2016-03-07 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                           7 MARCH 2016


4                        TERM IN REVIEW 2014-2016
DOCUMENT INFORM AT ION




Author                            Chief Executive Officer, Brett de Chastel
                                  Executive Office

Index                             ECM/ Subject/ Councillors/ Mayor & Subject/ Corporate Planning

Attachments                       Nil


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Not applicable
.
RECOMMENDATION
That Council note the report by the Chief Executive Officer to the General Committee Meeting
dated 7 March 2016 reviewing the first term of office for the re-established Noosa Council.


REPORT
Introduction

The purpose of this report is to provide Council with some reflections on our first term. This is the
last Council meeting of this term and it would be remiss of me as CEO if I did not reflect on what
we have achieved since 1 January 2014.

Early Days

It seems like such a long time since the Mayor and Councillors were sworn in on 2 January 2014
at Cooroy. The last 2 years and 2 months have been an exhilarating period where we had the
privilege of establishing a local government from scratch. It would be fair to say that both
Councillors and staff felt a heavy weight of responsibility to deliver the expectations of the Noosa
community following an 82% “Yes” vote in the de-amalgamation process.

In our early days, the focus was on operational issues – delivering services from day one, ironing
out issues with our telephone system, reviewing the organisational structure, working through our
first budget, reviewing policies and procedures etc. Many of these initial issues were, by
necessity, internal operational issues that were needed to establish a functioning Council.

However, in the early period, there was also a focus on re-establishing some key services that
the Noosa community expected. This included the early re-introduction of the kerbside waste
collection which was very popular with the community. The Noosa maintenance manual was
also reintroduced which saw a gradual but noticeable improvement in the maintenance of public
spaces, particularly our parks and gardens.

In our first six months, we also commenced a number of reviews including a review of the
governance arrangements for the Noosa Biosphere® Reserve. All of these issues were
undertaken while preparing our first budget from the ground up.

However, above all else, the key focus was on bedding down the de-amalgamation issues in
order that the Council could get on with the normal business of local government as soon as
possible. A “speed over perfection” approach was taken to get through the myriad of
implementation issues as quickly as possible.

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