General Committee, 20 January 2025
Date: Monday, 20 January 2025 at 12:30PM
Location: Noosa Shire Council Chambers , 9 Pelican Street , Tewantin , QLD 4565 , Australia
Organiser: Noosa Shire Council
Duration: 05:13:25
Synopsis: Transport: End free buses; extend Noosa Drive trial; parking reinstated, Budget: BR2 surplus, Waste: Landfill capping, Governance: Procurement transparency, Grants revised, Cooroy housing deferred.
Meeting Attendees
Councillors
Brian Stockwell Karen Finzel Amelia Lorentson Jessica Phillips Tom Wegener Frank Wilkie Nicola Wilson Executive Officers
Chief Executive Officer Larry Sengstock Director Infrastructure Services Shaun Walsh Director Strategy And Environment Kim Rawlings Acting Director Development & Regulation Allan Hazell Acting Director Corporate Services Margaret Gatt Acting Director Community Services Paul Brinkman Deputations
Anne Kennedy Vivien Griffin Jennifer Clement Meeting Transcript
Brian Stockwell 00:00.280
All Councillors present, although Councillor Wilson is attending by MS Teams, to pay our respects to the Traditional Custodians of the Shire, the Kabi Kabi people, to their ancestors until he emerged. And to the emerging leaders. And just because it is the first year, first meeting of the year, I thought I'd look up what the NAIDOC week theme is this year. And in 2025 it's celebrating 50 years of honouring and elevating indigenous voices, culture and resilience. The theme is the next generation strengths, vision and legacy. Celebrating not only the achievements of the past, but the bright future ahead, empowered by the strengths of our young leaders, the visions of our communities. Benefit we're of seeing the benefit of that here at the moment with the native title declaration. We've also got a range of young land and sea rangers working on country both in our Shire and Sunshine Coast and others. And they are the emerging leaders of the Kabi Kabi people. So we move on to the first item on the agenda which is attendance. I did that out of order. Confirmation of minutes. Do we have a second? Do Councillor Wegener. I presume there's no debate. All those and Councillor Wilson? Yes. Thank you, that carried unanimously. We have no presentations but we do have a deputation. And the deputation is in regard to sustainable transport and the and we will have speakers Anne Kennedy, Vivien Griffin and Jennifer Clement and they're from the Zero Emissions Noosa group. So welcome to the meeting. Anne Kennedy 01:45.834
Thank you Councillor Stockwell and Councillors for the opportunity to talk to you about what we consider to be a really important issue for the Shire. I think all of you know me. I'd say we haven't met Councillor Phillips yet but we are going to see her soon for a briefing. We have Vivien Griffin with us who many of you know is a former Noosa and Sunshine Coast Councillor and fierce advocate for sustainable transport. And Jenny Clement who's our Chair of our transport working group. So I'll hand over to Vivien to start. Thanks, Anne, and thank you very much for the opportunity to make this presentation to you today. As you know, ZEN has worked in partnership with Noosa Council on many issues. We greatly appreciate appreciative of that partnership. I'm going to set the scene, just looking at the present and some of the challenges that we see at the moment. But ZEN has a reputation for always looking at the positives. It's easy. In Noosa to be against. It's much more difficult to be focused on the future and what we are for in the future. But just in setting the scene with transport policy, your current policy situation, you will be well aware of this, but I'll just recap. You have the transport policy, 10 years, 2017 to 2027. It has eight principles and 15 desired outcomes. And they all identify the right direction. It's inspiring reading for what the Council set out to do. The number one desired outcome in that policy is that residents and workers of Noosa Shire are able to go about their everyday day business without having to be reliant on private vehicles. Number one desired outcome. The other key policy document, Noosa cycling and Walking Strategy and implementation plan, 2020 to well that 2040 has got me worried. So that plan lists 369 projects, very thorough analysis of the warping and cycling needs in Noosa, 118 in the hinterland. And that's. Kin Kin, Cooroy, Pomona, say can I say obviously corrine, obviously you know where the hinterland is, three and so and 251 on the Coast, so a total of 369. Only 38. Identified as low-cost or missing link projects, so the others have been identified as very important. So that cycling plan was not about responding to tourism congestion, it's about responding to Noosa family everyday needs. Clearly needs a major focus to be delivered for benefit for residents. Across the Shire, not just the tourism hotspots. So that's the policy situation. If you have a look at the funding situation, and we think our timing's really good because you've got Shaun Walsh's report coming up after us. So currently you've got the transport levy, $30 per rate payer, raising $939,000 per year, and interestingly large businesses pay exactly the same as the family in Cooran. That's an interesting amount. Point to think about. Go Noosa, as Shaun's report will identify, costs $1.017 million, so more than the transport levy is raising. And currently, primarily for the free buses. And great that Shaun has brought that report for consideration by Council. The cycle path annual infrastructure commitment is $1.45 million per year. What progress has been made so far? Really, we have to ask that serious question and ask, can Councillors really say that 1.45 million is going to be enough to deliver those 118 hinterland and 251 coastal pathway projects, even if we're working on what I think is an unacceptable target of 2040.2040. Interesting again that Sean's report talks about the opportunities for e-bikes and e-scooters and the need for looking at infrastructure to enable safe choices of those lines to be made. So what do we what do we see is the perceived problems. One is the policy document set up great intentions but we think there's a shortfall in implementation. The transport policy has those fine principles and outcomes but it's too broad, it doesn't contain measurable outcomes and there's no clear action plan. For those reasons we would say there is a failure of governance as a lack of measurable outcomes means it's virtually impossible to have meaningful progress reviews. We think there's too little funding to deliver real change and arguably Noosa is going backwards in meeting current and future population pressures both within and from external pressures as well. Limited resources lead to a limited response and I know the difficulties. About recruiting staff as well so Noosa Council has to look at how it becomes an employer of choice so the major focus using those limited resources has been on tourism congestion. With very little being delivered for local benefit for local residents meeting their daily transport needs. We think the combination of those factors means that Noosa's reputation at as a unique and livable community. Is at risk for the future. So we've identified four key desired outcomes and Anne is going to speak in detail to those, but we would identify them as development of measurable outcomes. For what are excellent strategies at the moment. Development, once you have measurable outcomes, then you can have development of a review process your quarterly operational plan review. Development of an additional funding stream, and Anne will speak to that. And importantly, the ten year vision for Noosa, yours is the term of Council that will set that foundation for where Noosa will be in those next 10 years. So it's a terrific opportunity, and I'll hand back to Anne now to outline the details. Thank you, Vivian. Noosa 2017 strategy 2017-2027 is a great, plan and had great foresight. We see some green shoots like the great Noosa bus, but that was initiated in 2001. The initiatives recently during the holiday during the holiday period around Noosa Drive and the Hastings Street intersection had some good results, and it's great to see Stephanie's been founded as the new sustainable transport officer, so we look forward to working with her. But this is only tinkering around the edges of a sustainable transport policy. As Noosa residents, think are missing out on walking and cycling infrastructure in particular. We pay the levy, but we get very little benefit from the levy. It mainly benefits tourists. Is that fair? It's now 2025, only two years to go till 2027 when the Transport Strategy is to be actually implemented. Noosa needs to be bold like places like Paris, Brussels and other cities and smaller towns that have reduced dependence on cars, increased public transport systems and their use, and encouraged alternative transport. For example Paris had a vision in 2017 to ban diesel and petrol vehicles, have more e-buses and three times more EV charging stations. So what will Noosa look like in 2032 for our visitors from the Olympics? We want our visitors to have a truly Noosa experience. So we're looking for something like big bombs. Visions, like a 50% reduction in cars in Noosa villages, to be replaced by e-mobility, bikes, scooters and people movers. We're suggesting no cars in Hastings Street, the spit, Park Road to the national park. And that people would be moved from these key tourist destinations, and where locals like to go as well, in fun people movers, on a continuous loop, taking people from those parking modes to Hastings Street, the spit, the national park. And Noosa Junction. Ironically, this was first suggested in 1993 by some of the people in this room today. Smaller e-buses throughout the Shire would be great, and that's a constant feedback that we get as Zero Emissions Noosa that the community is looking for. Integrated public transport system across all villages in the Noosa Shire, and the incentive for people to reduce their car use by having continuous fun in public transport. So how do you pay for this? We've got two suggestions for additional funding streams. Firstly, paid car non by-residents. So opening Noosa Woods, for example, to paid car parking, just like the Lions Park is today, could be introduced in the 2025 budget. If this was carried out for 10 years, we've estimated there would be multi-million dollars coming in for transport initiatives. After 10 years, it would be returned to the community, because after all, it is community space. Now it number plate recognition could be used, so residents don't have to pay. Trial should I be I very daring? And say trial paid parking could be considered Hastings Street, for example, as part of a trial to perhaps be extended later into other areas. The other revenue source is a differential transport levy for businesses. Pay, as Vivien has mentioned, the same levy as households. If businesses paid. At the levy based on the number of employees they have or the number of car parks they have, then that would help to increase the revenue stream. Incentives for businesses that have solar. Electric plug-in hybrids and or any bike charges could be put in place to encourage businesses to reduce the levy that they have to pay as well as all the other benefits that you get from having those mechanisms in place I'll now hand over to Jenny who's the Chair of the Chair of our transport working group she's going to talk about some of the ZEN initiatives that we'll be doing in the first six months of the year. Jennifer Clement 13:32.776
Thank you so hi I just wanted to build on what Ann and Vivien have said um and as I said I'm going to mention what the ZEN transport action group is working on. Through our programs, and I'm new to the job, and my understanding is we've worked very closely with Council to progress this downfall of transport, and we want to keep doing that. You're probably aware of some of the projects we've had in particularly in active transport um so in the past we had a we mapped cycling hotspots and that information still exists if the Council would like to access that um and our new exciting project which was starting up soon e-bike library where residents will be able to borrow and try before they buy um e-bikes so we're hoping to promote more active transport that way and in addition to that I'm sure you're all aware of the ev expo that's on annually and we also have a team within our action group that's researching and advocating for better ev charger networks within the Shire um so to work towards also to help us work towards our thinking on transport and hopefully to also share that with Council is we um plan to hold a series of community consultations over the next six months where we can talk to community members about our vision about the priorities in the action plans and hopefully get people's enthusiasm and I'm support along the way. So we're really happy to share any of the information about our projects and about those consultations with you. Thank you. Unidentified Speaker 15:20.458
And just to finalise we'd like to show a challenge to our Councillors. As Noosa residents we would like our Councillors to continue to show leadership in the sustainable transport place, transport space. We would like them to be future focused and daring, to be innovative, to reach our net zero community emissions target and to be a role model for biospheres about how you can live in a biosphere. Seize opportunities. For example, the 2025-26 budget, which is in the second year of this Council term, is the ideal time to implement the recommendations that we've outlined in our transport paper, which we sent to you late last week and happy to resend again. If it's got lost in your email inbox. The five recommendations we suggest would jumpstart the Transport Strategy and walking and cycling strategies. We're very happy to continue working collaboratively with Council and really urge Council to reinstate the transport reference group of a number of years ago because we think that gave really valuable community input into Council's planning and progress on implementing the sustainable Transport Strategy. So thank you for your time today. The opportunity to outline these issues and hopefully some possible solutions for your attention. Unidentified Speaker 16:44.571
