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00:00:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Good afternoon everybody and welcome to the Services and Organisations Committee meeting of Tuesday 6th of October. If everyone is in attendance you will know our projects today. Before we begin I would like to pay my respects to the Elders of the land upon which we meet, the Kabi Kabi or Kabi Kabi people and I would like to hear Elders past, present and emerging. No presentations or deputations? No, not today. Then I'll begin with item 1, Community Grant Programme Funding. Council, any questions for staff? Councillor Wilkie: I might just ask a general question of Alison. For the benefit of those listening at home, you're proposing that the entire annual grants budget go out in this one round. Mainly, could you just talk to the reasons why? Yep, sure. You're recommending that as a course of action? Speaker 4: Yes, so we have a $225,000 in the budget for two rounds as such and we had such a great need
00:01:00 in the community for projects being put forward so we had 49 applications in total, so a huge application round. We had a number of different external grant opportunities that hadn't continued at this present stage so they were looking for money. We've got groups that are in great need so we're just saying this would be a perfect opportunity for us to put forward and recommend you. And all the money being put forward in this round 1, so $225,000 in total. Councillor Wilkie: Because normally you'd only recommend half that amount? Correct, yes. But there's such a need and these are organisations, not-for-profits, recovering from COVID, looking to ramp up again, they need the money now which is why we're suggesting to go along in the one round now. Speaker 4: Correct, absolutely. And we'll have another round opening in February, March. Money will be available next financial year, so as of the 1st of July. So there's not too much of a period of time where they'll be waiting for the next round. Speaker 8: Also, Frank, there seemed to be no point in holding another round
00:02:00 when there's all of these very valid projects which would only have to reapply and be assessed the same way. So the community, the local economy, every little dollar counts that way. And so having that investment brought forward not only benefits these organisations but benefits the community generally. Councillor Lorentson: Put the money out in the community to circulate it. Speaker 8: Where there is need. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. This round saw, you said, Alison, 49 community project grant applications. The total was $530,650 and we only allocated $225,971 to the grants. Therefore there were $205,000 worth of applications that weren't successful. Can you run through some of the reasons why some projects did miss out on funding and were non-conforming or badly written applications one of those reasons?
00:03:00 Speaker 4: Sure. There are a number of different reasons. So obviously we couldn't recommend everything being put forward because we didn't have the money in place. We do have grants criteria that they need to meet. So whether that's demonstrating the need for the project, demonstrating benefit to the community, demonstrating the need for the funding as well. So they must do that. A number of projects didn't get the whole amount that they had requested as well because they may have put in the eligible items through as part of their project. It may not be the need at this period of time. It could be something that we could look for external funding for as well. There's a number of projects that we knew that wasn't urgent at this point in time. So some of those infrastructure ones with those larger scale dollar items. We have said we will work with them to look for external grant opportunities with them or we'll hold them off until the next round, next financial year. Councillor Jurisevic: And if those external grant funding opportunities don't come forward or aren't successful, what then?
00:04:00 Speaker 4: Yep. So as I mentioned before, we do have another round. Money will be available on the 1st of July. They can apply for that round. But we do really like to focus on all those different external grant opportunities. So we're not reliant upon that Council's ratepayers money as well. So it's better bang for the buck. We want to bring as more money into the Noosa Shire as possible. Councillor Jurisevic: Now just to explain to follow on from Frank's question. Normally we have two rounds of grant funding. One in March and one around this time. So the grant applications from March were delayed until now. So this is essentially not requiring that second round of grant funding because that first round will be spent as an opportunity to spend the entire amount in one year. So again, that next round of grants will be open again in March. Yep, correct. Which then usually get allocated in the new financial year. 1st of July, correct. Speaker 4: So technically we did have the grant round open pre-COVID as such. However, we decided to postpone that and hold off that grant round.
00:05:00 Because of COVID, we opened up that disaster emergency grant for community organisations to apply for. Those organisations did so under that criteria. Any of those organisations that did apply under that round that we had a hold on, we asked them to resubmit. Or we looked for external grant opportunities for them. Councillor Jurisevic: Now again, this is only talking about the grants that comes out of Council funding. There's a number of community organisations that have benefited through some of the funds that have been available through the COVID environment. Speaker 4: Correct. So just for example, we just got probably about $85,000 through one of the sport and rec grants at the moment. So a number of different community sporting organisations were successful and that staff has assisted. Councillor Jurisevic: Are any of those sort of things funding some of these unsuccessful projects at this point in time? Speaker 4: Not at this point in time because that grant had actually been closed. However, we are working with Gambling Community Benefit Fund, Tourism Noosa, for example, and looking at some of those unsuccessful projects as well. Speaker 8: Just going back to Amelia's question, you know, one of the key aspects that we require
00:06:00 applicants to do is to consult with a community development officer prior to submitting their grant. So some of the unsuccessful ones are often people that haven't done that because they've not got the advice of the community development officer. And their grant sometimes simply is, hasn't even achieved the basic compliance that it needs to. Doesn't have the right number of quotes, hasn't put a budget in that can, so that we can see where the funding's going. So, you know, one of the pieces of feedback to all of the non-successful applicants is that importance of speaking to a community development officer to give their grant application the very best chance of success. And it's obviously, as you can see, highly competitive. Gotcha. Councillor Jurisevic: Just making sure they've ticked all the boxes before they begin rather than finding out once they've made their application. We weren't aware of that or we didn't know this or we didn't know that. Speaker 4: And we are working with volunteers as well, so it is, you know, it's something that... Councillor Jurisevic: And organisations of change volunteers. Speaker 4: Absolutely.
00:07:00 Absolutely. So we do a number of different workshops to try and support those volunteers and their grant writing, whether it's to Council or to other external grant opportunities as well. Councillor Jurisevic: Now, again, the other thing that we do supplementary to actually doing grants is we do grant writing workshops. Yes. And we do support services for committees and the like with regard to how to be a president, how to be a... Have those been able to be run during this? Absolutely. Speaker 4: Yeah. So just prior to COVID, we had our Grants Networks Nibbles Night. So we had over a hundred people attending that session. So not only are we talking about council grants, but we're talking about other external opportunities, whether it's through grants or fundraising opportunities. I think we've run four workshops, I don't know, a series of five workshops through the COVID recovery period of time. So they've all been run by Skype. And we've just recently hosted a workshop around social media, working with our community organisations. And we have the ability for people to come actually in-house or over Skype. Councillor Jurisevic: So not only funding for the projects, but also funding for their resilience and their...
00:08:00 Speaker 4: Absolutely. Councillor Jurisevic: ...their development as they continue on. Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. Speaker 2: Anything further? Just a quick query, Alison. You mentioned that some of the external third party grants were put on hold, like Community Benefit Fund. Yeah. Is that the same for some of the philanthropic organisations that we grant? Is that starting to flow through again now? Speaker 4: It's starting to flow through. Yes, absolutely. So some of them were put on hold. Yes. And there's also that inability for some of those organisations to fundraise themselves. So they were put on hold. But yeah, we're seeing a lot more flow through of external grant opportunities now. Speaker 2: Does that depend on demand there, too? Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: So the budget, the feds have turned around and talked about throwing more money out there for opportunities. Yeah. I don't know if you had time to read, but have there been any opportunities, Kerry? Do you know if there's been any opportunities for additional funding through what's being announced at the moment? Speaker 4: So in terms of external grant opportunities? Absolutely. We've been jumping on board wherever we can. There's opportunities at the moment for marquees, sun safety initiatives, gambling community
00:09:00 benefit funds, state government funding. So we're trying to jump on board wherever we can. Speaker 8: That's trickling out in all sorts of different ways. Councillor Jurisevic: There's been some announcements with the budget announcement today that I was thinking, is there anything- Speaker 8: I haven't seen today's. I'd have to have a look at today's. That's what I was alluding to. No, what we're seeing is programs that are coming out and preferencing, a little bit like our program, preferencing those organisations for COVID recovery. Okay. But where they're put on hold now, pushing those out. Councillor Jurisevic: Have we, from the other perspective there, I suppose it's not associated with grants, but have we seen any groups that have been struggling? Speaker 4: Absolutely. Yeah. Yep. 100%. Councillor Jurisevic: Are they going to go to the wall? Or have we managed to keep them all surviving through what we've been able to allocate? Speaker 4: So sometimes community organisations. It is okay for them to fold as well. So for a variety of different reasons.
00:10:00 However, they are generally meeting a need in the community and there is great benefit for them to be here and supporting the community. They'll continue to go. Speaker 8: Some have made conscious choices to, I guess for want of a better word, mothball for a little bit of time, because particularly the stress on their volunteers, it's been a lot for them to cope with. So they're sensible choices to just put the organisation on the back burner. And then when the time is right, if there's a need in that organisation. Councillor Jurisevic: I'm hoping that's as bad as it gets. Speaker 8: Yeah. As Ali said, sometimes it's the life cycle of an organisation. It can be okay that they come to an end. Yeah. Speaker 4: True. And some organisations, you just heard before, the ability to fundraise as well. If they're actually looking outside the box, they're doing great. Some of those organisations, if they're just doing the traditional fundraising opportunities, they're not doing so well.
