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00:00:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Good afternoon everybody and welcome to this afternoon's Service and Organisation Committee meeting. Now, everyone in attendance, there's no apologies, no presentations or deputations today as far as I'm aware. Still moving straight over to item 1, the Shring Management and Maintenance of First Fire Arrangement Tender Acceptance. Councillor, do we have any questions for... Speaker 3: You probably haven't met Alan Hull face-to-face. Alan's been working from home, he's back with us now, so Alan runs our outdoor workforce. Good afternoon, everyone. Matt works in Parks and Gardens. Closed, placed over at the depot. Councillor Lorentson: I have a few questions. I'll start at the top. Active tree services, I note that Active Tree Services is listed as number one preference
00:01:00 I also note that other tenders have come in at a lower price or close to Active Tree Services prices. In some categories, other suppliers have scored higher in category of contributions to local economy. First, I understand that purchasing decisions are made on the basis of value for money, not the cheapest, so I understand that. My question is, when the prices are so close, does Council detail the reasons why preference was not provided to a supplier who has provided evidence of higher local social contribution? That's my first question. Councillor Jurisevic: I'll take that. Speaker 4: Sure. The list is in alphabetical order, not in order. Oh, not in order. It's not a ranked panel. Okay. So all suppliers that are selected in each of those categories that we've listed are included in the panel, but not necessarily in the order that is listed here in the report.
00:02:00 We have assessed all suppliers against the criteria to form the panel. And when it comes down to awarding the work, the factors that you're talking about in terms of value for money are definitely taken into consideration. And we have, what goes along with this arrangement is what's called a panel management plan, which sets out thresholds by which we will go to quote at higher values. Okay. So that's our opportunity to assess the price component of the work. Councillor Jurisevic: When I look at the first table, for example, if the price component is only 15% of the overall assessment, the top 85% there is capability and resourcing, contract experience, methodology, quality, health, safety, all those other categories.
00:03:00 Okay. So pricing. Pricing in the first item there, in particular, only pays 15%. I think that's true across the board, is it not? Yes. Speaker 4: The weighting applies to all suppliers. Speaker 2: And all categories as well. Councillor Lorentson: Do you encourage a price preference of, say, 10% or 15% to the purchase of socially preferable products? Yes. Do you sort of factor the importance of local content, or is there a local content benefit test? Speaker 2: Not quite as such. How we work it is, depending on the type of work that we've got, a lot of the time it will just be a very small job.
00:04:00 So we'll go to people who are local, close to us, that can respond quickly. So some of the suppliers on this list, like Active, as you mentioned before, and a couple of the other ones that are probably based further away, and then there's about four or five of them that are very local. So we would usually prefer those people in those types of cases. The other one is that we generally, for larger quantities of work, we go to quote within the panel. So we'll put out the job in a short invitation to quote to the whole panel. And whoever wants to bid for that work, we'll then do a quick little assessment. And a lot of the time, depending on the value for money component and the amount of work, a lot of the time you get the economies of scale. So someone that's based further away might be charging a better price, so they'll win the job in that case.
00:05:00 But other times it will go to people that are closer, and who can actually attend to the job the quickest and deliver it the quickest. Councillor Jurisevic: Maybe not everyone's available. That's right, yeah. In a given time, they've got a work schedule that doesn't meet your work needs at a particular time. Speaker 2: Yeah, we probably don't have enough work as a whole to keep businesses employed all the time. So a lot of these suppliers, they work up and down the coast. Speaker 3: Just the other thing is, in the assessment you'll see in the attachments, that there is a weighting for the local issue. Yeah, 5%, which we put away. Councillor Lorentson: I understand that trimming is carried under strict guidelines to ensure that safety from electricity networks. However, sometimes this results in harsh and dramatic pruning or over-pruning.
