Embargo Tuesday 26 November
The United Services Union, which represents local government workers, supports calls by Councillor Jemma Tribe for Shoalhaven City Council to come clean and identify the source of funds to pay out the previous CEO and the director who recently left the council.
Council’s response that this will be assessed and information provided in the future is simply not good enough.
Council’s Business Paper for the 26th of November includes a response to Clr Tribe’s Notice of Motion, which asked where the funds will come from given the July accounts for Unrestricted Cash in 2024 are zero. The Business Paper states that “Question will be taken on notice and reported back to Council in due course”.
Stuart Geddes of the USU said: “This response is simply not good enough. Staff are enduring incredible stress following the loss of the CEO and the potential threat of job losses due to council’s financial situation, and the ideological position of the Shoalhaven Independent Group.
"Council needs to be financially transparent. If its financial crisis is as severe as they claim, the lack of response to a simple budgetary question shows just how dysfunctional this organisation is.
"We commend the line of questioning from Councillor Tribe. Staff have a right to know where council is getting its funds from, and the community has a right to know where its money is being spent. If money is going to be found from other areas staff and residents deserve to know what is being cut to fund these expenditures.”
Contact: Stuart Geddes 0419 996 585