00:11:00 Councillor Lorentson: So. Anything further? Just one last question. With the selection panel, who was on the selection panel? And is it council appointed staff? Speaker 4: So it is council staff. Yeah. So any organisation that applies to the selection panel. The first thing they need to do is check on their eligibility, so that's undertaken by the grants officer. And then each grant application is assessed via the criteria, so demonstrate need for the project, benefits to the community, etc. That's been done by the development officers within community development. So it's all scored and ranked accordingly. That team will then moderate each particular grant application. And knowing the budget that we're working to make sure that it fulfils the budget, it then goes up to senior management for review and then to counsellors for adoption.
00:12:00 Councillor Jurisevic: So we're available for those. Counsellors, I'll remind counsellors that while we're going through this, if anybody has a conflict of interest, should we go out to declare that conflict? Speaker 2: Counsellors, this will be the last meeting. We get to declare either a real or perceived conflict, because the new system starts on Monday. Wow. Councillor Jurisevic: And in relation to the... Speaker 2: The clearable or prescribed, if that's the one. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, I think it uses the terminology. Speaker 2: Yeah, the terminology changes. So this is the last counselling meeting we'll have, or committee meeting, under this. Councillor Jurisevic: Yes. And so getting into that new system, that new system will allow us to declare a membership where the current system doesn't require us to do that. Is that correct? Go to the training on Friday and you'll find out. No. Only executive membership. I may. No, you don't have to declare, but you can declare.
00:13:00 Mayor Stewart: Mr Chair, I may have a conflict with Nursery Live. I think I've supported them in a recent grant. Speaker 2: If that grant was to another organisation, you won't have a conflict. Like if they've applied to state government or something like that and you've given them a support, that would not warrant a thank you motion. That would be my advice. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. Are there questions? Is there any questions or any comments? Councillor Lorentson: I think I was sort of overwhelmed or blown away by just the level of community participation and involvement. And these projects cover so, so many areas. We just have a really healthy community and I'm excited to be part of it. And I wish we had more money to give to these groups. And maybe that is something we can consider when we review our budget because there's a lot of good causes that have missed out. Speaker 4: Yeah. Now we do have a fantastic lot of community groups.
00:14:00 There's about 300 not-for-profit community groups in the Shire and they're all, most of them are volunteer run too. So the level of work that they do by volunteers is phenomenal. Speaker 8: Absolutely. I think a positive element to note in this is that the applications and the ones being funded are for very, things that we would ordinarily see. So they're good events and infrastructure. Then it's not funding to save the organisation in terms of COVID recovery. So I think that's a really healthy thing to see that they're very, they're still, they're still progressive, positive, constructive, and so, yeah. Speaker 4: And any organisation that isn't approved as such will actively work with that organisation if we see great benefit in the project in trying to attract other grant opportunities with them or resubmit next time around. Councillor Jurisevic: Now these, these events that we're funding here are typically one-off or new events that are starting up and trying to initiate. Yeah. So what's not included here are our signature events that we fund.
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00:15:00 Correct. Through another, through another, just so people understand that. Speaker 4: That's correct. Councillor Jurisevic: I'm happy to move it. Yeah. Second. Seconded by Clare, thank you. All right, through the discussion, all in favour? Thank you. Moving on to item three, community project grants for infrastructure. You might explain the difference, might for the benefit of those watching explain that why we're going through several categories here and what each of these categories represent. The first was events, so that's what, what is eligible in, in that, that funding arrangement compared to say here, infrastructure. What's, what, what, what sort of projects we, we would see under the infrastructure grant? Speaker 4: Sure. So the infrastructure grants is pretty much any building works as such. So upgrades to facilities, lighting, any bricks and mortar, lighting, sorry, I've said lighting. Yeah. Could be anything, fencing, anything infrastructure related, car parking. Yep. Councillor Jurisevic: Follow the red line.
00:16:00 Councillor Lorentson: It's my understanding, Kerri and Alison, that this particular project grant required 50% contribution. Yes. That the clubs had to present an in-kind contribution to, to be eligible to get the grant. Speaker 4: That's correct. So this is, so under the four categories, we, we would expect some sort of contribution to be put forward. However, under the infrastructure one, we do require 50%, so that could either be cash at bank, an external grant opportunity, or in-kind support, yeah, towards the project. Speaker 8: And this is the category where traditionally these organisations would be relying significantly on community gambling benefits grant. And so really seeing the impact of that and not having that in terms of a lot of infrastructure, particularly small infrastructure that should have gone ahead. Councillor Jurisevic: That's certainly, certainly looked out for the larger infrastructure projects.
00:17:00 Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay, I'll move it. Thank you, Claire. The seconder, thank you, Frank. All in favour? Thank you, we'll move on. Item four, the grants projects, programs. Speaker 2: Maybe the architects are just looking for programs. Councillor Jurisevic: Just, just heading there, so again, maybe just for the benefit of those that, that are viewing this. What sort of things would come under programs for a company? Speaker 4: Probably the best way to describe it is anything with a start and finish date. So any sort of activity or, it's another word for program, project with a start and finish date with, with participation. Councillor Jurisevic: Within the 12 month period or beyond that? Speaker 4: So within the 12 month period, if it is beyond that, we would look for other opportunities as well. Okay. Councillor Lorentson: This is. Councillor Jurisevic: These are opportunities such as, I'll crack the list, a volleyball club here, for example, starting up a new, new sporting, sporting opportunity and, and giving them facilitation to provide training and, and experience in that sport to see if there's a, a desire to, to grow that sport in the region.
00:18:00 Absolutely. Speaker 8: I guess that with the infrastructure ones, they're very, you know, it's bricks and mortar, the program ones are people oriented, so the organisations are doing something involving people. Councillor Wilkie: Mm-hmm. Just. A question that, for example, one of the projects recommended for funding at the Tyler Kennedy Legacy Trust, which has a stand tool surf theory program, offering therapeutic benefits of surfing for vulnerable children aged five to 17 years of age, and has start and a finish date obviously. Yeah. You mentioned the council's event policy, it was capped at 500 at Kennedy's, is a program they were very unlikely to attract that many children? Speaker 4: No. No. No. No. So that's just a standard special conditions that we would put against any of the events.
00:19:00 Okay. Or programs. We're actually utilising council's public land. Yeah. So. Councillor Wilkie: No. Speaker 4: Right. Yeah. Yeah. So there, there is a, a quite substantial amount. Councillor Wilkie: I need to declare a real conflict of interest. Councillor Jurisevic: How about I turn around and say what it is first, Frank, and then I'll do a community Councillor Wilkie: project grant for equipment. A real conflict of interest, Mr Chairman, as President of Ms Wright's Theatre. I have a real conflict of interest and I'll leave the room. Speaker 4: Okay. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Speaker 4: So for this particular... Just wait, leave the room. So for this particular grant category as such, this is where we would really rely upon organisations
00:20:00 such as the Gambling Community Benefit Fund. Yes. To fund this type of equipment. We weren't traditionally funded. However, given the time that we're going through with COVID, these organisations are in need and they've identified this is what they require to continue to move forward. Mayor Stewart: Mr Chair, I believe I may have a conflict in this perceived. Sunshine Coast Sports Aviators, someone on that committee donated to my election campaign. Or a member of that club. Councillor Jurisevic: That is a membership of a club. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Speaker 2: So which one is it? Sunshine Coast Sports Aviators. Speaker 8: Sunshine Coast Sports Aviators. Second from the bottom of page 14. Speaker 2: Okay. And so what happened? One of your donors is a... A member. Mayor Stewart: I believe was the Vice President. I'm not sure if still is, but not know. But a member of the club. That's my understanding. Speaker 4: Yep. Speaker 2: And so if they're an ordering member, I don't see there's an issue.
00:21:00 But sometimes it can be that, for example, if they were involved in preparing the application, that might be an issue. So do you have any other... No, I've had no involvement with the club in preparing... No, just an ordering member like anyone else. Mayor Stewart: Oh, I'm not sure. I don't know the answer if they have. Speaker 2: It's a bit hard to give advice. Yeah. Jeremy or Charlie, if you're in. Yeah. Maybe my advice would be... Councillor Jurisevic: We're going to be in trouble because a pair of us will be declared dissimilar. I have a similar culture. Speaker 2: My advice would be, as a matter of caution, if you're unsure, then you always better declare a perceived conflict of interest and then request the remaining members could remain in the room. Alternatively, if you're confident that the person who gave you a donation is just an ordinary member, like anyone else is an ordinary member of any community organisation, then I don't think you would need to declare that if they had no involvement in this process. They just happen to be a member of the club. Mayor Stewart: I'm unsure about their role in this...
00:22:00 In any application. Councillor Lorentson: Can I ask... On that... Yeah. Do they donate more than $500? They don't own $500. Speaker 2: Yeah. My advice would be, as a matter of precaution, to... You can declare a perceived conflict of interest and request to stay in the room. Yeah. Or you can declare a perceived conflict of interest and choose to leave the room. Are those choices the same? Yeah. Mayor Stewart: I might choose to leave the room on this one, just to be safe. Okay. Yeah. Because I'm unsure about the extent of the involvement... Yeah. ...in the application. Councillor Jurisevic: I have a similar perceived conflict of interest. Oh, yeah. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. Which will make it very, very difficult to have anybody vote on this one, if that's the case. Speaker 2: Do you need to get advice, then? Councillor Jurisevic: Well, I have a similar conflict of... There's a member of this supported me by handing out flyers.
