Central Coast Council financial crisis: $30-50m of property assets floated for potential sale
Central Coast Council’s interim administrator Dick Persson has highlighted “poor budget management” in the lead up to its financial crisis. It comes as council identifies up to $50m in property assets to sell.
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Central Coast Council’s interim administrator Dick Persson says if people were hoping he would arrive and say the financial crisis is not as bad as it seems, they are getting no such hope.
“It’s very serious … worse than people first thought,” Mr Persson told the Express Advocate.
“I think budget management was poor and that’s an issue I am learning more about.”
At last night’s council meeting, Mr Persson received an update on the 100 Day Recovery plan which he renamed the Business Progress Report.
“The report shows they are not on track to achieve savings they set to achieve when they adopted last year’s budget,” he said. “Most of the savings are now coming from the staff freeze.”
The report also indicated that the council had identified $30m to $50m worth of property assets that could be considered for sale in the next 12 months. Any decision on property sales would need to be made at a council meeting.
Last month, the Express revealed council had a property portfolio made up of more than 7000 properties in addition to council facilities. This includes an $8.9m residential lot in Wadalba purchased in February this year.
The shock announcement of council’s “liquidity issues “ and $89m deficit hit the community on October 6, followed by the suspension of Mayor Lisa Matthews and the councillors and the appointment of Mr Persson.
Mr Persson will prepare a report on his investigations into the financial crisis by the end of the month, along with solutions which will be put to the community.
He said options could include asset sales, reduction in services, borrowing or possible rate rises.
“All of those options will be considered,” he said. “There will be probably something in every basket although I am not sure about a rate increase.
“Hopefully revenue might increase as we get out of COVID.”
He said the eventual plan to get council back into a steady financial position could run for years.
After a week in his role as administrator, Mr Persson said he had spoken to state MPs and councillors to get an idea of how they operated.
“This is one of the councils that has adopted a parliamentary model with a lot of combat instead of being a governing body,” he said.
“There has been too much politics but that is quite common across councils. The community don’t like it when a council acts like a parliament. They want them to get on with the business.”
PERSSON TO HOLD OPEN FORUMS
One of Mr Persson's first decisions at the council meeting was to introduce open forums before every meeting.
The forums will start at 5.30pm, giving residents the opportunity to raise any issues of concern. This will be followed by the public forum where residents register to talk about items on the council agenda.
“When the councillors are there they represent the community so their voices are heard,” Mr Persson said.
“When they are not there I think it’s important members of the community have more direct access.”
He stressed the forums would not be used to contest decisions made by council in the past.
A maximum of 10 speakers will be allowed at each open forum, with the first to be held on November 23.
The November 30 meeting will be held at the Gosford chamber.