Thank you. So. Brian Stockwell 16:50.233
This is the first meeting. There was no reports referred from the two previous committees because we didn't have them. So we move on to item one. 1 in 8 of reports directed to the General Committee and I'd like to welcome up our Director Sean and transport officer Stephanie to give us an overview on the Noosa interim report. Shaun Walsh 17:15.492
It's actually a joint report between the three of us, I'm just going to correct the author. So the Councillors have been introduced to Dr Stephanie Belon previously, our Sustainable Transport Coordinator, so I'm very familiar with her. The report presented to you today is a monthly report. Every we do present a very comprehensive annual report on the Go Noosa Program, including use of buses and success of various trials such as the Hastings Street drop-off zone and the Noosa Heads Lions Park. This is a report in advance of that because of particular operational deadlines, one of which, the first report is about that Council needs to commit to the extension of the free bus program for next financial year now. So in light of the fact that the State government has committed to the 50 cent fares for the balance of its term, which is appropriate, it seems unwise to commit to a free bus program when the State governors are repaying 50 cent, or subsidising 50 cent fares. We note that in support of that is that we've had significant uplift in public transport as a result of the 50 cent fares with a 9% uplift on week. Weekends and 22% on weekdays. So the report recommends in regard to that particular operational aspect that Council authorise the CEO to negotiate with TransLink to cease the 50 cent fares. The one exception that we're looking at free loop bus service that operates around the park and ride services, at the AFL grounds and The J, which operates as an additional service to traditional TransLink services. The next operational issue that we're asking to continue is just to remind Council about the, that we're undertaking a review of the Council cabs and Flexilink services, their specific services that operate in our hinterland. This review was forecast in our report last year and noted that with competing services provided now by community and charitable groups and we also note that TransLink and other localities such as Hervey Bay, Ipswich, Cornwall, Gold Coast and Logan actually operate small on-demand buses for small populations. For some reason hasn't been considered for that. And there's also an opportunity to consider what subsidies are available for many passengers under ACAT programs and also NDIS programs which weren't envisaged when the Council cabinet and civic service went out. So we'll be able to take an engagement current users for that program which costs $58,000 a year at the moment. We also note that in the report that we've been trialling some changes in Noosa Drive between Hastings Street and Noosa Parade with the repurposing of some car parking bays to pedestrian areas and relocation of loading bays. And we've received very favourable feedback over that period over Christmas and we'd like to extend that trial for another three months to actually elicit further formal feedback from all stakeholders to actually make an ongoing decision about whether that makes sense. We note that during the Christmas year period what that area does is prevents people parking or stopping the laneways while people reverse and sometimes that delay of up to five to ten minutes while they're waiting for people to unload causes significant traffic chaos down Hastings Street and also up the hill into Noosa Drive. We so we think there's merit while got active you know change in the parking arrangements to continue that profile and get really good feedback. The report notes of course that we'll also be undertaking a community information program about these relevant changes so very much welcome to questions. Brian Stockwell 20:48.755
Questions of staff, anyone? Amelia Lorentson 20:51.967
Hey Stephanie, hi Shaun. In terms of the 50 cent bus fares, they were introduced in May, June of last year. Did Council attempt to negotiate their way out of the existing contract? And were they able to? Shaun Walsh 21:10.944
We weren't able to negotiate our way out of the existing contract, the is signed. So it was also, you've got to remember that was in the lead up to the State election, so it was uncertain about whether those changes would be ongoing or not. And we also note that the new contract was about to basically kick in for this financial year and we needed to be very careful that we actually had a fleet of buses available to service, you know, passenger mobility over the Christmas /Easter period. So we were basically waiting for confirmation that the 50 cent fares were going to be ongoing to be able to commence this process of contract negotiations. We were waiting for commitment as the LNP, or the new state government, could have also withdrawn from that commitment, so we needed to ensure that we had the buses available mobility actually requirements. Any questions? Jessica Phillips 21:58.436
Yes, thank you. Hi, Shaun. Good afternoon. Just in relation to the parking chambers at Noosa Drive, can you tell me how we are going to be collecting data to give us the three-month trial and what will that look like, I guess, for us to. Shaun Walsh 22:13.231
We hadn't haven't put much thought into it as yet. So, normally what we would do is similar to a works notice. We would actually do a delivery to each of the affected businesses around there. We'd also work with our community engagement team to post it on Have Your Say to see what submissions we get. And we could also include it in relevant Council media releases and a lot. And then there's also a lot of benefit in actually walking the street and asking people what they think. So we're really waiting to see what the outcomes of this discussion in Council for an appetite for trial to tell what that program looks like. But it'll be fairly low cost and very grounded. Karen Finzel 22:51.954
Thank you for the report. Given what we've just heard from the ZEN group, is this an opportunity for the consumer reference group for GO transport to be reinstated? And if so, how do we go about that? Shaun Walsh 23:08.957
Yeah, so in the event that Council supports this resolution to look at ceasing the free bus program in lieu of the 50 cent fares, we'd actually first of all like to sit down with Councillors to actually, because we've already got a number of different desires on the table about loop bus services, one-way traffic arrangements, e-transport. So the first of all is we'd actually like to get a feeling from Councillors about where you think resources, that's where staff and funding should be redirected to, and start to prepare a draft action plan. We've actually already had on our agenda that we would actually like to reinstate the transport reference group. It fell away during COVID and as you're aware we've had significant resourcing issues in our transport and traffic area, so we haven't been able to reinstate it but we think it was a very valuable reference group prior to COVID and we think that you know if we come up with a draft action plan of how we'd like to redirect our resources in our focus areas that'd be our First Point of call to actually you know road test it before we come back to Council for adoption as the action plan for the next three years until we do a review of our Transport Strategy. Thank you. Frank Wilkie 24:15.465
Sean, you mentioned in this report that, this is only an interim report, it's going to be a more comprehensive report. Can you talk about the scope of a more comprehensive report and also how the, your ideas about how the freed up levy funds, the action plan that might flow from that might talk to this more comprehensive report? Shaun Walsh 24:36.479
Yeah. Or not? So firstly, the Go Noosa evaluation report, it actually tracks all the passenger numbers on all the different services. So that's the first thing to see, you know, has it been successful? How many people, you know, moved into Hastings Street by public transport, and to see if we've had uplift or decline, so that we know that, you know, whilst we might have 14,000 cars coming into Hastings Street, you know, how many passengers did we have actually coming on public transport? Frank Wilkie 25:01.763
And translators sharing that data? Yeah, but it takes a while for them to actually. Shaun Walsh 25:05.267
Gather that data until after Easter, so that's why we are. Aren't able to report that data at the moment. The other data that we present in that Noosa report is also car parking data, and this year we didn't do the car park tech trial, but certainly we'll be able to give the data of the Noosa Heads Lions Park, how many cars actually use the Noosa Headlands overflow park, and how much, you know, is the financial arrangements based around that. And then we also give a current running tally of the costs associated with the Go Noosa Program. And as referenced in the report, we're currently running a deficit with the, you know, we're raising over 900,000 in levy, but, you know, our costs are now exceeding a million dollars. So, and those balance costs are actually coming from general rate revenue. So, you know, and the we also give data on are the more minor programs, like attendance at the Go Noosa school programs, use of the Council Cabs and Flexilink service. So, and then we also do a summation of how we think the traffic arrangements worked around Hastings Street, very congested location, and the success or failure or otherwise of the Main Beach drop-off zone, which we replicated again this year, and further improvement. So it's a very holistic report, gathering all the available data that we can to actually help inform our way forward. In terms of priorities moving forward, I think it would be really good timing that if at the same time we evaluated the Go Noosa Program comprehensively with the data, we could also use that as a mechanism to actually present a draft action plan of redirection of our resources. Now as referenced in the report there's a couple of certainly one notice of motion about e-transport education programs and safety. We also have another outstanding motion about one-way loop road arrangements around Noosa and they're items that we think are really valuable to consider but we haven't had the resources to be able to advance those both time and staff as well as funding. I'm also interested in I know with our for instance our Environment Levy we have reserve the funds that we use to acquire land and we use that for matching funding for various environmental initiatives. One thing I'd be keen to explore with Council is the idea of the reserve for bikeways and pathways because we know a lot of the funding that we get from the State is 50 percent matching funding and without a reserve it makes us less attractive or less able to actually aggressively apply for grants because if we had a 1.5 million in reserves dollars in reserve for transport projects for bikeways that means we could get a grant from the State government for 1.5 million so suddenly we've ended up with three million dollars worth of parkway so we can advance those things quite further so and that was just an idea I just wanted to say that the amount that we're currently using to fund the Go Noosa free bus program is significant and it will allow a significant redeployment of resources and funding into new initiatives to help get people moving in Noosa. Frank Wilkie 27:57.652
And just a follow does-up question. The TransLink data on bus patrons give us a breakdown or any indication of what percentage of patrons are locals versus visitors? No. No. It's just provide globals. Just numbers. Yeah. In terms of how many patronage users have-specific user services like the 627 and so on. So the only thing we could track is any increase in patronage. Right. Thank you. Amelia Lorentson 28:26.931
I have a couple of questions. In regards to. And I'm referencing the deputation made by Zero Emissions Noosa. How do we avoid duplication? They're doing similar works that what we're doing in terms of collating data for. Parking, community sentiment. Do we align our efforts with that of ZEN to avoid situations of duplications? Shaun Walsh 28:55.064
There's definitely opportunity to work together a lot closer and whilst I can't speak of Council's decision on how it works with ZEN Noosa, Council does work collaboratively with a number of other community organisations to help achieve its collaborative outcomes. So that could be open for discussion how we better partner with and fund the various community groups to achieve sustainable outcomes, and if I think some of the community outreach programs like the Go Noosa schools program, and we know that in our normal operating environment, non-holidays, our school roads at Beckmans Road, Ben Lexcen Drive and Elm Street in Cooroy are our most congested locations in Noosa for traffic congestion, and I joyfully travel through two of those each day, so that was very daily. And getting parents to arrange their children to school in another way other than private transport is a very good community education program. And sometimes those community education programs are actually much better delivered by non-profit but for purpose organisations versus council officers, because we tend to get drawn into the day-to bureaucracy of responding to t's and l's and yellow lines and the like, if that makes sense, for car parking arrangements. So there's certainly opportunity to explore that. Fantastic. Amelia Lorentson 30:08.443
And in terms of trials, similar trials, are we looking at exploring similar trials or putting the same sort of energy and focus in other hot spots, traffic hot spots around the Shire, including Peregian beach, including Pomona, including our hinterland areas? Is that something that we're considering for the future, rather than just tasting streets? Fantastic. Shaun Walsh 30:33.998