00:06:00 I know this because I've actually had a complaint just recently from a lady in Sunshine Beach. Is there any weighting? Speaker 2: Yeah, we certainly do that. I mean, part of this, putting this panel together and the weightings, there was a section there on capability, track record experience, so all of that. We're confident that the majority, well, all these people here, but particularly the ones that we've used in the past, meet those standards. There's Australian standards across the board for all different types of tree work, so pruning, planting, and even fouling. There's Australian standards across all of that, that all these suppliers should be across and definitely on the panel are across, based upon their submissions.
00:07:00 Speaker 4: Most likely, the harsh pruning isn't normally done by Energex contractors around the whole line. Councillor Lorentson: Energex would do it. Speaker 4: Yeah. So that's not from this panel. This is work that Council organises, although we do have an MOU with Energex that relates to their tree works around power lines, and that does specify Australian standards for pruning. And from time to time, we do need to go back to Energex and point out that their contractors have pruned too harshly. Okay. But our officers do have liaison with people in Energex, and they deal with those factors. But that's not done by these contractors. We rarely have issues with over-pruning from our contractors. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: There'd be a number of entities that would have tree clearing services utilised within
00:08:00 the Shire, not just ourselves and Energex, but ... Speaker 4: That's right. I mean, Energex don't ... Councillor Jurisevic: Would probably be the most common. Speaker 4: They don't want to come back too often to do it. And lately, they have taken a fairly ... Councillor Jurisevic: Strong approach. Yeah. Yeah. Approach. Approach. Yeah. Speaker 2: And there's also been that pruning out on the main roads, which the main roads contractors have undertaken that. There's been some comments on Facebook on that, that it might have been counselled. Councillor Jurisevic: It's been a long time between clearing that with main roads. Speaker 2: That's right. That's where I am. Councillor Lorentson: Just one more general question in relation to PSAs. Is there a provision for the evaluation of the arrangements, including the removal of a service provider from an arrangement because of poor performance, cost blowouts, and variations? Yes. There is? Great. Speaker 4: Yes, there is. That's contained within the panel management plan that I mentioned before.
00:09:00 So all the contractors are evaluated for their performance through the duration of that arrangement. And there are dispute clauses in the contract as well that we can, through our procurement team, engage with the contractor, try and resolve it. But if their performance is enough to scratch, they can ultimately be removed from the arrangement. Councillor Jurisevic: So ... It would be something that you could consider next time those arrangements are considered. Yeah. If those arrangements are due for renewal again, as well, it would be tough to reconsideration as well. Councillor Lorentson: That's right. And do you carry out due diligence of service providers and ... Speaker 2: So we undertake annual audits on all the contractors that we use, and in regards to performance and also safety, and anyone that's not ... There's KPIs attached to that, and anyone who's not meeting them get a bit of a talking to.
00:10:00 And in terms of upping their standards, if they don't meet them as referred to, they don't get used. Speaker 4: So it's part of the tender process. The suppliers are required to provide copies of their insurance, public liabilities, all of those ... Councillor Jurisevic: Work record statements. Speaker 4: Yeah. So all of that is provided as part of the tender process. And the advantage of doing it this way is when we come to engage the contractors to carry out the work, they're already essentially pre-qualified through that process before they've been appointed to the panel. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: And that'd be true of all the tenders that we have to go, regardless of whether it's pre-clearing or any other form of tender? Yes. That's correct. Mayor Stewart: I've got a question. Can you finish? Councillor Lorentson: Oh, you can go ahead. Mayor Stewart: Yep. Just got one question. A lot of the emails I get are in relation to people who feel that the trees are dangerous, or they're hanging over, they've got branches, or they're a fire hazard, or things like that,
00:11:00 or they're on the side of the road and potentially fall if there's a storm. So what is the process that if there is those community concerns, is this under part of tree assessment and consultancy that you send people out, these people, or is it a council who goes out and assesses the tree and determines how dangerous it is? What's the process? Speaker 4: Well, it could be either or. We have our own arborists, qualified arborists on staff, and we can access consultants through Category 4 on this arrangement as well. So the process normally is that the resident that might come in, the person that might be concerned about the tree on council land, will contact council through customer service normally, and then it would be assigned to Matt's team to go and investigate. And depending on the workload of our arborists and other factors, we might decide to get
00:12:00 an external arborist to go and do the work. So it's on a case by case. Speaker 2: And all of the, whether it's the staff or the consultants, they're all involved in the tree management on public land policy, which was adopted, I think, last year through the council, and possibly the year before. So that's basically the guideline that all of the jobs get compared to. So whether or not works are justified. We get a lot of requests for trees that drop leaves, and it's just a bit of a nuisance. So that's where we say no, definitely, to those ones. Healthy trees? Yeah. Yeah. So we won't be removing trees that aren't showing signs of decline, or poor structure, or that kind of thing. Yeah. So it's all measured against that, generally. Councillor Lorentson: Okay. Speaker 4: Thanks. Tree requests. Last time I looked, it was in the top three. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: I was going to say, how are the numbers? We're still high up there?
