Pool fundraising farce exposed

As I've been saying here since it was announced, the public fundraising drive to 'help pay for the new pool' is a dishonest farce.

Last month's attempt by Council staff to dip into the funds raised so they could put a new springy floor in the mezzanine level at the recreation centre just shows what a con this has been.

Those gullible citizens who dipped into their pockets to help the poor struggling Council pay for its flash new pool must now realise they have been duped.

If the Council cannot find things to spend this on at the pool, and are instead wanting to splash the money around for unnecessary upgrades to other facilities they should give the money back to donors.

So lets recap and update;

1. Council announces it will spend $4m on a new pool which will be completed in time for the opening of the 2015/16 swimming season.

2. They can't get anyone to build it for $4m, so they get a roofing company from Mandurah with no pool-building experience to do most of the project for $4m.  (But they forget to put a time limit on the works, so we spend a second summer without a pool)

3.We then learn that more money - $160,000 - is needed to "fit out" the pool.  A public fundraising campaign is launched.  Greenbushes miner Tallison, which is managed by councillor Pat Scallan, announces it will put in $100,000 and match any other donations $1 for $1.  This, in effect, is a cash donation from the mining company to the Shire of $130,000 to help it out of a jam.

4.The fundraising total is $220,000, so $160,000 from Tallison mine and $60,000 from others.  But they can so far only find $124,000 of extras to spend it on.

What happened to the $160,000 shortfall that needed to be covered?

Because the project ran so far over time, that was able to be taken out of this year's budget for building works.

So, citizens, the whole fundraising drive was unnecessary.  But having stuffed up the project so comprehensively the senior staff didn't want to tell us that, so they went ahead with it anyway and are now coming up with additional things like beach volleyball pits and gazebos to spend the donations on.

They even had the gall to try and siphon some money off for a completely unecessary new springy floor in the recreation centre.

And the councillors who are supposed to protect our interests simply sit by and watch all of this happening under their noses.

In any good organisation, heads would roll

Finally, we get an admission, four days out from the scheduled opening of the swimming pool season, that for the second year in a row we will not have a public pool for summer...


Now they blame the site and the Health Department for the delays.  It is always someone or something else.  But they are not going to fool those of us who remember that the site sat empty and idle all last summer while the Council and its staff bungled the tender process. Work on the new pool only began after summer, yet the old pool was dug up nine months earlier.

It is interesting that new Shire President John Nicholas has his name on this release.  Perhaps he has put his foot down in the first few days of holding office and insisted on a bit of actual accountability and communication.

It seems his election ''out of  a hat" over incumbent Tony Pratico after a drawn vote went down like a lead balloon.  There was no announcement or media release announcing his appointment, and the Council website still lists Pratico as President.

This gives you some insight

From the Council website....

Insight Newsletter

The Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes publishes a bi-monthly newsletter, the 'Insight' to inform the community of news, events and information.
To view the most recent edition, click on the link below:
December/January 2015

Still no pool when we need it,

Only a couple of weeks now until November 1, when the Council swimming pool normally opens.

Last summer, families like mine with hot, bored kids were left looking at a hole in the ground where our much-loved 50m pool used to be.  We were told it had to be closed and dug up then so that a new one could be completed and open in time for start of the 2015/16 swimming season.  Well, here we are, and I don't think anyone is going to be swimming in the new one any time soon...

So why hasn't the Shire come out and informed the public that the pool will not be ready for start of the swimming season? Why isn't the Shire telling us when it will be ready? (Maybe they don't know.)

If they have bungled this project to the extent that the community will be without this important facility for the best part of two summers, why won't they own up, tell us what went wrong and be honest about it?

Again, I remind the Shire's senior staff and councillors of the core values listed on the Council  website, which include the following;

• Sensitivity to the impact of our decisions
• Honesty and Integrity
• Openness and accountability
• Effective communication

How to eliminate your critics

In a small town like Bridgetown, it does not pay to criticise to the local Council if you run a local business.

They will boycott your business and they might even try to make it disappear...

What happened the big two-storey building on the corner of Hampton Street and Steere Street, right opposite the Shire offices??

I am a part-owner of The Freemasons Hotel which has been offering accommodation, beverages and food in Bridgetown for more than a century, but it has somehow been airbrushed out of existence if you check this panel on display at the Council's Tourist Information Bay north of town.

 There is a list of accommodation providers...

Even the smallest chalet and B&B operators get listed and shown on the map, but not the hotel with 22 rooms on the main corner of town!

 

The information lists every other licensed premises in town, restaurant and cafe, but not the one right opposite the Council offices which they walk past (but never into) every day.

 

There is a big sign on the building which says 'Hotel' and a sign on the wall which says 'Restaurant' so even if they don't dare to darken the doorways, there is no excuse for not knowing what goes on inside.

I know how CEO Tim Clynch will respond if I ask him about this. "It was an oversight," he will say. 

I think its vindictive and petty.  

 

Written, Authorised and Published by Michael Southwell, 179 Blackwood Park Road, Hester Brook WA

Another ''in-house" election

Nominations opened last Thursday for candidates in this year's Local Government elections, and they close this Thursday at 4pm.

But there is absolutely no reference to the election or the opening of nominations on the Bridgetown-Greenbushes Council website. There has been nothing in the local newspapers. Nothing in the Mailbag and no sign of the Council's "Insight" publication.

After nominations close and the sitting councillors are all safely locked in with (they hope) no opponents and no need to fight an election, the Council will happily promote the election and the results.

CEO Tim Clynch and his team are happy with the current councillors because they almost always agree unanimously with his recommendations.  This makes life easy and comfortable and all the decisions which affect our community are largely made behind closed doors during "informal briefing sessions" and "workshops" involving councillors and staff.  The formal Council and Standing Committee meetings, which are open to the public and go on the public record then proceed quickly and smoothly to deliver the pre-arranged outcomes.

The only thing that could upset this lovely arrangement would be the unexpected election of  pesky newcomers or dissenters like me.  So when the elections roll around every two years, they keep things quiet until nominations are closed.

It is not too late.  If you want to have a go at improving the way our Shire is run, just call the Returning Officer Elizabeth Doust on 0447 277043 and tell her you wish to nominate.

Pool funding problem was simply a budgeting failure and fundraising drive is a sham

This little gem surfaced in the latest Council minutes...

''In December 2014 when Council awarded the swimming pool design and construct
tender to Safeway Building and Renovations it was recognised that the total contract
cost was some $161,823 more than the amount available in the 2014/15 budget..."

Ahhh, so that's why we had to have a community fundraising drive to 'fit out' the pool

"At the 1st budget workshop held on 20 April 2015 Councillors agreed that the funding
shortfall of $161,823 should be funded in the 2015/16 budget via an increased
project transfer from the Land and Buildings Reserve and any other funding received
in the interim (either before the adoption of the budget or after adoption) could be
used to lessen the eventual transfer from that Reserve."

Because building the pool has taken so long, the Council can now use its own reserve funds to make up the shortfall, so if you donate to help "fit out" the pool, your money will just go into a Shire bank account to help pay for the next bungled project.