No rationale for buying pet lodge

Mayor Joe Gauci and interim chief executive officer Phil Cantillon remained tightlipped about the financials when they attended last week’s shire ratepayers and citizens’ association monthly meeting.

The association had invited the senior shire officers after questions about the acquisition, operation of the pet lodge and plans for a new animal pound to be located on the five-acre property were raised at a previous meeting.

The property also includes a house.

Written notice of 14 questions was given in a letter sent to Mr Cantillon but towards the end of last Wednesday’s meeting – and after Mr Cantillon and Cr Gauci had left – there was general agreement among the members present that none of their questions had been answered.

Neither Cr Gauci or Mr Cantillon would indicate what was in a business case that supported the purchase and what was the business plan for the pet lodge.

When council decided to buy Utopia in early August and settled the contract only three weeks later it said it had been financed by $940,000 budgeted to build a new pound with a shortfall of $410,000 ($260,000 to meet the full $1.2 million cost and an estimated $150,000 to build a new animal pound).

The draft 2017-18 budget includes $460,000 for the pound.

Cr Gauci, who was also mayor when the deal to buy Utopia was made, said he was not prepared to provide information to the association that the nine-member council, elected five months ago and of which five are “new” and asking “some different questions”, had not yet been “properly briefed”.

Comments from association members that a business case should have been completed before any consideration into buying Utopia did not attract a direct response.

Instead Mr Cantillon stated due diligence had been undertaken and a business case done to “inform the decision” but did not give any details of findings.

He claimed the meeting “was not the right forum” to answer questions about finances, whether Utopia was making a profit before being bought or reveal income, costs and patronage since the council took over on September 1 last year.

Several times Mr Cantillon made generalised references to the “enormous future potential” and a “benefit to the community in future in a (State government) ratecapped environment”, describing that as a “more interesting story”.

Cr Gauci said council had to decide a business model for Utopia ahead of developing a business plan.

Mr Cantillon said he couldn’t say if there was enough information at this stage to make those decisions but believed they were not far away.

“Then we can confidently inform the community,” he said.

Utopia Lodge currently has capacity to house 54 dogs and 16 cats.

One aspect of the business that has received attention since the council takeover has been changes to the fee structure that came into effect on April 1.

In a letter to past customers “the Utopia team and management” states the fee to board their dog in a top of the range “family-sized” climate controlled suite is $40 a day with lower rates for subsequent dogs in the same suite or they can choose cheaper “garden suites”.

The “presidential suite” for cats costs $40 a day for the first cat. The lowest fee for a cat is $22 in a standard module.