June 25,
2008
Media
Statement by Greens Councillor Murray Matson
Randwick City Council Budget Unanimously Adopted By
Councillors.
Former ALP Mayor Dominic
Sullivan erroneously asserted during last Tuesday night's Council debate that
Randwick lacked a long-term financial plan (LTFP) and attacked me for allegedly
failing to produce one when I was Mayor in 2004.
He was shown to be wrong.
Implementing Randwick's
first LTFP was one of my personal policy objectives that I was able to achieve
after taking the mayorship away from Cr Sullivan in 2004.
It was one of the tasks
that I set incoming General Manager Ray Brownlee when he was recruited latter
that year - and he produced the goods.
Despite Cr Sullivan's
ignorance of it Council's adopted long-term financial plan is actually updated
twice per year following the adoption of the estimates and completion of the
Annual Statements.
The existence of Randwick
City Council's long-term financial plan is directly attributably to the
initiative of the Green Councillors (supported by the Liberals) and was one of
the reforms implemented after the mayorship was prized away from Cr Sullivan in
2004.
It is revealing that Cr
Sullivan spent half an hour passionately attacking the draft budget and the
economic credentials of both myself and current Mayor Bruce Notley-Smith but in
the end simply voted in favour of adopting it like all of us. Despite his
grandstanding in the meeting he knows that it's a good budget.
Cr Sullivan failed
economically when he was Mayor and is desperate to rewrite history before he
exists Council in September.
Murray Matson