THE City of Greater Bendigo council has again backed down on one of the levers it used for the board restructure of the Schweppes Centre.

The Bendigo Weekly can also reveal the centre and sacked chief executive officer Stephen Batty have settled their contract dispute.

It is believed Mr Batty received a payout of almost $50,000 although both sides signed a confidentiality agreement not to disclose the details.

At its most recent meeting, the council voted to extend the centre’s $300,000 overdraft facility until June this year.

The council is the guarantor for the overdraft, as well as the loans covering up to $3 million in debt.

Last year the council used the threat of both the loan and the overdraft as a lever to push for change to the centre’s board.

Then-mayor David Jones said the overdraft, which was allowing the
centre to operate, was the major lever.

“That is the only leverage we have,” he said.

“That is how we managed to get them to stand up to attention.”

The council was concerned with the influence on the board of the Bendigo Basketball Association.

BBA president and Schweppes Centre board member Mark Lennox this week said the council’s decision to further extend the overdraft was a back down.

“They have always been keen to take that back,” he said.

“They would try to beat us up with the overdraft at meetings and then try and convince the other councillors the place should be taken over.

“A number of the councillors didn’t know what was going on. Another couple of them were headstrong and dominating the discussion.“

However, Mr Lennox said the current council staff and centre management were putting things on the right track.

“Over the past 12 months we have not really needed much of the overdraft,” he said.

“We made a good profit at the end of the year and we are well ahead of budget this year.

“Now (council Organisation and Support director) Craig Neimann is on deck. He has been a huge asset for the council.”