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00:00:00 Mayor Stewart: Are you ready to go, Joe? Councillor Jurisevic: Whenever you are. Mayor Stewart: All good? Councillor Jurisevic: Good afternoon, what do you want me to council services and organisations to be leading for today, Tuesday the 8th of March 2022. Before we begin, I'd like to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the land upon which we meet, the Kabi Kabi or Kabi Kabi people, and pay respect to their elders, past, present and emerging. Item 1, everyone is in attendance, there are no apologies today. We'll get a confirmation from the Minister of the previous month's meeting. Moved by Councillor Wilkie, seconded by Councillor Stewart. Thank you, all in favour? There are no presentations, CEO, or deputations today, as I understand it. So we'll move on to item 5, reports of consideration from the committee. Item 1 is the proposed public communications lease at 10 Bartlett Street, Noosaville. We have Hayley Janelson here from our property team. Hayley, would you like to give us a bit of an overview?
00:01:00 And maybe a bit of a briefing on some of the language being used. Yes, yes. For those of us that are not quite familiar with the legal terminology. Speaker 1: Okay, so this is a pretty standard leasing matter. Prior to entering into a commercial arrangement with a telecommunication lessee, we must obviously get council consent to do so. They're an existing lessee, so it makes a little more sense and a little bit easier. Before we enter into the commercial agreement, we must get council resolution to do so. And in applying that also, to dispose of a valuable non-current asset, we must apply the exception contained under section 236 of the local government regulation, given that the lease is for a telecommunication purpose. The language that Frank was a bit... Which is probably a little bit high level in the legislative tone.
00:02:00 Basically, a non-current asset is a accounting terminology. And it just means that it doesn't matter whether it's a physical or a contractual. It's an asset that we're disposing of. And we're not doing it by a public tender because there are exceptions under that regulation or the act that we can go direct to those lessees, especially in regard to telecommunications leases. Councillor Jurisevic: But in the language of disposals, the reference that we're actually getting is to somebody else. Speaker 1: Yeah, we're granting an interest in the land, which is disposing of an asset to a point. Councillor Wilkie: And this is not about a telecommunications tower, is it? Speaker 1: No, it's just an equipment shelter. Yep, that's right. It's already leased? It's already leased to Vodafone, and this is just a renewal of a new lease. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, that's... Councillor Jurisevic: And the likelihood of this is it's an ongoing entity while... Absolutely. ...Vodafone is thinking of maintaining that? Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, these are very long-term leases. This one's already been in play for about 20 years,
00:03:00 and I suspect it will probably stay there for quite some time. Councillor Jurisevic: Until technology... Speaker 1: Until, yep. Until they get better technology. Councillor Lorentson: Hayley, in terms of visual impact, is there any? Speaker 1: No, it's contained within a... Well, we've got three meters at that point. Yes, yes, sorry. This probably really sums it up. Oh, great. That's the little equipment shelter right there. That's the one that... And it's about 24 square meters. Yeah, so that's... Councillor Lorentson: And who determines whether the facility is low impact? Is that defined under... Speaker 1: That's actually under a high-level federal act of the... Ooh, I'm not even going to pretend that I can remember that one. I can get back to you where that is defined as a low impact. But it's, yeah, a lot of the telecommunications stuff is now determined to be low impact, and that's to help to bring these facilities to where they're much needed. Councillor Jurisevic: So, given the images on the screen in front of us,
00:04:00 there's a tower there... Yep. And there's a shed there, and there's a fence around all of it. Yep. So, there are two separate leases on that part of the land, one for the shed, one for the tower? Speaker 1: Yeah, yep. And the other equipment shelter belongs to the AXICOM who leased the tower. Councillor Jurisevic: And is it only the footprint upon which they sit that is the lease, or is it within that... Speaker 1: It's... The fence is basically... There's two lease areas within that fenced area, but for security, they just use the one... Back lower, back lower. Yeah. Thank you. So, they... And basically, the equipment shelter is attached to the tower, and they run their telecommunications infrastructure up that tower. Councillor Wilkie: Any other questions? Thanks for providing the images. I think they're helpful. Yeah. Yes, yeah. Verify what we're talking about. Yep, absolutely. Speaker 1: It has a little bit. These are coming off the back of a 20-year lease, so you can imagine that there were rises within those.
00:05:00 And so, we got to a point where the lease was at its peak. So, when we go to obviously refresh that, we come to an agreed value that is in line with other leases in the area. So, we go through quite a process of benchmarking, comparing, so that we know that we're in line with everyone else. Yep. Because these are vital, important pieces of infrastructure. So, we want to make it long-lasting, but make sure that Council get their appropriate remuneration for it. Councillor Jurisevic: And this is just commercial use of... Or commercial use for public facilitation on public lands. Yep, yep. Absolutely. So, they can use that public land for that. Councillor Lorentson: Very much so. Hayley, I noticed external consultation argument law. Yep. I've never seen... Or maybe I've just missed it. Is that someone that... Speaker 1: Yeah, so they're our legal representatives. So, we get to a point where we've negotiated terms and then the telcos come to us with a prepared standard telecommunication lease.
