Kiama Mayor Neil Reilly has refuted union suggestions that council viewed the sale of Blue Haven as a "quick fix" for its financial woes.
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The United Services Union claim comes as council holds an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday night to discuss a letter from the NSW Audit Office that stated there was almost a $100 million shortfall between council's assets and what they owed.
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Cr Reilly said that, whatever council chose to do with Blue Haven, the process would be far from "quick".
"If it was a quick fix we certainly haven't made any movement in that direction and when we do make some movement it's going to take years to implement," Cr Reilly said.
"A sale, a joint venture, a lease or anything else - whatever we do the land has to be changed to operational land rather than community land and that will also take a year or so."
USU manager Rudi Oppitz also complained the audit had only been completed to June 2021 and that there had been "several" independent living units sold since then which needed to be factored in.
Still, that sale is unlikely to make much of a dent in council's imbalance between its assets and liabilities.
"I think that they should share their insights with the Audit Office," Cr Reilly said.
He added that he found it "very disappointing" when the USU sent statements to the media without talking to council first and the officials seemed to "love conflict".
"I guess some of people in the union are well aware of our financial situation and we try to bring them along on the journey to help us rectify this for our community and their members," he said.
But I think that they playing a lone game here."
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