WARD USES PARLIAMENT TO TAKE AIM AT COUNCIL RESTRUCTURE AND BLOWS THE LID ON NEW $10 MILLION WASTE PROJECT BLACK HOLE

Member for Kiama Gareth Ward has used the floor of Parliament to back calls to pause a significant restructure process until after the council elections.

Mr Ward has also revealed that a little-known project, council’s Materials Recovery Facility, has blow out to $37 million – more than $10 million over budget.

A copy of Mr Ward’s speech is below and footage with audio can be found here.

Mr Speaker,

I didn’t want to have to give this speech, but I simply have no choice.

When people in powerful positions deliberately ignore the people and their representatives, I have an obligation to act.

Last Thursday I wrote to Shoalhaven City Council’s CEO Robyn Stevens. In this email I raised a couple of matters, all of which I won’t go into today.

But an issue I do wish to highlight is Ms Stevens decision to restructure Shoalhaven City Council on the eve of a Council election.

I thank the Minister for Local Government for the opportunity to discuss this matter with him and I acknowledge that Councillors are taking these matters into their own hands with a Notice of Motion being considered tomorrow night to defer the restructure proposal until after the council elections.

One of the most important decisions for councillors is the structure of the council organisation. To propose a restructure on the eve of a council election means that it is the will of the CEO and a mayor who has announced her retirement, rather than the electors of City of Shoalhaven who pay their wages, that will leave an indelible mark on this process.

This is highly inappropriate and unprofessional.

This process should start in the next council term, and I again reiterate my calls to the CEO to pause this process.

In a council media release on 8 August, a statement reads and I quote

A proposed restructure of the Council’s organisation has been put forward by the CEO, Robyn Stevens for consultation with staff, to achieve a high performing and efficient operation.

Under the proposal, some positions would be disestablished from various departments in the organisation and the vast majority of these are currently vacant under the recruitment review process. None of these are outdoor workers. Annual savings would be in the order of $1.3 million.

I believe this statement could be misleading.

If this is simply consultation as the CEO contends, why has one director taken extended leave and rumours of another already being told they will have their matching orders.

Whilst I appreciate there needs to be a restructure and I support a reduction in middle management, what I don’t understand is the proposal itself which would see the glaringly obvious conflict of combining Risk and Audit with Finance and the bizarre combination of Development Services with the management of parks, reserves and swimming pools.

At a time when Shoalhaven City Council is facing a financial crisis, this is the same new CEO who rejected the help and input of experienced, qualified, and independent locals who offered to serve on a budget committee, free of charge, to help improve council’s financial position.

Mr Speaker, I enjoy a very good and positive working relationship with all my council CEOs and I want to work collaboratively with Ms Stevens. Trust arrives on foot but leaves on horseback. Ms Stevens owes me nothing, but as the State MP for Kiama with half of my electorate covering the Shoalhaven, including my own home, I would respectfully advise that it is unwise to ignore me and the people I represent.

As I have previously outlined, our community is concerned with the financial performance of Shoalhaven City Council. 44% rate rise proposals, the removal of landowners’ rights to remove dangerous tress overhanging homes and the bungled Bioelektra project are just some of the legitimate concerns of our community.

But it seems that there is another failed council project that the public deserve to know about and it appears this could be even worse than Bioelektra and once again, ratepayers are picking up the tab. Tonight, I expose yet another example of council not being able to deliver waste projects.

Unbeknownst to some Shoalhaven City ratepayers, council is currently funding the construction of a Materials Recovery Facility to deal with the city’s recyclables,  whilst ratepayers still have no option for green waste like all other neighbouring councils.

Whilst the business case was approved in 2019 and received council approval in 2020, council’s website states that this project is ‘on hold’ and in spite of massive city investment tied up in this project, the site still stands idol.

The project cost for this facility was originally $15 million and the amount of funding available was around $5 million. Now, the forecast final project cost is $37 million meaning the cost blow out on this project is more than $10 million hard earned ratepayer dollars.

Two million dollars wasted on Bioelektra was bad enough, but this is yet another shocking example of the Greens-Labor council failing to deliver on its projects.

This is another $10 million that could have been spent on roads which are falling apart or could have stopped council cutting back operating hours for pools, libraries and other services and avoiding council jacking up fees and charges on water which impact pensioners, self-funded retirees, the vulnerable, small businesses and every Shoalhaven household.

I am often asked; how will I be voting at the next council election. My quick refrain is that I’ll be voting Green….last. Make sure you put the Greens and Labor last because that’s where they’ve put us.

ENDS