Hervey Bay Gossip

That’s the lesson that the Fraser Coast Regional Council seems to want to teach the people of Hervey Bay, Maryborough and the rest of the Fraser Coast local council area.

When times are tough the support of the locals is often critical to the survival of local businesses but it seems that businesses in this local council area should never expect to get the support they need from Fraser Coast Regional Council.

With the Maryborough swimming pool contract being awarded to a Brisbane-based firm we again see the council going outside the local area for work that needs to be done. I guess we shouldn’t have expected anything better from a council that seems to have little loyalty to the local area. And the swimming pool contract joins the growing list of jobs that could have easily been handled by locals but were never given the chance to deliver a local solution.

Of course there are always excuses but the deputy mayor can appear on TV and talk till she’s blue in the face … giving contracts to outside businesses who MAY employ local people is not the same as giving contracts to qualified businesses that are owned and operated by locals who employ locals to get the job done at competitive (or even better than competitive) prices than outsiders can offer.

Jim McKellar asks a hard question that will probably never be answered.

The following item from the minutes of the last FCRC meeting should, perhaps, have raised more comment than it seems to have.

ORD 15 GENERAL BUSINESS

ORD 15.7 Return of Council Vehicle

Councillor MucKan said that if people were wondering why he was walking around was because he had given his vehicle back to Council. He said he wanted to get out and walk around and see our city first-hand.

He said that for those living on the outskirts of town it was a long way but if people offered him a cup of tea and lunch he would be happy to visit the outlying areas.

This statement can only have one of two implications. Firstly it is just a blatant political stunt of no substance. Maybe?

Or, does Councillor MucKan believe that all areas of importance in the Fraser Coast Region are within half a days walk from his home and everything beyond that is not worthy of his attention. Has the good Councillor forgotten that he was elected to equally represent the interests of all the people of our fair region?

This statement may go some way to explaining the perception that we have a Hervey Bay-centric Council. Or would Councillor Muckan have us believe that he can comfortably jog up to Maryborough for lunch, conduct his business and jog home by tea time?

When your rates are more than your income tax you may begin to wonder if it’s time for the Fraser Coast Regional Council to take a serious look at non-essential costs. Jim MacKellar certainly thinks so.

Over half of the ratepayers on the Fraser Coast will pay more in Council rates and charges this year than they will in income tax.

Analysis of the Median Household Income figures from the last national census, suburb by suburb, reveal that the FCRC is one of the few, if not the only, local government in the country that takes a larger slice of the financial cake than does the Commonwealth Government.

Local government has long claimed to be the poor relation in Australian governance because of the limits on their tax base. But the FCRC has now shown how to reverse this imbalance and break free of its spending constraints.

But one must wonder if they have taken into consideration the ability of people to pay these amounts of money. This consideration is set out in their own Revenue Policy.

Have they considered that they govern one of the most economically challenged and welfare dependent regions in the whole nation? We have more struggling households then anywhere else in the country.

When people are struggling to make ends meet they usually budget in a way that cuts out all but the necessary costs. Luxuries and extravagances are avoided and every dollar is stretched to its limit. This is certainly true of our pensioner community.

I would have hoped that our Council, as leaders of the community, might have been prepared to adopt a similar outlook when spending ratepayers money. But they do not seem to understand what it is like to have to struggle to keep body and soul together. Either that or they just simply do not care.

Jim Mackellar seems to think so and points to the Hervey Bay airport as a prime example.

Supporting the Economic Development Strategy?

From the Fraser Coast Economic Development Strategy Objective 3.2 –

2. Foster a business supportive environment that encourages the retention and development of existing business;     and

5. Promote aviation and the region’s capacity to attract and establish new aviation related business.

Would someone please be able to explain to me how the above two objectives are advanced by forcing established businesses out of their hangers at Hervey Bay airport?

Given that it would appear that the three major facts of the case are –

1. The airport does not presently make a profit;
2. There is ample land available to expand the hanger space;  and
3. There are more prospective tenants available then there is available hanger space.

It would seem that the obvious business decision was to provide more hanger space to provide for all the potential clients rather than evict the present businesses in favour of new clients who may be prepared to pay slightly more.

Alternatively, it may be more feasible to provide new applicants with a long term lease on a suitably sized parcel of land and allow them to build their own hangers. Either way is better than forcing the closure of established local operators.

It would appear that having approved the Economic Development Strategy the Councillors have filed it away and forgotten its high sounding objectives. Maybe they should have actually read it first.

Jim MacKellar

What about the $20 million Mr Mayor?

That’s a question that Jim MacKellar would like answered and after reading what he has to say on the subject you might like an answer too.

Because of increased costs and reduced State Government funding the rates on the Fraser Coast must increase by at least 6%. So saith our Mayor.

But what about the $20million that Council has from the last budget and the more than $30million from the year before, Mr. Mayor?

Why should the ratepayers of the Fraser Coast be slugged for an extra $2million when Council was unable to use the amount of money it collected last year?

