2015-11-16 GC Agenda - Item 3, Attach 1 - Annual Report 2014-15

                      Chief Executive Officer’s Message
                      Noosa Council finished the 2014/15 financial year in a sound financial
                      position. This was the official assessment by the Queensland Treasury
                      Corporation who determined our Council’s financial position as “sound with a
                      positive outlook”. This is a remarkable achievement given that 2014/15 is our
                      first full financial year following de-amalgamation. “Sound” is a 5 on a 7 point
                      scale and that result is better than most long-established Councils in
                      Queensland.

This assessment is a testament to the hard work by the Mayor, Councillors and staff in setting the
foundation blocks for the future success of our Council. Starting a new Council is not easy, but by
applying some key principles our Council has managed to meet the expectations of our community
by delivering quality services whilst keeping rates down. One of the keys to this success was the
use of zero based budgeting. This is a budgeting technique used by some in the private sector to
make sure that every single cost is justified. This budgeting approach takes more work, but it gets
better results. This enabled our Council to adopt its 2014/15 Budget with a 0% general rate rise
while maintaining its services to the community. The same budgeting process was used during the
year to develop the 2015/16 Budget.

During 2014/15, we also finished establishing the building blocks necessary to create a functioning
local government. These building blocks included a new set of local laws, establishing governance
arrangements and adopting a range of relevant policies. All of this occurred while we continued to
provide day-to-day services to our community. Feedback from our community demonstrates that
our parks look the best they have in some years. We have also been focusing on gathering
information about our community assets (like roads, stormwater and community facilities) to ensure
that we have the right plans in place to manage these community assets for future
generations. Our focus will also be on improving the delivery of our capital works program in future
years.

Furthermore, we found time to develop some innovative ideas. We launched Queensland’s first
Community Jury and published the Noosa Design Principles. We have also entered into a
memorandum of agreement with Translink to trial electric buses in Noosa. These innovative
projects will continue in the 2015/16 financial year.

None of this could have been achieved without the efforts of our staff. Those efforts have been
widely recognised as some of our Council staff have received State Awards including Local
Government Finance Professional of the Year, the Government Procurement Professional Award
and also Local Government Managers Australia’s (Qld) Above and Beyond Award.

The challenge now is for us is to keep the momentum going. We got off to a good start, but need
to make sure that we continue to strive to provide excellent service to our Noosa community. If we
keep striving to achieve this service excellence, we will be a Council that our community can be
proud of.

I would like to thank the Mayor, Councillors and all of our staff for their efforts throughout the year.

Brett de Chastel
CEO



Noosa Council Annual Report 2014/15                                                               Page 4