Meet the manager of Council’s operational arm, general manager Ken Gainger.
While elected councillors make policy, the implementation – or operation – is undertaken by 270 full-time public service employees, all overseen by Mr Gainger. And that makes Council perhaps the shire’s largest employer. We met last week just after he emerged from a meeting with the Grants Commission. Byron Shire is currently significantly disadvantaged by the formula used to distribute federal financial assistance grants to NSW councils, and he’s hopeful this will change after a review is completed as part of a local-government reform program. He says of the meeting, ‘We exchanged presentations and Council representatives explained how disadvantaged Byron Shire is compared to the state’s other 151 councils.’ ‘It’s not just the 1.5 million annual visitors that come here, but also the landslips, the cyclones and beach erosions which contribute to high infrastructure maintenance costs.’ Council’s funding allocation from the state is calculated from many factors. He says, ‘It’s not just the ratepayer base and property values, but infrastructure such as the length of roads and bridges and a range of disability factors.’ $1m surplus target met He’s held the top job for just eight months, and when he took the reins, Council’s financial situation was looking bleak. ‘We were told by the Treasury Corporation, on behalf of the Department of Local Government, that we had no further capacity to borrow funds until we improved our capacity to meet loan redemption obligations.’ And while it will take a long time to get on top of overall debt, he says financial stability has already been achieved after restructuring and efficiency measures. Remarkably a target of a $1 million accumulated surplus has already been reached, well before expectations. While negotiations with staff are ongoing, he says, ‘the top level of executive management has been pared back to three directors and an executive position.’ Other measures that could help Council get into the black include selling and better managing some of its property. He says around 15 years ago, Ballina Council helped to turn around its finances by developing and managing the property it owned. So what plans has he got for Byron? Apart from subdividing and selling the contentious Ocean Shores Roundhouse, he says a factory-sized parcel in the Byron Arts & Industry Estate will soon be up for sale. ‘Initially we are looking at the low- hanging fruit,’ he says. And while the former Telstra land next to the Mullumbimby Woolworths is currently being rezoned and prepared for sale, he says that due to site contamination, ‘I would expect to see a loss after the sale.’ But he’s hopeful that the old Byron Bay Public Library building could eventually be transformed into a successful commercial hub. Located in the CBD, he says in future years it could provide good returns if appropriately developed. As for Council meetings, he says transparency has improved after confidential session rules were refined. ‘A council is required to go into confidential session where a price comparison between tenderers is discussed, for example. But that also meant other discussions were not heard in public. Councillors now only enter confidential sessions when absolutely necessary.’ 40 years’ experience in local govt The Bangalow resident and former Lismore City Council GM says after years working away, he feels that this region is his home. Last week he addressed the Bangalow Lions Club, and will be guest speaker at the Byron business chamber annual general meeting on November 7. ‘I’ve been in local government for 40 years, and this council is one of the best I’ve worked with,’ he enthused. ‘Despite some differing political opinions, everyone works very well together.’ He also says he has seen a huge improvement in staff morale, and, along with councillors, has encouraged creative and innovative suggestions from staff. ‘They are certainly less “risk averse” these days,’ he says. You can see councillors and staff in action this Thursday at the Mullumbimby chambers from 9am. This week’s agenda is available at www.byron.nsw.gov.au.
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Does the NSW coalition government support holiday letting in residential areas or not?
It’s a question NSW Greens MP and former Byron Shire mayor Jan Barham says she has been waiting three years for an answer on, and on August 12 she got one from tourism MP George Souris (Nationals). Well, sort of. In a recent general pur- pose standing committee held in parliament, Mr Souris was asked whether he supported ‘legitimate tourism operators’ or those ‘who op- erate without approvals, safe- ty provisions for visitors and without paying their way to local government.’ Mr Souris replied to Ms Barham after some stalling that ‘Holiday letting in NSW is essentially a local government issue,’ and referred to the recently introduced holiday rental code of conduct, introduced by the industry with help from NSW department of Trade and Investment and Destination NSW. He claims councils have at their disposal a range of regulatory mechanisms to deal with matters such as noise pollution issues. ‘These can usually be ad- dressed by existing regulation; for example, under the protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997, councils and communities are encouraged to utilise these mechanisms as appropriate.’ But MP Paul Green from the Christian Democratic Party made the point during Mr Souris’s questioning that ‘Local government is an arm of the state government, as we well know, so obviously its master should be watch- ing over it to ensure that it is able to enact or empower those regulations that the state makes.’ It should be noted that the general purpose stand- ing committee transcript is an uncorrected proof. Dept of planning replies on HL As for the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure position, a spokes- person told The Echo the department ‘worked with industry and other government departments to develop a self-regulatory code of con- duct for use by owners, man- agers, guests and visitors of holiday let properties.’ ‘The department is continuing to work with councils and industry on this is- sue and has recently attended meetings with industry representatives and concerned residents of Byron Bay.’ Claims that the region’s abandoned Casino to Murwillumbah railway line is being maintained to a limited degree by a major building contractor have been questioned.