00:06:00 And then we, in conjunction with our solicitors, make sure that all the terms are... that there isn't anything outside the scope that we haven't already negotiated. Councillor Lorentson: And the estimated cost in the report is estimated at $3,000. Yep. Great. Speaker 1: Yep. And we haven't spoken to them yet, so that's probably even better. Mayor Stewart: Are they a local firm? Speaker 1: They're located in Maroochydong. They are? Yeah. They've got a lot of local government experience. So, they're quite... They're good with these sort of things where they're... Because not all law is equal. Some of it's quite particular to these... You do? Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Anything further, Councillor? No. Can I move that? Can I move it? Councillor Livingstone, seconded by Councillor Stewart. Any further at all? Councillor Lorentson: No, thank you. Very great report. Thank you. No worries. Thank you very much. Thanks, Heather. Thank you. So, carried. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you, Hayley. We'll move on to item two. Contract for the provision of Noosa River Dredging Services.
00:07:00 And I believe Oscar is online. Hello, Oscar. Yes. Hey, how are you? Questions, Councillor? Well, do you want to give us an overview on dredging services and where we're at with dredging services, Oscar? Speaker 3: Yeah. I'll give you a bit of background. Basically, we haven't done work in the Noosa River in two years. We haven't actually done the full foreshores program in, I think, about five years. So, we're starting to experience a high level of erosion around our foreshores and obviously the assets that come with it. And look, this tender just aims at supporting a lot of the retaining and revertment walls around our foreshore and returning some of the, I guess, natural land uses back to its original state. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: Now, Oscar, as far as payments go from a state government perspective, I believe we have to have the necessary approvals in place. Do we have all those in place to return to dredging work in the areas that we're talking
00:08:00 about? Speaker 3: Yeah. So, currently, we're undertaking a whole river permit. So, we've got an existing permit for the areas shown. I'm not sure if they're up there or not. But we have an existing permit that we can run at the moment. And we're also going for a kind of blanket permit, if you call it, for the rest of the river, so that we can support a bit more of the foreshore and in areas that we are experiencing further erosion, which just helps prevent some of the erosion that we've seen along, you know, jetty, jetties and other areas. Councillor Jurisevic: And when I read the report, Oscar, what I've got here is around a schedule of breaks for two years. So, we've got a lot of work to do. And it's just . But when I look down the bottom and I actually look at the temperature evaluation, and of course, we're seeing something there in the value of $930,523.65. Can you identify the difference between those two elements of the report?
00:09:00 Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm not sure where the $920,000 has come from. I think that's a crossover between the SEMP project and this project itself. So, this project is a schedule of breaks. So, it's a schedule of breaks based on an estimate that the contractor has given us from works. But we gave them a kind of ballpark figure of how much we wanted to obviously dredge, and they put in their rates to do the zones itself. So, the $300,000 has come through as the two-year term that we've come up with that kind of is a suitable budget for the work that we want to undertake, considering, you know, the floods have just given us further erosion. So, yeah, that's how we got to the $330,000. I'm not sure where the $920,000 has come from. Councillor Lorentson: Okay. Oscar, you mentioned infrastructure upgrades around the river. Are the geotextile bags, are they earmarked to be replaced with rock structures?
00:10:00 Speaker 3: So, the geotextile bags, we haven't actually got confirmation on what we're going to replace them with. Under this tender, the contractor that has been, well, successful actually does the repair and maintenance of the geobags. We do want to repair and maintain them, which is a little bonus, but we haven't decided on whether or not we're going to go to the rock bags or full rock armouring in those locations at this time. We do have spare geobags or bags that are broken we can replace at this time. We're just waiting on a contractor to actually be able to undertake those works. Councillor Lorentson: The rock structures seem to be really effective. Just for your information, I'm there all the time, and the rock structures are seriously effective. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: So, Oscar, can you see the screen, what we're looking at?
