2017-11-07 S&O Agenda - Attachment 1 to Item 10 - Annual Report 2016-17

    Corporate Plan Theme 5: Excellence as a Council
    “The Noosa Shire community is proud of its Council”
    Key achievements as we work towards our long term goal include:
     We have had another successful financial year.           Council has recently undertaken its first external
      Revenues were above budget, expenses were                 customer service survey. The survey was
      below budget, debt levels are lower than at the           undertaken by Market Facts to enable us to
      beginning of the financial year and cash reserves         benchmark with other Queensland local
      are higher than at the beginning of the financial         governments (LGAQ also use this firm to
      year. At the end of 2016/17, Council adopted its          undertake state wide customer service surveys).
      budget for the 2017/18 financial year with a 2%           Our benchmark scores were above state
      general rate increase.                                    averages in almost every category.
     Council has successfully achieved another                Council continued to undertake a series of
      unmodified audit from the Queensland Audit                service reviews looking in detail at operations to
      Office with the 2015/16 financial statements              find ways in which we can be more efficient in
      being “signed off” by the Queensland Audit                delivering services. This included areas such as
      Office.                                                   the Noosa Leisure Centre, Environmental Health,
     Behind the scenes, the Audit and Risk                     and Building and Plumbing Services. Following
      Committee has continued to add value to our               these reviews, Council adopted additional staff
      compliance and performance for governance and             resources in some parts of the organisation to
      finance. This has included an oversight of our            ensure that appropriate service levels can be
      strategic risks, review of key governance and             delivered.
      financial policies, review of organisational KPI’s,      The transformation of our Workplace Health and
      development of Business Continuity Planning               Safety performance has continued. Significant
      etc. Our two external members of the Audit and            progress has been made in relation to our
      Risk Committee in particular have added                   documentation, processes and practices for
      significantly to our overall governance practices.        Workplace Health and Safety. Based on the
      Although not high profile, this Committee plays           Local Government Workcare Performance
      an important role in making sure that Council             statistics for category D Councils, we have
      “dots the i’s and crosses the t’s” both in                transitioned from one of the worst performing
      governance and in the management of risk.                 local governments of our size to one of the best
      Council’s Internal Audit Program included                 performing local governments of our size for Lost
      internal audits on Procurement and Council                Time Frequency and Lost Time Injury.
      investments.                                             A Digital Strategy has been developed for
     Council commenced a review of                   our       management to focus on opportunities available
      organisational structure at the end of 2016 with          with emerging digital technology. This strategy
      the new structure being adopted in March 2017.            focuses     particularly   on     improving    our
      Following considerable internal consultation, the         organisational efficiency using digital technology
      Planning and Infrastructure Department was split          as well as improving our interface to our
      in two with a new Environment and Sustainable             community. During the year, more mobile
      Development        Department     and     a    new        technology was rolled out to our external
      Infrastructure    Services    Department     being        workforce.
      created. Also during 2016/17, Council added              We commenced negotiations for a Noosa
      additional staff resources to our Infrastructure          Council Certified Agreement. These negotiations
      Design and Delivery Branch and Asset                      with unions will continue into the 2017/18
      Management Branch to enable them to deliver               financial year.
      expected outcomes.
                                                               We transitioned our ICT systems to the latest
     Our enterprise risk management has been                   version of the Cloud which provided enhanced
      further developed with risk management                    security and stability for our systems which is
      practices being further embedded into Council             important given the number of cyber-attacks
      operations. Council was recognised by Local               occurring at the moment.           We have also
      Government Mutual for our risk management                 continued to roll out our ICT strategy to enhance
      practices.     Our     comprehensive      Business        our system capabilities.
      Continuity Plans are all but complete and will be
                                                               We      undertook   significant   training    and
      tested in early 2017/18.
                                                                development for leadership capabilities within the
     Our Noosa Aquatic Centre, Noosa Leisure                   organisation. This included the continuation of
      Centre and The J all had outstanding years. The           the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) program
      Noosa Leisure Centre had its highest ever                 for our senior management staff (approximately
      annual attendance, The J had its highest ever             30 staff leaders)
      revenue and the Noosa Aquatic Centre had its

                                                                              Noosa Council | Annual Report 2016 - 2017
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