And I look forward to having a workshop with Council to discuss different ideas that we can test. We note that a lot of our working population live in the hinterland, so their mobility is just as important as our coastal areas, and that's certainly worth exploring. So I think it's really an opportunity for further consideration on that. We do need to be cognisant of that one of the reasons we haven't advanced our transport and traffic arrangements as quickly as we would have liked is because of resourcing. We've currently got three vacant technical traffic and transport team and that vacancy rate has been running for over two years now. So how we actually recruit to these roles and retain them and our focus on sustainable transport has been part of that answer that we're not just traditional traffic engineering. So I just want to be, what I'd like to do is come up with an action list which is grounded and we can actually deliver it with any resources that we're certain we've got. But at the same time I think we need to focus on a solution which is coastal, one is riverine, like Noosaville, Tewantin, and one is hinterland. So that we've actually got balance in our actions and our efforts. Amelia Lorentson 31:35.238
Fantastic. I'd like to move an amendment if possible. Thank you Vicki. Well, no one's moved. Do you want to move a motion? Oh okay, I'll move a motion just with an amendment. Thank you. Brian Stockwell 32:02.383
Have you got to read out the addition to the staff recommendation please? Amelia Lorentson 32:06.622
So I'd like to add to the recommendation. Note that Council has committed to reinstate general parking bays on Noosa Drive to offset the loss of car parks from the proposed changes and ensure loading bays are clearly marked and used exclusively for loading purposes. Do we have a seconder? I'm I'll happy have to second. Councillor Phillips. Councillor Lorentson. I made the addition and I note that Council are already in the process of doing both these actions, but I wanted to include it as part of the report to respond to a lot of feedback that has been received during the process. There has been a loss of general car parking and the designated loading zones have not been used exclusively for loading. Speaking to businesses delivery drivers have actually recorded probably one of the worst periods of actually loading and unloading. I frequent that area. I think I'm in and out of that precinct minimum two times a day, five o'clock in the morning. And maybe late in the afternoon. It's not been used for the purpose designated so clearly marking the base and I was really encouraged when I spoke to Shaun and Larry that already been approved to happen will make a huge difference for the delivery drivers and I also want to note that one of the primaries that the primary reasons and I think something that needs to be probably a little bit more clearly articulated is the safety reasons for the continuation of this trial again having witnessed myself you know is it is really quite dangerous that corner zone so so the addition is just a noting report which responds to feedback that has been already collated during the trial think thank you that's something to look that's going on but yeah that's. Frank Wilkie 34:20.563
Certainly yeah just to a question to staff what are your comments about the commitment to reinstate general parking bays on Noosa Drive, whereabouts on Noosa Drive? Shaun Walsh 34:33.991
Well firstly there are a number of parking bays that need reinstatement not just the three that are lost so we firstly have three bays that are used for emergency vehicles so which is all about presenting the right image particularly in the lead up to new year's Eve to actually moderate you know visitors behaviour that there is you know closely monitored and so those three bays can be reinstated to normal parking so that's certainly on the cards and then the others which are lost after the purpose of the pedestrian bay we can look at various options to do that one that springs to mind at the moment is that there's some three 30-minute bays adjacent to the Noosa Heads bus station and there's an opportunity to convert those to two hours so to actually replace you know that length of time period and then we could look at other opportunities for short-term parking so we'd have to take it on notice the exact parameters but I think that's a reasonable request that we could accommodate. Yes, correct. Karen Finzel 35:27.049
Thank you. Looking at the net loss of the parking due to the relocation of the bay and we were looking at reinstating three bays behind the bus stop so the net loss will be. Shaun Walsh 35:38.001
Only one parking bay. Amelia Lorentson 35:39.904
Excellent. Thank you. Anyone else who needs to talk to the motion? Oh, okay. Well, um, we've been looking at the net oh look, I will. Frank Wilkie 35:46.649
Thank you very much for the report, the interim report. It's very timely. Given that 50 cent fares would likely be here to stay, there was considerable excitement when 50 cent fares were introduced last year and we were waiting to see whether they were going to be permanent or not. There's a general sense that there's no sense in continuing with the free bus service if the fares are only 50 cents and you need a go card, you just need an EFTPOS card to tap on and tap off and the potential to free up a lot of the transport levy which is paid, a significant amount is paid by residents. Was very exciting and I'm looking forward to having discussions about how we can use that freed up transport levy to advance a lot of the initiatives that we heard about this morning. Tom Wegener 36:42.972
Good question. So in the last meeting we discussed the loop bus which is the free loop bus but the issue was 50 cent fares wouldn't work on that because people hop in with a big family and you know each person has to have their own 50 cent card. Has there been any further development on a way to get the 50 cent for the loop bus? Shaun Walsh 37:07.238
Firstly, the indications report is we probably have to retain the loop bus which is a supplementary service as a free service so and it's 50 cents free it's not that really that much difference and you're right we couldn't really implement that for multiple passengers but I will note that we discussed about whether TransLink would allow Council to operate an independent service to its buses and the legal advice indicates that it's not an exclusive no we can actually work with TransLink actually provide an alternative service providing we're not competing with their offer but we need to negotiate with them and they'll be part of the negotiation terms but that might allow us to actually run a totally different type of bus than what TransLink does for us it could be smaller more mobile a different energy source you know to actually more attuned to the Noosa brand so we look forward to pursuing those discussions with TransLink about what options are available you know as part of a different makeup but that loop service would definitely need to remain free to be attractive and usable for the users. Brian Stockwell 38:11.400
You want to speak to Tom? I can't hear you. Amelia Lorentson 38:17.681
I'll just close by saying that I'm actually really looking forward for the full report to come back to Council and also for the feedback from this three-month continuation I believe that we need to consider as part of the feedback the broader community and understand that at five o'clock in the morning we've got our swimmers and our surfers and our runners and our walkers that may be impacted by these changes and that we make into in that precinct so that feedback is really critical and also critical is the feedback that I'm getting quite a lot is there are some excellent solutions out in community so the community had clearly stated they want to be actively involved in finding solutions like blocking pedestrian accesses there's some really great ideas there so I'd love to be able to capture that and maybe during the three-month trial we can ask that question you know this is the problem we're wanting to solve with these changes do you think there are better solutions but I just think involving the community and not necessarily just the business precinct the broader community I think we may find some really great ideas floating out there just lastly welcome on board Stephanie really so exciting I think I came and said hello to you for a lot of times and your staff I'm closing and thanking Stephanie for the report excuse me Councillor Stockwell what's not appropriate your clothes have to be reply to what has been raised in debate you're raising a new matter I think in Stephanie okay thank you Councillor Stockwell I won't thank Stephanie next time so in closing thank you for the report Stephanie and happy to support the recommendation and the continuation of the trial and negotiations with TransLink. Brian Stockwell 40:32.015
I'll put the motion. Those in favour? That's unanimous. Nicola? I'm sorry. So we move on to item number two. And that is contract number RP0072 for a for pre-qualified suppliers for provision of parks and landscaping services. Shaun Walsh 41:02.520
Okay, I'd like to cast us to introduce Jodie Lascelles, who's our and streetscape coordinator. So he's prepared this report with Brian O'Connor and Brian white on procurement. I'll get Jodie to present this matter as I've talked to her. Jodie Lascelles 41:16.572
Thank you, good afternoon Councillors. This is in regards to a register of pre-qualified-pandemic to a supplies register supplies for parks and for parks and landscaping. Services, I'm November 2022. Approximately three years ago, Council approved a register to be formed. There were 16 suppliers on the register who were pre-qualified to perform a number of services including landscape services including construction. Landscape maintenance, landscape management, turf and care, irrigation and watering, and those supplies could be called on at any time to properly come and do some work for Council under their schedule of rates there's that's tendered at the time. So the 16 local suppliers. Have been operating for the last three years. It was seen at the time that we really wanted to encourage local business to develop and support the development of local businesses and those new businesses that we've already got come to the area. So we wanted to expand our list of suppliers. So we went out to tender later last year and we had 22 new respondents respond to that. We went through an evaluation, quite a complex evaluation looking at the their financial capabilities, technical capabilities, management, their workforce health and safety, their environmental sustainability and their schedule of rates. And we're recommending a further 16 local suppliers and other suppliers being put onto our list so that current suppliers already on the list didn't have to retender. Some did because they had some change of ownership so they wanted to update their schedule of rates or they wanted to change some of the details that were on the schedule. But our recommendation is that those 16 essentially remain on the register. And then we add a further onto 16. That pre-qualified supply register for those services. So the recommendation is that Council note the report and approve the contract RP00073 for the register of for the Register of Prequalified Suppliers for parks and landscaping services. It will be for an additional 12 months to the 30th of November this year and after that 12 months approve the CDO to extend that for a further 12 months. Been performing effectively. Frank Wilkie 43:48.612
Do we have questions? So, the CDO will be just for the to. Next 12 months. Clarify, was there-- and then this we will be running responding to interest in being part we of will be running the CDO for the next 12 months. List this from a lot of these contractors. Plus also Council was looking at noosinger's capabilities. Jodie Lascelles 44:08.441
Yes, essentially both. In the last three years there has been a number of new suppliers have established in Noosa and. Also we just really wanted to expand the capabilities of the current register. So there was a number of services that we felt there was other suppliers in the market that could have performed those services and that we just wanted to give an opportunity for businesses that had started up, but it really just enhances our capacity to be able to utilise multiple contractors for various projects and that remain. So being on the register doesn't guarantee that they're going to get work, any guaranteed work, but it certainly means that if. Council needed some work done, they've already submitted all of their insurances, work by sense of safety systems, and all the things they need to do to get prompt work so we can engage them directly without go through all of that every time. Frank Wilkie 45:05.224
So they're all properly credentialed, but can you talk about what weighting is given to their location, like being local for example? Jodie Lascelles 45:12.979
Yes, that's certainly one of the criteria that's been evaluated, and the majority of the companies. That have been put up are local suppliers, or have a local component to their business, and that was one of the criteria, including workplace health and safety. Capabilities, technical capabilities, and. Frank Wilkie 45:37.825
Then you have the local. Jodie Lascelles 45:40.365
Component as well. Thank you. Jessica Phillips 45:45.206
Just a couple of questions please. Just at the end you mentioned performance. How do we review performance with the contractors? Jodie Lascelles 45:52.252
It's um it's done on it depends on the services that we get them to do. If it's a project they are evaluated through that project so the project manager will determine the performance for that project. Sometimes we'll engage them on a regular service so it might be every month we want you to do X and Y Z and that will be evaluated at the end of the period that happens. So any of the suppliers that might not be prompting the delivery or there's questions over there the work quality and that gets recorded and then we'll certainly liaise with those businesses throughout that time but if it's unresolved then it's something that we can consider that you know their performance isn't good enough to have them included on the next. Extension we haven't had that today. Jessica Phillips 46:47.158
