Lettera del Presidente : Update on the security service

To all the Participants of the Community of Costa Paradiso Territory

Update on the security service

As you may have already learned (the news was reported in the Community's website), last December 22, this Board of Directors resolved to entrust a security company operating in Sardinia with the guarding service of Costa Paradiso Territory, which until now has been provided by Community employees. Basically there are two reasons that led us to this decision:

• the growing difficulties in providing the service with our own staff;

• the need to raise the level of effectiveness of the service in order to guarantee a better control of the common territory, of the natural environment and of the private properties.

Lately, the Costa Paradiso security service has suffered a remarkable reduction of its staff, mainly due to retirements. The current team of 5 people, because of sick leaves or absences for any reasons, can barely cover the 24-hour shifts. Please note that the security staff has always been made up of 7 people, plus 3 extra people during the high season from May to October.  The cost of the security personnel is approximately € 280,000/year to which we have to add some operational costs, so that the total cost of the service is about € 380,000/year.

In the last few years, some circumstances and events have highlighted the need to update this important service in order to satisfy the necessity of guarding and controlling the private properties, guarding and controlling common property and surveilling the territory. To achieve this, on 2018 the participants' assembly approved an expenditure of about € 500,000 to purchase high-tech equipment essential for the efficiency of a modern surveillance service.

Due to the Covid pandemic, we have postponed any decision on this matter making the situation even more complicated and driving this Board of Directors to make a cost-benefit analysis on the following basis:

• does it make sense to invest large sums in technologies that are constantly evolving and therefore subject to rapid obsolescence? Wouldn't it be more cost-effective to entrust the service to specialists asking them to provide us the best?

• does it make sense to engage ourselves in a difficult and costly maintenance of the necessary technological equipment?

• what are the advantages of having a more specialised service?

We have recently examined these and other considerations in depth, also taking  consideration the evolution of the situation and the substantial change that the Community will face in the near future. In this regard, the Community has already fulfilled all the requirements for the test of roads and standards and the requests of the Municipality. Recently, the inspector, Mr. Corda, has drawn up the final report and, in agreement with the Municipality, we can say that the procedure for the transfer of the property of 85 ha. of land, intended in the allotment plan to be used for primary urbanization works, including roads and standards, has been concluded, in line with the transfer procedure completed at the Inland Revenue Office. Soon, the Municipality will take charge of the road maintenance and will also take charge of the water and sewage systems in compliance with July 2021 decision of the Regional Administrative Tribunal.

All of the above foreshadows the new profile of our Community, that finally will not be burdened with costs and duties which has incurred for many years even if not of its responsibility. At last he Community will be able to plan for the future by engaging in activities aimed at improving the quality of life, respecting the territory and enhancing both the natural beauty and the investments made by all of us. All this will be carefully analyzed and we will collect the suggestions of all participants and all commercial operators on this regard.

The future New Community should, therefore, have an efficient and modern security service, on the basis of the above assumptions and the following aims:

• maintenance of workplace for all the current security staff;

• installation of the most modern equipment;

• keeping security costs at their current value;

• avoiding investment in rapidly obsolescent technology;

• avoiding conflicts of interest in such an important and sensitive service.

With this in mind, we have carried out a survey of the security companies located in Sardinia, which led to the choice of a highly referenced and certified company, which has been operating in the field for about 70 years: the cooperative "La Nuorese", based in Nuoro.

The company will install at its expense all the necessary video surveillance equipment covering the entire Costa Paradiso area and  will supervise the updating and maintenance of the equipment providing a 24-hour security guard for 365 days a year to monitor the area in real time. The video surveillance equipment will be managed by the same company with all the necessary precautions to protect the privacy and don't damage the environment. It will also provide a patrol security guard on the basis of a programme agreed with the Community.

The cost of the service will be kept within the current Community’s total annual expenditure for the security service.

The SECURITY issue has been the focus of particular attention since the installation of the previous Board of Directors, which had also brought it to the examination and evaluation of the Assembly of Participants pointing out the service limits, both for the manner in which it was carried out and for its efficiency, despite the willingness of our security guards. It was clear to all that a radical and modern action was necessary to improve the service according with the new and greater needs that had emerged, particularly in recent years.

The Board of Directors has taken on this important problem with an economically advantageous and qualitatively better solution than the current service. In any case, we are at the disposal of all those who wish to obtain further information.

THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Gianni Monterosso