00:13:00 Speaker 3: Yeah. Always high up. And we've got a rush after the bushfires as well. Councillor Wilkie: What was the peak of requests you were getting for tree issues? Was it 2,000 a month or something? Speaker 2: It wouldn't have been that long. About 300 a month. Councillor Wilkie: 300 a month. Yeah. That's a lot. Speaker 4: Yeah, typically 2,000 a year. We've been going historically. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah, I thought it was in the couple thousand a year. Can I just ask, there's 16 preferred suppliers on this list. How does that compare to the number you had on the previous list, 25? Speaker 2: Yeah, so the previous list didn't have those categories and it was just, I think we had 25 or 26 just all together. And because of our workload, we can't sustain that amount of, we can't supply regular work to that amount of suppliers. So in doing it this way, we've got maximum 10 in any given category.
00:14:00 There are a couple of those categories there that have only got three. That's because we just have fairly minimal amounts of that type of work. Councillor Wilkie: So did you still have the same 26 supply, but they just didn't make the cut? Speaker 2: I think we had about 24 it might have applied, I think it was. Yeah. Speaker 4: Not all of the suppliers from our current panel have retended this time around. And we've got some new ones in this time. It just depends on, you know, which companies. You know, have tendered each year. But all of our regular contractors, they're still, they've still tendered and we've still recommended them. Councillor Wilkie: And this arrangement will start from effectively after the budget's approved in July? Speaker 4: It'll start most likely in July. It's just a matter of going through, you know, getting the council resolution and then going through our procurement.
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00:15:00 And then we'll see if we can get the team to get the documentation in place. Yes. At the moment, we've extended our existing arrangement month to month until we get this new one in place. Councillor Wilkie: Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: I'm also assuming within here, the different contracts would have different capabilities with regard to the equipment they've got available for working at extreme heights and things like that. Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah. So that's what, that's why it's good to have, you know, in those, for your main type of tree works, at least 10 suppliers, because we got, you know, there's, there's ones out there that have got massive 30 metre towers and you've got like your local guys that just ground-based crews that can get in and do the tight, yeah, that's right, climbers and, yeah, there's a bit, yeah. Councillor Wilkie: And it says the pricing put forward by suppliers on the panel does not represent a large increase compared to the previous panel arrangement pricing. It should not impact on the quantity or quality of works achieved. Do you have a dollar value on that difference in price? Speaker 2: Yeah, it was, I did a comparison.
00:16:00 I looked at the, the, the previous, or the current suppliers in the current panel and what their rates were at the time that they, that they got on that. And then I compared it to, for the, just for the same ones that had re-tended what their, what their new pricing was, some had gone up by small increments, others hadn't changed. I think on average, when I looked at it, it was really only around a sort of a CPI type, two to 3% type of increase. So obviously we, we work to a finite budget every year, so we just do what we can within that. Councillor Jurisevic: Given, given that, yeah, prices do change over, over time, and this is a multi-year contract, isn't it? Multi-year? Yeah, it's a, it's a two, it's a two plus three, yeah. So there's obviously sunrise and fall arrangement within the, within the tender? I'm calculating more, you know, prices are changing. I think we've got a problem with the CPI, haven't we? Speaker 4: Um, um, I'm not, I, I, I, I believe that there's, um, um, CPI provisions.
