OPEN LETTER FROM LIZ CHRISTMAS TO MINISTER TONY SIMPSON REGARDING PURCHASE OF THE OLD CONVENT SCHOOL ('CHALKIES')

Add your voice—and make a difference!

IF YOU OBJECT to former Commissioner Best’s hasty, ill-considered and morally dubious decision to force the Shire to buy ‘Chalkies’ (the Old Convent School) –

IF YOU THINK he had no right to saddle York—already in serious financial trouble—with a further debt of $625,000 pursuant to that decision—

IF YOU OPPOSE the implementation, at an unspecified cost, of his ‘Town Square’ concept, imposed on our community without consultation and forming no part of our agreed strategic goals —

IF YOU BELIEVE that James Best as commissioner has been one of the worst things ever inflicted on the Shire of York in the course of its long and noble history, not excepting the Meckering earthquake—

THEN PLEASE, PLEASE LET THE POLITICIANS KNOW!

You can use ideas and information from the letter below and other articles on this blog to help you in composing your letter of protest.

The email address of Hon. Tony Simpson, MLA, Minister For Local Government And Communities is:

Minister.Simpson@dpc.wa.gov.au

Other politicians you could copy in are:

Hon. Colin Barnett, Premier of Western Australia wa-government@dpc.wa.gov.au
Hon. Mia Davies, MLA Minister.Davies@dpc.wa.gov.au
Hon. Paul Brown, MLC paul.brown@mp.wa.gov.au 

Ms Jennifer Mathews, Director-General, Department of Local Government and Communities info@dlgc.wa.gov.au

Hon. David Templeman MLA david.templeman@mp.wa.gov.au

To:

Minister A.J. (Tony) Simpson, MLA, 

Minister for Local Government; Community Services; Seniors and Volunteering; Youth

Copies to:

Premier of WA, Hon. Colin Barnett

Hon. Mia Davies, MLA

Hon. Paul Brown, MLC

Ms Jennifer Mathews, Director-General, Department of Local Government and Communities

Hon. David Templeman, MLA, Shadow Minister for Local Government; Community Services

Dear Minister Simpson, 

I am deeply concerned about both the decision and the processes involved in the decision for a transaction bundle to:

1. Purchase a damaged heritage property (Lots 800 & 801 South St, York) for the inappropriate sum of $625,000;

2. Request a loan from the WA Treasury Corporation for that sum; and to

3. Combine land from the purchase of Lot 800 with the existing Peace Park to form a Town Square;

and further:

4. To include this at the last minute into the Shire's Budget Agenda without Community Consultation, and with insufficient notice for most people to become aware of either the Agenda or the proposed transaction bundle.

The decision was hastily made by the then Commissioner James Best and risks putting in increased jeopardy the Shire's Financial viability. 

Commissioner Best made this decision despite repeatedly telling those at his hastily-called Special Council Meetings of 25th June, 2 July and 6th July that the Shire is in danger of becoming Insolvent, and repeatedly laying the blame on actions of Ratepayers, instead of on actions the Shire chose to take.

I am aware that Commissioner Best was your appointee to the Shire of York, and I myself decided to 'give the  situation the benefit of the doubt' and took part, till they faded out, in several of the 6 new Advisory Groups Mr. Best instituted, in the hopes that (despite many similar efforts in the past not progressing as much as people over the years had hoped) some good things might come out of our willingness to try a new way.

Sadly, this all backfired when (a) the Commissioner started coming late to meetings, then cancelled for May then June almost all meetings but one group related to Business, thus leaving us in limbo, and (b) enacted several hasty decisions at those last meetings, without recourse to Consultation.

There can be no surprise that those of us willing to give the Commissioner the benefit of the doubt ended up just as disappointed and disillusioned as a vast representation and cross-section of York Ratepayers as demonstrated in the last 3 Special Meetings. This cross-section was made up of people who normally have diverse interests at heart or else don't normally cross paths, yet the shock-horror at what was being done to York drew them together in unity against these actions.

Below I present my analysis of the events in those last days of Mr Best's tenure (here in text, but also appended as a document).

