Hip pocket pain awaits Glenorchy ratepayers to fund legal bills and staff payouts

STEEP rise in rates are expected for Glenorchy ratepayers as the bills for the dysfunction of the previous council fall due.

Glenorchy ratepayers can expect a nasty rate rise to cover pending legal bills. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

GLENORCHY ratepayers have been warned to brace themselves for a steep rise in rates as the bills run up by the previous dysfunctional council fall due.

The council’s mayor and deputy say that not only are ratepayers set to bear the costs of the “arrogance and incompetence” of the previous council, but those responsible for the mess have so far gone unpunished.

As it formulates its 2018-19 budget, the council faces a multi-million dollar blowout thanks to legal bills from the long-running Board of Inquiry into the previous council, cost overruns on the King George V redevelopment and money squandered by the previous administration on consultants and staff restructures and the associated redundancy payments.

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The former council was sacked by Local Government Minister last year after a Board of Inquiry found significant failures of governance amid a culture of dysfunction and conflict.

A new council was elected in January.

Glenorchy Mayor Kristie Johnson. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

Mayor Kristie Johnston said the expected rate rise was a bitter pill for ratepayers.

“We’re not quite at a stage of being able to put a precise figure but it certainly is very significant,” she said.

“We are very much aware that our community is a community that is largely on fixed incomes and that impost on household budgets will be significant.

“That’s why the council itself is angry that we’re put in this position and the community are angry that we are being put in this position because they have absolutely no consequences for the people who have done the wrong thing.”

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Ms Johnston said the cost of the sacked councillors would fall to ratepayers.

“We’re talking millions of dollars. There is very little cost savings that can be made when the council itself has already been stripped bare by their poor decision-making.

“Unfortunately the consequences will have to be borne by the community. We’re doing everything we can to avoid that situation but there is very little room to move.”

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She said she was concerned that the two-year time limit for action under the Local Government Act was running out.

A Government spokesman said consideration of the Board of Inquiry report was ongoing.

“The Local Government Division and other authorities have had access to the Board of Inquiry’s report since it was tabled in Parliament in November 2017,” the spokesman said.

Glenorchy Deputy Mayor Matt Stevenson. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

“Any action arising from the Board of Inquiry is a matter for those authorities to consider and take.”

Glenorchy deputy mayor Matt Stevenson said the council would consult with the community on the budget.

“For a community that has the highest unemployment, significant socio-economic disadvantage, it’s a cost that they can hardly bear without significant pain,” he said.

“The council clearly will not be taking any decision lightly, but were left with no option other than to consider how we can cover the costs of the previous administration.”

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He too expressed concern that those who had been responsible had not faced any sanction.

“It’s unfortunate that at this time there has been very little indication that any of those responsible will face consequences for the poor behaviour and poor actions and poor governance,” he said.

The Council’s budget is expected to be be brought down in June.