00:17:00 Speaker 2: There's a, there's a provision of CPI, yeah. Councillor Wilkie: Of course. So when the Council approves the budget, the, um, this Arborist Services Cost Centre, which pays these, these, these suppliers, there, there's fund and service, like, basically business as usual, um, fund and service. Okay. For, for that activity within the maintenance, within the budget for civil, the Civil Ops Department. Speaker 4: Yep. Yes. Yeah. But there is, assuming Council approves it. Councillor Wilkie: Yes. And it's about, it works out to be $1.2 million a year. Speaker 4: Um. Speaker 2: Yeah, that's about. For the Arborist, this is what, what they were called. Yep, yep, yep, that's what, that was last year's figure, yep. Councillor Wilkie: Um, about, about the same, plus CPI. Speaker 4: Yeah, well, um, this. Councillor Wilkie: It depends on the workload, doesn't it? Speaker 4: That's, that's across, across the entire Arborist Services budget. Um, the bulk of it by far is contract services tree works, um, which will come in around about the $9.50.
00:18:00 On top of that, we need traffic control for, for any works that are done on road, roadside, so. Mayor Stewart: So. Those major tree works, is that predominantly pruning and moving dangerous trees, or is that? Uh, that category you're talking about. Yeah, what would $950,000 entail? Speaker 4: It's, it's, it's essentially that, it's across all of those categories that we've, um, we've, we've provided in, in these arrangements. The bulk of it being the tree works component, but there's a small amount, like Matt says, that would be for tree planning, um, and also for consultancy services when we, we need an Arborist to go in and, and do inspections. Speaker 2: But you're right in that major tree works is removal and pruning. Yeah. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: And Matt, would these contractors be involved in the clearing of fire access trails? Speaker 2: Uh, no, that's run by a natural area, uh, environment services, but I think they, they'll utilise this panel because they can, they can share it. Anyone in, in council can have access to this panel.
00:19:00 Okay. Um, so we have the natural areas team that, um, that access this panel. Yes. Um, some of the other, uh, project managers in the design, um, infrastructure design and delivery utilise the panel, and I think even some of the, um, community facilities also access the panel. Okay. Yeah. Speaker 4: Yes, that's correct. The, the, um, the, the, the numbers I'm saying are the civil operations budget, but like Matt says, natural areas have, uh, a component of their budget for tree management on bush, bushland reserves. Mm-hmm. And they'd access this panel as well. Councillor Jurisevic: So, you know, in a new, uh, road widening or something like that, or, or new pathway going through, there'd be a tree removal component if there were trees to be removed within their budget for that project, I would assume. Not out of your budget, not out of this budget. Speaker 4: Now this, this is, this is for works within parks and roads, roads. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Anything further? No. All good? Happy to move it.
00:20:00 Okay. Can I have a second? Thank you, Clare. All in favour? Thank you, gentlemen. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Matt. Thanks, Alan. Thanks, Alan. Thank you. You've learned a lot of metrics. Yeah. That's pretty amazing. Councillor Jurisevic: Raddiff, item two. Uh, Raddiff, great recommendation. Councillor Wilkie: Hey, that's the best music I've ever listened to. Councillor Jurisevic: Um. Speaker 3: Kerry, Kerry's online. Kerry and Ali. Well, there she is. Councillor Wilkie: Yes. I'm going to have to do. Hi, everybody. How are you? Hi, how are you? Good. Councillor Jurisevic: Hi. No, that's exactly Aurora Borealis. I'm going to have to declare a perceived conflict of interest in this. Actually, I, uh, I, I am. One of the recipients here is, uh, the Great Upcycling Challenge and Exhibition, of which, uh, I've been the, uh, one of the judges, uh, for the last two years. So, on that basis, um, I think we should leave it at that. Thank you. Okay. Speaker 3: Okay. Kylie's got the details there. No, no. Councillor Jurisevic: No, I've, I haven't put forward them to her. I've just realised. Which one is it? Which one is it, Josh? It's the Nicollet Art Group Incorporated, the Great Upcycling Challenge and Exhibition.
