Members of City Tatts who take the offer of reading newspapers supplied by the Club noticed that the free newspaper service was somewhat diminished by usual standards the week before last.
On Saturday 11 August, no weekend Sydney Morning Heralds could be found in the Club !
Did the newspaper stop delivering papers to the Club just like the dry cleaner stopped delivering laundered uniforms to the Club because of unpaid outstanding accounts or did Tony Guilfoyle just decide to hold back on the Heralds on that day?
The members didn't think too much about it until Monday 13 August when it was discovered that page 2 of the Sydney Morning Herald was missing.
Why would the Saturday 11 August weekend Herald not be available for members to read in the Club?
Why would page 2 of the Sydney Morning Herald on August 13 not be available for members to read in the Club?
What makes this even more intriguing is that no such thing happened on Saturday 18 August and Monday 20 August.
Miss Management
Thursday, 25 October 2012
Mark Cooper - would you please explain !
Mr Mark Cooper, would you please explain the outrageous salary you take home for delivering nothing.
You are the City Tatts financial controller and your salary is in excess of $200,000, Over the past 10 years the Club has lost money, lots of money, so where have you been controlling the finances?
The members of City Tatts have come to the conclusion that while you masquerade as a financial controller the facts are that you are just a simple bookkeeper. Now there is nothing wrong with being a bookkeeper except as a bookkeeper you would not expect to earn a salary above $60,000.
If you are a financial controller you have failed miserably.
If you are a bookkeeper you are massively overpaid.
So which is it Mr Cooper, are you a failed financial controller or an overpaid bookkeeper?
Remember you are being paid out of members funds so we would like to know.
The gall you have displayed in taking a huge salary for failure as financial controller makes the members ask - is your performance indicative of Mr Cooper or Mr Bean?
The members think Mr Bean is far more appropriate until you can justify your huge salary for delivering absolutely nothing.
Miss Management
You are the City Tatts financial controller and your salary is in excess of $200,000, Over the past 10 years the Club has lost money, lots of money, so where have you been controlling the finances?
The members of City Tatts have come to the conclusion that while you masquerade as a financial controller the facts are that you are just a simple bookkeeper. Now there is nothing wrong with being a bookkeeper except as a bookkeeper you would not expect to earn a salary above $60,000.
If you are a financial controller you have failed miserably.
If you are a bookkeeper you are massively overpaid.
So which is it Mr Cooper, are you a failed financial controller or an overpaid bookkeeper?
Remember you are being paid out of members funds so we would like to know.
The gall you have displayed in taking a huge salary for failure as financial controller makes the members ask - is your performance indicative of Mr Cooper or Mr Bean?
The members think Mr Bean is far more appropriate until you can justify your huge salary for delivering absolutely nothing.
Miss Management
Panic at City Tattersalls Club !!!
Something shocking happened at City Tatts last night.
Tony Guilfoyle and Jan Ellks worked late !
Yes, we know that sounds hard to believe but it really happened. It's a shock because nobody can recall this ever happening before. (By the way, Tony Guilfoyle is paid $540,000 and Jan Ellks gets $135,000.)
Why did Tony Guilfoyle and Jan Ellks work late?
If you thought that they worked late to do something special for members, like bringing back entertainment or offering restaurants that members actually want, then you are sadly out of touch with the way City Tatts is run now.
The reason for the late shift is that the media have started to take a close look at City Tatts and Guilfoyle is starting to panic.
Guilfoyle doesn't realise that he has shown his true colours
Just stop for a second and think about what is happening here. At the moment City Tatts faces mounting problems, every one the result of sustained mismanagement. This is just a small sample:
Save City Tatts Committee
Tony Guilfoyle and Jan Ellks worked late !
Yes, we know that sounds hard to believe but it really happened. It's a shock because nobody can recall this ever happening before. (By the way, Tony Guilfoyle is paid $540,000 and Jan Ellks gets $135,000.)
Why did Tony Guilfoyle and Jan Ellks work late?
If you thought that they worked late to do something special for members, like bringing back entertainment or offering restaurants that members actually want, then you are sadly out of touch with the way City Tatts is run now.
The reason for the late shift is that the media have started to take a close look at City Tatts and Guilfoyle is starting to panic.