I'll try and ask this without this hasn't come from any like community or anything it's just in policing. Let's say we have an area near a school but one of these contractors may be attending for works. How do we go through blue card checks and make sure that the relevant contractor has gone through? Know, safety checks just to go another level of governance. Jodie Lascelles 47:12.713
Generally the services that are provided under this contract won't be working with children. So blue cards are obviously more around working with children rather than working near children. So certainly a lot of these companies will be working in places where children may be, for example in parks, playgrounds, open spaces, public open spaces, or near schools, but it doesn't necessarily mean they need the blue card to be undertaking those services. And I wouldn't think that even under those projects that we do and maintenance services that we do, there would really be any type of interaction with children. Brian Stockwell 47:48.698
Thank you. Questions? Amelia Lorentson 47:52.711
Well, Council have been reviewing whether some of these services currently. Externally sourced, whether there's an opportunity for us to do it in-house through our parks and maintenance guys? Jodie Lascelles 48:07.827
Absolutely. There's a lot of services that we currently already do in-house with our current staff and certainly if we've got the staff capacity and capability to do it ourselves, we will do that and our are doing a great job doing that already. This is really for a lot of those projects and ongoing work that's really outside of our capacity that the existing staff just wouldn't have the. Wouldn't have the capacity to be able to get to. But also some of the contractors that are on here have specialist equipment that we may not have on hand as well. But in the first instance we'd be looking to try to utilise our own staff and keep our own staff at free. Full capacity and with a workload before we utilise contractors and the vegetable business. Karen Finzel 49:05.089
Thank you for the report. I just have a question regarding the expenditure in the report approximate historical expenditure for this ROPS as follows. I notice it's steadily increased as we go your report from 22 to 25. Is that around about the same expenditure moving forward? Do you see another incremental increase? As being consistent in the report? Jodie Lascelles 49:29.555
It would be hard to tell. I think that there would be some increases over time just because of the increase in landscape development. Time, development contributed areas, new areas that were developed over the time within Council will potentially increase the utilisation of these. Shaun Walsh 49:51.704
Concerns and contractors for that. But probably to supplement that, we've also had, you know a few years of quite extraordinary weather and growth so some of these services are reactive you know where our own staff can't attend to the maintenance of a particular thing we've got a panel of suppliers who can step in and do work for us so and one of the areas that we're really feeling at the moment is arborist services or tree removal services because both the rain and the wind events we've had you know in recent years have meant we've had significantly an increase in tree removal so we're hoping to have you know if we had a year of normal weather whatever that is maybe those costs would come down and then further to Geordie's comment like you think of some of the significant areas that we've taken on such as the hinterland adventure playground you know so that's a very good example where we've actually you know it's a great facility on behalf of the community but also requires specialist skills to maintain some aspects of that playground. So I think to support Julie it's probably a bit of both. Unidentified Speaker 50:49.497
Thank you. Brian Stockwell 50:51.791
So I'd like to leave the motion. I'm happy to leave. Here. Thank you. You're welcome. This is a fairly standard report dealing with the way we operate and just adds a little bit more diversity and numbers into what is able to be used by our parks and garden staff to keep our parks and gardens open spaces looking good, so I support that. Frank Wilkie 51:21.764
I'm happy to support it as well and especially the element of having more locally based businesses involved. It's often been talked about in the community and within this these councils, how can we better support local businesses? This is one way and it's encouraging to see so many new local businesses being established and being given an opportunity through this local government. Tom Wegener 51:49.935
I'll just quickly note that boy you know some of the guys out there do such a good job. I live in Cooroy and it is just so nicely kept. I'm so impressed with the playground and with the community out there. I have issues had some issues in the in distant the past. With the board walking in front of Tanya. Brian Stockwell 52:08.446
We're debating qualified suppliers not performing so well. Tom Wegener 52:12.885
Anyway, thank you very much for the hard work for the team. Karen Finzel 52:17.745
Yes, can I just add to that too. It's really noticeable when we've had community events. I've really noticed that people have come in and done great jobs. I think that it's really important that our parks and open spaces are kept at that high standard in terms of our health and well-being for our community and our visitors to the region. Thank you for your input. Brian Stockwell 52:43.670
All those in I favour? Hands to the air. Council yes. In that's carried unanimously. Thank you. We now move on to Community Grants Policy. Vice and manager Alison Hamblin is coming up to talk to us about the new bill and Paul Brinkman as well. Alison Hamblin 53:10.944
Thank you Councillors I'm here today to present the new revised Community Grants Policy so I just like to firstly thank the Councillors the community and staff for helping us to pull this policy together so it's quite exciting to bring this together today to General Committee so as you're aware the community grants program is a very competitive program often oversubscribed we have just under a million dollars worth of money in the community grants program running we've been running its current format since 2014 we've received over 800 applications in that period of time so through the community grants program we've been able to deliver about a million dollars worth of funding to community it's really very well the community really loved this particular program and the staff doing a great job administering the program we have a three day a week grants officer doing this administration but the team are supporting her but we also actually support community in terms of attracting external grants as well so when we looked at doing a review of the community grants program one of the four areas that we really wanted to focus on is the government side of things, the community effectiveness, the efficient resource allocation noting the staffing that we have in place to help deliver this program and maximising the funding so again making sure that we tap into all those external grants that are out there not just relying upon Council internal grants. So the main changes that we're proposing with the Community Grants Policy is around the grants program changes so introducing a combined the signature community events in line with the festive season so having it one particularly grant category and also introducing our quick response grants and our individual sports grants as well. And then finally, we're just looking at cleaning up some of our procedural changes so looking around our governments making sure we're linking to relevant legislation and allowing flexibility with our policy to implement changes into the future. Brian Stockwell 55:08.969
Thank you. Do we have any questions. Karen Finzel 55:11.193
Thank you for the you for the report I just have a question around on page three of the report the review identified some areas for improvement it found that the community grants program is not fully aligned with the Council's current priorities due to its reliance on the outdated social strategy as everyone knows this is a big focus of mine for this term to look at how we're going to get this strategy updated and the question is what will it take to get our strategy up to speed so that we've got an officer now sitting in a department that will be making these decisions my concerns are that with the outdated social strategy will the criteria for the weightings left delegated to staff get better informed if we had in front of us a strategy that was current? Alison Hamblin 56:20.929
Yes that absolutely comes down to budget considerations so we'll again as part of the 25-26 budget we will be putting a recommendation that we do revisit the 2015 social strategy. And have you worked out a cost for that? We looked at it last year it was around 150,000 we had two options whether we engage a consultant or actually look at an internal staff member to deliver upon it. Karen Finzel 56:49.384
Okay thank you. And do you think if we had a current strategy how would that have informed this report before us today? Alison Hamblin 56:58.095
The current strategy would certainly highlight our priorities. And do it it'd be well informed by community engagement as well. So our 2015 was based on community engagement with the current population. So if we're looking at, and obviously our population has changed a lot since 2015 to current population. So we need to ensure that we are engaging with our current population and determining what the priorities are. Karen Finzel 57:22.127
Fantastic. So preparing and heading for a new community strategy will help us get better engaged with our community and current information about how the community feels now around social issues? Yes absolutely. So would you consider that a priority? Absolutely. Councillor, we're dealing with the grants. Yes I'm just, I've made very clear. Brian Stockwell 57:47.602
In short Councillor Finzel your question was if we had a more up-to-date community strategy grants could be focused on those priorities. Unidentified Speaker 57:55.009
That is correct. Thank you. Brian Stockwell 57:59.555
Do we have other questions? Amelia Lorentson 58:01.317
Ali, you've identified as a risk that the amendment, amended policy, it's not well communicated. There's concern that community groups may disengage. So my question is, have we actually run past the revised changes with community groups and what's their feedback been? Alison Hamblin 58:22.801
Yes, as part of the review of the community grants program, we engaged community and our not-for-profit sector in particular. So the changes that they put forward to us was considering one grant round per year and those quick response grants. However, as you know, our not-for-profit sector changes every AGM. And so we just need to ensure that we are continually communicating with our not-for-profit sector and community and making sure they're aware of have gone from two grant rounds per year for our community projects and now looking at going one grant round per year. However, this policy allows that flexibility. So if it doesn't work, we see that a need to do two rounds per year or more or less. We can have that flexibility. Amelia Lorentson 59:06.031
So that's my next question. So when will it be reviewed at the end of 12 months or we'll give it a year or two year trial? Alison Hamblin 59:13.360
So the policy itself would be reviewed every four years. But in terms of our guidelines, because we actually don't stipulate in our policy now, whether it be one round, two rounds, three rounds, four rounds per year, it allows that flexibility, but our guidelines can change each year. Great, thank you. Brian Stockwell 59:34.864
There's no first question. I'm happy to move. Moved by Councillor Finzel, seconded by Councillor Lorentson and Councillor Finzel. Karen Finzel 59:41.193
Yes, I think as always our community benefits greatly from grants these grants and moving forward. I think it's great in alignment also with the around we have these opportunities that community can reach in and the process expedited to meet emerging needs. I emerging needs. It's really good to see that we're heading towards a future that you know is responding to our community and that we're trying current and keep things you know really flexible and providing opportunities for people to I guess minimise that whole red tape of slowdowns to keep our community really engaged and moving forward on the things that they'd like to see. I thank staff for doing a great job. Considering the deficiencies around the social strategy, so I think working together with the community and our staff and Council to support these changes, I think the grants policy, the revised version is going to really I thank us forward to a future that is broad. So thank you. Jessica Phillips 01:00:45.463
I'm just going to speak really quickly and say, Ali, thank you. My most favourite thing in the report is to, and I'm not sure who out of the team came up with this, but the review focused on several key areas and my favourite being community effectiveness. And efficiency because those two, I believe, are critical. So, thank you for the detailed report. I'm really happy to support it. Thank you. Frank Wilkie 01:01:08.457
Absolutely. Yeah, congratulations on the work that's gone into revising this policy, it was overdue. It was due, I should say. And I'm particularly appreciative, and I know other Councillors are, of the introduction of the individual sports grants awards, which many of us have had requests over the years. From parents usually, saying that their child is representing Noosa at a state level, or at a national level, at the State at a national level, or even internationally, and is there any support available through Council grants. And this is responding directly to that, and you've modelled that grant on what is happening in other councils, so it's well researched and I'm sure to be well received, so thank you. Amelia Lorentson 01:02:02.325