Byron Shire mayor Simon Richardson has requested details from the NSW transport department on what sort of maintenance the rail contractor is doing. Cr Richardson’s mayoral minute from last Thursday’s council meeting follows claims to Echonetdaily by the transport department and the minister responsible that the abandoned line is being maintained. The department, which granted the contract to rail construction giant John Holland, has refused to provide to The Echo any evidence, such as reports, in order to verify that limited maintenance has been undertaken on the railway line since it was last used in 2004. A spokesperson for the department was only prepared to say that John Holland Rail ‘undertakes safety inspections and limited maintenance work including minor vegetation work at selected sites’. Similarly, the minister for transport, Gladys Berejiklian, played the issue down. When asked to provide any evidence of what work has been completed in the region, Mrs Berejiklian instead repeated much the same line as her department. ‘I’m advised that maintenance work on the Casino to Murwillumbah line is limited to an inspection of the line each year and includes monitoring and treatment of noxious weeds and any other work required to ensure the safety of the public,’ she said. And despite four days’ notice on the question, much correspondence and a promise that a response would come from John Holland, the company’s media representative said, at the last minute, that she could not reply in time, due to ‘being under contract with Transport for NSW which needs to approve our media statements’. Taxpayer cost But what’s the cost to taxpayers? John Holland claims on its website it’s being paid $1.5 billion over ten years, or $150,000,000 a year to maintain NSW railways. This includes ‘2,700 kilometres of operational freight and passenger lines and 3,100 kilometres of non-operational lines,’ plus 3,300km of disused line. At a total of 9,100km, this represents $16,483 per km of track, per year, including ‘27,000 hectares of land, 600 rail under-bridges and 384 road over-bridges’. As a rough comparison, rail infrastructure construction and maintenance company, the Downer Group, is being paid $10,625 per kilometre of track per annum over 12 years, for a track that is used for interstate freight. Additionally, the recent $2 million rail study released by the coalition was slammed for its ‘lack of long-term vision’ in NSW Parliament last week by Greens MP and transport spokesperson Cate Faehrmann. Ms Faehrmann also took aim at its restricted ‘terms of reference’, which were heavily weighted towards a result favouring abandoning rail services in the region. ‘Only 75 of 187 bridges were inspected,’ she said, ‘representing an incomplete picture of the line’s true state of repair, compared with PricewaterhouseCoopers inspecting every bridge in 2004’. The MLC also said it was a ‘quite frankly unbelievable’ estimated repair bill of $900 million, as, ‘in 2004 PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated it would cost $30 million’. She says her parliamentary inquiry into rail infrastructure project costing revealed rail projects ‘cost some 15 per cent more in NSW than in the rest of Australia’. Byron’s ongoing traffic congestion and 1.5 million annual visitor numbers were also mentioned. ‘The growth in tourist visits from southeast Queensland to Byron Bay has meant that road traffic can reach gridlock on any summer’s day,’ Ms Faehrmann said. ‘A ten-minute car journey from the highway into Byron can easily extend to 45 minutes. Buses would be similarly afflicted.’ But oddly, Mrs Berejiklian told The Echo that in regard to the shire’s visitor numbers, ‘the needs and travel patterns of tourists were considered in detail in the development of the study, and it found tourists do not form a large proportion of public transport users’. Omissions While the mayoral minute claims there are omissions in the report over light rail and other issues, Mrs Berejiklian talked light rail down saying it ‘was included in the long list of options considered in the study and it was found to deliver fewer benefits than other modes of transport’. Cr Richardson also plans to ‘facilitate a meeting with potential user groups to consider Byron Shire options’. Local Nationals MP Don Page has not commented on the report other than to tell The Echo at the time of its release that ‘the report speaks for itself’. Along with all north coast Nationals MPs, he ran on a campaign in 2007 of returning rail, but then changed his campaign to a ‘rail study’ for the 2011 election. The long awaited and overdue regional rail study released last week has been met with a hostile reception from rail advocate Karin Kolbe while local state MP Don Page has distanced himself from previous election promises.