Guilfoyle doesn't realise that he has shown his true colours
Just stop for a second and think about what is happening here. At the moment City Tatts faces mounting problems, every one the result of sustained mismanagement. This is just a small sample:
- Restaurants losing over $300,000 each every year
- A disastrous purchase of 194 Pitt Street that costs the Club over $700,000 every year in interest alone - while the building is mostly empty.
- Suppliers refusing to deal with the Club because of unpaid bills
- Astonishing waste of members' funds on radio advertising, legal expenses, holidays for the Committee and failed building projects
- Falling membership
- Staff morale at an all time low
Save City Tatts Committee
City Tattersalls Club - Big Salaries for Dismal Performance (Part 2)
Money is being wasted left, right and centre at City Tatts.
Nowhere is there greater waste than in the inflated salaries and bonuses given to a few favoured employees despite a track record of total failure. Here is another example of where members' money is being wasted on salaries.
Tania Purdy
If you're in City Tatts on a regular basis you will know that staff morale is plummeting. The main cause of this is resentment at the insane salaries given to a few senior employees regardless of results, while the majority of staff are on award wages. The main focus of this resentment at the moment is Tania Purdy.
Tania Purdy is paid $100,000 a year !
That's right, we have been told by a number of sources that she is now being paid $100,000 a year.
Why is Tania Purdy paid $100,000 a year?
Naturally, we were curious to learn why a fairly new employee with no particular role would be paid $100,000, especially when the Club is cutting back in so many areas. Well, we asked around and these were the replies we got:
Hamilton Island
Speaking of things we don't understand, there was a trip to Hamilton Island in 2011 by four employees of City Tatts. At the Club's AGM in May members asked the Chairman about it and managed to get some information on it. Like so much about the Club these days the more you find out the stranger it seems:
Will Tania Purdy send the Club broke?
We are starting to worry that Tania Purdy might send the Club broke. And we don't just mean her inflated salary. We mean her cleaning bill.
A recent strange incident highlighted the precarious position of the Club. It seems that a dry-cleaner refused to release uniforms cleaned for City Tatts because they had not being paid for months. This seemed unlikely to City Tatts staff so they asked for copies of the unpaid bills in order to follow it up with the City Tatts accounts department. But when the bills arrived they were found to include dresses which did not come from City Tatts. Apparently the dresses were for Tania Purdy !
Save City Tatts Committee
Nowhere is there greater waste than in the inflated salaries and bonuses given to a few favoured employees despite a track record of total failure. Here is another example of where members' money is being wasted on salaries.
Tania Purdy
If you're in City Tatts on a regular basis you will know that staff morale is plummeting. The main cause of this is resentment at the insane salaries given to a few senior employees regardless of results, while the majority of staff are on award wages. The main focus of this resentment at the moment is Tania Purdy.
Tania Purdy is paid $100,000 a year !
That's right, we have been told by a number of sources that she is now being paid $100,000 a year.
Why is Tania Purdy paid $100,000 a year?
Naturally, we were curious to learn why a fairly new employee with no particular role would be paid $100,000, especially when the Club is cutting back in so many areas. Well, we asked around and these were the replies we got:
- "She works closely with Tony Guilfoyle"
- "Tony Guilfoyle takes a keen interest interest in her performance"
- "She has a special relationship with Tony Guilfoyle"
- "She performs certain duties better than Jan Elks"
Hamilton Island
Speaking of things we don't understand, there was a trip to Hamilton Island in 2011 by four employees of City Tatts. At the Club's AGM in May members asked the Chairman about it and managed to get some information on it. Like so much about the Club these days the more you find out the stranger it seems:
- This trip was paid for by a radio station, MIX 106.5. We are not sure why a radio station would be so generous but then they have received at least $3 million from City Tatts since Tony Guilfoyle became CEO so some token of gratitude would probably be in order.
- The four employees were Tony Guilfoyle, Tania Purdy, Mark Cooper and The Hyphenator (Lisa-Faye Tudhope-Wickham).
- While at Hamilton Island it seems that Guilfoyle then travelled backwards and forwards between Fiji (where his family was), Sydney and Hamilton Island. No, we don't understand this either.
Will Tania Purdy send the Club broke?
We are starting to worry that Tania Purdy might send the Club broke. And we don't just mean her inflated salary. We mean her cleaning bill.