I'd just like to add the importance, how important these community grants are. To our community groups. I think we're all part of many, community groups, all Councillors. Councillors. So we see firsthand the importance of the grants and how critical they are to delivering meaningful initiatives. That benefit the whole community and also fill in the gaps where Council can't do the job, it's the community groups that can do the jobs. And what it does is it talks to us as Councillors by telling us what's really important and what the community value. So thank you. Ali, and Allie and team, and it's really rewarding as a Councillor, and I know I speak on behalf of all the Councillors, it's really rewarding for us to support yourself and the community groups in delivering these grants. Thank you. Brian Stockwell 01:03:01.830
I'm going to switch to speak. Karen Finzel 01:03:05.115
Thank you Mr Chair, I think it's been well articulated. Brian Stockwell 01:03:10.420
I'll put the motion. All those in favour? Yes. That's unanimous. Thank you. We now move on to a report on procurement assessment working team contract awards under CEO delegation. I'm the CEO delegation. Trent Grauf 01:03:44.484
He's got eyes from the equipment manager. He's got. Afternoon Councillors. Afternoon. A quick synopsis. The report for noting presented here today is a disclosure of all large-sized contract awards occurring under CEO delegation for the six months ended 31st December. This recent this revision to our procurement policy, disclosure follows a recent revision to our procurement policy, which we adopted as part of the budget in June 2024. This inclusion was part of a range of enhancements to procurement policy that improved our governance oversight and controls. This disclosure granting our procurement processes as well as balancing that with ensuring effective and streamlined processes. So given that was adopted six months ago, this is the first time you've seen this report presented through to Council. As noted in the report, part of these changes, Council over the last few years has established an additional layer of independent probity or review of any large-sized contracts. We call this the procurement awards contracts team or PCORD. As an acronym for short because we do like an acronym and like the government. This independent team comprises the Acting Director Corporate Services, procurement manager and the executive officer internal audit and corporate performance. Now on request reviews all contract awards that are under the CEO delegation between the large size contract threshold of $200,000 and up to the delegation level of $1,000,000 and that independent review occurs before any contracts are finalised and authorised. Guess just to note this specifically excludes any procurement awards that are direct to Council so it's about that additional layer for officer awarded contracts. As noted in the report, only nine contract awards followed this process in report, over the last six months process with the value of $4.1 million dollars. In the full detail of these are included in attachment one to the report. And just before I close, just to note a typo in the report on page 34 of the full agenda section 4, the amount stated there should read $200,000 or more excluding GST. We've added an extra zero in there and it certainly is not $2 million or more. Apologies if the correction noted. Any questions Councillors? Brian Stockwell 01:06:15.203
Okay, go. The, in the pattern. We have nearly a million dollars in workers compensation insurance. I take it that's an annual payment. Is that paying on some or is that an accrual over the year that we're acknowledging in the report? Trent Grauf 01:06:32.034
I would have to take on notice whether we pay that invoice periodically or. Pauline 01:06:36.118
Sorry, Councillor. It's an annual invoice that's paid annually. Amelia Lorentson 01:06:40.979
Thank you. Other questions, Councillor? Trent, do other councils have a procurement working assessment team or is this unique to our Councillors in. Trent Grauf 01:06:54.558
Through the Chair and I'm sure Scott will also clarify if he needs to about different councils. Will operate differently in terms of award. Some Council will obviously not include, will follow what we used to do previously, which would, follow the delegation process only. It would either come straight through from the evaluation panel to either the CEO or the delegated authority on the financial delegation, or it would come through to Council. So other councils, some Council will have a dedicated procurement panel, similar to the way. Have, we for example, a couple of works executive and that would be dedicated to reviewing those procurements through that award rather than through a Council committee meeting process. So I guess to some extent we've met a middle ground recognising the importance of making sure that large size contracts and tenders come through. Council approval if they've gone through a formal tender and any of those expedited contracts or those that may have followed a panel arrangement are coming through for a disclosure process for you as well. So it is an additional aid that you won't see in most councils having that additional step. Amelia Lorentson 01:08:06.328
So my next two questions is does the Acting Director Corporate Services, the executive officer of internal audit and the corporate performance staff, have they sufficient time to dedicate to this team and is participation in this team explicitly included in their job description? Trent Grauf 01:08:32.376
Is it specifically included in the job description? No, but given these are senior officers, as such, we are committed to a range of panels and review processes. Notwithstanding, as you know, with this role as Acting Director Corporate Services, that includes Capital Works Executive, the leadership team, capital Audit and Risk Committee is a participating member, so there's a range. Of committees it's that expected that an executive could sit on, it's part of that process. I'd probably just also clarify that where there are any availability or conflict issues associated with the procurement occurring at the time those members will step out will find an alternative to step in to ensure that process continues to remain independent. In terms of workflow each of those procurement reviews is not significant it doesn't have critical impact on workflow for the participating members as you can see in the report there's only been nine that have come through this year so far year to date. For some areas of the organisation who were regularly involved in procurement and for example you see with our procurement the evaluation criteria includes like local economy, workplace health and safety and environment the officers involved in that are involved in each and every procurement that needs evaluations some of those officers can be working on it in the evaluation panel on a weekly basis all year round so it isn't a significant cost for us. Amelia Lorentson 01:10:07.010
So before this team was established what property processes were in place or was that solely role of the CEO? I'm just trying to understand I love this level of probity but what existed before this? Larry Sengstock 01:10:28.778
Yeah, prior to the establishment the of team, the which was originally back in 2017/18 the bulk of tenders would come through the Council so the team was really established primarily to expedite those contract awards where it may not fall into the Council meeting cycle to do so that might be around whether it's pricing validity needing your order of goods or it could be an urgent project as well. Trent Grauf 01:10:55.818
Thank you in addition to that this doesn't um recognise the baseline level of property that occurs as the procurement is occurring with the evaluation panel so that process occurring while the officer that's undertaking the procurement for this example it could be the work cover example or there's a number of the number of others in that attachment the officers are still under probity they're recognising their role on the panel they're committing to their independence through that process and the independent review that occurs by procurement through that entire process still continues this is an added over and above layer for any of-sized contracts that are being fast-tracked or expedited due to time pressures. Thank you. Tom Wegener 01:11:46.056
Just a little observation for the most part the panel members are the Acting Director Corporate Services, the CEO and procurement manager which is probably Scott. Is this a question? Yeah just with the other people that will fill in as well to that and more on the panel than just the three of you for the most part. Trent Grauf 01:12:09.474
Through the Chair there has been a couple of instances where I've been on leave or Scott's been on leave or there's been instances where there has been a perceived conflict if it's been through a supplier that may have involvement to say for example a former employer or consultancy firm where we have stepped out of the equation and in those instances with we've had managers governance manager or another executive officer stand into the process we've had two instances where that's occurred so we do we have built up backfill capability to be part of the team and do that independent review of refining that's quite effective. Brian Stockwell 01:12:50.429
Did you have a question? Frank Wilkie 01:12:52.465
Yes you mentioned in the report that the reporting requirements is that the contracts were are to work to their hundred thousand or more published on Council's website after their award and to provide additional disclosure they also report to Council on a buy-in basis. This is part of that? Correct. And the reporting around this has to be discreetly claimed because it can be challenged, this contract. Have any ever been challenged? Trent Grauf 01:13:25.544
That through the Chair, this the report for noting here, all of these ones here in this attachment have already been executed. So in a similar way to you have another report on the agenda today about development approvals under delegation for those smaller size and scale DA applications. This is in the same vein. What we're providing here is to make sure that there is complete transparency and disclosure of any large size contracts that have not come through to Council for final endorsement. Frank Wilkie 01:13:57.930
I probably need to rephrase the question. There's a lot of probity and process and reporting around the awarding of these contracts. Have challenged any of these contracts ever the awarding of any of these contracts been challenged? Trent Grauf 01:14:10.752
Through the Chair, we have had a couple of instances as we review these contracts and as our role as an independent process is query and seek clarification where an evaluation panel may have had a preferred contractor as a result of the scoring and our work is obviously to look at that multi-party evaluation and there's their assessment of price versus quality scope method etc and we have it a few occasions where we talk clarification and Resolve that so in that instance it's shown that it is effective because it helps clarify and ensure that even in that independent view ensures that it is very clearly aligned with the regs. Frank Wilkie 01:14:54.463
Did I hear correctly in saying this team has been doing this work since 2017? Trent Grauf 01:15:00.952
Through the Chair correct. Originally it was restricted to those few and far between instances where there was an expedited timeline requirement between Council meeting and Special Meeting agendas and then we traditionally would only have a couple of those a year but as we've broadened some of the definition of the procurement policy we've captured all of instances so you're now seeing this come through as a more robust report thank you. Jessica Phillips 01:15:27.648
Unless you're watching or reading minutes how would this process be communicated to the general. Trent Grauf 01:15:34.897
Public through the Chair so each of these as they're awarded a bit like the ones obviously if it comes through Council it would come through the Council meetings but regardless it will still end up on our website large-size contracts so for these ones CEO has authorised these ones under his delegation and we're still publishing them on the Council's websites we're still being clear this is just about that additional step to ensure that there is a noting of all of those coming through the table here today and obviously like all our procurement processes all submitters to the process are through they a tender or quotation process are advised to the APCOV in terms of whether they're successful or not as well. Larry Sengstock 01:16:18.941
And just in addition we've included the role of the team in Council's procurement policy which is available which on our public is available website available on our public roads. Karen Finzel 01:16:26.508
Www.councils.gov.au /procurement-policy /procurement-policy /procurement do you consider that there is when we look at continuous improvement and risk do you feel we have enough checks and balances and a robust process you know to give us confidence that we're not leaving ourselves open to any type of risk. Larry Sengstock 01:17:09.670
