meeting with Jim Magee, which he instigated, several months ago when he first heard that we had not been successful in our application.  Since then there has been appropriate lobbying but nothing more.  These suggestions are inflammatory but nothing more; we pride ourselves on our professionalism and have at all times simply sought to promote McKinnon and our programs as the most logical basketball occupant of this great new facility.

Rest assured that we will continue to put forward the case for McKinnon and will engage enthusiastically in the mediation in an effort to achieve the best outcome for McKinnon and basketball in general.

MBA Executive.

Source: http://www.sportingpulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=1-4059-0-0-0