Operational Plan 2025-2026 Q3 Quarterly Reporting

Frank Wilkie121:35

Just to pick up on some of the comments it is important I think every Councillor is always striving to get the balance right. I do agree we have luxury of being in a fortunate position to be part of a Council that does engage so extensively and is willing and has Councillors that are willing to meet with the community members on a daily basis. Engage in coffee chats, take the ordinary meetings out to the community where we get to hear face-to what the issues are for our residents and ratepayers and again, I do agree, it is, we are in a position of trust and that trust is not taken lightly. We are entrusted to make decisions on behalf of the community, spending ratepayers' money in a fair. And transparent way and I'm hoping that with this current budget, as with all previous budgets, residents and ratepayers can see a clear link between what they've been telling us in these surveys where the resources go in the budget allocation and reflected through the operational plan and the quarterly reporting and the operational plan and also the capital works and it's difficult but I know that everyone is striving to get the balance right they always have and we'll be doing our best in that regard for the next financial year's budget as well.

Brian Stockwell65:59

Okay, so we're now inviting executive officer Jonci back to the table to give us the quarterly report for the operational plan 2526, quarter three.

Frank Wilkie94:21

No, thank you. Well summed up. Good report, thank you. It's a great document for anyone who wants to understand all the community feedback that Councillors and. Staff receive to help keep us on track, see how we're tracking against the Corporate Plan, that our budgets and planning schemes reflect the aspirations of the community, what they want, how they would like to see the ratepayers' money spent. So, apart from the Liveability Survey, Community Satisfaction Survey, the extensive consultation during the Destination Management Plan, Councillors are very active out in the community anyway. We certainly meet residents who aren't shy in telling us what they would like. Are great money spent on when we meet them during coffee chats or out of the Ordinary Meeting community outreach meetings in different halls around mainly the hinterland communities. Certainly roads, natural areas, parks, community very, community sites. Very important. Ratepayers and residents have told Council they expect clear value for money from rates, reliable maintenance of roads and public spaces, strong protection of Noosa's natural environment and decisions that are clearly community's best interests. The community also expresses firm expectations that tourism pressure, development impacts and liveability issues be actively managed with neighbourhood needs recognised and addressed. So Council directly uses this feedback to set evidence-based priorities for its budgets, significant funding continues to be allocated to the services and projects the community identifies as most important, with particular focus on areas where importance is high and performance requires strengthening. And we all believe that it's important that the budget delivers measurable improvements, value for money, long-term benefits for the Noosa community. And I'm hoping that any resident that reads the third quarterly report for the capital works program will see how the money is being spent judiciously and fairly in all areas across the Shire and also in the progress of the operational plan. So thank you for the report.

I think to answer that we do have a turnover and various resourcing issues on an ongoing basis as all local governments do and all organisations do in the world that we live in. I think the report shows that we are doing all things to keep our projects and our programs on track and we're doing very well with that. So whilst we do have some challenges, I think we're dealing with them very well, I think that it's certainly a priority for us to make sure that we do have the resources in place where we can we fill those gaps. As best we can and we make sure that the program and the delivery for the community is continuing so I think the project or this report shows that we're certainly working hard in delivering that. And there is a lot of work going on but certainly resourcing is always going to be a challenge in local government but we're doing our best and I think we've actually made some big steps in recent months to address a number of those. Get the right people in the right seats and get the work done as best we can but you know the challenges come from all different areas you know middle east all sorts of things just keep coming at us and we're dealing with it and as I say as you look at this report know we are achieving some pretty major milestones and some major plays of activity for our community. I will take this opportunity also to say that we are now formulating a 26-27 in line with the new budget for the operational plan in the way that we actually impress all or we report some of these activities. As you say, some of them it's on track and it's when it's a multi-year program it's very difficult to explain what on track means. We're still within the bounds of delivery so we're doing, you know, it's not going to be do going with to be delivered if you like. But we are trying to refine that so we get better and the two Councillors sitting next to me in terms of KPIs and outcomes is what we're going to be more focused on. So an operational plan is a 12-month snapshot or plan in line with a five-year Corporate Plan. So we need to separate those that are long-term ongoing programs as opposed to those that we expect to deliver within the 12 months and then we can report better and more succinctly on those in terms of what we really want to achieve in the 12 months as an operational plan so we've taken steps to really address that so you'll see changes in future reporting which shows that you know the percentages are more attributable to the 12 month plans the things we're looking to achieve in that 12 months and then the ongoing programs that we have as part of our Corporate Plan as part of us as an organisation where we continue to deliver things and continue the rolling wheel as often talked about in the local government.