A recent strange incident highlighted the precarious position of the Club. It seems that a dry-cleaner refused to release uniforms cleaned for City Tatts because they had not being paid for months. This seemed unlikely to City Tatts staff so they asked for copies of the unpaid bills in order to follow it up with the City Tatts accounts department. But when the bills arrived they were found to include dresses which did not come from City Tatts. Apparently the dresses were for Tania Purdy !
Save City Tatts Committee
The Strategic Plan for City Tattersalls Club
There is a strategic plan for City Tattersalls Club. Not the mythical, vague "Strategic Plan" that Tony Guilfoyle used to refer to in his useless slide presentations at AGMs (but that no one was allowed to see). No - we mean the real Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan that explains what has happened to the Club since 2004.
It is not possible for City Tattersalls Club to trade so badly
It doesn't take a genius to see that City Tatts is struggling. But it is only when you dig a little deeper that the scale of the disaster becomes clear. Basically, the Club has performed so badly since 2004 that it can only be intentional. There is no conceivable incompetence, inefficiency or mismanagement that could produce results this bad.
Just consider the situation Guilfoyle inherited in 2004. City Tatts had thrived for 100 years through recession, depression and world war. It owned a large building in the best possible location in Sydney. It had restaurants, bars, gyms and other facilities that were much appreciated by its loyal members. The population living in the city was growing every year. And one more thing - yes, it had over 400 poker machines making a profit of $24 million every year.
What has happened since then is beyond belief. Everything he has touched has failed. Every building project has failed. Every restaurant is failing. (It is not possible for a restaurant to lose $400,000 every year, when you have no rent to pay.) It has been an 8 year track record of total failure.
How did he get away with failure for so long?
You have to wonder why the Committee let him get away with this for so long. Even the members knew as early as 2006 that he was a complete idiot. One reason is that he always took special care to look after the Chairman. We have provided extensive information in previous blogs on Save City Tatts about the three Club Chairmen since 2004. Here it is only necessary to point out that all three were receiving something from the Club that seems to have made them reluctant to rock the boat. So John Healy got his overseas trip and $10,000 a year for gym classes (even though others doing similar classes got nothing). John Kennedy was allowed to run the Bookmakers Superannuation Fund skim operation, making millions for him and the other Three Amigos. And a clinic in Moree which just happens to be run by Pat Campion's brother gets a donation of $80,000 from City Tatts, but the members of City Tatts are never told.
194 Pitt Street is the key to this sordid tale
More and more it looks like buying 194 Pitt Street is the key to understanding the real game. Other internet blogs provide a detailed account of the purchase. In a nutshell, it has been an unmitigated disaster from the point of view of members.
Given that members got nothing from the purchase you have to look at what they were told when they approved the purchase. Most of the promises made to members turned out to be false. For instance, the promised cafe. restaurant and administration office were instantly rejected by the council. This leads you to question the due diligence supposedly done prior to purchase. Basically, either no due diligence was done or it was totally negligent.
But when you look at the purchase from the point of view of someone who wants to hand the Club's property to a developer at a later date it starts to make sense. For one thing, the $9.8 million debt burden instantly increased the odds of the Club getting into financial difficulties and being "forced" to sell it's building. Buying 194 Pitt Street also does a lot directly for the developers, giving them additional options to maximise their profit.
The timetable for selling the building
Members fear that the storm clouds gathering over Tony Guilfoyle will prompt the parties to bring forward the plan to sell the building:
Who are the players in the game?
Reports from inside and outside the Club have identified the frontrunners in the race to get control of the Club's prized asset - it's property. Last year a meeting was held in March in the Club between a well-known hotelier, a person holding high profile racing positions, a financier and a former City Tatts Treasurer. There have been further meetings and the Club Corruption Vigilante is certain that the property is now "in play".
Save City Tatts Committee
It is not possible for City Tattersalls Club to trade so badly
It doesn't take a genius to see that City Tatts is struggling. But it is only when you dig a little deeper that the scale of the disaster becomes clear. Basically, the Club has performed so badly since 2004 that it can only be intentional. There is no conceivable incompetence, inefficiency or mismanagement that could produce results this bad.
Just consider the situation Guilfoyle inherited in 2004. City Tatts had thrived for 100 years through recession, depression and world war. It owned a large building in the best possible location in Sydney. It had restaurants, bars, gyms and other facilities that were much appreciated by its loyal members. The population living in the city was growing every year. And one more thing - yes, it had over 400 poker machines making a profit of $24 million every year.
