2019-11-21 Ordinary Meeting Agenda

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. I 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. I am not aware of any other local government that has attempted this sort of
approach. But then Noosa Council is “different by nature”.




                                                                             15 November 2019
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Cr Tony Wellington                                                            Date




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