00:23:00 An election campaign... 2014 and 2016. They may have been on the executive... I'm not sure what their role in the interview is now. Could be 100%. Yeah. So I would have to take that advice. Speaker 2: So are you... Is this the same organisation? Councillor Jurisevic: It's the same organisation. So, yeah. Speaker 2: That's your saying. It's a bit difficult to give advice when you're only getting half it. So... I said I... Councillor Jurisevic: On the grounds of being uncertain, I would leave the room at this point in time and give clarification on that. I should have sought that before the meeting. Speaker 2: So if you want to, you can declare a perceived public interest on the basis that... You know what the person's name is? Councillor Jurisevic: Donated time. Sorry. Who?
00:24:00 And their election material. I think it was 2006... 2000... I think it was... I think it was 2004. I can't remember. I can't remember. I can't remember. I can't remember. Oh, 2016. I'm not 100% sure. 2016. I'll have to go back and double check. I have no way of knowing if they had any involvement in the government. Speaker 2: What's your proposal? You've proposed... Councillor Jurisevic: Well, I would... I propose to leave the room. Speaker 2: Just on the fact that I'm not going to leave. Councillor Lorentson: What we do is... Can I also... Oh, my goodness. Sorry. I'm going to declare... Speaker 2: Well, sorry. We'll deal with one at a time. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sorry. So, Joe, you're choosing to leave the room. You leave the room. And we'll deal with the matters. And then I'll... Obviously, we won't... Well, does that leave you to deal with it? That's easy. I'll be referring in general. Excellent. Okay.
00:25:00 Councillor Lorentson: I'm going to declare a perceived conflict of interest, but I'm going to ask you to remain in the room. One of the members, and I'm not sure if he's a member or the caretaker, Dave, I'm not sure if you know Dave, picked up two of my election posters. I don't know what he did with them, but just I left them at the front of the house and he collected. I don't know him other than that or other than my dealings since I've been in Ganser. Speaker 2: So he assisted you with your election, is that what you're saying? Councillor Lorentson: He picked up two of my posters. I'm not sure what he did with them or where he placed them, but he did collect two of my posters, but I don't know him otherwise. Speaker 2: And he's a member of the organisation? Councillor Lorentson: He's the maintenance guy, but I would guess a member of the Aviator Club. Speaker 2: Yep. Okay. Councillor Lorentson: So you're declaring a conflict of interest?
00:26:00 Speaker 2: Conflict, but I'm going to request to remain in the room. Okay. So at the moment we don't have a quorum to do that, and so the remaining councils aren't able to make that decision about whether you stay or go. Yep. Given the number of councillors who have removed themselves and they've left a quorum, what I'll do as CEO is refer this matter to the general committee meeting on Monday. Speaker 5: Yep. Speaker 2: So there's no decision that this committee needs to make in that sense. Yep. So Kylie will just recall that the matter has been referred to the general committee due to a lack of quorum, and when the other councillors come back in, I'll give them some advice about the need to consider matters before now. Okay. I'll go and get the remaining councillors back in. I'm breaking the box. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Thank you.
00:27:00 So let's go on to general. Speaker 2: Yeah, councillors, just obviously a number of councillors declared interest and left the room just to advise that as we lost a quorum, I'll refer the matter to general committee. Can I also suggest that in the future it would be a good idea to have a walk or seek advice beforehand to think these matters through? And in fact, from next Monday, in the new legislation, you've got obligations to the put that in writing beforehand, so, and that's what we'll be using, so it's probably a salient lesson today to have a look through, work out what you've got conflicts on, put it in writing before the meeting, give the letters to myself as CEO, and then we can deal with it in the appropriate way. Councillor Wilkie: So that means you can break this particular item up into different segments? Speaker 2: No, no, it just means that you give advice based on the facts, and you've actually put through beforehand what the potential conflict would be, and you've had to reduce that to writing that helps crystallise the mind about what that conflict would be.
00:28:00 You're required under the new legislation starting on Monday to give that written notice to the CEO, as soon as you're aware of the conflict, and then we can then prepare for a meeting to say what. Councillor Wilkie: My question was more a practical one about getting a decision made and having a quorum. Would you break up all these grants into... Speaker 2: Well, we've done that to some extent already by putting them in the different categories. I don't know that we'd then go below that into within the categories. I think we'd just keep them at a category level. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay, do we... So we don't need to do anything further than that? So we move on to item six? We go out and move to a speech period, traffic management, police, police, and criminal law. Madam, my understanding is this has already been asked and has been referred to your own... Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Yeah. I'll just have to apologise, but there's still room for... Councillor Jurisevic: The General Committee, but if you care, we'll give the opportunity to ask any questions. Any further information? Gather any more information before Monday's meeting. Councillor Wilkie: I would like to make a motion, Mr Chair. Hello, Adam. Hello. Hello. Thank you for the report and all the great initiatives outlined and proposed for Christmas.
00:29:00 I get the sense that we're being asked to speculate really about what COVID restrictions will be in place for Christmas and make a call about whether the free buses as part of the whole network will be required or not. So in order for us to have a better sense of what may or may not be... Approving on Thursday's ordinary meeting, on Monday, can we have a bit of information about what the cost would be if we also included the free buses for the entire network? Yep. The cost of that? Yep. And how that would affect the funds in the levy? Mm-hmm. Residual funds? Yep. Yeah. So I'll offer a general comment now. The restrictions tend to be trending downwards. Mm. And forwarders are... Yes, our board was open. Yep. There are interstate flights from some states. And if they continue to ease, we may be looking at a Christmas that resembles a normal Christmas.
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00:30:00 Speaker 3: That's right. If I may, through the chair. So when we wrote the report, Victoria was in lockdown. There were so many restrictions. This opportunity wasn't sort of... You know, we don't have the view that we do today. Yeah. So maybe that opportunity, you know, things do keep trending down. And maybe that's, you know, the opportunity is there. The risk is a lot less than what we had when we wrote the report. So it goes to show how quickly things change. So quickly for the good and hopefully not quickly for the bad. So, yeah. Councillor Wilkie: That said, I do have a specific question about the quotes you received from the loop bus. Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. Councillor Wilkie: Are those quotes based on what their perceived passenger numbers will be? Yeah. I thought maybe if they're expecting them to be less full air. No. Missing out on less passenger revenues, they may perhaps charge less. The cost to run the service. That's very wishful. Councillor Jurisevic: Yes. That was along the lines of the question I had too.
00:31:00 Yes. What we normally pay for transit with the other services is the reimbursement of patronage that they would lose on those services based on past history. Speaker 3: That's right. And this was many years ago as well. So we're actually getting quite a good service out of that arrangement. Councillor Jurisevic: Given that what we're seeing at the moment and the information that you've received from transit is that numbers on public transport is significantly down. Speaker 2: Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: The expectation for the cost of providing this service, one would think, would be significantly less than in past years if they're only retrieving 20% of patronage to normal patronage on other services. Councillor Lorentson: Exactly. Councillor Jurisevic: Would that be an expectation that we could rightly have of a lesser cost? Speaker 3: So if there's less passengers, it's not a less cost. So to run that, you know, you're paying for the driver, you're paying for the bus, people on the bus doesn't actually cost, it's the running the service. Councillor Jurisevic: My understanding is we've reimbursed the losses that they've faced. Speaker 3: And that's our fortunate arrangement.
00:32:00 It's not related to what the cost is to operate it. Councillor Jurisevic: That's what I'm suggesting, it's based on patronage and the patronage will be down. Speaker 3: So this is on the existing five services, not the loop bus, the other services. Speaker 9: Can I, they actually, they base it on what the patronage was in 2013, because that was a time when we didn't have free buses, just when it was a changeover with de-emalgamation. And so they actually, that's, they base it on what the patronage would have been if it wasn't free. And then they, we've just paid for loss of revenue. So we're paying for what the loss of revenue was in 2013. And they've continued to do that. And then just 2% increase based on fare increases. Councillor Jurisevic: Would we have a, my question is, would we have an argument that the loss of revenue would be far less if their expectation on numbers based on their current experience with COVID numbers? Speaker 3: I think those 2013 numbers are still lower than a reduced COVID number today. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah.
00:33:00 So that means, that means that in the last seven years, patronage has increased by? Speaker 3: Well, we had 40% one year alone, and then 20% the next year again. So that was only in those two. Councillor Jurisevic: No, no, but on their normal services, not on their free buses. So those figures are based on normal services. Speaker 3: Normal services, yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Not on free bus delivery. Speaker 3: That's it. Councillor Jurisevic: We can, we can bring the data, we can, we can try and inquire to get. The question I still have is, would the expectation be that in a COVID environment, the numbers will be less and the patronage will be less, therefore the expectation of loss of revenue will be less? Speaker 3: We can check the numbers and bring them, but yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: That's what I'm asking. Yeah. Councillor Lorentson: Can I ask, this is just for the benefit of the viewers, Anne. Yeah. Can you explain what services are proposed to be offered as free services, and which bus services will be offered as user pay service? I think there's a little bit of confusion out of the community. That's right. That we're removing free bus services. That's actually not the case.
