Council taken to task

SHELLHARBOUR City Council has been taken to task over its actions in dealing with a request for financial information about Illawarra Region Airport.

THE office of the NSW Ombudsman has called on Council to justify its actions in dealing with the request made last year by anti-airport activist and Greens candidate for the seat of Shellharbour, Ms Sonya McKay.

While a council spokesperson has refuted the claim as baseless, Ms McKay claims she originally requested the information about the operational income and expenditure of the airport via email on April 12, 2006.

She said she was advised by return email that she would need to submit a formal Section 12 request for the information, which she claims she did on April 27

Ms McKay said she was advised on May 16 by Councils legal representatives that her Section 12 request had been denied because the provision of the information would place her in a better position in relation to other individuals making relevant submissions (regarding the then proposed rates rise) by the provision of intricate detail as sought.

Council subsequently supplied the requested information on July 13, according to Ms McKay, on the basis that the reason for the original refusal of the request (the deadline for public submissions in relation to the rates rise) had passed.

Ms McKay lodged a written complaint to the NSW Ombudsman, claiming that Council had not dealt with her requests appropriately and that their refusal to supply the information was unreasonable.

Ms McKay claims she was not provided with the requested information previous to the Minister for Local Government agreeing to Shellharbour City Councils rate rise variation as the information indicated in 2004/05 that council had received just over $75,000 in net operational income from Wollongong Airport.

This, coupled with a capital expenditure in excess of $2 million for the runway upgrade and aeronautical industry cluster would have meant that council would be millions in deficit, Ms McKay claims.

In a five page letter to Councils General Manager, Mr Brian Weir, the NSW Ombudsman has now asked for an explanation from council of the handling of the matter.

Mr Weir was unavailable for a response due to annual leave.

In his absence, a council spokesperson said that Council was confident that it has always acted appropriately in regards to Ms McKays on-going requests to Council.

Whilst Council believes Ms McKays complaint to the Ombudsman is baseless, she is exercising her right to seek a review of Councils determination in this matter in the same way available to any member of the community, the spokesperson said.

The Ombudsman is making preliminary enquiries in accordance with legislation and Council is assisting.

Council made specific information available to the community for the purpose of seeking submissions about the proposed rate rise.

Ms McKay sought access to additional information and her application was refused in accordance with the Local Government Act.

Council stands by its decision to temporarily restrict Ms McKays access to certain financial information in order to ensure that uniform information was available to the entire community.

That information was subsequently released and is now available to any member of the community seeking access to it.

Ms McKay is seeking to maximise publicity for this matter by releasing the Ombudsmans letter to the media, despite the fact that it is simply seeking information regarding her claims, and makes no findings.

The Lake Times will follow up with a response from councils general manager, Brian Weir.