APPROVING Warrnambool City Council’s annual report is usually a formality, but last night it became bogged down in criticism over quality of the printed document.
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Mayor Michael Neoh had to use his casting vote to break a three-all deadlock and put the official tick on the summary of the council’s achievements and balance sheet for past financial year. Councillors Brian Kelson, Peter Hulin and Peter Sycopoulis declared they would not give their support because they could not read it clearly.
The drama stems from efforts to cut paper costs by producing the original document as a PDF computer file and then printing limited numbers for councillors, senior staff and a few for the public and media.
However, the transfer to A4 paper fell short on quality standards with blurred type and some bleeding of colours.
Even a second effort which Cr Kelson held up during the meeting had flaws.
His copy had clearer type, but alternate pages were printed upside down.
Cr Kelson said he also had difficulty reading the PDF pages because of small type.
“For people like me with vision impairment it’s impossible to read clearly,” he said.
Cr Hulin said he gave up trying to read the document.
“I can’t vote on what I can’t read,” he said.
Cr Sycopoulis echoed the sentiments: “you can’t expect me to vote on something I can’t read”.
Council corporate strategies director Kevin Leddin said he would investigate problems with the print quality and page orientation.
“Certainly on the desktop it looks good,” he said.
“The document is produced in-house as a PDF which is very cost effective, but it’s not great in the hard-copy report.”
Mr Leddin said the financial report, which had been approved by the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office, showed an $8.9 million accounting surplus, which translated in real terms to a $15,000 underlying surplus.
“It’s almost break-even,” he said.
City chief executive Bruce Anson and Cr Neoh said the year’s main achievements included $10 million of local roads opened in residential and business areas, plus long-term residential structure plans in the north-east and east of the Hopkins River.
Cr Neoh also highlighted the securing of 60 per cent of the city’s income as grants as well as widespread community involvement in CBD renewal plans.