Let's see through the Chair you can never say never but this is certainly a higher level of risk mitigation than I've been involved in other councils in terms of having this next layer it's certainly a comfort for me as a CEO so that when it does come through it's come through from the experts so it's not just a grab a paddle off the street and do the checks of the tenders they're experts in their own rights, they provide a very comprehensive report which then gets checked by this group which then comes up to me and I check it as well so it's a very robust process and I think it's a very useful process in that it helps us to keep the business running as Scott said we use it a lot it's the two hundred thousand to one million but it's also very useful for us in order to be able to award tenders and keep business running because again every month makes a hell of a difference in delivery but also a hell of a difference in workloads of the actual suppliers so it's just really important that to use this to keep the business going but we also put these really stringent checks in place to make sure that we're not just rushing in and doing everything we possibly can to be as risk averse as possible so I'm very comfortable. Amelia Lorentson 01:18:23.830
Thank you. I'm happy to move the recommendation. Brian Stockwell 01:18:28.886
Do we have a seconder? Them? Org community you've got to stand up. Cancel Wegener? Lignan? Amelia Lorentson 01:18:35.918
Just briefly, I as a Council really appreciate and highly support the added layer of prosody and oversight that this initiative or this team brings to our procurement processes it reflects our commitment to you. As Larry said to reducing risk and ensuring transparency in how we operate so as a Councillor it makes me feel comfortable in the decisions we're making and as the Chair of the Capital Works Executive again it gives me a layer of security and confidence so thank you. Tom Wegener 01:19:12.479
Absolutely in the audit risk committee we often talk about how many hats everybody wears and this seems to be a new hat for you guys but on the other and I think it's really important because it's a good hat because there's a balance between nimbleness and being able to act quickly versus having structure for decisions and this seems like a really good balance between those two being able to act quickly but still having structure. In decisions and oversight. So thank you. Brian Stockwell 01:19:45.942
Do you people wish to talk? Councillor Lorentson? I'll put the vote. Those in favour? Yes. That's unanimous. Thank you. And are you going around to the next item? Trent Grauf 01:20:03.005
I am, I may as well get comfortable. Brian Stockwell 01:20:04.316
And joined by the manager of finance, Paul green, for the Financial Performance Report for December 2024. Pauline 01:20:13.145
Afternoon Councillors. So we are halfway through the financial year and overall financial performance here today to December continues to be positive with operating revenues outperforming our forecast however this offset this upside is offsetting an overspend in our expenditure line at this stage of the year Councillors should note that the December report is reflective of budget review 1 and does not incorporate any proposed changes outlined in Budget Review 2 that will be addressed later in this meeting operating revenues is $3 million above budget and this is being driven by $1.5 million in interest revenue, $684,000 from sales of goods and services, $780,000 from grant programs and $225,000 from other revenue sources. This has been offset however by lower than forecast rates and levies and Fees and Charges revenue. Operating expenditure is $463,000 over budget with employees costs marginally under year-to-date due to being offset by a vacancy dividend that was adopted as part of the budget process. Materials and services are $644,000 over budget at this point in the year with some of that relating to timing of delivery works with the largest component relating to civil operations. Overall, Council's year-to-date operating position at December 2024 is $2.6 million above budget, which will be utilised to fund emergent expenditure and offset the forecast deficit that was adopted at budget of year one. Capital revenue is $5 million above budget due to the timing of the receipt of QRA disaster funded program and some other state and Federal funded grant programs. Capital expenditure is behind budget, $25.8 million year to date with $15.6 million relating to the QRA disaster program and $10.1 million to Council's base capital budget. Council is currently holding $94.4 million in cash reserves with $30.5 million invested in high yielding term deposits. At this stage of the financial year, Council's financial performance remains on track, subject to any emergent issues that might arise between now and the end of the financial year. Thank you. Brian Stockwell 01:22:35.548
Questions? Tom Wegener 01:22:37.132
Well, just a quick question. I asked Pauline oden an email about the vacancy savings. I don't know if Pauline oden an email about the vacancy savings, and she gave me a very comprehensive response, so thank you. But again, I look at the vacancy savings, and we had some tension at the meeting. We were questioning, should we be putting that towards other savings versus kind of subsidising our general rates? And is that right? Is that accurate? So in terms of how we developed our 2025 budget, there was an element of vacancy dividend that we took up. That helped to deliver some modernisation and ICT projects that the Council was looking to. Implement try and help the staff and help that efficiency. The other part was also funding part general generate general rate funded expenditure. It's not something that we do lightly, we do have a turnover within the organisation and it does at times generate. Saving so we took the opportunity to take that up. It is obviously something that we would assess each year whether that's actually a viable option depending on what vacancies Council has at any given point in time. Particularly through the COVID in the last few years we have had some significant turnover which is why that was adopted last year. Yes but what I'm looking for is just a way to fight for their savings you know and that the only one through. Trent Grauf 01:24:05.383
That through the Chair but another way I'm looking at it is look at our income statement of income expenditure and employee benefits budget is fifty two point six million dollars our full cost of salaries if we had no vacancies during the year and if everyone was working and we had a full capacity of organisation our full budget is fifty three point six billion dollars so in budgeting we've reduced a million dollars our salary budget so we do not have a budget to fund all of the staff for a full year and we have utilised that elsewhere if we set that cash aside we would be running it we would then be running the deficit because we've utilised that cash elsewhere so that's how we've also balanced the budget as well we've taken those savings and used them to fund other projects in the organisation without putting the rates up there isn't a cash value. Frank Wilkie 01:25:11.135
Thanks Pauline, you mentioned there was an overspend in materials and services, is that correct? Yes. My question is are we budgeting accurately and are we confident with budgeting for materials and services? Are we being conservative so enough? Pauline 01:25:27.630
Yes obviously there's emergent stuff and timing of projects that come through with respect to civil ops a lot of that was around arborist services and parks and gardens and we're working with them to understand what's driving that whether it's a timing issue trying to get the work done before the wet season comes where their costs have been actually capital costs may have been captured in its operational costs so we are looking at that and reviewing it we obviously have other areas of Council that are behind in delivering some of those projects but we will be spending more time and looking at that so we can get better clarification around did actually cut back some of the civil ops budget as part of the budget process after discussions with the area but obviously with now full contingent nearly on board although some movements those new people are getting their head around those budgets and setting some service level expectations. Frank Wilkie 01:26:13.761
Price the Council of materials. Uses are they budgeting appropriately for them? Pauline 01:26:22.006
So when we develop the budget we do buy an allocation to increase the cost of goods and services we can only predict what that will look like and whether that's reflective in the actual contracts we don't know until those contracts come in. How are we doing in that regard? So we did see increases in cleaning particularly ones with labour components that they were generally higher than what we had originally forecast but on other ones like waste they were lower than what we hadn't had intended so it depends on the type nature and the negotiation contract. Frank Wilkie 01:26:52.517
So given that trend, the half year, do we need to reassess our estimates for materials and services? Pauline 01:27:00.546
At this stage we don't have a have, I think, sufficient view. We will do further investigations and review that at an additional budget review later in the year. But up until the point that we had prepared this budget review we were actually tracking behind budget so it's only been over the Christmas period that this has kind of bumped up. And become more obvious. Karen Finzel 01:27:20.860
Just on that at that lawn coming out of the parts of gardens and that you know increase it's coming up they talked about disaster management and weather events around in that how are we overall I guess in the budget I don't know trying to look at that disaster management and resilience in terms of do we have a contingency for that or are we sort of estimating that percentage across of increase across the to weather events response. Of disaster management. Pauline 01:27:54.870
So in terms of when we set the budget do we allocate us an amount specifically to manage potential disasters within the operational budget no not specifically that would be dependent on the business areas and understand if they understand their areas better and what you know happens at different times when we've got rain and when we don't we do have a natural disaster emergency reserve that should we get in a match of a natural disaster and we need to act quickly we can fund it from that would obviously need to be talked back up in future years but there that is available. Amelia Lorentson 01:28:28.032
You Pauline so consistently we are above budget with from waste utility charges holiday park revenue question is are we considering adjusting the budgets or is this misalignment deliberate to help build cash reserves. Pauline 01:28:48.922
So correct so when we set the base budget originally we will budget conservatively so that during the year if there are emergent issues that we can have the capacity to absorb those without additional rate increases or if there's an additional surplus at the end of that we will act a lot of I suppose those over that surplus funds would actually go into cash reserves for future use whether that's on new projects for co-contributions to grant programs, those sorts of things. So we do conservatively budget. I would like you to note that with the holiday parts, there comes a cost that is associated with that. So while their revenue is up, their contract services is also up. And there is an adjustment in budget review actually too that actually reflects that. So so just because the revenue is doesn't mean that it's. So you would well, it depends on market conditions. So, let's take holiday parks, for example. So, if we were to push their budgets and their revenue targets, and we saw a decline in the market, or there was bad weather, any of those. Or another pandemic potentially, that we may not be able to achieve those revenue targets, and therefore that, because they contribute a profit margin to our base budget, if we didn't achieve that, then we would actually result in a deficit position to Council if we were not able to meet those targets, if we pushed them too hard. Thank you. Brian Stockwell 01:30:25.047
Anyone like to move to motion? Amelia Lorentson 01:30:26.549
I have another question. Thank you, Unitywater. Dividends. What's the actual cash dividend? That we receive from Unitywater? Pauline 01:30:38.533
So it will fluctuate depending on the year, so there's different components from the distributions that we get from Unitywater. Last year I think off the top of my head was about 2.3 million dollars in cash dividend. Our equity share of profit that we recognise in our annual reports is a lot higher than that, but is a representative of our share of the total profit that Unitywater earns or makes. Amelia Lorentson 01:31:01.324
So is that separate to the dividend, so the equity share? Essentially so, I'm trying to put it in simple terms so if were running a business and you made a profit of $100,000, but you only paid a dividend of 50, we would get $50, but we would recognise the 100 in our accounts at the end of the year. So there is a disparity. That's not to say that in future years we wouldn't get increased distributions from Unitywater, but under the current arrangement we get essentially a fixed amount that we get each year. But the increase to a align with Unitywater profits, is reflected in our equity sheet? In our annual report, correct. They are not represented in our management reports that come to Council each month. They are purely only represented in our annual report. I appreciate the explanation. Thank you. Oh, my last question. What keeps you up at night? And I say this in light of the LA fires, the terrorist attacks in January, but seriously, that's seriously what pulling. Are the what-if scenarios that are going through your head? Pauline 01:32:08.845
Lots of things go through my head at the moment. Probably just resourcing and being able to make sure we're across everything and being able to provide the level of service that we would like to provide. In the financial team. And just, yeah, there's lots of moving parts across Council at the moment and making sure everyone's up to speed. Thank you very much. Brian Stockwell 01:32:32.717
Anyone like to move the recommendation? That's all I wanted to do we have a seconder? I'll second. Amelia Lorentson 01:32:37.870
Councillor Phillips? Just again, acknowledgement and gratitude to the people that we have in charge of our finances. I think we're in good hands. Thank you. Frank Wilkie 01:32:53.026