00:21:00 Mayor Stewart: Oh, yeah. Speaker 3: So, just explain. Councillor Jurisevic: Having, uh, supported the activity and, uh, and been a judge of the exhibition for the, uh, past two years. And this is the first time, I believe, they've applied for random funding and, uh, and, uh, are in this, um, are an applicant in this category. So. Speaker 3: You're declaring a. Councillor Jurisevic: Declaring a conflict of interest and, uh. Speaker 3: Choosing to leave the room. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. I'll leave it to you to. Speaker 3: Yep. I'll sort out the rest. Councillor Jurisevic: Point, point at you, uh, your chair. Speaker 3: So, councillors, um, when a chair has a conflict of interest and leave the room, um, I then need to call for someone to chair the meeting for that, for us to deal with this item. So, I call nominations for someone to deal with it. We end up with a seconder for that nomination. All those in favour against.
00:22:00 Then that person assumes the chair for the purpose of this item. And then when we finish this item, the normal chair comes back in and we continue the meeting. Does that make sense? Yes. Yes. So, I was going to call for nominations for someone to chair the meeting for the consideration of item number two. Councillor Wilkie: Um, I'll move that, um, Councillor Stewart be the chair. Yep. I'll second that. All right. Speaker 3: You weren't quick enough, yeah. Okay. All those, moved by Councillor Wilkie, seconded by Councillor Lorentson that Councillor Stewart chair the meeting for the consideration of item two. All those in favour? Do I, can I start? No, you do it for me. Yep. Okay. Mayor Stewart: So, this is in regard to the, uh, recommendation that council note the report by the Community Development Manager to the Services and Organisation Committee meeting dated 9th of June 2020 and approved for the Regional Arts Development Fund. Recommendations for 2019-20 round two funding as outlined in attachment one to the report.
00:23:00 Um. Speaker 3: And we've got Kerry and Alison online to answer any questions. Mayor Stewart: So, we don't have any questions. Councillor Wilkie: I've got a question Kerry or for Alison, um, what was the, the, um, the interest in terms of applications like for this round? Was it affected by COVID in any way? Or were they just as strong as usual? Speaker 5: It was actually, um, pre-COVID. So, it was actually the closing date was pretty much when COVID was starting. Um, so yes, we did have a high level of interest and, uh, Community Development Officer Linda Simonson worked very actively with probably about 20, um, potential applicants and it got narrowed down to 10 actually submitting. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. And how does that compare to the normal rate of application? Yeah, it's pretty normal. Okay. Mayor Stewart: Um, Alison, Claire here. The, um, our, our ADF committee's recommended seven applications totaling 30,685 for funding.
00:24:00 Is this on par with previous years or is it less because of COVID or where are we at with funding wise in this regard? Yes. Speaker 5: So, it's a partnership with, um, Arts Queensland. So, they provide us with, it's about, um, $25,000 towards a grant, the grant program. So, we have about $50,000 for two rounds per year. Councillor Lorentson: Yeah. Speaker 5: Um, so our first round, we didn't expend the whole $25,000. Um, we were just a bit short of that. So, this allowed us to spend the 30,000 this time. So, it was quite a competitive round. Um, the three applicants that did, uh, were unsuccessful this particular round, uh, were still very strong applicants. Um, hence, they were working very closely with our development officer to develop their applications. Um, however, they were just, because it was such a competitive round and they didn't show some of the supporting evidence behind it, um, we've actually asked them to resubmit, um, for the next round. Mayor Stewart: Okay. Speaker 5: So, Regional Arts Development Funds runs from September to September.
