HEATED debate surrounded last night’s release of the financial report into the Civic Hall site redevelopment, with Cr Ben Taylor claiming he had lost faith in Ballarat City Council officers.
Cr Taylor said he was concerned that a $40 million project was proposed when the council was facing growing pressure on its budget.
“We had assurances we were in a good position financially,” Cr Taylor said. “But now we have other projects we are finding it difficult to deliver because we haven’t had the money.
“We have a long list of bills that are sliding us down a path of wastage.
“The officers carried us down that path and I no longer have confidence in those officers dealing with major projects.”
But Councillor Des Hudson said “taking cheap shots” at council officers was inappropriate.
“I’ve been around for three terms and our responsibility is to lead and be visionary,” Cr Hudson said.
He said the council often had to spend considerable amounts of money in the lead-up to major projects, such as when the saleyards site was proposed at Learmonth.
“We need to be in an informed position.”
A report on the $1.8 million expenditure on the failed Civic Hall site redevelopment project was released at last night’s council meeting.
The report — which covered the period from May to December last year & was requested by Cr Taylor.
It shows that half of the money was spent on contractors, mainly Lyons Architects, while $35,000 was spent on the technical advisory panel and evaluation of the final three architectural tenders. A further $46,000 was spent on quantity surveying, $8300 on administration expenses and $7000 on advertising.
But Cr Taylor said he believed the report still fell $341,000 short. However, destinations and connections director Jeff Pulford said the figures quoted were accurate, and said he thought the timelines in the report were probably causing confusion.
Councillor Craig Fletcher said there was “no new news in the report” and the council needed to move on.
He said Cr Taylor had voted for the project’s planning permit application in June last year.
“There were nine of us that voted. We set the agenda, we set the course and the CEO and his staff then carried out the wishes of this council,” Cr Fletcher said.
“Now Cr Taylor wants to abrogate his responsibility. It’s very convenient to say council officers lead us down the path.”
Councillor Noel Perry also said the report explained the finances in full and, if Cr Taylor had concerns, he should refer them to the audit advisory committee.
The council’s chief executive officer, Anthony Schinck, said the figures, provided by the council’s finance department, were completely accurate and “provided a complete and overall picture”.
But Cr Taylor said he was still concerned the council had spent so much money on detailed work with no guaranteed outcome.
Mayor Mark Harris said the report needed to be out in the public realm so the community could see if the works justified the expenditure.”
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