Thank you for the comprehensive reports every you're very responsive if Councillors want additional graphics to help us understand what's actually going on, you're more than willing to provide them, so thanks again for the extensive and clear report. It's very helpful. Brian Stockwell 01:33:14.591
Is that it? Thank you. Yes. That's a lot of people. Okay, I put the motion. Those in favour? A break? We have been going for an hour and a half, are we happy to have a five minute break? Yes. Thank you very much, Paul. Thank you, government, and we'll be back. Brian Stockwell 01:43:07.801
Thank you. Okay, welcome back to the meeting. Much. We are now on to the sixth item in the session, and it is budget review two for the 2024-25. I meant to say the year, and we have to say the two. Food. That's what it is to be here, to be served. Pauline 01:43:29.805
Councillors, under the Local Government Act, Council is required to undertake regular reviews of our adopted budget to ensure it remains reflective of planned activities to be funded throughout financial year. This is the second budget review for 24-25 financial year and incorporates any new or emergent issues or actions that arise from our operations or from Council resolutions. As councils are aware, the proposed budget review submissions have been subject to workshops with both executive leadership team and Councillors. In summary the budget review process proposes a net improvement of $278,000 to Council's operating position with the current operating deficit of $140,000 improving to $138,000 surplus. This result includes a range of emergent costs that have been funded through additional interest revenue and grants received or forecast to be received. Budget review two includes several operating submissions for new and extended positions well as the permanent conversions of several temporary positions. These requests have increased Council's permanent establishment by four FTE bringing the total establishment to 449.21 FTE, with one with additional temporary position also requested. This budget review also includes proposed fees for the Noosa Holiday Parks for the period 27th of January 2026 to 12th of July 2026. Council adopts Fees and Charges for parks these parks in advance excuse me to allow for forward booking of sites up to 18 months in advance. Following the endorsement by Council of Amendment No. 2 to the Noosa 2020 Plan a fee for different applications has also been requested when considering whether an application should be assessed under the superseded Planning Scheme. Council's base capital works program has decreased from 53.8 million dollars down to 46 million with 2.5 million in works and project variations being recognised. This has been offset by 8.5 million dollars in multi-year projects rescheduled out to the 25-26 financial year and identified project savings of 1.6 million dollars. The Cooroy disaster funder projects is sitting at 78 point million dollars which makes the total capital program 124.9 million dollars. Capital revenue has decreased 2.5 million dollars and this is due the rescheduling of future projects which may have had grant funding attached to them. All financial sustainability ratios are forecast to be met and overall this budget reviews continues to show Council in a positive financial position obviously subject to any emergent or future that may arise between now and the end of the financial year. Thank you. Tom Wegener 01:46:17.226
Disaster funding of $74 million. In the bank now. How, any prospect of how soon that's going to be used by Black Mountain Road and all that? Pauline 01:46:29.250
So in terms of, are you referring to cash holdings? Okay, so we currently are not holding $74 just million, to clarify. Relating to QRA funded projects. The amount that we may hold at any point in time is significantly reduced because we're now on a month-to schedule, so we're actually doing the works and then being reimbursed on a monthly basis from the QRA disaster program. We are holding some funds in terms of carryovers from previous years that are still in progress the and being delivered, but that's not a QRA funded program. Brian Stockwell 01:46:57.132
Do you have any questions? Amelia Lorentson 01:47:03.051
In terms of the new staff positions, how many are funded through levies and what are the specific reasons for this funding structure? Pauline 01:47:16.060
So we have many, we have multiple different levies across Council. The Heritage Levy is the one that's proposed to increase the funding of FTE, so it's funded, historically has been funding 0.26 of an FTE. Under this proposal it will be funding 0.51 of an FTE, so that position would sit within the library. So historically that's been a heritage coordinator, that position has now been redesigned and will sit between both strategic planning and libraries so that it better reflects the functions that are needed across Council. We also do currently fund positions through Environment Levy and some of the Sustainable Transport Levy as well. So the heritage leverage, which is the one that's affected in budget review too, is probably on the lower side in terms of what's funding our positions at this stage. Amelia Lorentson 01:48:08.990
Where would we find that level of detail? It's not sort of submitted as part of our financial report. Do our annual reports break down where levy money is being spent? Pauline 01:48:23.446
It wouldn't show you necessarily the detail that referring to. I don't believe it's currently published anywhere publicly but it was provided to Councillors throughout the budget development process so it was in the information packs that were provided to you. Thank you. Frank Wilkie 01:48:40.393
I have a technical question. Thank you, Ms Chair. In for the. Just people for who the people might who may listening. Be. The financial report we saw for the six months showed that we were tracking $2.6 million above budget. This review too has shown a $278,000 turnaround taken from a projected $140,000 deficit to $138,000. Surplus. Can you just give us some idea how those two reports talk to each other? Correct. Okay, sure. So what we haven't done in budget review too is taken all of the upside year to date in terms of the interest, particularly the interest richest revenue, purely on the basis that we have still half a year left and we also have some emergent issues and renegotiations with certified agreement and we don't know the outcomes of those, we will be doing a budget review three where depending where in that stage of negotiation. We will take up the additional revenue in that side so there's is a timing issue we haven't taken out all of the up sign because we obviously are aware that they're potentially some emergent issues coming for the remainder of the financial year which will need to be funded. So, when it comes down to the budget review 3 April? It would go to April round it. Assuring some of that funding is taken out that would again improve the objective of the budget. Pauline 01:49:59.503
The model correct, yes. And depending on the final result for the financial year, any surplus obviously would go into our cash reserves. Obviously we don't like to forecast for a deficit and hopefully that won't be the outcome. Frank Wilkie 01:50:10.610
And not every year we have a budget review 3. That correct? Pauline 01:50:14.423
Correct. We don't always do a budget review. It's really on a needs basis and depending on the issues that are based on Council reviews that might require capital programs. And why do you have the sense that we may need one this year? Because we are currently in negotiations. With the certified agreement that's ending. So we will more than likely have one in April. Amelia Lorentson 01:50:36.544
Thank you. In terms of a certified agreement, certified agreements, Pauline, what stage are we up to with those and what are the anticipated impacts given we know they were quite significant a couple of years ago? Pauline 01:50:53.766
Obviously, do you want to are in negotiation. Larry Sengstock 01:50:58.653
With the unions right now. We have a further meeting next week where we will have a little bit more. We have some counter offers happening. So until we really have a full year of that then we will bring that back to Council. But we are still in the negotiation agreement. It's safe to say that it will have an effect on the budget. It's not a there's no question with the cost of living and the need to support our staff and that's something that we're very conscious of and it's coming back the other way as well so we need to strike that balance. We'll test it. Brian Stockwell 01:51:44.847
Thank you. Frank Wilkie 01:51:49.249
Thank you very much. Trent and Pauline for the budget review too. As you said it's budget reviews. For local governments to adjust and amend their budgets to accommodate emerging costs. You've done that in this one and also adopt the proposed cost of public fees for our holiday parks for the year starting in January 2026. I note the increase in staff and that's. Especially the community engagement officer which is significant because we've had discussions about being more effectively able to engage with our community. We do have a well publicised program of community engagement coming up and there is a strong sense that we like to do panels a lot more in-house rather than rely on external consultants. It is a temporary position and we'll see how that goes in the fullness of time. Now looking as has been mentioned, we have a certified agreement coming out which is going to have implications for the budget. I'm glad we're having a budget review through this year as well so we can capture any changes at the earliest opportunity. Think we should pull. Brian Stockwell 01:53:22.084
I think perhaps the amount of new staff is something that's a little bit out of the ordinary and the key message I got from our briefing was that the new staff that are focused on workplace health and safety is addressing what perceived to be a risk that was perhaps under addressed and that this will provide us with greater security that we won't have the future costs. That incurred by Council as a result of the appropriate standards not being met and as Councillor Wilkie said, the temporary position in community engagement, if that position works as we would hope it see actually a reduction over us paying consultants to provide certain services as part of the engagement process and bring it in house and with the number of strategies and plans we hope to on continue on with this on with this financial year or this calendar year, it is a timely position to have in house. What else we've took? Talk? Councillor O 'Keefe, you've got time to reply. Frank Wilkie 01:54:38.742
I don't have one. Have water. Brian Stockwell 01:54:42.223
Put the motion. All those in favour? Yes. Thank you. Anne. Man. And we invite to the table Acting Director, Allan Hazell and acting global control coordinator, Amanda Kapp. If I may, through the Chair, and with the grace of the. Tom Wegener 01:55:30.269
Acting manager for this report, I'd like to acknowledge Mr ray Kelly, ex-Councillor. And Vivien Griffin, who were here earlier today. Nadine Gordon 01:55:36.220
Okay. Hello. Well, it's very quick. Good afternoon, Councillors. This is item seven, is a report just outlining the applications that have been decided by delegation for November. Eighteen applications were approved under delegation. They range from building work assessable against the planning scheme to nine minor changes for houses, several extensions, netting to the golf driving range at the Tewantin golf course, and that's about it. Have you any questions about those specific delegations? Larry Sengstock 01:56:18.473
Have a question? All right. Just how are going you to make meeting the time frames for these? Nadine Gordon 01:56:30.947
We have had some issues in terms of meeting them, but we're generally, I think, around the 80% for several of them. We didn't do any reconfiguration of a lot, but generally our reconfiguration of a lot applications are pretty much on time. Our building ones have taken some, there have been some time, but we tend to go back and forth with houses in terms of there's a lot negotiations between the planners and the applicants and the certifiers. And some of our applications that we're receiving could be better made from the other side. Brian Stockwell 01:57:09.380
And just to clarify, when you're saying houses, only get to the requirement of the planning application if they don't meet all the requirements for the meeting? Nadine Gordon 01:57:19.699
That's correct. So we've got houses that are over height. Intrude into setbacks, also we have requirements if they're in a landslide hazard overlay, flood overlay, biodiversity overlay, that's when they trigger in terms of coming to us. So otherwise they're approved by building certified? That's correct, yes. That's correct. Nadine. Amelia Lorentson 01:57:42.606
Just a quick question. 1630 Hastings Street, Noosa Heads, demolished and rebuilt unit 16, can I ask, are they the gable pool? Nadine Gordon 01:57:54.601
That is correct, yes. Amelia Lorentson 01:57:56.021
Okay, thank you, yes. Nadine Gordon 01:57:59.028
Yes. Brian Stockwell 01:58:01.454
I'll move it. Tom Wegener 01:58:02.136
Thank you for your great work. Alan, Allan, thank you for standing. In for Richard. Frank Wilkie 01:58:16.423
I just to make a comment also, even though these reports were just a noting of issues about items that were approved under the legated authority previously, Councillors would go to the trouble, and it would be quite onerous, after carrying. Conflicts of interest, to keep declaring conflicts of interest if they had any link to an applicant. The names have been removed from this reporting, so it Councillors takes away the need for to couple of to declare a conflict of interest. Though the need was debatable in the first place. So I just want to thank you for having made that change to the report. Okay, in order for us to talk, Councillor Wilkie, do you want to close? Brian Stockwell 01:58:54.908
