The Mayor's Column
There has been recent publicity on NSW Councils’ financial sustainability that led to an article in last week’s Mosman Daily indicating that Council was on ‘death row’.
Apparently the source was an independent report recently released by Fiscal Star Services Pty Ltd, titled ‘The Financial Sustainability of NSW Councils’. I have no idea what prompted this organisation’s desire to use out-of-date financial information available to them on the internet. The conclusions of the report were based on a Council’s operating ratio, debt ratio and infrastructure backlog – with respect, very simplistic.
Mosman has been the subject of similar reporting over the years where the authors have not taken the time to deal with the facts.
Mosman is in a satisfactory financial position – a fact that was actually reported to us by our auditors recently when they reported to Council on our financial statements to 30 June 2007. Our financial indicators compare well with industry averages. I will not bore you with statistics and percentages, other than to invite any concerned resident to examine the statements that are publicly available.
There is no question that we are a small Council and that we respond to our residents’ desires and expectations. The work we have done since 2000 on stormwater, seawalls, bushland and creek rehabilitation is the envy of many metropolitan councils, and being very aware of the importance of leaving our infrastructure as an asset not a liability, this year we introduced our 6% infrastructure levy.
The ‘death row’ report acknowledged that the Council was sustainable to 2015/2016 but in no way acknowledged the fact that we have been operating for the past 10 years on a strategic financial plan and the fact that much of our debt relates to works funded from sources other than our direct rates income. This is exampled by the fact that the entire rent for the Balmoral Bathers Pavilion of about $.5M per year will return to our general fund from the next financial year. There are many other examples that space doesn’t permit me to detail.
Residents need not worry about the financial health of Mosman – it is a sound and financially autonomous Council.
Cr Denise Wilton, Mayor of Mosman