00:25:00 Mayor Stewart: Yeah. Speaker 5: Um, so we need to apply each year. But we can generally, uh, predict that we can get around the $50,000 mark with $25,000 coming from Council. Councillor Lorentson: Okay. Just a comment, um, Alison. Um, just when I looked at the grant recommendations, it just appeared to be a really good mix of applicants. You've got musicians, dancers, artists, painters, printmakers, singers, and actors. And the projects seemed really diversified and sort of fit the brief, um, they appear to benefit. They benefit local arts practitioners, audience, um, arts workers, and the community. Um, looked great. Excellent. Thank you. Speaker 5: We're really excited to have Councillor Finzel join us, um, as the chairperson next round. Councillor Wilkie: So, it'll be great to work with her. She's remarkably present in the gallery and she looks very excited as well. No.
00:26:00 Mayor Stewart: Yeah, I would, um, agree with Councillor Lorentson and I think there's a great diversity here. You've got the Lullaby Ensemble for new mums. You've got the Under 40, Under 40 exhibition. You've got the Noose Dance for Seniors. I think it's, uh, it's a really good mix, um, and represents, uh, you know, a diverse and wide range of the, of the community. So, I think it's great. I'll second that. Thank you. All in favour? Yes. Thank you. Speaker 3: I'll go and get Councillor Jurisevic to come back and hear again. Speaker 5: Thanks, everybody. Councillor Wilkie: Thanks, Alison. Thanks, Kerry. Speaker 5: Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Thanks, guys. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Is that line finished? Yes. Okay, item three, 2021 Budget Public Consultation Trial.
00:27:00 Councillor Wilkie: This one's been requested to go through to the General Minister. I understand that. Councillor Jurisevic: Are we having any questions from staff before it goes? Speaker 3: Maybe just a question about what information the councillors would need. Yeah, a heads up. Councillor Wilkie: I'll start with a question. Question, the budget, councillors have the latitude to delay the ratification of the budget by, to what date is it? Speaker 3: Under the regulation, councillors have to adopt their budget by 31st of July each year. Under that, theoretically, the Minister can give extensions of time. In previous years, he normally doesn't like giving extensions, but I understand that this year they are open to giving extensions more for some councillors. But the majority of councillors are still adopting their budget late June at the moment. That's where most that I'm aware of are aiming for. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah.
00:28:00 So, just a heads up for councillors to help with decisions on Monday. I've asked the staff to do some calculations to work out what would be the cost in terms of revenue if council was to delay approval of the budget by, well, to the end of the month, as opposed to the date that it's... I don't know how long it's going to take to get down, but help inform our decision-making at the moment. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, I'm assuming delaying the budget would delay all the fees and charges, any change to fees and charges, any changes to the rates? Speaker 3: Yeah, primarily it's the rates and notice issue as well, when they'd go out and be delayed some weeks and that's the implications in terms of cash flow and so on. Councillor Jurisevic: Well, that's going to be my question. So, what are you going to get out of those as well? Councillor Lorentson: I'd like to just note that we need a proper discussion about how we can meet community expectations and still meet our deadlines with this financial review. First note I made when I read that was that the fastest way to destroy public trust
00:29:00 is to make a promise and then break it, and I stand by that. And I think as a council, there's some... Councillor Jurisevic: We're not debating... Councillor Lorentson: Oh, no, no, no, but I think that I've sort of proposed for the general meeting that we discuss an adapted format, and I think there may be some opportunities, and I've spoken to Brett about putting something together, your say with some feedback and submission, but I think that we can meet halfway and deliver on part of that promise. Councillor Jurisevic: We'll need to look at those on Monday when we discuss with the council and the ladies for the meeting. The full council will wrap up the discussion. Councillor Wilkie: Fantastic. I think there's many of us around the table who would like to discuss further options. Yeah, I think everyone's on the same page. Mayor Stewart: Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: All right. Speaker 3: Is there any other info on that? I mean, I'll work with Amelia on some ideas as well. Councillor Wilkie: Mr. Sear, just a general question. Because of COVID, the state government has amended the Local Government Act to allow the revenue notice to be changed.
