I wanted to bring to our community’s attention the waste of Council assets (our assets) that seems to go un-noticed. The temporary Toursim Office on Gordon Street was vacated in June 2009, and has sat empty for the past two and a half years. When you look inside this site through the window you can clearly see it was left uncleaned and no doubt with usable office equipment still in it. This site is a prime piece of real estate on one of the busiest streets in our town.
So my question to our Administrator is who is responsible for not leasing this out and getting a rental income over the past two and a half years? The money this could have generated could have funded the filling of more pot holes in our town or repaired other poorly maintained infrastructure.
At worst case, if they were not able to lease it (which I would fine hard to believe) surely this could have been given to one of the many not for profit organisations that lack a place to assist those less fortunate than us in our community.
It is clear to me that what is really lacking here is business people involved in Council. The problem with Administrators is it’s not their money that is being wasted, it’s ours. So one of the options Council should be looking at instead of the easy one (raising rates) is looking at not wasting our money and do the job they are being paid to do and manage the assets and limit the waste.
I’m not suggesting the rent from one property would solve all our problems, but who knows how many other council assets could be better utilised and could provide an income stream.
Name withheld