00:34:00 Can you explain? Speaker 3: It's not the case. So this report is recommending that we still have the loop bus. So this is the Noosa style bus. It's not your blue TransLink bus. It's a special bus that we brought in the previous Christmas that we had 40, approximately 1,000 people using. So that is still part of this proposal. Speaker 2: As a free bus. Speaker 3: As a free bus. As a free bus. So the other services in this report are not recommended as being a free bus, but they still operate. Councillor Lorentson: So they're still operating, Corrigin, all the way through to Kin Kin. You've got a go-kart. You've got a go-kart. A kid can get on board for $2.70. Speaker 3: Well, they're free on the weekend as well. Councillor Lorentson: And free on the weekend. Exactly. Speaker 3: So it's just the loop bus that we're proposing. But again, I think we had 40,000 people. And I imagine that patronage, you know, without COVID would be growing. So we've just limited the free service to that service only. Councillor Wilkie: Could you just say that again? That a service is free on the weekend? Speaker 3: Yes. Joe, you probably know the details. Speaker 9: It's worth saying again and again and again. So students, so someone with an orange go-kart, so it's up to 14 years old, can get on a bus
00:35:00 for free on the weekend. This is 100, you know, every day of the year they can get on. Every weekend of the year. Every weekend of the year. Yep. So you just have to have the orange go-kart, which is a child-free go-kart. Students travel free on transit buses every weekend. Across the whole Shire. Across the whole Shire. Yep. Fantastic. Speaker 3: And that's this weekend. It's all the time. Yes. It's not just limited to the Christmas or any of the holidays. Councillor Jurisevic: Yep. If councils agreed to what you're suggesting here of making only one bus service free, only those that have visited before are used to all services being free, how would we get the message through to the general public that one bus is free and the others aren't, when the expectation would be that all buses are free? Speaker 3: So we would put a lot more effort in directing them to the park and ride locations. So that's the AFL ground. That's the junction in particular. Yeah, so the J. So we would put a lot more effort into defining where that loop actually is.
00:36:00 And so getting people to get within walking distance of the loop. And so if you can get within walking distance of that, you can get yourself onto a free bus. Councillor Lorentson: And Tourism Noosa will jump on board with the communication of that message, Joe. So, and as a council, we also have a role and a double spread in the Noosa today to spread the message to... I'll get on the bus on that one. Sorry. Speaker 3: Yeah. So this isn't our preferred recommendation. Our preferred recommendation would have been to have all buses free, as per previous years. This isn't, you know, some change in tact. It's purely driven out of COVID and the risks that come from COVID. The longer time you spend on a bus, particularly when we wrote the report and all those issues about public transport down south, you reduce the time on the bus, you reduce the risk. So hence we came up with the loop. You've got limited time on the loop. So you've actually got a lower risk. So if you're coming from further out, at the time, the message was, you know, the higher chance of actually some risk on that.
00:37:00 Mayor Stewart: Sorry, just, obviously this will impact the business community. Can you tell me what involvement you have had with them in regard to this? Speaker 3: So we liaise with the business groups that are on the steering group. So that's Hastings Street Association, the Junction, Traders, et cetera, Tourism Noosa. So they're all on the steering group and we liaise with those groups. Councillor Lorentson: Is the Noosa Chamber of Commerce consulted in this decision? Speaker 3: No, they're not on the steering group and that's not a group that we've externally gone to. So whether that's something to review with the steering group as to what involvement we take directly with them in the future. Mayor Stewart: What's the association's feedback been to this? Speaker 3: So my verbal correspondence with the association is that they appreciate the loop as being a specific, as a priority. For them and their sort of businesses in Hastings Street, more so than those other services. So by having the loop, from what I understand, that that's the service that's really critical to them, more than the broader services.
00:38:00 So, yeah. Mayor Stewart: And the pedicats that are on here, are they going to be part of? Speaker 3: It's something we can look at, but it's, yeah, because Noosa Parade is quite constrained. Yeah, we don't have an opportunity with the vehicle numbers that do go down there, it might be a bit difficult to, we'd like to look into that, but when we started looking at some of the vehicle numbers, it's quite difficult. Councillor Lorentson: Okay. Can I talk about traffic controllers, Adam? Yeah. On page 20, estimated costs for traffic controllers, or estimated costs for the period of 12 December to 26 January is $75,000. I live in that pocket of the world, and over the last three days, I've been taking special motor service traffic controllers. I think that's an area we desperately need to review. There is no way we need that many traffic controllers just sitting on the side of the
00:39:00 road doing nothing. I think there is it, that they serve a purpose, and they're absolutely needed in the Laguna Jaxes, in that precinct. To control more pedestrian traffic. Yeah. But the other four traffic controllers just think that it's seriously an area we need to have further discussions about. Speaker 3: Yeah, it's one of those things, when we first started traffic control, we had very few, and then we found by only having about three or four, it wasn't enough. And it's one of those things, because they have three or four hour shifts, that sometimes they're all utilized, and then when it backs up a little bit, they're not fully utilized. And we're aware that the visibility of how busy they are, can sort of depend on how busy it is at a particular time. So it is something that we try to constantly massage, where are they most effective, and it's something that's continually we're trying to improve. Councillor Lorentson: Are they trained to manage pedestrian flow, are they given any training?
00:40:00 Speaker 3: They are, they are definitely. Yeah, there is a system that's been worked through, and they have to talk to each other, where are the, you know, where are the buses, where's the bottlenecks, how do we get this to move through better? Councillor Lorentson: Again, it's probably an area that I would advise that we revisit again. Okay. Yeah. Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks. Councillor Jurisevic: And again, I'm assuming that amount of $75,000 is the maximum that we utilize. It is, yes. Four hours every day, but there's a capability of only calling them in as required. Speaker 3: There is, yes. And often we'll send them home. In a limited period? That's it, we have, yes. We do that. Councillor Jurisevic: So that could be far less than $75,000. Yes. Yeah. In the long term. Do you know what it was for the last period when we just asked you? Speaker 3: I've got the total numbers, but I know, you know, what we put up to council. We make savings on traffic control and other things, so this is the higher end. Councillor Jurisevic: That's it. On that basis, that's fine. Mayor Stewart: Adam, just the drop and go zones existing and there's the increase, whereabouts will they be additional? So we've got some jobs. Just put those in. Yeah. Speaker 9: So one of them we're looking at is near the reef, in that car park, that sort of parallel
00:41:00 car park. Speaker 3: And the other one is just near Wooda Circle, just at two car parking bays on Noosa Parade, and then I'll walk in or whatever it is. So you've got an option to basically escape and do a drop off before you have to go into Hastings Street. Mayor Stewart: Yeah. And will they be signed? How will people? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: Not the little bay. Just before you get to the roundabout at Alliance Park on the left as you're going in. Yes, that's an existing one. Yeah. That's another opportunity there? We're coming down from Noosastown, heading in. There's actually a little bay there that might be worth having a look at as well. Speaker 3: On the left-hand side. Councillor Jurisevic: On the left-hand side, just before you get to the roundabout. So just before you get to the roundabout where the bus stop is.
00:42:00 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, okay, you've gone over the bridge. Yes, you've gone over the bridge. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay, well, we're trying to actually get it before the bridge because I think that's... There might be another stop in there. You can call me face, Joe. Turn around. Call me face? Speaker 2: Yeah, even further down. Councillor Jurisevic: Just past the Bay Village, there's another little bay there. Speaker 2: Just to get a sense, move to a Monday for the drop-dead date because, as you said, it's a changing environment we're in. And if we want to do more free buses, what would be the latest at the time we could have to give advice to? Yeah, that's where we're going to do it. And then conversely, if we went down that path and things didn't go well, if we wanted to shut it down or not spend the right amount of money on it, if you pass it forward, we'd have a drop-dead date and we'd be cancelled. Speaker 3: So Joe's just got those times, yeah. Speaker 9: Yeah, so in terms of some elements like marketing, we definitely need a month. So really that 15th of October is our drop-dead date for that sort of thing. But we've got up to... So some of the operators, they said they would need 72 hours notice for us to can it, or 48 hours notice.
00:43:00 TransLink's still yet to give us something more formal. Okay, the transfer point's a big one, I want to know. Yeah. Speaker 3: That's for the five services. Yeah, so they're going to get back to us. They've got a meeting tomorrow and they'll let us know by the end of the week. Speaker 2: If we wanted to ramp up the five services, when would we need to tell them by? If we didn't want them, when would we have to tell them by? Speaker 3: Exactly, yeah. So, because those services already operate. Yeah. Councillor Lorentson: Just one last question. I think somewhere in the report it states that in the buses, and I know this was... The report was written, as you said, when COVID was at its height. There's a requirement that we have to have a seat or a space seat in between passengers. Yeah. Given the ease and restrictions, again, will you revisit?