What has happened since then is beyond belief. Everything he has touched has failed. Every building project has failed. Every restaurant is failing. (It is not possible for a restaurant to lose $400,000 every year, when you have no rent to pay.) It has been an 8 year track record of total failure.
How did he get away with failure for so long?
You have to wonder why the Committee let him get away with this for so long. Even the members knew as early as 2006 that he was a complete idiot. One reason is that he always took special care to look after the Chairman. We have provided extensive information in previous blogs on Save City Tatts about the three Club Chairmen since 2004. Here it is only necessary to point out that all three were receiving something from the Club that seems to have made them reluctant to rock the boat. So John Healy got his overseas trip and $10,000 a year for gym classes (even though others doing similar classes got nothing). John Kennedy was allowed to run the Bookmakers Superannuation Fund skim operation, making millions for him and the other Three Amigos. And a clinic in Moree which just happens to be run by Pat Campion's brother gets a donation of $80,000 from City Tatts, but the members of City Tatts are never told.
194 Pitt Street is the key to this sordid tale
More and more it looks like buying 194 Pitt Street is the key to understanding the real game. Other internet blogs provide a detailed account of the purchase. In a nutshell, it has been an unmitigated disaster from the point of view of members.
Given that members got nothing from the purchase you have to look at what they were told when they approved the purchase. Most of the promises made to members turned out to be false. For instance, the promised cafe. restaurant and administration office were instantly rejected by the council. This leads you to question the due diligence supposedly done prior to purchase. Basically, either no due diligence was done or it was totally negligent.
But when you look at the purchase from the point of view of someone who wants to hand the Club's property to a developer at a later date it starts to make sense. For one thing, the $9.8 million debt burden instantly increased the odds of the Club getting into financial difficulties and being "forced" to sell it's building. Buying 194 Pitt Street also does a lot directly for the developers, giving them additional options to maximise their profit.
The timetable for selling the building
Members fear that the storm clouds gathering over Tony Guilfoyle will prompt the parties to bring forward the plan to sell the building:
- He is under investigation by the Department of Gaming & Racing over the $200,000 he took from the Club, without approval of the Committee. (Not that they could have approved it anyway - loans to employees are prohibited by the Club Rules.)
- The relentless exposure on the internet of his dismal failure is getting harder to ignore.
- He is trying to sell his motels in Nowra and Mittagong, so he may have money problems.
- A few senior employees who were always considered to be on Guilfoyle's side now seem to be discreetly preparing for his departure. (Basically he bought their loyalty with members' money by paying them twice what they would have got elsewhere.) We interpret this as an obvious plan to distance themselves from him for when the proverbial hits the fan.
- Even the Committee of City Tatts are starting to doubt him. (Here at Save City Tatts we had extreme difficulty believing this. We have watched for years as the Committee let him do whatever he wanted without a squeak out of them. But careful observers of the Club say they have detected the very early signs of the Committee turning against him. As a small example they notice that the level of propaganda in the Club magazine has declined significantly in recent issues.)
Who are the players in the game?
Reports from inside and outside the Club have identified the frontrunners in the race to get control of the Club's prized asset - it's property. Last year a meeting was held in March in the Club between a well-known hotelier, a person holding high profile racing positions, a financier and a former City Tatts Treasurer. There have been further meetings and the Club Corruption Vigilante is certain that the property is now "in play".
Save City Tatts Committee
Fruitjuice at City Tattersalls Club !
Many of you would be aware that there is a discussion on the internet about the recent Life Membership of City Tatts given to Martyn "Fruitjuice" Berry. Apparently some people have woken up to the fact that Fruitjuice has done absolutely nothing since he has been on the Committee.
While this may have come as a surprise to some, here at Save City Tatts it is old news. In fact, we knew what to expect from Fruitjuice even before he was elected to the Committee. A very shrewd observer of City Tatts in the Dance Club warned us about Fruitjuice as soon as he announced that he was going to run for election. This Dance Club member was certain that Fruitjuice was just a pompous old fool who had been asked to run by the existing Committee precisely because he would not raise any difficult issues, would not tackle management and would not "rock the boat" in any way. This assessment, made back in early 2009, has been proved to be exactly right. Fruitjuice has turned a blind eye to every financial disaster in the Club.
