It’s definitely an election year and the Libs are trying to make hay while the sun shines – with able support from the Glen Eira CEO it would seem. Hansard of 5th Feb includes the following statement by Andrea Coote –

Mrs COOTE (Southern Metropolitan)—Thank you, Deputy President; I would like to wish you all the best for 2013. This evening my adjournment matter is for the Minister for Local Government, the Honourable Jeanette Powell, and is a really good news story. It concerns a letter written by the chief executive officer of Glen Eira City Council, Andrew Newton, to Mrs Powell, on which I was copied in. It talks about the Glen Eira Sports and Aquatic Centre (GESAC) in East Bentleigh. I am going to read from this letter because it is a really important story. Mr Newton states:

The Victorian government contributed $4.5 million towards the construction of GESAC and $0.5 million for disability services based at GESAC. You may be interested in the attached letter from a resident who has used GESAC to help recover his health.
GESAC has been open for nine months. It has just passed 10 000 members. More than 4000 are aged under 12 (learn-to-swim) or over 50. The gender distribution is 52 percent female, 48 per cent male. On average, 3000 people use the facilities each day and half-a-dozen schools from the south-eastern suburbs each school week. The physiotherapy clinic, contracted to the private sector, is also helping residents pursue their health goals.

GESAC’s financial performance has been strong. Against a construction contract of $41.2 million, council spent $39.9 million. The centre is covering all its direct costs and all its interest costs and is providing part-time jobs for more than 250 people, many of them putting themselves through tertiary
education. The extra staffing is entirely funded by users and has no impact on rates.

Thank you again for the support provided by the state government.”

The resident who wrote this letter to the mayor of the City of Glen Eira had thanked him for providing this fantastic service, saying how it has helped him get over a hip replacement. The action I am seeking is for Minister Powell to stay in regular contact with the chief executive officer, Mr Andrew Newton, who is very professional and someone with whom I work very closely, and ensure that she gets a six-monthly update on the statistics provided in this letter. I believe that would be very constructive.
I thank Mr Newton for copying me in on the letter and congratulate Minister Powell and MsWooldridge, the Minister for Community Services, who put in $500 000 for disability services at GESAC. These services are operated by Marriott Support Services, which does a sensational job helping people understand how to deal with people who have a disability. In addition people with a disability work at GESAC to help and guide people through this excellent facility. Congratulations to everyone. I look forward to the minister’s answer.”

What needs to be focused on in the above is the Newton letter and the statistics cited. It’s quite fascinating that in the financial report tabled at council on Tuesday night there is no such claim that council is covering COSTS & INTEREST. The actual statement reads: “While GESAC is covering all its operating costs (excl. depreciation), it is not yet covering all its financing costs”. Even Lipshutz has never claimed that all interest is being covered. Surely things could not have changed that drastically in one or two weeks since the figure of 10,000 members was only reached in January! Please also note that ‘depreciation’ is probably in the order of $4 million!

Next we have the careful phrasing of council only having spent $39.9m on a $41.2 contract. Newton makes it sound like a real bargain, a planning masterstroke! We remind readers that this is all about ‘liquidated damages’ and adjudication – nothing of which has been reported for months and months. Council, apart from legal fees, could still be faced with forking out another few million.

Last, but certainly not least, we are now told that there are 250 staff. Now whether these are “private employees’ or council funded is deliberately left unclear. It sounds really good when this is combined with “no impact on rates”! The original prognostication was 50 additional staff and a budget projection of another $5m in salaries. So how many actual staff are residents paying for? Is it still $5m extra?

Isn’t it time that councillors and residents got a blow by blow ledger account of every single cent that has been spent on GESAC? and every single cent that residents are coughing up to subsidise the basketball courts! Only a full and comprehensive accounting will meet the imperatives of “transparency” and “accountability”.