All those in favour? Yes. Thank you. I'll now invite up Diane, Madam governor, and I believe we have Krista. Thank you. And this is a report on the in-cast Council. Deanna Stewart 01:59:23.915
Councillors, I've got Krista fitz fitzsackerly-Ackerley online, so she'll be presenting. And providing you with a summary. Over to you, Krista. Krista 01:59:37.847
Hi, and apologies, I can't be in there today. Thanks, Diana. My name's Krista, for those that don't know yet. It was requested by Council that I provide this report and give an update on this new role of in-house legal counsel. Since there's. Since Noosa de-amalgamated a little over 10 years ago, there hasn't been an internal legal support within Council and this position commenced last December, sorry, December 2023. So I'm providing this general report to give Council some level of detail in the scope of my role, including excluded scope, the type of work I've been undertaking and any benefits that I have seen for Council in having an internal legal service. The scope of my role includes the following legal support for Council: commercial transactions and negotiations, which include reviews and interpretations of agreements, MOUs, deeds, terms and conditions, etc. Legislative interpretation and legal updates across Council. Legal advice both internal and external in briefing external lawyers as required on various proposals, disputes and other general matters. Council. Coordinating and oversight and tracking of litigation cases across Council. Legal risk guidance, targeted legal education training and awareness for staff, legal review of all delegations and policies. There are some areas that are excluded from my scope and these include procurement, planning, building and plumbing and prosecutions on behalf of teams which is local law enforcement. This is due to the highly specialised nature of these areas. In 2024, I have seen the a key benefits realised and these include conservative cost savings of over $200,000 up to and including 7 November of last year, creating additional resources. For Council. Including a legal advice database and an overall improvement in commercial processes and dealings, which has thereby reduced risk. This has mainly been achieved by upskilling staff with education, training and targeted legal updates, reviews and legal advice. Ultimately, the major benefit to Council, I think, since the implementation of this role, has been a risk reduction, and this has been achieved by upskilling staff, better contract terms and conditions and contract management, and increasing knowledge, awareness and our legal resources. This is also improving the quality and utility of any external legal advice requested and received. The intention is to provide this legal update on an annual basis moving forward. So thank you. Any questions? Brian Stockwell 02:02:56.846
Before we go into questions, just to remember our advice Councillors that we're asking questions that are related to a specific legal advice that we need to go into. That's what we'll do. Frank Wilkie 02:03:08.047
Thank you, christo. I was very interested in you saying how having the in-house legal counsel improves the utility of external legal advice gained. Can you just talk us through how that is achieved? Is that by you crafting a more specific brief for the information you're seeking? Krista 02:03:31.957
Yes, certainly. I won't go into any specific details, but I how I think this is increased value is that I usually sit down with teams and get the full background of the matter, exactly what they're wanting from the advice and what questions they need answered, and then I assist in drafting that brief I also review the material that comes back to ensure that the questions that we wanted answered are and they aren't always, so then liaising then with the external lawyers to make sure that we're getting what we have asked for. Frank Wilkie 02:04:11.061
So would you say oh, sorry. So would you say there's better value for money in terms of the advice that we receive? Krista 02:04:19.129
Yes, I think so. And also I sit with teams afterwards to ensure that they can interpret the advice because that's not always an easy task and then implement. That advice in their processes. Amelia Lorentson 02:04:31.921
Thank you. Brian Stockwell 02:04:34.114
Kristen, cancel the audio. Amelia Lorentson 02:04:35.368
Um, Krista, does LGAQ have a legal database and precedents? Documents and templates that we can add to our resources, or are you currently doing this? Krista 02:04:49.778
I'm sorry, you just dropped out. Brian Stockwell 02:04:51.400
The question was, does LGAQ have existing database and resources that could be added to ours, or are you already linking into that? Krista 02:05:04.503
Yeah, we already link in and use those. This edition is actually our legal advice received from external lawyers and myself, so it's legally privileged material that we can then search on certain topics to make sure that there's not duplication in advice and that it's also forming a knowledge database for Council to use. It's locked down for security reasons because of the privilege, but as that grows, as the teams use that more, that will grow in value as a resource as well. Deanna Stewart 02:05:36.974
So I'll just add to Krista's comment, the LGAQ legal database is another layer of resourcing. Information that Krista taps into and can look at as well, which is really beneficial for our Council and others too that don't have legal support. They use that a lot as well. Amelia Lorentson 02:05:58.260
And Krista, is it intended for Councillors to have access to that legal information as well? Can it be a resource for Councillors or is it specifically just for staff? I'm so sorry, again, I can't hear that whole question. Hi, can you hear. Brian Stockwell 02:06:19.535
I can hear it in some places, I think. So the question is whether the Council's database is a resource that Councillors can access or is it just for staff? Krista 02:06:30.425
For legal advice. So no, that's just for Council staff operationally because it relates to the operational side of the business and we'll need that separation of powers, especially. Deanna Stewart 02:06:45.402
The other thing I'll add is the legal piece of advice that sits in the database is locked under legal professional privilege so not everyone across Council has access to that information. We secure it down to the most appropriate officers in Council, you know, that have requested advice. The or have a dealing with the matter they're the ones that will have access only to the legal advice so we do protect it in accordance with the legal professional privilege requirements that Krista operates under. Well as other external lawyers. Frank Wilkie 02:07:24.560
Thank you. Very much for the report Krista as you mentioned the benefit to Council is identification and reduction of risk across the organisation there may not be cost there's still cost savings but as you mentioned that the areas where you don't go and where the areas of greatest cost to Council are planning building and plumbing services so we still need specialised external and prosecutions external lawyers for that but it's certainly anything that identifies and reduces risk to councils also reduction of risk to ratepayers and that's a good thing so thank you for your work and I understand that you may want a few special it's a very specialised area become a local generalist government generalist and you may find yourself in high demand as someone who has a rare set of skills as a result. Krista 02:08:32.646
You thank you, appreciate it, pleasure. Councillor Lorentson, you can speak. Amelia Lorentson 02:08:42.633
Yes, when I joined Council in 2020, I was a very strong advocate for an in-house legal counsel. And at the time we had the CEO, a lawyer, the Mayor, a lawyer, myself. Tom, a lawyer. And I remember introducing this, well, starting the discussion on in-house legal counsel. And it was actually received with quite a bit of hesitation in the beginning. And finally, it's here. And I think it's really clear that we made the right decision I want to note that we are incredibly fortunate to have found Diana Stewart and Krista waddell. Diana with her governance and compliance and legal expertise you were the ideal person to bring forward this initiative and I think Krista you've achieved really significant efficiencies streamline processes and have reduced organisational risk the benefits that go far beyond just financial savings if I were Larry or Trent this is precisely the team that I'd want Diana and Krista and your governance team you've improved you've introduced practical improvements and also build a culture of proactive risk management I'm grateful for the report provided today and the hard work behind it thank you. Larry Sengstock 02:10:22.673
Can I endorse that comment? Of course you can. Tom Wegener 02:10:27.653
Just quickly, I absolutely agree with Amelia and it seems that upskilling Council with the staff brings a familiarity and they're not so intimidated by these issues and I think we're just really lucky to have the personalities of yourself and Krista there which are very welcoming and warm people. Best team. Unidentified Speaker 02:10:48.341
Yeah, best team. Thank you. Great. Brian Stockwell 02:10:51.031
And you've got a leap forward, don't you? Karen Finzel 02:10:53.523
Wouldn't be a problem it wouldn't be appropriate. Thank you. Yeah, great report. We really welcome this. Councillor Lorentson is correct. We really advocated for that in the last term. So it's great to get this report. You know, we talk about casting vision. For the future and having legacy and I really love this because we see this accumulative knowledge and the value to counsel our staff and our community so I think it's really great we've got staff that have really fulfilled the aspirations of the Council to better provide support to all those involved and yeah I'm looking forward to a really great future where we can build on this knowledge and our future generations can benefit from the knowledge that we share in the organisation which ultimately benefits the community so thank you very much. Brian Stockwell 02:11:53.209
Thanks. Anyone else? No. Did you make a motion? I think Booker a. Frank Wilkie 02:11:59.689
Did look out and initially it was the start of the discussion was having we reduce our legal appeals were the focus but the once the investigation went about how a legal in-house legal counsel could benefit us we ended up where we are that's been a worthwhile journey even though the intention at the start is not where we ended up but it got us on the journey so thank you Krista and Dylan. Brian Stockwell 02:12:29.831
I'll I will put it right. Aside. Those in favour? A. Yes. Okay so the next two items are confidential sessions. Thank we'll would you very would head of all the writing? Yep, that would be very interesting. Yep, that would be fun. I'm happy to move it that the meeting be closed for public pursuant to section 254 J3IG of the Local Government Regulation. 2012 for the purpose of discussing item 9.1 integrated landfill capping solution tender consideration plan and item 9.2 62 landfill drive Cooroy revised subdivision layout. Have a seconder? I think Councillor Finzel's got it. It's just over on the side over there. The relevant triggers in the legislation are outlined in the motion. Anyone else wish to speak to the motion? No? All those in favour? And Councillor Wilson? Yes. That's unanimous. So if you're not a staff member, if you could please step out of the meeting room. Brian Stockwell 05:10:31.272
Now the discussion is all in favour? Councillor Wilson? Unidentified Speaker 05:10:35.585
Yes. That was carried unanimously. Is there a comment? I don't think we went. Who is. Larry Sengstock 05:10:44.243
Thank you. Can we go back on the line then? Good morning. Let's do it. Again. Brian Stockwell 05:10:50.187
Okay, let's go. We have to move and go back on. Karen Finzel 05:10:54.989
We rise every night. Unidentified Speaker 05:10:56.788
We do this every day. Larry Sengstock 05:10:57.976
You used to do it. Sorry, raise it the other day. Frank Wilkie 05:11:01.676
Okay, I'll move that the Council--- Note button. The report by the Waste Manager to the General Committee General Committee date of 20th of January, 2025. And I approve the preparation of a tender consideration plan substantially in accordance with the draft plan in attachment one for the design supply and installation of the proposed integrated landfill capping solution for the northern and eastern faces of the landfill at Eumundi-Noosa Road landfill site pursuant to section 230 of Local Government Regulation 2012. And B, delegate authority to the Chief Executive Officer prepare, finalise, and adopt the tender consideration plan. And C, request a report to a future Council meeting detailing the evaluation outcomes of the proposed Request for Tender process for Council's further consideration. Brian Stockwell 05:11:56.551
Do they you have a second? Councillor Phillips. Do you wish to? Right. I do not wish to speak on this. Don't anyone wish to speak. Therefore, I'll put to the vote those in favour? That's carried unanimously. We move on to the next item, which is in regard to 62 Lake Macdonald Drive. Unidentified Speaker 05:12:19.306
Let me just finish this one. Frank Wilkie 05:12:24.840
Thank you very much. I move that Council note the report by the Principal Strategic Planner to the General Committee dated 20th of January 2025 regarding Cooroy affordable housing project at 62 Lake Macdonald Drive, Cooroy and B, to defer the decision on this matter to the Ordinary Meeting dated 23rd of January 2025 to allow Councillors and staff time to seek further information. Brian Stockwell 05:12:49.773
Can I put a second? Seconded by Councillor Finzel. Anyone else wish to discuss the motion? I'll put the motion. Those in favour? Yes. That's also carried unanimously. That brings us to the end of today's meeting. I declare the meeting closed at 4. I'll go 5.43pm. Frank Wilkie 05:13:09.746
Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Mr Chair. Related Noosa Council Meetings
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