00:44:00 Speaker 3: We can look through what their proposals, whether they're relaxing those or not. So, I know they, at the moment... Councillor Jurisevic: I'm imagining they're still moving fleets between here and... It could be. ...as restrictions ease. That's right. Speaker 9: So, TransLink update their COVID safety. The last one was on the 30th of September. So, currently it still stands, you know, leave a gap between passengers. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: All right, can I pull things out? Speaker 7: Yeah, I just have a question, despite what is voted on, with regards to the amount of buses. Yeah. Where, will you still be wanting to do marketing for the Noosa Ferry? Speaker 3: Yes. Yeah. Yeah, so those other items, there's no change in those. Yeah. Speaker 7: Okay, great, thank you. Councillor Lorentson: And Lyons Park, how successful was it over the September period? Do we have any numbers yet? Speaker 9: So, still to get a few. The lowest was 28 cars, the highest was 216, that's what we've got so far.
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00:45:00 Wow, it was 28 yesterday, Jo, just out of curiosity. No, it was, I think it was like a Wednesday. So, this long weekend was the Friday, 151, Saturday, 215, Sunday, 208, and then Monday, 160. We also did a little survey on the, who was actually using it. So, it's 88% were visitors, 11% were locals and negligible workers. Councillor Lorentson: Yeah. And the grounds were left in a good state? Speaker 3: I went past this morning, it's pretty, yeah, the grass has suffered a bit. Councillor Lorentson: Okay. Speaker 3: Yeah, so I haven't spoken to the parks team to find out what the recovery is. Just me, right? Yeah. It's coming. Councillor Lorentson: Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: Good thing there wasn't a lot of rain. Councillor Jurisevic: No, there wasn't. It was quite dry. That's why they're all here, the conditions were ideal. Yeah, I like it. Nothing further? So, this has been referred to general committee, so can I move to refer it to the council? I'll move it. I'll second. Councillor Wilkie: Seconded Mayor Stewart. Councillor Jurisevic: All in favour? Thank you.
00:46:00 Item seven, the Park Road's temporary parkway upgrade. And whilst I've been given an answer, this has been requested to go to the general committee, so if there's any questions. Councillor Lorentson: I declare a perceived conflict of interest in this matter, as defined in section 175D of the Local Government Act, due to my relationship with Andrew and Catherine St Banker, who reside in Park Road, where the parkway is located. I've advised council that my family have holidayed once with the St Bakers, and my husband is close friends with Andrew St Baker, and one of my election signs were located at Thomas Surf Boards. And Andrew St Baker is a joint owner of that business, so I'm going to leave it. Can I just ask a question? Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: Do they, the Bakers, have a strong opinion about the footpath, one way or the other? Councillor Lorentson: I think they've expressed to Tom Wegener about it, and I'm going to know about it through Tom. It's right in front of you.
00:47:00 Right, okay. In front of you. Yeah. Okay. And I'll try not to leave them in. Councillor Wegener: Okay, any questions? So, in the pubic gallery back there, I'd like to stay, but I always like to talk about the conflict of interest that I have in this, in this land. Is that possible, you guys? Because I'm not- Councillor Jurisevic: As you're not the, as you're not the title, and you, as if you have a comp- I'm not, I'm not going to ask a question, I want an answer. Speaker 2: Yeah, normally, as an observer, if you're in need, you have a conflict, you should really leave the room. That's the normal practice. I don't know what your conflict is. I haven't got advice, so it must be a day for it. But if, if you do have a conflict of interest, then you should leave the room if you're an observer. Councillor Wegener: Okay. Can I talk about the conflict of interest? Because this is something that's fascinating to me. I don't know if you'd take it down to the chair?
00:48:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Well, given that you're an observer in the room, I would suggest at this point in time you leave the room and you talk about the conflict with the CEO after the meeting. Okay. Speaker 2: That would be my suggestion, Tom. That would be wise. We'll just note that he left the room. So, Tom, you can seek their advice and that will be referred to General Committee for Monday and seek my advice. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, as the matter is being referred to General Committee, that will be the time to discuss it and you can even declare your conflict there if there is a conflict in business. Okay. Councillor Wegener: Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: I have a general question, Mr Chair. Councillor Jurisevic: I've got a question for the CEO before we progress. Okay. With regard to observers in the room, as other councillors, should we declare that they're in the room when the meeting proceeds? They're recorded in the minutes. They are? That's it. That's all I wanted to know. Thank you.
00:49:00 Sorry, Frank. Councillor Wilkie: In regards to all the options that are presented, option five is a recommended option, but it's the only one that complies with, you've said here, the AS2156. The old AS2156 standard. Oh, yes. Speaker 3: One of my favourites. I remember the last three. I suspect we all know it. Councillor Jurisevic: I disagree, it's the only one. Item six would also comply because there'd be no pathway there. Because it's been removed. Because there'd be no pathway there. Councillor Wilkie: So, all the other options, one to four, if they were to be acted on and there was an accident to occur on this footpath, would council be liable because their own footpath does not meet any standard? Speaker 3: I personally, I would expect that that would be used, you know, that would be considered if there was a claim on council. Councillor Wilkie: So, what you're saying is the staff members, you can't recommend a pathway that doesn't comply with the appropriate standards? Speaker 3: Exactly. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: And the other option is to remove it?
00:50:00 Speaker 3: Yes. Councillor Wilkie: And did I understand correctly that the cost of removing it is more than fixing it and making the existing pathway a standard? Correct. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Can you remind me what the cost of the installation of the pathway was? The temporary pathway? I'm not sure. No, no. The temporary pathway. Speaker 3: Oh, it was about 71 or something like that. And again, we originally went from, if I may treat your chair, we originally were thinking about gravel and scaffolding and things like that. But when the builder, the contractor reviewed that with their safety team, they said you've got 600,000 people are likely to use this over nine months. That surface treatment isn't sufficient to put that many people on for a temporary infrastructure. So, you have to, at the time, go to a concrete surface to ensure you don't have an accident. Councillor Jurisevic: But removal would cost more than the installation? Speaker 3: Yes. Well, you think about how delicate you have to be to... Okay. Michael, you're pulling concrete apart. Councillor Jurisevic: I'm not going to put it into the first place. But anyway, the other question I had, I just lost my train of thought.
00:51:00 Oh, yeah, no. The pathway being temporary, it was done to a standard that would last 25 years? Speaker 3: No, so the one that was built was of a standard that would suit for the construction period. That's what I thought. Yes. But now that that construction period plus the two-year defect period is now close to expiring. So, now we're at that existing infrastructure. So, we had sandbag edges. Timber, timber handrails, those things are getting to the end of their life. So, if we wish to consider using and continuing, we should get to a standard and those items will have to get it. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. So, I'm trying to clarify what the $103,000 would buy. Not only remove the timber handrails, the aluminium handrails, but it would rectify all of the temporary structures that are in place with all permanent structures. That's correct. Yeah. Okay. Speaker 3: So, the path itself would stay as is, there's no change to the floor surface, there's some engineering protection of the batters, and the handrail would be improved.
00:52:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. Speaker 3: Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: So, my question originally was that the pathway that is being installed, even though it was a temporary pathway, it's only the handrail, the batter was essentially temporary. Everything else was built to a 25-year standard. Speaker 3: Yes, except for the edge protection. You got that? The pathway surface is fine. Councillor Jurisevic: The pathway surface is built to a 25-year standard with everything under that, okay? Yes. Mayor Stewart: Adam, is it disability compliant? Speaker 3: No, we've got steps. So, under those standards, you can still have a standard that meets having steps, but it doesn't have disability compliance. Councillor Jurisevic: If you've got disability compliance on the current boardwalk surface, the opportunity is to get down to the current for disability compliance, I would think. Speaker 3: No, so the topography of where we've got this temporary path, it's impossible to have. It's basically what we call a hardship. Councillor Jurisevic: They wouldn't even be able to get down to the other pathway. Speaker 3: They'll use others. Councillor Jurisevic: To get disability compliant access from point A to point B.
00:53:00 Speaker 3: They'll use the other pathway or the car parks. Councillor Jurisevic: So, there is an alternative disability compliant pathway that gets you to the same location, is what I'm saying. Speaker 3: Yeah. So, without going through the whole park road boardwalk, we don't have wheelchair compliance for full length, but there are sections where you do have wheelchair compliance. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. Any further? I'm happy to move it. I'll see if you can go to general, just because I haven't. Councillor Jurisevic: Do you want to go to general committee, that's a good request. Mayor Stewart: Thanks, Carl. That's very nice. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Speaker 3: See you soon. Councillor Jurisevic: Yes. Go on up, Lee. Speaker 5: Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Want to be able to come back? Speaker 2: Yeah, just coming. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
00:54:00 Okay. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: Now that we're back in the room, we'll move on with item eight, NSGAP Council Soul and Specialised Suppliers. Welcome, Lee. Speaker 5: Thank you. Speaker 2: Council, there's a question. You just want to run through why we do this each year and what's the purpose of the suppliers and how that works? Yeah, absolutely. Speaker 5: Under the regulations, we actually work currently under the default procurement process. So that means that under certain thresholds we have to go out and do a certain number of quotes or then the larger tender. Also under those regulations there is a section that allows certain exceptions and this one in particular is one that identifies suppliers that either one, there's only one that's reasonably available or that they're and they're actually noted on
00:55:00 the sole supplier list or they're noted as specialised supplier. So they have been deemed or found that the services sought are of such a nature that it's impractical to go through the normal procurement process or the default process I should say. Councillor Jurisevic: I'm going to challenge one of them. With regard to 6, the Noosa Aquatic Centre's bulk liquid chlorine for the Aquatic Centre, there's only one supplier in South East Queensland that can deliver bulk supply? Speaker 5: It's not that there's only one supplier. Councillor Jurisevic: I was going to say, they're the only one that deliver to every commercial pool in the region? Speaker 5: So with that one in particular if I can just have a look at what numbers it says. Councillor Jurisevic: That's what it says, it says supply and deliver are the only known supplier in South East Queensland capital to deliver chlorine Speaker 2: in the format and quantity required. Page 37.
