2020-06-09 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA   9 JUNE 2020




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SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                    9 JUNE 2020

 ORDINARY MEETING AGENDA                                                   21 NOVEMBER 2019

 residents have the opportunity to make suggestions on matters related to the annual budget, and
 that they have access to the budget documents to help them understand the budget process.
 Meanwhile, the facilitated sessions with community group representatives should provide a good
 overview of community opinions, with no specific representative group or community sector
 dominating the discussion.
 Plainly all of this will require resourcing. There will be additional work for staff. Attending resident
 representative workshops, preparing presentations and on-line material, collating responses, and
 responding to requests for information will all add to staff workload during the budget process.
 Apart from the paid facilitator for the consultation sessions, there will likely also be a need for
 additional staff support to coordinate the whole consultation process. Funding for this will have to be
 considered during Budget Review Three.
 This proposed budget consultation method should be considered as a trial. Plainly we are heading
 into somewhat uncharted territory, and the process will need to be refined in coming years.
 Moving forward, staff will also undertake an assessment of available on-line tools that allow residents
 to input budget ideas and see for themselves the impacts those ideas have on rates, services etc.
 Such software is already available, but needs to be properly researched to determine its usefulness.
 Schedule-wise, initial preparation of the budget and associated documents can occur internally prior
 to the March elections. Plainly, any actual budget deliberations will be left to the new Council
 following the election. Arguably, it is best that the public consultation process also occur after the
 election — if for no other reason than to avoid the community participants finding themselves
 politicised during the election campaign. A proposed schedule for the whole budget process forms
 Attachment 1 to this Mayoral Minute.
 Overall, this proposed process seeks to find a workable and efficient means of garnering community
 input into our budget deliberations. Efforts to do so by other councils have been considered, ranging
 from Community Juries to making all budget workshops open to the public. There appears to be no
 perfect solution. | have spoken with Mayor Curran about Gympie Council’s efforts to engage their
 community in budget processes.
 The two-pronged approach being proposed here seeks to allow all residents opportunity for input,
 whilst structuring an opportunity for resident representatives to participate in a more detailed review
 of Council’s budget. | am not aware of any other local government that has attempted this sort of
 approach. But then Noosa Council is “different by nature”.

   lb it —                                         15 November 2019

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