With the financial year almost complete it is clear that the Fraser Coast Regional Council will under spend its 09/10 budget by more than $20million. Most of this amount will be from uncompleted capital works projects. It was the same last financial year except that it was then in excess of $30million.

So how do they justify once again increasing our rates when it is obvious that they are only going to take the money and invest it. Are they suddenly going to come up with the magical answer that will allow them to complete their Capital Works Program for the first time in living memory?

Instead of considering how much they can get away with increasing the rates would it not be better for them to make a realistic estimate of how much work they will actually complete in the next 12 months and only raise that reduced amount?

Council has made much of their dedication to the economic development of our region. So it must be asked – would money be of greater benefit to the region invested by the Council in its reserves or would it do more good left with the people so that they can use it to purchase goods and services from local businesses? Which of these solutions is the more likely to bring greater prosperity and more jobs to our region?

So it must be asked again – Councillors, where are your priorities? In raising great amounts of money for ‘pie in the sky’ works programs or in achieving the greatest good for the people of the Fraser Coast.

Does the Fraser Coast Regional Council have its priorities right? When it comes to spending $3.25 million on a new regional art gallery Jim MacKellar doesn’t think so.

$3.25 million for a new Regional Art Gallery is in extravagance the people of the Fraser Coast can ill afford.

Especially in light of the fact that we have just spent over $1 million on stage 2 of the Art Space project in Maryborough. Would it not be more reasonable to therefore move the Regional Gallery to this location, where it will be central to the entire region?

There are two major drivers which should influence Council’s decision making at this time. We live in one of the most economically challenged regions in Australia and we are many years behind in the construction of suitable infrastructure for our ever growing population.

How does the decision to spend over $3million on an art gallery help to alleviate either of these two urgent problems?

Would $3million spent on economic development not yield a better result for the citizens of the Fraser Coast? How much additional, urgently needed, infrastructure could we obtain with this money?

The mayor says that rates will have to increase. But $3million represents approx 5% of the rates income. It may be fairly said that if the $3million is not spent on the regional Art Gallery then there will be no need for a rate increase this year.

Will the ratepayers of the Fraser Coast Region benefit more from a new art gallery or benefit more from not having to pay an increase in their rates yet again.

Its all a matter of priorities and it must be asked, do our Councillors have theirs in the right place?

If you’ve ever wondered what is done with all those plastic milk containers that you’re encouraged to recycle then here’s just one of the things that all the recycled plastic is used for.

Take a walk out along the pier at Torquay here in Hervey Bay and you’ll find that this bench has been placed there by the Fraser Coast Regional Council so that you can sit back and enjoy the scenery. A sign on the bench will tell you that it contains “the equivalent of 2100 2 litre plastick milk containers.

Sunrise after a heavy shower of rain certainly added sdome interesting hues to the photo.

I can understand that a car might be part of the employment contract for a senior employee on the Fraser Coast Regional Council.

I can’t understand why Councillors on the same council should be supplied with a car at ratepayers expense. We already pay them a bucket load of cash so why should we also supply a car for them to swan around in?

And I really can’t understand why, when a Councillor is married to a senior employee of Fraser Coast Regional Council … and said employee is off on two years leave … both Councillor and employee should have a council-funded car each.

In these difficult times I’m sure that there are plenty of people in Hervey Bay who are struggling to afford just one car.

You can read the full story of this crazy situation here on the Fraser Coast Free Clarion

… some perspective

So our elected Councillors thought that they were worth a lot of money and so they voted to pay themselves the top pay rate. So what does that mean in terms of the common working man?

Well the base pay for one of our Councillors is $75,940 a year … or $1,460.39 a week … or $36.51 an hour (based on a 40 hour week).

The base pay for our Deputy Mayor is $85,430 a year … or $1,642.89 a week … or $41.07 cents an hour (based on a 40 hour week).

The base pay for our illustrious Mayor is $120,230 a year … or $2,312.12 a week … or $57.80 an hour (based on a 40 hour week).

Now if you were an employer and were asked to pay an employee amounts like that you would expect to get a heck of a lot of productivity from that employee or otherwise you would just be wasting money. If you were purchasing something worth those amounts of money you would hope that you be getting value for the dollars you were spending.

I leave it up to you to decide whether the ratepayers here in Hervey Bay and the rest of the Fraser Coast region are getting value for money – or will ever get any value for money -  that we’re paying our Councillors.

By now, if you’re a resident of Hervey Bay or the area covered by the new Fraser Coast Regional Council, you will know that The Chronicle’s favourite man Mick Kruger will be the Mayor for the next few years.

What may not be quite so apparent is that Mick really does not have much of a mandate from the people. It seems that poor Mick couldn’t even get close to getting 50% of the vote – a point that’s not lost on yet another local blog – the Fraser Coast Free Clarion.

It’s a local news blog that certainly is worth reading.