00:56:00 Speaker 5: Thank you. Page 37. Councillor Jurisevic: That's what it says in there and I found that a very, they'd be awfully busy delivering to every single pool in South East Queensland. Speaker 2: Their delivery method is that they can't directly from the truck into the storage tank. Speaker 5: And it's the format as well. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: So they're the only supplier doing it that way. Speaker 5: And if there's anything further as far as the services that are required, I'm not sure. If there's anything further as far as the services specifically, I would have to defer it to the director of that section. However... Speaker 2: We can check them for you. We can. Councillor Jurisevic: I said I'd be asking you is that, you know, why we do it in that way? What are the other options and is there a more efficient and effective methodology for the future that could be looked at if this is the only supplier? Does that put us under an obligation that we get chlorine at the right price? Speaker 5: I can certainly take that and review that further for you.
00:57:00 Councillor Lorentson: Can I ask some questions in relation to the Noosa North Shore Ferries? Has the ferry services contract ever gone out to tender? Speaker 2: Yes. It has. It's due again in the next year or two. Councillor Lorentson: Oh, okay. So why is it listed as the only ferry service contract? No other ferries offer this service to the Noosa North Shore. So what service are we referring to? Speaker 5: That is a very good question. What page is? If I can just see the page. Councillor Lorentson: I'm on page 35. 35. 35 listed item 15, infrastructure services. 15? Noosa North Shore Ferries. Yep. Speaker 2: So what that one is, I'll answer that one. So this is by all of our council operators, so it's our trucks and whatever services
00:58:00 that we take over to do work on the North Shore. We're part of the ferry for that service. There's no other way of getting the material over there. That's why we run an account through them. That's why we can only use that service. So this is part of the branch of civil operations and civil works. Speaker 8: Yeah. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: It'll be regardless of who the operator is. It's the only service available to access the North Shore. That's right. Councillor Lorentson: Cool. Sorry. I need to declare a perceived conflict of interest. Page 38. Cage Furnishes. My husband works at Cage Furnishes. So I will step out. He's an employee. Thank you for acknowledging that. Sorry. Sorry. My goodness. Have a nice day. Councillor Wilkie: I have a question. How has this list changed since last time you were a provider?
00:59:00 Speaker 5: Look, throughout every year we actually review and really it does come down to the particular business that is being conducted within the teams at the time. So there have been some that were removed and some that have actually been added this year. I couldn't tell you exactly which ones. So basically there can be certain services that come into the market throughout that 12 months that then shows that we can actually go out for say if it was on the sole supply we could go out for competitive quotes.
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01:00:00 In particular what we found this year we've had the introduction of the new Procure to Pay system which has given us a really positive outcome identifying those types of services that a don't need to be on the particular list and those that actually do require to be on the list so it's provided us with both positives in that sense. Speaker 7: Just with regards to the news of North Shore Ferry, I'm not sure if this is the right time to ask but it has been brought to my attention two questions. One is about customer service and with the ferry how do we work out or who controls like if they update their operating systems to include like pay way as opposed to cash and
01:01:00 secondly who manages the pricing for instance. Councillor Jurisevic: Councillor I would say that's not relevant to what we're dealing with here. We're dealing with a specialised supplier supplying a service to Council. Speaker 2: If you want to follow those questions up Michael Shade would be the one who can answer that. Okay thank you. Michael will be the answer. He manages that. Not quite the issue we're dealing with. Councillor Jurisevic: That's alright. Speaker 7: Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: That was more about when the contract comes up for renewal for the ferry service provider. Speaker 7: Oh okay. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: The service that is provided to Council in allowing access to the ferry we're utilising for an account system for operations, operational purposes. Speaker 8: Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: I similarly have a question about the use of G James as the only supplier that can provide street litter bins that have that capability. I think there's a question there with regard to how long we continue to want to use one supplier and we don't look at the overall terms and perhaps looking at look and feel. That's a question for me to challenge staff on. I did notice in executive service we turned around and looked at newspapers.
01:02:00 I didn't see the Noosa News listed. Speaker 5: No. So due to the changes that have happened over the years or last year where that particular paper went electronic. I actually haven't added that on here from that perspective. However, can I just. Councillor Jurisevic: Well I find it odd then that we have the Coolum and North Shore News and the Advertiser when they have papers of the same ilk that have gone the same way as I understand. At least one of them has. The North Shore News has but not the Advertiser. I said at least one of them has. I'm not sure what the status of any of the other. Has the Gympie Times gone the same way as well? I know all the APN papers should be reviewed in that regard I would have thought. If we're going with one, what's the situation else? But how do we. But then how do if we've got no other means of communicating in the Gympie Times and at least with Coolum and North Shore we've got two papers listed then. And the news is now being facilitated by Noosa Today locally.
01:03:00 Councillor Wilkie: So the criteria is you're going with the papers that still offer a hard copy format. Speaker 5: We must actually as part of legislation. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: So that would be my question. Are all those papers still being delivered in a hard copy format? Speaker 5: Yes. And I will take that on notice and just make a review of that for sure. Councillor Jurisevic: I said there's one there that highlights to me and the second one is a possibility in that regard. It is. Mayor Stewart: Eastern Beaches. That's a hard copy. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. There are some. There are some. Yeah. Some variations on some of the others where they have been there before now offering a hard copy. Speaker 5: Okay. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: That's the only other question from me. Speaker 2: Anything further? No. Councillor Jurisevic: All right. Drive them over. Councillor Wilkie. Seconded. Councillor Locke. Thank you. Sorry about that.
01:04:00 Sorry. I couldn't get the title out of my head. All carried? Thank you. All in favour? Yeah. Thank you. I'm sorry there isn't enough. I can only have some order one items. Speaker 5: Thank you, councillors. Councillor Jurisevic: Thanks, Steve. Thank you. It's alright. Thank you, councillor. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: All right. Council meeting scheduled for 2021. Speaker 2: Council, I want to thank Kylie for putting all this together. She does a great job in pulling the cabins together and preparing the report. Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Thank you, Kylie. Kylie, I have a question, Mr. CEO. Speaker 2: I'll pass it on. Mayor Stewart: Yeah. Just in January, do we have a date for our P&E and our services? Speaker 2: What we normally do, because the holiday period goes in that first week or two and not many staff are here yet, we tend to find there's not many reports every January.
01:05:00 There's only normally half a dozen at that. So what we do is just run the general committee straight to council. Got it. We don't run those first two. Terrific. Less work. Councillor Wilkie: Yep. Perfect. Speaker 2: Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: And just worth stating, I'll allow for the benefits of those who may be listening. The council holds at least two meetings off-site, ordinary meetings off-site. The ones in the hinterland are well appreciated. But we haven't specified when they will be until COVID abates or we can inform the city. Speaker 2: We've done two every year for the last probably five or six years in the hinterland and all points. We haven't held one, obviously, since the COVID period. Once things settle down, that is certainly intentional. We'll bring a separate report to council to look at where we might like to go for those. I think we've been to Kin Kin. We've been to in Cooran. We've done two in Pomona. We've done a couple in Cooroy. We've been to Federal. We've been to Sunshine Beach.
01:06:00 We've been to Peregian. And we've been to Noosaville Junction, I think. Councillor Jurisevic: We've been to Kin Kin as well. Speaker 2: We've done Kin Kin. Kin Kin. Yeah. So I think we've done Borean Point as well. So there's probably a couple of others we haven't done we can have them think about and one I'd always like to get to would actually be Teewah. I reckon that would be a good one. Oh, that would be great. Imagine putting a marquee up on the beach and having a council meeting, it would be the ultimate one. Sounds terrific. Anyway, we'll, once things settle down and we've worked out what the process could be, then we'll have a look at what we can do. So it is well loved and the way it works is normally we go out there an hour or so beforehand, a cup of tea, people turn up and have a good informal chat and then we do a few vickies and a bit of food afterwards and people hang around and talk for about an hour or two after the council meeting. True, okay. Okay, great. Yeah, that's awesome. Councillor Lorentson: Yeah. All right. I'll move the motion. Thank you, Councillor. I'll move to our second motion.