-------------------

HASTY  DECISION BY FORMER COMMISSIONER JAMES  BEST

for a $625,000 transaction for a COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

WITHOUT COMMUNITY CONSULTATION

Objection respectfully submitted to

Minister Tony Simpson and copied to others

1. On 24th June at 2pm, giving only 27 hrs notice, The Shire sent out an e-mail to those signed up for notification by this means, announcing that the Agenda for a Special Council Meeting of 5pm 25th June was available. The Agenda consisted of the Budget to be passed by the Commissioner acting as Council. A notice may have been placed on the Shire Notice Board on 19th June, but only people looking for it would have seen it. Several reasons would have made it unlikely that people would attend the meeting: not having heard about it or having seen the e-mail or notice, prior engagements, being still at work or on the way home from out of town, etc... Accordingly, no more than 15 were in the Gallery, 2 of them being journalists and hence purely observers. The notice given for the meeting was unconscionably short.

2. Hidden in the Agenda Appendix 9.4.1, each on different pages, were 3 New Items:

    p. 9: Initiatives:.....Purchase of Poperty — Lot 800, 801 South Street, York

    p.16: 8.1 Borrowings:”For the 2015/2016 year, Council has decided to borrow $625,000 to fund the purchase of Lot 800,801 South Street, York.”

    p.84/89 in the electronic version (no page #s in the print version):

    New: Loan Proceeds — Town Square: Income: $625,000

    p. 89/89 electronic version:

    New: Town Square — Purchase and development: Expenditure: $625,000

    The sum is the same because, as confirmed by the reply of the then Commissioner to questions, they refer to the same transaction bundle: loan for buying the Lots, for the purpose of (a) joining Lot 800 to Peace Park to create a Town Square, and (b) utilise the building which is on Lot 801 for lease on a commercial basis in the short term. In the long-term (see Draft Concept Statement, Town Square — Shire of York 1st July 2015) there is a proposal to use the building for e.g. Visitors’ Centre and other civic uses.

3. Unnecessary delay in notifying Ratepayers of Agenda (and hence this item) and avoidance of Consultation with Ratepayers. Prior to the 24th June, on 15th June, in fact, the Budget Appendix for the Meeting had been completed, as per the document online; i.e. http://www.york.wa.gov.au/Assets/Documents/Document-Centre/2015_Minutes/June_15/9.4.1_Appendices_25_June_2015.pdf

    Normally the notifying e-mails are sent out 5 days ahead of a meeting. This would have allowed adequate numbers of ratepayers to be present, but did not happen. Even some there did not know the content, including the issue of the $625,000 transactions and their purpose. These people first heard of it at the meeting, and the rest of us who did know by then heard only the night before or the morning of the meeting.

4. Even at a 23rd June public meeting on planning for the future which was conducted by Mr Best and the Public Relations officer he was using, and attended by approx. 60 ‘business people and community leaders’ at the Castle Hotel, the plans to buy “Chalkies” and create a Town Square were kept quiet despite a very broad range of ideas to improve the economic welbeing of York being raised. It is singularly strange that no reference was made to this plan, and it can only be surmised that it was being ‘kept in wraps’ for the 25th June Budget Meeting.

5. The Agenda for the Special Council Meeting of 2 July was posted only approx 25 hrs in advance and e-mailed approx 24 hrs in advance, and a Notice of that of 6th July was posted on the Shire’s site 3 days ahead, but announced by e-mail only 7hrs ahead on 6th, and notice of its Agenda 1.5 hours ahead; hardly time for Ratepayers to digest the contents, if even see them, ahead of Question Time.

6. While the owners of Lots 800 & 801, most recently utilised as the business “Chalkies”, have every right to sell property they own, the greatest publicly known difficulties with the transaction are:

    (a) the manner in which the Commissioner rushed this through without consultation with the Ratepayers; (Special Council Meeting of 2 July: confirmed the “delegation of power given to the Acting Chief Executive Officer on 18 June, 2015 to negotiate for an offer to be made to purchase the properties at 25 & 27 South Street, York” (the same property as Lots 800 and 801).

    (b) the fact that ultimately the Ratepayers have to repay the loan and all related costs; e.g. its interest and the bundle of costs associated with purchase, rezoning, remodelling the grounds, and works required on the building itself — in addition, the cost of design, construction and maintenance of the proposed setting up of the Town Square; (see 6.(c) & 7. & 6.(f)below)

    (c) that the building is in sufficiently poor condition that major works are required to bring it up to safe standards;

    (d) that we would have to do that when the former Commissioner insists that we are heading for insolvency already if we are not careful; (he has repeated this at every meeting: 25 June, 2 July, 6 July) See 8. below.

