Selling off its Blue Haven aged care centre won't be enough to save Kiama Council, according to documents tabled at a recent meeting.
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At an extraordinary meeting on Monday night, councillors passed a motion to reverse an earlier decision to put Blue Haven on the market.
That new motion called on council to conduct "an analysis of all options (lease, sell, joint venture, or retain) of the component parts of Blue Haven Care".
At that meeting, councillors also voted to put on public exhibition a range of documents including the draft operational plan and draft long-term financial plan.
Those documents paint a dire picture of council's financial position, which includes a $7.4 million budget deficit.
"Immediate action must be taken to ensure that the operational deficit is reduced and the organisation's sustainability and liquidity is improved," the council paper stated.
The draft long-term financial plan covered the next 10 years and considered two options - a "base case" and a "specific scenario" - both of which "paint a poor picture for council moving forward".
The base case involved retaining Blue Haven but selling three other council-owned properties, estimated to bring in $23.3 million.
Under the base case, the report predicts an ongoing average deficit of around $5 million each year, which it states "is not sustainable".
The second option includes the sale of the three properties plus Blue Haven.
However, the long-term forecast for that option is worse, with the consolidated operating deficit expected to be an average of $5.5 million over the 10-year plan.
For council to get out of its financial hole, the plan stated "additional intervention and improvement actions in the longer term" would be required.
The council's dire financial straits were uncovered by new CEO Jane Stroud in the course of running council and the associated Blue Haven business.
"Across the board there has been a lack of planning, governance, resourcing and quality systems and procedures to help inform quality council decisions," Ms Stroud said in a report to council earlier this year.
"The businesses in their current operating states, without immediate and sustained correction are not sustainable."
Since that report in early February, councillors have voted to take action on repairing its finances.
Also, the process of creating separate ledgers for council and Blue Haven - to get a clear picture of the aged care centre's functions - has begun.
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