The report, entitled Casino to Murwillumbah Transport Study, recommends that services remain suspended and ‘rail assets be maintained to a minimum standard only’. It comes in at 130 pages, cost $2 million and is available at http://bit.ly/15Lo2Du. The Echo understands that the report’s findings have prompted the state government to shelve any plans to re-instate regional rail services which were discontinued by the then Labor state government in 2004. Current transport minister Gladys Berejiklian says her government will now consider the findings, ‘as part of our work to finalise the Northern Rivers Regional Transport Plan which we expect to be completed this year.’ But Trains On Our Tracks (TOOT) president Karin Kolbe has called for the report to be scrapped and says it’s a ‘whitewash’. ‘The report relies on old and irrelevant maintenance and patronage figures and costs from 2004 to justify a 2013 decision,’ she says. Even at the time the study was announced in 2011, Ms Kolbe criticised its terms of reference, which failed to identify any social or environmental benefits. Mr Page however said last year on ABC radio (June 26, 2012) that he asked his government and minister to ‘broaden the terms of reference of the feasibility study to make it beyond any doubt that the benefits of rail services on the Murwillumbah to Casino line will be properly analysed by the project team.’ These included ‘environmental benefits’, ‘fewer people using cars’ and ‘less greenhouse gases’. There is little to no reference to those terms within the report. Commitments vary from election to election The report was a major election commitment for local Ballina MP Don Page, who released a carefully worded media statement at the time saying, ‘the NSW government is committed to providing the right mix of transport services.’ But back in 2007, all regional Nationals MPs were photographed (see back page) wearing t-shirts with the words ‘Yes, you can have your trains back.’ When asked about pre-election commitments to bring trains back in 2007, Mr Page told The Echo, ‘Any commitment made prior to the 2007 election relates to being elected to government in 2007, which didn’t happen. Prior to the 2011 election we committed to doing the feasibility study, which we have honoured.’ In response, Ms Kolbe said, ‘After running hard on the rail question for so many years, many electors did not pick up the subtle shift from “you can have a train” to “you can have a study”.’ As for questions regarding his assessment of the report, a commitment to light rail, or the lack of environmental provisions that he called for, Mr Page did not respond. Meanwhile, Ms Berejiklian, says that ‘The study recommends investigating improving bus services to provide more people with frequent, cost effective public transport to key destinations, rather than reinstating the rail line.’ Light rail eliminated Astoundingly, light rail transit was eliminated during preliminary assessment, and instead the study focused on heavy, or freight, rail. A Transport for NSW spokesperson told The Echo light rail was not explored for a number of reasons. ‘We found light rail would not provide additional benefits to the rail shuttle option and is less effective over longer distances (greater than 20km). ‘A local Byron Bay shuttle was considered; however, we found regular bus services between Sunrise Beach, Byron and Suffolk Park would provide a better and more flexible public transport service.’ Lack of sustainability Despite the spokesperson claiming that ‘All options considered by the study were subject to a sustainability assessment,’ there is only one small reference to sustainability. Under ‘Rating Against Sustainability’, the report claims returning the XPT extension to Murwillumbah is ‘expected to have a minor positive sustainability impact.’ And for a Casino to Murwillumbah rail shuttle (light rail), it again claimed a ‘very minor shift [is] predicted from car to the more sustainable public transport mode.’ The word ‘sustainability’ only appears three times throughout the document. Similarly, the words ‘climate change’ are absent. And even in its terms of reference on page 100, it claims incorrectly that ‘The study represents a broadening of the previously announced engineering and cost evaluation to include consideration of economic, social and environmental benefits.’ Regardless of the report’s failure to address rail’s environmental benefits, it provides an insight into future growth projections for the region. It claims, ‘Future growth in the region will occur in the Tweed region, extending southwards along the coast to Ballina. Lismore, Tweed and Ballina are the defined long term major regional centres.’ Also, ‘The population of the northern rivers is estimated to grow to around 367,000 in 2031 with an increase in housing units from 129,000 to 161,000 (Department of Premier and Cabinet, 2012). The majority of growth will be experienced in the coastal corridor in the area between Ballina and Byron, and in particular along the Tweed coast and in Tweed Heads.’ Shock waves are still reverberating in the Byron Bay Cookie Company after eight Byron Bay and four Sydney staff lost their jobs last Thursday.