    (e) that despite this he has applied to the WA Treasury Coporation for the loan (2 July motion); however, they as broker do not scrutinise any defects in the proposed use of the money or e.g. the condition of a property that may be bought with it etc... (NOTE: Initially, the Commissioner was careless with his words and was heard to imply that the borrowing would be from State Treasury; this led to understandable misunderstanding)

    (f) Mr. Best presented Item 9.2.1 APPENDIX at the 6th July meeting (Draft Concept Statement; Town Square — Shire of York, 1 July 2015): it includes removal of some exisitng landscaping & infrastructure, professional design, raised garden beds, ‘abundant and inviting seating’, Wi-Fi, lighting, ‘significant areas of paving and other hard-stand, and  the planting of mature trees and associated landscapint’ etc.....

7. Regarding 6.(c) above: The McDowall Affleck Site Inspection (5th June 2015) and Report (11 June 2015) letter to Paul West, current Project Officer at the Shire indicates significant faults in the building at 27 (Lot 801) mis-written as 29 in the Report. These include serious cracking in original walls, lesser cracking in the newer portion of the building, some of the cracking reaching floor to rafters, bowing out of a wall above a window, some cracking being right through walls and some being ‘out of plane’ (jutting out from the rest of the wall), some mortar turned to sand, moisture levels in the ground clay varying from time to time ‘result in alternate vetical heave and subsidence’ (responsible for some of the damage). Some sections of the wall would need to be rebuilt and others have the cracks filled. Rods and plates would need to be installed in some places. Repointing needs doing by experienced heritage professionals. If necessary, underpinning could be required. The best that can be said for the building is that it is in ‘fair structural condition for its age’!! Some guestimates for repair suggest $200,000 to $300,000 additional (repair/restoration) costs to the actual buying of the building.

8. No Business Plan has been devised. This should surely have preceded any contemplation of buying the property, applying for a loan to fund it, etc....!

9. No sworn independent valuation has been attained, but only a Bank Valuation. Given current values, the figure of $625,000 seems excessive.

10. Ongoing Shire Debt. In his efforts to blame Ratepayers for the expenditure of $807, 824 plus other uncosted factors, Mr Best failed to point out the ongoing deficits the Recreation Centre has been suffering, and failed to point out that this project itself has fallen behind in the works for some of the stages. He also failed to mention ruptured pipes due to shoddy workmanship, etc... This, while not impacting directly on the proposed buying of Lots 800 and 801, accounts for some of the financial difficulties the Shire is experiencing and, togetherwith the costs he blames Ratepayers for, is very good reason why the Shire should not embark on risky expenditure such as paying back such a large loan as $625,000 over ten years plus costs of repairing the building, plus costs of developing the proposed Town Square. The farmers have also been complaining of Road Works not done. That is a more sensible expenditure, given the switch from 3-Tier rail to more road use.

11. Financial Prudence is a MUST. Curiously, in the lead up to the end of his tenure and the time that he would be putting forward the proposed buy-up and development of the proposed Town Square, Mr. Best abolished the three Shire Committees which The Council under President Reid had reinstated after years of hiatus since 2005 — the Heritage Advisory Committe, the Works Advisory Committee and the Finance and Risk Advisory Committee. These Committees would have been expected to uphold Financial and Developmental Prudence more conservatively than he would wish. Perhaps that is a convenient reason to have abolished them. He set up 6 new Advisory Groups, but by May had begun turning up late and then held none of the meetings except a Business Focussed group in May and June. The way was paved (intentionally or otherwise) for no-one to know what was about to happen. Thus opposition was out of the way.

12. The Shire purchase/buy-back of the property known as “Chalkies” confers a benefit to the vendors (one couple), but it inflicts a financial detriment to all other Ratepayers. It is contributing significantly towards our rates going up approx. 10% (varying ways of calculating having led to varying estimates).

13. The new proposal can be construed as constituting a significant risk. The taking out of yet another loan by the Shire and the raising of the rates flies in the face of THE SHIRE OF YORK’S LONG TERM FINANCIAL PLAN 2013-14 TO 2022-23 (LTFP) in terms of (a) its operational deficit;   (b) the need for long-term financial sustainability and (c) its proposal that “No new loans are proposed to be raised over the life of the Plan.”

14. When the Shire owned the property approx. 12 years ago, it was deemed too “expensive to maintain and surplus to requirements’. Perhaps prudence suggests that we should steer clear of this risk.

15. This transaction bundle was not part of the current Strategic Plan. A large part of the community feel it would take us away from our Strategic Goals rather than towards them.

Yours Sincerely, 

Liz Christmas, B.A. Hons (Sydney and Murdoch); M.Psych. (Curtin)

YORK WA

15th July 2015