There were only seven officer’s reports on the agenda, but it did not stop current councillors from going head to head on matters spanning from the city’s annual report to the council’s handling of a mishap which saw the AFL premiership cup head to Ballarat without Western Bulldogs players in tow.

Multiple councillors queried why the tabled annual report was without a mayor and chief executive statement. 

They also raised concerns as to why there were no hard copies of the document provided to the public.

Ballarat Residents and Ratepayers governance working group convener and former mayor John Barnes also raised serious concerns about discrepancies within the document.

“The annual report is one the council’s key strategy documents and deserves close scrutiny,” he said.

 “But it is missing key bits of information….including key indicators of council workings and individual councillor performances.” 

Mr Barnes also questioned why the report deemed patronage at the Ballarat Aquatic Centre had increased, yet the net cost of the organisation soared by 470 per cent.  

“There are number of things happening (in this report) which aren’t happening in the public domain,” he said.

But the council’s director of business services Glenn Kallio said the council was forced to foot the bill for a “number of substantial one-off expenses” at the aquatic centre when it took over the contract in September last year.

“There were a number of expenses incurred in order to bring the centre back up to standard,” he said. 

The chamber heard officers were also restricted in what they could include in this year’s annual report due to the council being in caretaker mode at the time of its release.

The report was already approved by Victorian Local Government Minister Natalie Hutchins before it went before councillors.