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00:30:00 Can you just expand on that? Speaker 3: Yeah, sure. Normally, under the current regulation, the council can't change its, I'll call it its rates notice for want of a better phrase. The things that are on the rates notice, you know, the general rate and separate charges and things like that at any time during the year. The minister has said that they are proposing to amend the regulation to allow councils for the 2020-2021 budget year to amend your budget during the year. Including your rates notice sort of stuff. As you're aware, we can normally change the budget through budget reviews, which deals with the expenditure side or capital works side. But we can't normally change the rates notice or revenue side because that's fixed at the time of the budget. So they are looking at amending the budget, sorry, the regulation to allow councils to vary the budget, including that side of the equation in terms of the rates notice during the year.
00:31:00 I'm not aware that that's gone through yet, but certainly they've put out public statements that that's the intent. And I know some other councils may take advantage of that. So that is an opportunity down the track about whether the council wants to do a major budget amendment during the year rather than just changing the expenditure side. So it's an unusual year for that to occur, but, you know, we're at unusual times. Councillor Jurisevic: Very unusual times. I'm assuming the reason behind that is because of the unusual times and the insecurity around revenue and expenditure. Speaker 3: The level of uncertainty for a lot of councils about, you know, what impact it will be over 12 months or three months or six months or whatever. If they adopt a budget now, then re-adopt another budget in January or whatever it might be. So that safety net. Councillor Jurisevic: Pending another outbreak or not. Speaker 3: Correct. I think the minister had asked around a bunch of CEOs, including myself, about what we thought about the idea. And we said, look, I think it's a good idea because it'll be a safety net. You know, if there's a second wave or something else major happens, you might need to go back and revisit your budget in a major way.
00:32:00 So that was the intent, I think, of what they're proposing in the regulation. Mayor Stewart: And is that budget review in September? Speaker 3: Yeah, we normally have a number of budget reviews during the year and putting aside the COVID year, we'd normally have a number where we look at that. I think Michael's online. Michael, just in our normal years, what's our cycle for BR1 and 2 and so on? It's normally about July, August for the number one with the carryovers and then later in the year for what's the other ones? Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. Speaker 3: So for BR1, it's what, normally July or August for the carryover. What are the other ones? Speaker 1: August for carryovers and we're looking at probably February, March for the second one. So will there be one in September, Michael? No, we generally go, we were running on a three budget review cycle, but we've done a review of that and it's a bit, the cost
00:33:00 benefit hasn't been there in previous years. Speaker 1: And so we're looking at a two budget review cycle going forward. So you're probably looking at August for carryovers and then after Christmas, which gives a better indication of how we're travelling throughout the year and then gives us that flexibility to adjust the budget for February, March. Councillor Wilkie: So any, any changes that would normally go through BR2, which is in September, what would you be doing after Christmas? Speaker 1: Look, but we've got flexibility, you know, in uncertain times, you can, you can do a budget review at any, any month. Okay. So we've got flexibility. Councillor Jurisevic: So yes, in the event that some, some funding became available and the like, we'd be able to review what that funding was spent on and what projects may or may not be adjusted as a result. Yep. Councillor Wilkie: Nothing further? I'll move the go to the general. Thank you.
00:34:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Seconders, if you're clear, all in favour of the general, move on to item four, the council item of reiteration three, any questions? Councillor Wilkie: Just general comment, Mr. Chair, this is part of a whole raft of cost cutting measures that the council is looking at this budget. It's a budget like none other, brought about by the cataclysmic effect on community's finances, the nation's finances, the world's finances, financial considerations, so it's the responsible thing to do, as the mayor said, and this is just one of many, many sort of freezes, cuts, cost saving measures that we'll be looking at in this, this budget, and it's meant to be looked at in that context, I think. It's not just a budget. Councillor Jurisevic: Indeed. Seconder? I'll move theю Thank you. No further discussion. All in favour?
00:35:00 The vote is headed, and I think that's our last item on the agenda. Thank you.