I’m now well into my regular reporting of Noosa Council meetings as I seek to provide a critical and constructive rather than some councillors’ sycophantic view of our local governing body. My enduring hope is that this critique may make some difference and ensure our councillors are always working in the best interests of the community.
I have long realised that the underlying mechanism of Noosa Council has been one of control by the few. Once councillors are elected, there is pressure for them to form a quasi-political party where their vaunted ‘independence’ at election time becomes a strong collectivism afterwards.
It may surprise some readers to learn that much power in our local government is exercised not by those who are elected, but by an unelected few who retain great influence. I need hardly add that democracy can be reduced to deception where the objectives of the few supersede the interests of the many.
Under-resourced and over-committed
That said – and now let’s move on to the competence of those who govern us – this council is under-resourced and over-committed and has nobody but itself to blame. It does relatively better during periods of high tourism like now, when it claims corners have been turned, and struggles when tourism turns down and brick walls are run into.
So to some of the more interesting aspects of the general meeting of a week or so ago.
The media was there (Peter Gardiner from the News, Margie Maccoll from Today) and Crs Jackson and Glasgow weren’t (both on holiday).
Carramar and crayfish
There was a discussion on a new dementia section for the Carramar aged care facility. This followed a preliminary report from the planning and environment committee where concerns about the new layout were expressed because of the existing flood plain, a high fire danger risk, endangered swamp crayfish and the biodiversity overlay.
Cr Stockwell said Carramar had a well-respected dementia unit although some requested beds for the new unit will have to be sacrificed because of these concerns. The Council always struggles to find equitable solutions to the balance between community and environmental needs and Cr Stockwell’s flowery words too often end up shrivelled on the floor.
An underwhelming biosphere review
The Noosa Biosphere Reserve’s 10-Year review was discussed. It took 11 years, much testy argument and a harassed consultant to produce. At least Cr Stockwell praised it, sort of, although he said the report didn’t include enough favourable issues. More shrivelled flowers. Then all the councillors congratulated each other on what has been one of Noosa’s longest-running scandals. The Noosa Biosphere has tenuous credentials and has not fulfilled its Man and the Biosphere charter. This very late report was so underwhelming one wonders exactly what UNESCO will make of it.
Collapsed pipes on Gympie Terrace
There’s a problem down at riverside Gympie Terrace and a tender is being awarded for CCTV inspections of the stormwater infrastructure. A major pipe has collapsed affecting 10 stormwater drains and pipes have to be cleared before cameras can be used to find out exactly what’s wrong. The CEO ominously reported “hidden problems” and the project looks like it will take three or four years to complete. Noosa Sound was also flagged as another problem area. I can’t recall dollars being mentioned but I’m sure there will be lots of them.
Then the budget was reviewed and a letter in the newspaper saying capital works were behind schedule was duly bagged (by the way, I was the only non-Council member in the chamber). Mayor Wellington said issues like rain means the Council will always need to roll over (defer) some planned jobs and the CEO confirmed this by adding that bringing forward bridge repairs meant “something” had to go back and this rolling system was terrific. My view is that it’s a chaotic excuse manufactured to protect the Council’s chronic inability to complete projects on time or at all.
Capital works and rolling budgets
There was a claim that 90% of works had been completed, which I don’t believe, and in a moment of honesty the CEO said “we can’t keep adding on” (although anything can be tricked up if the budget review team continue to juggle the figures). It really bothers me that a budget outcome can be scripted to manufacture a result that seems designed to fool everyone that we’re the best money managers in the world if not in the entire southern hemisphere.
Cr Stockwell said the results were excellent. Another flower shrivelled in humiliation.
Some of you will know that capital works is a pet subject of mine. Council’s new ‘rolling’ budgetary system means that, depending on how far things are behind schedule, there can now be a three, five or 10 year timeframes, all of which can be changed by the budget review committee to make matters look OK.
By the way, there was no discussion of budgeted capital works. None!
The financial performance report for July showed sound revenue but it is early days (one month of 12) and difficult to forecast for the year. The CEO pointed out that major new works like Dr Pages Road and the Peregian digital hub meant the depreciation schedule needed to be reassessed “to keep rate increases low”. By this time boredom was setting in and Peter Gardiner and Margie Maccoll left.
As a regular observer of Council deliberations, this was a disappointing meeting for me. These Councillors and senior staff think they can change history, reconstructing results to obtain a satisfactory outcome without acknowledging failures. They now have a budgetary system that excludes uncompleted work – so everything is ‘on track’ and ‘in progress’. It’s a disgraceful situation that should not be allowed.
Here are numbers – you make up your mind. Council staff reported that uncompleted works were “much, much lower compared with councils of [Noosa’s] size”. The Council completed 78 of 122 projects during the year, leaving 44 projects still underway at 30 June 2018. In other words, the Council completed just 70% of 2017-18 budgeted capital works.
In dollar terms, the Council spent $16.9 million of its budget while $12 million remained unspent on incomplete projects. My conclusion is that the CEO’s statement that the Council’s delivery performance was “much improved from where we were three or four years ago” is incorrect – the Council has never met its works budget targets.
Councillors had been in the building well before the meeting and I believe there had been a pre-meeting rehearsal to devise a meeting strategy to clear the decks of bad news. They do not know the meaning of transparency. Cr Stockwell was also probably given a bouquet of flowers to distribute.
The real problem of Noosa Council – lack of resources – was not mentioned.
A thousand flowers died.