Administrators moved in last week on the company, owned by Gordon Slater’s Slater International, following an investigation by the Australian Tax Office (ATO). According to court documents, the company owes around $1.2 million in unpaid Business Activity Statement, Pay As You Go taxes (PAYG), GST and fringe benefits tax. More astonishingly, it’s emerged from the ATO’s investigation that the company has failed to pay its workers’ superannuation for many years. That is just one of a long list of allegations of mismanagement, including that the company failed to pay suppliers on time, or in some cases failed to pay them at all. The Echo understands that no other company owned by Slater International is being investigated by the ATO. That includes the retail division of Byron Bay Cookie Company and Byron Bay Gourmet Foods. Former employees from the company, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed with The Echo that their superannuation was not paid for at least two years. ‘Despite our payslips indicating that we were being paid super,’ said one, ‘the administrators on Thursday said we were unlikely to receive anything.’ They also said that they were keen to regain employment at the company and want to go back to work. ‘I loved my job and the people I worked with,’ one said. ‘It was a good team, brand and product. If asked to come back I would. We all desperately want the company saved.’ Another said, ‘We want Byron Bay Cookies to continue as it’s a great company. We all love working there and consider ourselves a family. We really need the support of our community to bring us through.’ But as for management, all were critical. Another ex-employee said, ‘[CEO] Gordon Slater had a chance to save the company but he didn’t. The last time he was here was six months ago and he didn’t meet with any factory staff.’ They also said that both Mr Slater and company director Jacqueline Schurig offered no apologies for the company’s collapse, nor any thanks for their work. As for the way in which the dismissals were handled by administrators, an ex-employee said that, ‘All staff were assembled in the office where we were told what was going on and in the end, eight names were called out. We were then brought into the boardroom where we were told we were officially retrenched while being told that, “It isn’t personal.” “This is personal to us”, one said.’ ‘This has not only affected us but our families. Some of us have mortgages – one woman had worked there for 15 years.’ All shared concerns for the wellbeing and future work prospects of the remaining employees. ‘There is a complete sense of shock and everyone is worried.’ Former employee speaks Another ex-employee, Jackie Castellano, also told The Echo she is owed superannuation for her time at the company. Ms Castellano says she was originally employed to ‘clean up’ the accounts and the ‘franchise bookwork for the David Jones stores.’ Instead, she claims she was misdirected ‘into a customer services role’, and worked between November 2011 and February 2012. She told The Echo, ‘I need to highlight foremost that the staff members are wonderful people – they are passionate about the product and love their jobs. I love and respect them all.’ She says that while the workers are ‘loyal to the bone and hardworking honest local people,’ the company lacked adequate management. ‘At times the courier companies would not arrive due to non payment. So even if the goods were baked and boxed they could not be shipped until the money was received. The local telephone repair man would come to fix the phone system begrudgingly and grumble that he shouldn’t even answer our calls due to non payment. The lady suppyling the sanitary bins in the ladies’ toilet did not get paid on time. ‘It got to the point where I was checking my bank account each Thursday morning to see if my pay had been deposited. It was always down to the wire – a Qantas order would need to be baked, boxed and shipped “like now” and there would be no funds, no ingredients... then “wham”, all of a sudden money would arrive into the bank and it would be all systems go to fill the order.’ Ms Castellano says she compiled the November and December 2011 monthly commercial reports, ‘highlighting that the company was not paying its debts as they fell due; that the superannuation liability was continuing to increase and that no payments had yet been made. This report was forwarded to management, who quickly told me not to mention these issues. But I was not prepared to remove them as it was prudent that the directors were advised.’ She believes that her comments were deleted by management before the final draft was issued. She added, ‘I truly hope and pray that this beloved company can be saved and the workers can remain employed.’ Comments were sought from CEO Gordon Slater and director Jacqueline Schurig regarding Ms Castellano’s claims, however they instead responded with a general statement about the voluntary administation. Talks of expansion Despite the court action, Mr Slater and director, Jacqueline Schurig are still attempting to talk up overseas expansion plans. Ms Schurig distanced the expansion plans from the court action, telling media last week, ‘The court notice has been issued to only the manufacturing arm of the company, so it has nothing to do with the franchising aspect.’ She also claimed that the appointment of administrators was, ‘an opportunity to restructure the manufacturing division.’ Unhappy supplier But Australian Packaging managing director Ray Cranfield isn’t so happy. He is quoted on www.foodmag.com.au as saying his company, ‘always had trouble with payments,’ and that the company ‘owes Australian Packaging $33,000 alone.’ ‘If a liquidator had been appointed there may be an opportunity for us to recover some trade... and be able to continue with them, but I suppose I’m more upset that he’s been ra-raing his company in the media and saying how terrific the company is and how excited he is about his business, but he’s taken a lot of Australian and overseas companies for their money. You get very angry about those sort of things,’ he said. ‘Small companies like mine get hurt very, very badly when you take $33,000 off the bottom line. I’ve got to pay my employees tomorrow and I will because I’ll most probably have to go into my private savings to do it. I bet this bloke’s not doing that.’ The administrators, Chartered Accountants Lawler Partners, said in a statement that creditors will meet on March 19 and the company will continue to trade for the time being. |
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