Mayor Stephen Lesslie and councillors Wayne McAndrew and Cassandra Coleman will move a motion at the April 10 council meeting to repeal the previous funding pledge after former councillor Martin Ticehurst released figures that he states show that council has spent more than it claimed on last year’s celebrations. 

The motion is to hold over the discussions of Halloween’s funding to the council’s budget talks.

Mr Ticehurst raised concerns after he received documents from a Government Information Public Access (GIPA formerly Freedom of Information) application he had submitted to council.

Mr Ticehurst sent out a media release detailing inconsistencies between the original Halloween Festival 2016 report put before council on February 6 and the actual figures released in the GIPA report.

This included a difference in reported income for the Halloween Festival of $135,436 compared to $131,282 in the initial statement.

Mr Ticehurst also pointed to a difference in expenditure for the event of $168,149 compared to $130,787 listed in the original report.

Council acting general manager Andrew Muir conceded that there were inconsistencies between the two reports but said he did not know how Mr Ticehurst obtained the figure of $168,149.

He said the information in the GIPA request listed figures that were GST inclusive and the amounts recorded in the February 6 report did not include GST.

“The GST gets claimed back so to do an apples with apples comparison you can only compare the GST exclusive prices,” Mr Muir said.

On examination of the GIPA report, it appears Mr Ticehurst has added the GST inclusive cost of creditors ($158,702.41) to employee costs ($7,587.86) and council vehicles ($1859.03) to come to his conclusion of $168,149.

Mr Muir could not provide an exact figure on the differences in expenditure costs however he said it appeared to be substantially less than the amount claimed by Martin Ticehurst.

Mr Ticehurst highlighted an estimated cost of $70,000 including council on-costs for council staff who worked an estimated additional 1,350 hours leading up to and after the Halloween Festival.

However council staff were unsure how Mr Ticehurst came to this figure.

“That one’s got us a bit bamboozled… I can’t understand where he’s got $70,000 from,” said Mr Muir.

The acting general manager also emphasised that council needed to budget and fund the on-costs for any council event so Mr Ticehurst’s assertions were irrelevant.

Mr Muir said council staff were preparing a report that would provide the exact figures at the next council meeting.

“We have to properly advise the council of that and it has to be completely transparent so that will be happening in any event and that will go to the next council meeting,” Mr Muir said.

Councillors Steve Ring and Maree Statham have maintained that council needs to keep its promises to the community, as businesses in town were making financial commitments to entertainment and decorations based on council’s support for the event. 

“The public expects us to keep our word,” Cr Statham said.

Mayor Stephen Lesslie ensured residents this latest development would not prevent this year’s Halloween celebrations going ahead.

“There will be a Halloween 2017 and I have no reason to believe that it won’t be as successful as previous years,” mayor Lesslie said.

“Neither myself, nor Wayne McAndrew or Cassandra Coleman have a problem with Halloween. The problem we have is it’s being treated as some sort of sacred cow, some sort of body that can’t be touched.

“It’s no more sacred than anything else.”

Councillor Wayne McAndrew said the Halloween Festival has always had his support, however the event could not be treated differently to other council spending.

“I’m just concerned about the amount of money being spent by council on it,” Cr McAndrew said.

“They’re the things that I want to discuss with my fellow councillors and the proper and appropriate way to do that is through our budget deliberations, the same as we do for anything else that council provides that type of money for.”

Councillor Cassandra Coleman also expressed a similar sentiment.

“I voted in favour of Halloween. I’ve always supported it, I’ve always had issues with the fact that it didn’t go through the full budget process and this GIPA report demonstrates the previous concerns that I had,” Cr Coleman said.

“There is too much inconsistency, we need to be fully transparent and accountable to ratepayers.”