Budget hamstrung

It jeopardises the shire’s 2018 long-term financial plan which requires 10 years of annual rate increases of 2.5 per cent.

The recreation centre debt also hamstrings this year’s shire budget after the council froze Toodyay’s 2020-21 rates in response to WA Premier Mark McGowan’s call on local government to ease financial stress on the community due to Covid-19 job losses.

Cr Susan Pearce told last month’s council meeting that she was concerned that shire debt might affect long-term financial support for the annual Toodyay Agricultural Show.

The lack of a fresh business case for the council’s hastily revised $12.1 million plan (now $15 million) in December 2017 was revealed in answer to a public question by former Toodyay Progress Association chair Larry Graham at last month’s council meeting.

Shire CEO Suzie Haslehurst said a business case for an “original concept’ was presented to the former council in November 2017 but there were “some amendments to those concepts”.

$9m pipe dream

Shire records show the former CEO originally recommended that the council approve a whopping $8 million loan on top of the $1 million it had already borrowed.

The plan included a new oval for football and cricket which he said would “cater for events such as the Toodyay Agricultural Show plus festivals, trade shows and community celebrations”, a rectangular playing field for hockey, soccer and rugby, netball basketball and tennis courts, and a new function centre for corporate events.

The $23.1 million scheme was approved 6-2, including former acting president Therese Chitty and recently retired Cr Paula Greenway in favour, and Cr Ben Bell and former councillor Sally Craddock against.

Former shire president Brian Rayner was absent on council-approved leave.

The December 2017 Herald reported that an $8 million loan would cost $10 million in interest, quadruple shire debt, cost ratepayers $900,000 a year for the next 20 years and require annual rate rises of 17 per cent.

Showground denial

The former CEO later denied that the shire planned to sell the historic showground to pay off the huge debt, though his business case said the first stage would “cater for events such as the Toodyay Agricultural Show”.

The massive costings blunder forced former shire president Rayner to call a special council meeting two weeks later to rescind the flawed November 28 decision.

The special meeting was presented with a new plan that had to be rushed through the council to meet a December 19 Federal funding deadline.

The former CEO used the same business case and cost-benefit analysis from the previous flawed decision to justify his new plan at the December 12 council meeting.

It was carried 6-3, including former president Rayner, former deputy president Chitty and former Cr Greenway in favour, and Cr Bell and former councillors Craddock and Di Granger against.

No record

No public record of that meeting was posted on the shire website.

The omission was questioned by The Herald at the start of this month.

Ms Haslehurst said she would check the shire’s 2017 online public records.

Shire President Rosemary Madacsi – who was re-elected to the council last October after a four-year absence – said in answer to public questions last month that what occurred in 2017 was “well before our time”.

“To be quite frank, it is done and dusted – that business was already in place,” she said.

“We are dealing with the impact now and moving forward now.”

The council is now considering how to manage next year’s budget with a wafer-thin surplus of only $40,000 due at the end of this financial year and the first full year of increased monthly debt repayments starting on July 1.

Cr Greenway served more than eight years on the council after being elected with 68 votes in the shire’s now-abolished West Ward in 2013 and won re-election in 2017 with 214 votes in an ‘in-person’ ballot restricted only to former West Ward electors.

Shire CEO Suzie Haslehurst will prepare a report to the council about options for the already cash-strapped shire to avoid the additional $23,000 cost of a postal ballot of all Toodyay voters in a one-seat by-election.

This would leave Cr Greenway’s seat vacant until October’s state-wide local government elections when the four-year terms of four Toodyay councillors expire.

Cr Greenway’s resignation takes effect from April 30, and her last council meeting will be on Tuesday April 27.

Her departure will leave the Shire of Toodyay with an eight-member council, with President Rosemary Madacsi holding a second ‘casting’ vote to break any deadlocked decisions.

The last time this occurred was two years ago, also on April 1, when former Cr Craig Brook resigned after a council meeting for which he flew back from his new job in Melbourne.

At that meeting, former Cr Brook seconded a motion that was passed 5-4 not to re-employ former shire CEO Stan Scott when his contract expired in July 2019.

Cr Greenway was one of Mr Scott’s most ardent supporters in council and reportedly angrily berated Cr Brook as he left the chamber after his final meeting.

The shire’s Code of Conduct requires elected members to “treat others with respect and fairness” and not “make any allegations that are derogatory or improper”.

“We will always act in the best interests of the Shire and refrain from any type of communication, in our public or professional duties, which may cause any reasonable person unwarranted offence or embarrassment.”

Cr Greenway later told The Herald she could not recall the incident.

She then took part in a surprise council backflip a month after Cr Brook’s departure to re-employ Mr Scott in a secret 6-2 vote behind closed doors.

This was despite a State Government inquiry that later made 14 adverse findings against Mr Scott for financial mismanagement, conflict of interest, unethical conduct and other failures under local government law, many of which were reported in The Toodyay Herald but largely ignored by the former council.

Cr Greenway voted unsuccessfully against employing Ms Haslehurst as Mr Scott’s replacement in May last year.

She also lost her second bid in two years to be elected shire deputy president after unsuccessfully opposing the election of Cr Rosemary Madacsi as shire president.

Managing Director Alex Dorsch told the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) last month that her appointment would help “advance our major project towards development as a long-term supplier of many of the critical metals required to decarbonise the global economy and reduce pollution”.

Shares in the cashed-up Perth explorer rose sharply to 5.46c on April 1 after the company informed the Australian Stock Exchange a week earlier of “highly encouraging” new results.

These include tests for palladium, which fetches more than $2500 an ounce (28.3g) on world markets, as well as nickel, copper, cobalt and other platinum group elements.
Palladium is highly sought after on world markets for use in catalytic converters to reduce vehicle pollution in petrol engines.

The platinum group elements are regarded by major car manufacturers and ‘clean energy’ industries as “critical metals for electric vehicles and other energy storage applications”.

The latest Toodyay test results follow ground-based electro-magnetic surveys in the southern Julimar Forest.

They add to drilling results on 945ha of private land – which Chalice calls ‘Gonneville’ in nearby Keating Road – which the company bought last year for a total of $14 million in cash and shares.

Chalice says it has yet to apply for State Government permission to drill in the environmentally sensitive State Forest to confirm the full extent and potential cash value of its Julimar discovery.

In its March 25 ASX statement, Chalice described the Hartog results as similar to last year’s ground-based electro-magnetic findings in Gonneville, south of Julimar Road.

“The results are considered to be highly encouraging,” Mr Dorsch said.

They were “mostly aligned along the strike from Gonneville. making these high priority drill targets”.