01:07:00 Speaker 1: We've got a couple of people here, Kelly, Gillie, hello, hello, Kelly, hello, how are you, are you happy with the amount of money coming in, revenue, yes, despite COVID, despite COVID, yes, where the cycle that we usually go through is obviously we issue the rates and then approximately two weeks after the due date, we issue reminders. So because we extended the discount. The discount period from 30 to 60 days, we're only just issuing reminders now, they'll go out this week and so we'll have really a good light for light comparison to this position where we are now compared to six months ago, probably in two to three weeks once the reminders have sort of had their effect, but overall, yeah, I was quite pleased. Speaker 2: Kelly, have you not seen a difference in the stats about the, within different classes of rate payers when the payments are holding up?
01:08:00 So we've got the principal place of residence. We've got the, I'll call it investment residential, and then you've got the business. Is there any differences between those in terms of what the payments are coming in? Speaker 1: No, I did a comparison of, like the data I used to produce the reminder notices for this period, the previous six months and the previous six months to that, and there hasn't been any significant change one way or another. There's always a little bit of variations, but overall, the numbers have remained fairly static. Councillor Wilkie: Can I ask you to just give an explanation? I think it's a little bit of a paragraph now, because I think it's significant, you've written, there are currently 365 properties that have made an arrangement to pay their current rates in accordance with section 262 of the revenue statement, representing $228,000 of the outstanding weights and charges. This is a decrease of 105 properties and approximately $100,000 from the previous level. Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a surprise to me. Councillor Wilkie: So that means more people are paying than pre-paying, fewer people wanting deferred payments than pre-paying.
01:09:00 Speaker 1: Yeah, there's probably two ways of looking at this, we only allow arrangements, or we extended the sort of prerequisites for arrangements to pay for this levy, usually to get on to an arrangement to pay, they have to have nothing outstanding from the previous levy, and they have to commit to paying the current levy within the current six month rating period. And we also had previously restrictions. We restricted it mainly to residential properties. For this, given the implications of COVID would actually relax some of those restrictions, so they were allowed to have rates outstanding from a previous period, and we did open it up to all ratepayers, but yeah, that didn't actually have a big impact. What we don't, I guess the problem areas are the ones that had arrears or were in difficulty prior to January, prior to COVID hitting. And they were, they're basically, they didn't qualify for making, to make an arrangement to pay, all it means is that we don't charge them interest on the, you know, the current rates that are outstanding.
01:10:00 So there are still quite a few properties that were, you know, experiencing financial difficulties prior to COVID, that still are. Some of them are doing okay, some of them have taken advantage of the superannuation, access to the superannuation and other things, so, but yeah, it did surprise me that overall the formal arrangements to pay, where we actually stop interest, have decreased. Councillor Jurisevic: I actually thought that was a typo, I was going to ask the same question, I looked at that and went, surely that can't be right. Speaker 1: Trust me, I double-checked the figures because it was, it was. Councillor Jurisevic: We're part of the reason of being, because we extended the period of payment to give people a longer period in which to pay. Speaker 1: What we'll also, we'll probably find that we'll also pick up a little bit when people get their reminder notices. Some people, I mean, while we encourage the people to make their arrangement to pay upon receipt of their rates notice, some people actually do only make that arrangement once they get the first reminder.
01:11:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Oh, so these are only the ones that have made an arrangement. What are the, what are the level of arrears in comparison to normal? Speaker 1: We're probably about a million up on, but as I said, Councillor Jurisevic: Does that compare to, compared to what we usually get? Speaker 1: Yeah, well, just around, I think, like I said, it's just a little bit difficult because normally at this time of the year we would have issued the reminders and that would have swept, swept up another one and a half or two. So it's sort of, at this point I'm a bit hesitant because, you know, if the payments continue as you would expect them once we issue the reminders, we'll be in a much better position this time, in a month's time. But if there is actually hardship and people don't respond to the reminders like they normally do, we'll have a better picture, sort of thing. Councillor Jurisevic: That was, that was the figure I was looking for in the, in the, in the numbering earlier. Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess it, it's, it's still going to fluctuate a little bit over the coming month now that the arrears should, you know, they should, they should decrease by one and a half to two percent between now and the end of the month if, if people respond as they have previously to the reminders.
01:12:00 Councillor Jurisevic: So that then may, Speaker 1: Drop it back down. Councillor Jurisevic: Make a difference of this, this, this hundred and five property, we may get that increase again once those reminders are drawn out. So that's probably, at what point. That's probably bearing, they think that they haven't, yeah, they've had a long period of pay. Mm. Councillor Lorentson: So at what point does council start taking legal actions against, or to recover unpaid rates? Speaker 1: Um, I basically, well, we have put our formal recovery action on hold, obviously, with all the issues with COVID. We were, we had, you know, we basically had put everything on hold. Since March, from, well, over six months now. Look, there's a combination of factors. I really start looking at properties, I at least do a formal review of all properties that owe us $5,000 or more. Obviously, given the wide variety of rates we have, you know, for some properties that could be two years of outstanding levies,
01:13:00 or for one, some properties that could just be one levy. So there's no set, I guess, $5,000 and or having paid their rates for two years and have paid for levies are the ones when I really start to, and that's not saying I'll start to take legal action, I will start to try and engage with them more to determine, you know, what, what issues there are. Is it a problem with their service address? Are they, are they having financial difficulties? You know, there's a process that we go through before we actually take the final decision to send it to an external debtor. Councillor Jurisevic: Because the road can always be recovered on sale at the property. Speaker 1: That's correct, yep. They're very secure debts against the land. As I said, we don't have any single debtors where the value of their rates even approaches the value of the land, so, yeah. Speaker 2: Not well known, the council actually also got powers under the Local Government Act to sell properties for arrears of rates. Yeah. We haven't done that in 20 years. No, that's correct. So it is a last resort, but that power is there. There are some concerning things, you know, about the cases recently with Brisbane about, you know, how long you can let a debtor rack up before you take action, things like that.
01:14:00 So it is something to monitor that there's no properties that would be, what I call, at risk where they're now approaching anything near the value of the property. Speaker 7: Okay. Councillor Lorentson: In relation to the tourism and economic levy, Kelly, that applies to all properties that receive a benefit from tourism, either directly or indirectly. We've got six categories under E. Does that information, do you ever break down that information, how much money is received in each category, and is that available to the public? Speaker 1: I don't believe we publish it anywhere. But certainly the breakdown is, can be recovered from the system. Bear in mind that it does, it doesn't fluctuate a lot, but it does fluctuate because, you know, as new properties sort of, well, basically as properties are bought and sold, depending on, you know, their service address and their locality and what they advise us, you know, that can fluctuate over time.
75 minutes in ¶
01:15:00 But, yes, certainly the breakdown's available. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you very much. Another member, Councillor Stewart, Secondary Councillor Lorentson Dunne. All those in favour? Speaker 2: Thanks Kelly. Commissioner Kelly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Moving on to item 11, Ganydusa Schools Programme Update 15. Speaker 7: Hi, good things, how are you? Speaker 6: Hi. Councillor Wilkie: I'm glad you're everywhere. Isn't it busy? Councillor Jurisevic: I did have a question with regard to pages 59 and 60. Your lovely graphics there. Yes. And the attachment 1. I'm assuming the first one was for Noosaville State School and the second one was for
01:16:00 Tutsat for Reasons. Speaker 6: Correct. Councillor Jurisevic: You just didn't state that in there. Speaker 6: Oh sorry. Councillor Jurisevic: They've got the little logo. On each of those ends. So page 59. Page 59. Page 59. Speaker 6: And then on page 61, although it's got Noosaville on it, it's also Noosaville and St. Therese's. So it was the same data for both schools. Councillor Jurisevic: That's right, because I picked it up later on. The program overview stated cleanly in the title, so it just wasn't anywhere in the titles on those papers. So I actually had them back to front. I actually thought the first one was, I assumed the first one was Noosaville, St. Therese's. Mayor Stewart: I imagine, sorry Joe, I imagine social media is quite using, who are you engaging for your social media to do? Myself? You're doing it, are you? Speaker 6: Yeah, so I'm working with the schools and their media liaison officers.
01:17:00 So St. Therese's have somebody that looks after all their media, but Noosaville State School, I'm providing the posts. And then they get their administration staff to pop them up. Mayor Stewart: And what's the hit rate like, how's it? Speaker 6: Trying to get that link between the schools and between the admin getting it up and that sort of thing. So I haven't got any of the Facebook data, so that's just starting to roll out now. Mayor Stewart: Are the schools that you've got on board, like is there an opportunity, and you may already be doing this, but to put it in their newsletter, like we get? Yes. Yes. Speaker 6: So Fortnight, so I provide them with. I'm going forward this term. So term three was all about setting up the program and term four is we're really hitting the ground running this term. So I've just provided them with the first suite of Fortnightly newsletter and a Fortnightly Facebook post. So information like the benefits of walking and riding to school, how to check your bike, all those sorts of little tips and tricks to try and get more students out on their bikes.
01:18:00 Great. Councillor Lorentson: And then there are ice blocks and. They are for the primary school students. So the pizza, a hundred-dollar pizza voucher, that's a big winner. Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it does happen. So we launched the Go Noosa Schools program on the 9th of September, I think it was, 9th of September, at Noosaville State School. And so all the students who walk or rode their bike or caught the bus that day received a free icy pole. And by the time I'd left the school grounds, there was. Well, we're all asking, when's this happening again? So what we do is at the start of each term, we'll start off with an activity that builds the walking and cycling. So we're going to do the hot shoe shuffle where they bring up their shoes and that sort of thing. And all children will receive an incentive. Then they do the in-class survey throughout the term.
