Tag: meeting

council meeting tag

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Questions taken on Notice

Not all of my questions to management were answered on the floor at the 4th of February meeting.

I am awaiting responses to the questions below.

Questions to the Acting Director of Corporate Services.

  1. Looking at the General Fund on page 3 (of the Quarterly Budget Review statements in the Agenda Attachments for the meeting), the ‘Other Expenses’ line is forecast to be $4.9 million, or 36% over the original budget. This is the largest proportional increase in the entire statement. Can you provide the detail of what constitutes the ‘Other Expenses’ overrun? What specific management actions are being taken to control this item for the remainder of the year and to prevent a recurrence in the next year’s budget?
  2. On p3. There are large income increases from Grants & Contributions (up 22.1%) and User Charges & Fees (up 16.7%). Can you provide more specific information regarding both the sources and the reasons for the increase?
  3. On page 3, the General Fund User Charges forecast of $26.2 million required Council to collect $11.5 million in the second half of the year. This implies a monthly collection rate 21% lower than our exceptional first-half performance, yet the annual total is still 48% higher than last year. Can you explain the reason for the second half slowdown after a record first half? Can you confirm what proportion of the YTD $16.65 million is from one-off items versus sustainable recurring income?

Questions for the Director of Infrastructure and Engineering Services.

What is the likely percentage of the cost covered by the future contribution (for construction of the Gloucester Sewer Treatment Plant Replacement)? From what areas of the Local Government Area will these contributions be taken?

Question for the Executive Manager Sustainable Development

Regarding Resolution 381/2023 – Subdivision and development infrastructure damage bonds. Can you tell me how long the list of those affected is and what, approximately, is the total of the bonds held on the list?

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Council meeting video available

The video of the council meeting of the 4th of February is available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/YM4qg0mWKac

I wasn’t expecting it to be available until the upgrade of the Council computer system slated for March 31. The new Code of Meeting Practice adopted at the December 2025 meeting included a mandatory requirement that it be made available from the beginning of this year. I presume that management has decided that it would be easiest to simply upload it to Council’s YouTube channel to fulfill this requirement.

I’ll ask if it can be timestamped to allow viewers to easily locate the agenda item that(s) they wish to see.

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February 4 Council Meeting

You can find the Agenda and Attachments pdfs at this page.

The answers to Mal McKenzie and my Questions with Notice are placed unusually at the end of the Agenda on p.84.

I had posted these questions on my blog previously expectantly hoping to receive some definitive numbers. This is not the case. I’ll write more about this after Wednesday’s meeting.

Also of interest is the Quarterly Budget Review on p.52. There have been changes to the reporting method and these are explained in the Background on p.53.

“The new Guidelines introduce a new Financial Overview report which summarises the results / information contained in the other QBRS reports. It focusses on the following financial results:

1. Net Operating Results before Grants and Contributions for Capital Purposes

2. Operating Result from Continuing Operations (with capital grants and contributions) excluding depreciation, amortisation and impairment of non-financial assets

It should be noted that these are not results that were previously reported to Council through the QBRS process. Council has focussed on the ‘Net Operating Result from Operations’ and the ‘Net Budget Result’.”

Again, I’ll leave more comment until after the meeting however here are the last two paragraphs from the report.

“However, as has been identified previously, Council needs to continue with the implementation of the adopted Financial Sustainability Action Plan to address, over the medium term, the underlying general fund deficit position whereby it is presently generating insufficient revenue to cover all operating expenditures including depreciation.

The same focus will need to apply to both the Water and Sewer Funds. Both funds are currently projecting an Operating Surplus, however large capital works programs combined with escalating construction costs continue to put pressure on accumulated funds over the medium term. Borrowings will be necessary if the capital works programs are to be delivered within the planned timeframes.”

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Council meeting times in 2026

Because of new requirements in council’s Code of Meeting Practice, meetings will begin at 1pm. The Open Forum, in which members of the public can speak on any topic, will remain at 9:30am. The Public Forum, for matters in the day’s agenda, will remain at 10am but look to be scheduled for an hour, previously 30 minutes. I’ll provide more details about meeting day on a dedicated page later.