2022-06-28 Special Meeting Agenda

SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA                                                                 28 JUNE 2022

1.    General communication of the process through Council social media channels, website and
      local newspapers.
2.    Establishment of an online Council Budget Engagement Process project page via the Your
      Say Noosa tile on Council’s website.
3.    Continuation of the Balance Your Noosa Council Operating Budget participation tool where
      residents could change budget spending priorities whilst still having to balance the budget.
4.    Encouraging general submissions regarding community budget priorities on the Council Your
      Say webpage via ideas, and also via email to Council’s budget feedback email address.
5.    Publishing of Council’s 10 year capital plan for feedback.
6.    Face to face sessions to allow residents to discuss budget priorities directly with Councillors.

A summary of the key outcomes has been provided below.

1     Balance Your Noosa Council Operating Budget Participation Tool




The balance the budget online participation tool was deployed on the Your Say Noosa webpage in
an attempt to engage and educate the community regarding Council’s budget, and to allow a resident
and or ratepayer to sit in a Councillor’s shoes regarding setting spending priorities, in addition to
ensuring that the budget is balanced by either increasing revenues or reducing spending in other
areas. Feedback from the use of the tool by the community was intended to assist Councillors in
understanding whether the spending priorities of the community aligns with Council’s current and
future spending priorities, with any significant funding misalignment explored and understood as part
of the budget process.

The tool was made available for a two week period from 20 May to 5 June 2022. Council received
2,631 page views, the average time on the webpage was 2 minutes 49 seconds, and 39 submissions
were made (users were required to balance the budget before a submission was allowed).

The two graphs below highlight the average overall balance the budget (BTB) submitted amounts
compared to Council’s current spending priorities (i.e. original 2021/22 budget) and proposed
spending priorities identified in developing the draft base 2022/23 budget. It should be noted that the
graphs represent averages across all of the 39 submissions made, with individual submissions
including both increases and decreases in expenditure for specific expenditure categories.




                                                                                         Page 4 of 79