He asked what had changed between the last council meeting and this and whether the rest of the councillors would be put in the picture.

Manager of Finance Bill Passfield explained that the budgeted surplus of $70,000 would now be a deficit of $102,000 [a turnaround of $172,000].

He said the shortfall was due in part to road and bridge works which had been budgeted for but not carried out and therefore would not contribute to income from plant operations and overheads [a loss of $105,000] and partly due to over expenditure on the construction of a passing lane on the Kings Highway at Warri [a loss of $122,000].

Mr Passfield noted that the deficit of $102,000 already took account of a credit of $75,000 transferred from a Section 94 trust fund for the repair work at Warri.

Mr Passfield added that the Manager of Works was negotiating with the RTA for a $61,000 contribution towards the over expenditure at Warri and if successful the budget deficit would be reduced to $41,000.

Cr Harrex hit the roof. He said that councillors had haggled over a contribution of $5000 towards a community group [the museum] but were happy to accept without question a huge blowout in Works expenditure. He said that councillors had been questioning the finance for the repair work at Warri for more than a year and had been told there wasn’t a problem. He asked what the hell was going on here?

Cr Sturgiss said that the council can’t go on running up $100,000 losses each year. There is a limit to our accumulated surplus.

Mr Passfield replied that while the situation was not welcomed, the councils cash flow and liquidity are fine and we [the council] are in a good position in the long term.

The council then moved on to consider a recommendation from the General Manager, Alan Stewart that council make a contribution of $214.50 to Ten Capital to help stage a Christmas party for children who have life-threatening illnesses, or are physically or intellectually impaired, or come from severely disadvantaged circumstances.