THE council presented a budget with mistakes requiring corrections in June 2019. This year the repeated mistakes continue, now with much bigger numbers.
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Simple calculations are failing! Five figures and $3.7m are missing, elsewhere $35k is missing. Figures don't add up!
Residents challenged council's mistakes, leading to last minute corrections.
Who of the elected councillors are representing residents and ratepayers?
Madam Mayor, how can anyone interpret the draft operating budget if $3.7 million are missing?
In times of hardship, council does not reduce cost, it proposes hefty increases, wanting to spend an extra $1.07 million. This year $2.141m - next year $3.211m, a whopping 50 per cent extra.
Allocating cost incorrectly to the wrong section like workers' compensation shows the council does not follow the AASB15 accounting standard.
Not one word, no debate on the 50 per cent cost increase, possibly dealt with in the secret squirrel meeting?
Why would councillors have accepted such outrageous $1m increase yet spent time arguing if they should reduce the proposed rate increase of 2.6 per cent, worth $150k?
The council simply grabs the most convenient excuse and boldly makes its claims, safe in the knowledge that the majority will simply accept them without bothering to check.
As an alleged arm of government, council is supposed to be acting in the best interests of residents and ratepayers, not misrepresenting its status so as to justify trying to gouge more money from them.
The real problem with council, just as it's always been, is its fundamental inability to control its expenditure and to manage within ratepayers' means.
