Maranoa Regional Council: Council approve $539,000 Roma Pool lease

Councillors erupted over the staggering cost for the Roma pool manager, with one councillor labelling it a ‘ridiculous amount of money’ and another questioning whether council could even afford the more than half-a-million-dollar bill.

A fierce debate erupted in the council chambers over the decision to pay the Roma pool manager more than half a million dollars a year, with one councillor labelling it a ‘ridiculous amount of money’ and another questioning whether council could even afford it.

After the majority of the councillors voted in favour of free entry to the Roma Denise Spencer Memorial Swimming Pool in February this year, the councillors then approved manager Stacey Ann Robertson’s $529,000 tender in June.

Ms Robertson was the only tenderer and provided three offers to the council, with the majority of councillors voting for the most expensive option.

In the council’s latest meeting, elected members were informed of an ‘administrative error’ when Ms Robertson went to sign the lease, with the actual tender figure being $539,250 per annum, a $10,000 difference.

In clarifying the error, Cr Wendy Taylor asked the council manager whether Ms Robertson had to pay electricity, water, gas and chemicals with the $539,000.

The councillors were informed that the council covered those costs and the money would cover the manager’s position and staff wages.

Seemingly bewildered with the price, Cr Taylor compared it to the Prime Minister’s wage, saying Mr Morrison gets just $10,000 more.

“I just think it’s insane that you would pay someone $539,250 a year to run a pool,” she said.

“I just think it’s beyond ridiculous that we would spend this amount of money to run a pool.”

Deputy Mayor Geoff McMullen quizzed Cr Taylor on how much the Prime Minister spends in wages.

Cr Taylor responded, “You have to be kidding me Geoff, she did it for $110,000 before that”.

“I’m not saying anything against the lady, good on her if she can make that happen, it’s just ridiculous,” Cr Taylor continued.

Mayor Tyson Golder said unless the councillors had experience in running a pool, no one should comment on the matter.

Cr Taylor reminded the Mayor she was allowed to express her opinion.

Cr Golder said there was a “huge amount of risk” in running a pool and reminded the councillors that there were no other tenders.

“Employing people each year gets more and more expensive. Not only do you have to pay people, but to run a business - and the pool manager is running a business,” he said.

“While it’s a massive amount of money, once you start employing people, people then find out they lost money in employing people.”

He said the $539,000 would cover the cost for more lifeguards, providing a safer pool for residents.

“So I believe when you’ve got no one else going for it, you can’t say that it’s some sort of crazy figure that people would have loved to do because there would have been more people,” he said.

Cr Joh Hancock said she was more concerned about whether council could even afford the $539,000 figure.

“I voted against this previously and I will again today,” she said.

“My concern is about can council afford it? Can we afford this amount of money? And the reason we have to pay the amount of money is because of the council decision to have free entry to the Roma pool, so it’s on the basis of free entry that has pushed the price up.”

Crs Golder, McMullen, George Ladbrook, John Birkett, Mark Edwards and Julie Guthrie voted in favour of the $539,250, while Crs Taylor, Hancock and Cameron O’Neil voted against it.

You can watch the discussion unfoldHERE.