01:19:00 And then the class at the end of term receives a pizza party or. Canteen party. Councillor Wilkie: So what's the biggest obstacle to the success of this program? Speaker 6: The biggest obstacle is probably the senior students at the high school. Well, they're just getting their licenses. So they're just finding that newfound freedom of owning a car for the first time and wanting to show that to their friends. So trying to shift them from maybe a car to an e-bike. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: There's no exceptions of safety. Perceptions of safety. Speaker 6: There is also the perception of safety for the primary school students. A big thing of safety. Safety is really big for the primary school students and their parents. Councillor Wilkie: Just on that note, we've just received $195,000 from the Department of Transport and Main Roads Speaker 3: for the STIP funding to fix up the pedestrian crossings on Seagull Drive outside St Theresa's.
01:20:00 So there'll be improvement in that. Speaker 6: Terrific. Great news. Very exciting. Councillor Jurisevic: Another safety on page 53. No pedestrian crossings on this Monday Road, which is something we're aware of. No pathways along Beckman's Road to Tewantin. Speaker 6: Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: From any specific direction? Because are they aware of the pathways that do exist that link the schools directly through the back of Tewantin? Speaker 6: They are in one of our. Councillor Jurisevic: In the back of the St Andrews. Speaker 6: That's correct. And one of our walk to school routes as well, so that we promote that the children all meet at a starting point and walk together with their parents, is through the back, the creek Speaker 7: walk, we call it. Yeah. Speaker 6: But parents, to allow the children to walk on their own. So the survey results have said they want a safe path out on main roads where the children are visual. So getting from Tewantin to Noosaville State School along the main road there.
01:21:00 That's right. I'm wondering why that specifically was mentioned. Mayor Stewart: That was some interesting feedback there. Speaker 6: Yeah. Mayor Stewart: Very good. I imagine that would be a big challenge with the young kids, is not just the road safety, but stranger danger safety. Speaker 6: Stranger danger. Yes. So we're looking at adopting with, adopting with, partnering with Adopt a Cop. So to help promote the stranger danger messaging as well. Right. So they're already active in Noosaville State School and have been doing some work. And while I was out at St. Teresa's, they, for the five week health and wellness program, they were also there at that time as well. Just giving overall behavioural messaging. So we want to tap into that and really look at the stranger danger. Because even for the high school students presenting to the year sevens, stranger danger is still a big thing for a lot of the year seven students as well. Councillor Jurisevic: Quite good. I get similar. I've had numerous comments from various schools that don't have pathways leading directly
01:22:00 and along main roads to the complete all the way to the school. So Carl, I'm assuming that that sort of feedback would be going into the pathways, missing link strategies, and looking at those as priorities to accommodate students getting to school. Priority. Speaker 9: And just on that stranger danger, we, you know, the program always advocates to walk or cycle with a friend or a parent. And that's the idea behind the Walking, Wheeling, Wednesday is that you have a whole mob of kids all meeting at one point and then going from there. So we never advocate, you know, to walk by yourself. It's always saying, you know, meet some friends and walk together. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. Which of the schools is indicated by the . Speaker 2: Top left, just under the words, you'll see the logo. Councillor Jurisevic: I beg your pardon. That was the question I asked, I have exactly the same problem with identifying I didn't even know the slogan. Councillor Wilkie: I'll make it bigger next time. So are we having trouble with getting people from buses to, cars to buses at Noosaville?
01:23:00 Speaker 6: Yep. So the students at Noosaville, so the majority of students there, 76 per cent of students are being driven to school. So we're also going to work with bus link this term. So this term we're focusing on buses. So there'll be a come and try afternoon where parents can come and get on the bus and see what the route's like, see how long it takes and notify their child where to get off. So we're working very closely with bus link on promotion ideas. Councillor Jurisevic: One of the challenges with bus link is that the distance away from the school before they'll pick children up. And particularly with primary school kids, I mean parents aren't going to let them walk the actual distance. So if a bus actually picks them up within a kilometre of the school as opposed to five kilometres of the school, there may be more uptake of bus travel. Is that something we can talk to bus link about? What proximity to school and the age of kids that they would be considering picking up?
01:24:00 Speaker 6: Yeah, so we can't dictate the bus link routes. But what we have done, I've met with bus link and St. Teresa's. St. Teresa's are providing them an overview of where services in the area could be utilised and that sort of thing. So it's building that connection between bus link and the school to explore options. Mayor Stewart: It's an interesting stat that 76%... Are on the car on the way to school, but 71% are on the way home. That would suggest that the families are running late in the morning and just jump in the car rather than we miss the bus. Speaker 6: The mornings was a big convenience. So dropping them off on the way to school. The other thing of an afternoon, the St. Teresa's students come down. Councillor Jurisevic: It's 3 o'clock in the afternoon when the kids are getting out of school. Speaker 6: Yeah, well the big brothers and sisters come down because there's only a five minute difference.
01:25:00 So big brother and sister come down, pick up the little brother and sister and walk home or catch the bus together of an afternoon. But whereas there's a 30 minute difference between the starting times of the morning as well. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, that was true at the high school as well with regard to lower age and mature age or later age students. They have different start times, staggered start times. Councillor Lorentson: Yeah, staggering the drop off and pick up time to me. Is probably the fastest way to stop traffic congestion. Yeah. So you're talking 30 minute delays. Is that a discussion you have with the schools to maybe look at increasing those start times for seniors and middle school children? Speaker 6: So with start times at St. Teresa's, it's my understanding a lot of the start time is dictated around the bus routes. Okay.
01:26:00 So I wouldn't be able to answer. No, that's their decision. Yeah, that's their decision. Speaker 9: That's the decision of Catholic Education. But historically, yes, we have done that. Say with Sunshine Beach and St. Teresa's. Well, Sunshine Beach did it so well. We've done, over the years it's increased and then we've come to a point where they've, yeah, I think it's quite a significant. Councillor Jurisevic: They had staggered bus service. They had bus service half an hour apart as well. Yeah. That's good. That's important for a different time. You know, in his early, in his seven, eight, nine, or ten, eleven, twelve, probably about four or eight o'clock. Councillor Lorentson: Yeah. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. Councillor Lorentson: Go on. Councillor Wilkie: Just a general question. How long, sorry if it's in the report. No. This is a very comprehensive report. How long will you persist with these two schools before moving on? Do you intend to move on to other schools? Yes. How long will you stay with St. Teresa's and Noosaville? Speaker 6: So, the original timeframe that we were given was twelve months to develop the program and because we haven't been into a high school before, so this is the first time that the
01:27:00 program's being delivered to the older students, so that's required a complete refresh. And because we're taking a more personalised approach now, so we're personalising the program to each school for activities that are relevant to their students and engaging for their students. So what works in one school might not necessarily work in another. Mayor Stewart: I think the free ice blocks might work in most of them. That would be a good one. Councillor Jurisevic: At the right time of year. This is really the only precinct too that has two schools so close together. Two schools so close. Yeah. We've got schools in, apart from St Thomas More and Central Beach, Simon would be about down the other one. We've got two. Speaker 6: And then the high school across from it. Councillor Jurisevic: The high school's a bit further apart. Three in the precinct, but only two close together. So twelve months here. Speaker 6: So twelve months here to develop the program and cement it in. So we did get delayed due to COVID. We were meant to roll out in term one. Speaker 9: But that's pushed everything back as well.
01:28:00 And the idea is then, you know, don't just drop those schools. It's more the maintenance with those schools, because by then it's really embedded. And the idea is it's sort of self-sustaining in Noosaville. So we'd still maintain them, but then you'd focus on a new precinct. Councillor Jurisevic: But again, we've done a lot in Sunshine Beach Primary in previous years. Speaker 9: But we've never done that precinct approach. So it's really interesting how when you do the whole precinct, you know, we're finding then, like you said, some of the Santa Teresa's traffic is actually creating more traffic at the Noosaville, because the brothers and sisters are coming down there. And yeah, so looking at a whole precinct is better than focusing on just the individual. Speaker 2: Yeah, good. Good. Speaker 7: Let's have a close up. Speaker 2: Karen. Speaker 7: The Ryden Stride zones. Do you incorporate that idea into your program? Speaker 6: Yes. So we've got the Walk and Wheel Wednesdays map. So we've tried to extend it further than just Walk and Wheel Wednesdays with this program.
01:29:00 So we were trying to get it Walk and Wheel every day. But we've found we need to go back and just focus on that Wednesday and get that initial day happening. So we've got the Walk and Wheel Wednesdays map. So I can go around and make sure everybody's going through the same thing and then increase the intensity moving on. So each school is given a map with the little starting points that they all attend and set meeting times that they can attend, so everybody knows the time to go there and they can walk with their parents or big brothers or sisters from those starting points together. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Thank you. Ray. Frank. All the favour? Councillor Wilkie: No. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you very much. Thank you ladies. Nice to meet you all. Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Thanks Carl. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you.