There were a few clues that members should be wary of him. In his "100 Words" election pitch from 2009 he said "I have had an association with City Tatts for over 35 years". What does that mean ? Did he walk past the front door every day ? The truth is that he had only been a full member of City Tatts for one year when he wrote that !
In fact, it's hard not to laugh when you read his "100 Words" election pitch from 2009. Back then he talked about his career in financial services with Westpac Financial Services and MLC Client Services. Well, for all the financial acumen he has demonstrated on the Committee of City Tatts, he might as well have had a career of emptying garbage bins.
Save City Tatts Committee
While this may have come as a surprise to some, here at Save City Tatts it is old news. In fact, we knew what to expect from Fruitjuice even before he was elected to the Committee. A very shrewd observer of City Tatts in the Dance Club warned us about Fruitjuice as soon as he announced that he was going to run for election. This Dance Club member was certain that Fruitjuice was just a pompous old fool who had been asked to run by the existing Committee precisely because he would not raise any difficult issues, would not tackle management and would not "rock the boat" in any way. This assessment, made back in early 2009, has been proved to be exactly right. Fruitjuice has turned a blind eye to every financial disaster in the Club.
There were a few clues that members should be wary of him. In his "100 Words" election pitch from 2009 he said "I have had an association with City Tatts for over 35 years". What does that mean ? Did he walk past the front door every day ? The truth is that he had only been a full member of City Tatts for one year when he wrote that !
In fact, it's hard not to laugh when you read his "100 Words" election pitch from 2009. Back then he talked about his career in financial services with Westpac Financial Services and MLC Client Services. Well, for all the financial acumen he has demonstrated on the Committee of City Tatts, he might as well have had a career of emptying garbage bins.
Save City Tatts Committee
Gravestone for City Tattersalls Club
In life, things generally move in the opposite direction once they reach their extreme, or to explain in another way, in everything there is a beginning, or the time of minimum existence and just before the end, the time of maximum existence. What comes after, we all know, death of a relationship, friendship, business, or of a million other processes, actions and events. If we understand this we might be able to prepare for the end so it is as smooth as possible, and if we are smart it may lead to a new beginning. It seems to me that the CEO and the inner circle of the committee believe in: ‘Luck is when opportunity meets preparation” They have had their “maximum existence” and are now moving to the death phase of the club as we know it. After death there must also be a rebirth or a new beginning.
Let us all imagine a likely scenario: members are finally told that due to the world recession, the inability of Chinese gamblers to get their visas, change of weather patterns or due to the large number of boat people (you can insert here any excuse you might think of…just to make it more interesting), the club is forced to close its doors, unless a saviour is found who is willing to bankroll a project that guarantees the club’s existence.
In my opinion, and as corporate intellectuals would say, we have finally turned the corner, so members should start working on a plaque that might be placed, possibly on a side entrance of a five star hotel owned by the above mentioned saviour (or his company) and maybe managed by our current fearless leader and the “all the way to court loyal committee team” (or their company). In a way, a gravestone might be more appropriate, but will certainly not be allowed by the new leaders and their PR team or directors.
Let’s all think about this, it could say something like:
Here lies over one hundred of years of history, dedication and loyalty of a large body of CTC members, who gave of themselves that a five star hotel might be created and its owners and managers be made wealthy and prosperous.
Of course, some future researcher might find this not quite accurate, he/she may conclude that members were never told the truth, but by that time all will be forgotten, the main players may even be in another country, enjoying the success of their forward planning. The researcher might even come up with a theory that the operation of taking the club away from members was the work of an organized crime fraternity. Crime like this is big business and big business requires elite financiers and professionals. The entrance of elite corporate players, started years ago, and as the directors, advisors, consultants and lawyers of high business calibre, came in, the demarcation line between “legitimate” and “illegitimate” actions blurred. The true plans were protected by hard to understand legal definitions and by an army of advisors and lawyers all working together for a common goal, as the architect of a large offshore mutual fund would say: “Money has a strange kind of purity”.
The goal is soon to be clearly seen, and with it, all the “errors” in management will be shown as just small stepping stones to a Grand New Hotel in Pitt Street.
Club Corruption Vigilante .
Club Corruption Vigilante .
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