Job losses in Redland City seem to be the flavour of our future under Mayor Melva’s administration. First we lose Fisher & Paykel and their associated employment. Then the State Government barged into North Stradbroke with legislation leaving up to 650 people (direct and indirect) without future employment. Mayor Melva has publicly stated she has “No position on this”. And now, it seems, Mayor Melva has not even been able to protect what she has the most control over – Council jobs.
I feel this latest move by Redland City Council to sack workers in an effort to balance the books is prematurely “callous”. Though Bligh is clearly responsible for our current water fiasco, you have to ask why and how Council allowed themselves to be placed in this situation.
While there is definitely a need to tighten the financial belt, some very serious questions should be asked as to why now? Why such a serious long term decision to cut staff, when the proposed State Government’s short term CPI cap on water is only for 2 years and we have no detail beyond that?
Ironically, Councillors proudly hang their hats on the fact that we were ‘Queensland’s Most Sustainable City’ award winner. Clearly, recent moves demonstrate that we are facing the fact that Council is financially unsustainable thanks to becoming so dependent on the income from our water dividends and not taking the advice to prepare for these political “bumps”.
The chickens have now come home to roost for Redland families, and Mayor Melva and her team have a lot to answer for. On the eve of school holidays and Easter, Redland City has the dubious honour of being the first, perhaps the only Council in Queensland, to announce job cuts in the wake of the Bligh back flip on water and CPI reform price cap.
This terrible outcome has been predictable at two levels.
The promises by Bligh at the start of the water disaster had clearly blinded Mayor Melva and her support base. It had been stressed that Council needed to proceed with extreme caution and keep cash balances high through this politically uncertain water reform. We didn’t!
As demonstrated in Council’s 2007/08 budget, a five-year forecast proposed cash reserves of $85m for 2010/11. This would have allowed us to absorb the impact of Bligh’s political stunt for at least two years, whereas the most recent Budget indicates only a cash reserve of $45m.
Where did the other $40m go; was it the Increased operational expenditure incurred in employing more management, consultants and contractors? With Council increasing staff growth at a time when economic growth in the Redlands was going backwards, it had to end badly somewhere, and now it has.
The proposed staff job losses raise many questions about Council’s management style and approach. Ironically, the redundancies appear to be targeting higher management positions where most of the recent growth has occurred and which will no doubt cost ratepayers the most to remove.
Mayor Melva’s Council has relied too heavily on just environmental sustainability. Sustainability also means economic viability. Some Councillors don’t seem to understand this fact and now families across the Redlands may pay the price.
The financial strategy adopted by other councillors last year was heavily reliant on the ‘dividends’ of the Bligh-based water business windfall, which I raised concerns about in one of my first blogs, Click here to view blog. These dividends had not, and could not, be confirmed. Residents, ratepayers and staff have the right to demand answers.
I am now concerned at what seems to be a knee jerk reaction to "wield the axe" when we have next to no long term detail on the State Government’s plan to cap the retail price of water for two years at CPI.
Unlike the State Government, we need a responsible approach, which demonstrates prudent long-term financial management.
It is no secret that I have been urging stronger efficiencies over the past couple of years yet have been howled down by some councillors – particularly Cr Ogilvie. The 4.75% Council efficiency over 5 years that was offered and accepted by other Councillors was never going to be realised, because it was absorbed by the growth factor that was already built into rate increases.
Businesses in Redlands will probably be saying “what growth?” You only need to walk around Cleveland CBD to know that opportunities are receding not growing.
Had we adopted a more serious efficiency target when I first raised the issues, we would not now be threatening the livelihood of our staff.
Well when one reads a report in the Bayside Bulletin where incredibly the Redlands Council paid $2000 for a so-called expert to look at a mango tree that had become the centre of a dispute between people,no wonder the kitty has emptied.
ReplyDeleteWorse still the tree died for no other reason than being there!
Perhaps the Council should be selling the land they have aquired and also only sack the extra managers they employed.
ReplyDelete