00:11:00 You provided this overhead view. Yes. Is the areas in red where the dredging is going to occur? Is that correct? Speaker 3: So, basically, the areas in red is one zone, or one area, and the areas in red is one area, and the areas in yellow and orange is the second area. So, we split them up between the foreshore, Acupy Terrace, all the way down to Hilton, Estonot, and then the second here would be the Noosa Parade, Noosa Sounds, where we go through the canals area. Yes. Councillor Wilkie: And you may have mentioned that earlier, but this has nothing to do with the shoreline erosion management plan, which is focused on works around Noosa Spit. Speaker 3: Yes. So, the SEM project is a standalone project. It's a design and construct within itself. So, the dredge that we have here for the kind of operational maintenance that we're going to do won't have any effect on the SEM project itself. It'll be a much larger project and require a much more specialised contractor, or a larger
00:12:00 contractor to undertake those kind of works. Councillor Jurisevic: So, I'm gathering the work around the canals. Are we to facilitate access in and out for those? Are those properties in and around there? And the works along the foreshore are to stabilise areas of the foreshore as required? Speaker 3: Yes. So, to fill up my point between the sandbags and stabilise the erosion lines that we have gone, including supporting a lot of the retaining walls along Kibi Terrace that we're seeing significant erosion around. And then, obviously, the jetties in Noosa Sound, making sure that, obviously, all the customers have access to the jetties, that they're not getting landlocked or sandlocked at low tide. And then, providing support to their revetment walls in front of or behind their properties around that sound area. Mayor Stewart: Okay. I've got a question. So, this is just more about the contract and the award of the contract and the tender. We had one tenderer, one person tender for this.
00:13:00 And I'm just wondering. Is that a concern? And have we had more in the past? And I guess, if we have, what can we do to better attract more tenders going forward? Do we need to increase the period of tender? Or look at the procurement objectives? I'm just wondering. We've had one person for this. Yeah. Speaker 3: And look, I've had informal chats with other councils and other industry experts. So, I've confirmed our schedule. So, I've confirmed our schedule. Is within a reasonable, you know, value for money that presents the council. Some of the reasons that we probably only have one tender is about use and access, as well as budgetary requirements on, we don't need a very... Have we lost you? Speaker 2: No. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: I think we've lost you.
00:14:00 Where did you go? Speaker 2: We've got the oops. Councillor Jurisevic: You've got the oops. Mayor Stewart: Yeah. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: That's it. Thank you. We'll try and disconnect them, see if we can reconnect them. And you're in, Oscar. Have you gone mute or are we done? Mayor Stewart: We're moving, but we might just need to do that one more time. Councillor Jurisevic: What do you see as breaking transmission? Mayor Stewart: Technology's great when it works. Councillor Jurisevic: We'll give them a call, we'll see if we can get them to call. We'll disconnect them by reconnecting. Mayor Stewart: He's dropped out, so I'll try and join back again.
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00:15:00 Councillor Jurisevic: I'm just trying to reconnect here, yes. There we go. Can we go to the back, Oscar? Yeah. Hello, Oscar. The last thing we heard was orbs. No. No? Speaker 3: Sorry, I don't know what's happened, no one on the internet's just dropped out, so I was just going to try and do the . The last thing we heard was orbs. Yes. So yeah, I've gone through with some industry experts and made sure that the rating and the schedule presented value to the market. We've had some money for the council, as well as we've had some chats with other lighter dredging companies, and a lot of what their issue is is the dredge that we require to undertake the works that we need is quite small in the scope of what the larger companies
00:16:00 are running, and what people need in larger waterways, and so preferably, yeah, we would like some more tenders to obviously respond to us to get in. So, yeah, we've got a lot of work to do. Speaker 3: But it's been an issue for us going forward, because we found out that the value of money that was being presented to Nabitus, being the contractor that we had previously worked with as well, was enough to kind of stand by with the current tendering. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, I'm imagining the size and scale of operations that we have compared to others would be limited. How many other dredging contractors are on the coast? Do we know? Or is this an immediate vicinity? Speaker 3: So there's actually, there's another one in the river that is prior to dredging.
00:17:00 It's not as set up as Nabitus, so the current contractor. Other than that, you start to step into quite large dredging companies that do like the Brisbane River, Gold Coast Waterways, et cetera. Speaker 3: So, in terms of dredging, there's a lot of work to be done. And that's going to happen. Councillor Jurisevic: Yep. You've broken up again there, Vic. In that regard, having been a dredging contractor with Council before, I'm assuming the scale of rates is something that is akin to what we've been dealing with in the past. Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very in line with what we've got in the past. And the rates and dredging productivity are, you know, within what we have done in the past. So, the project will be probably a dive offline with larger dredging companies, because they will be able to tender on it if we do need to get larger dredges into the river.
00:18:00 But for this one, Nabitus did provide good value for money. They worked for the Council before and were able to amend their performance rates on all the areas. So, it didn't flag any issues for us. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay, thank you. Any other questions for the Councillor? Councillor Lorentson: I do. Oscar, does this action or contract, does it align with our Coastal Hazard Adaptation Strategy? And maybe a question to the CEO, not Oscar. Just in regards to our Coastal Hazard Adaptation Strategy, CEO, do we have a clear policy direction regarding our approach to the impact of climate change? Speaker 2: Councillor Morrison, I would take that on notice. I've been made aware of the chat. And some of the issues that are sitting around that. But, yeah, to have a full brief and fully immerse into that. But if we do take that as a question on notice, I would be able to bring that back to the table. Councillor Lorentson: I would actually appreciate that. Just to make sure that we align it with that strategy.
00:19:00 Yeah, sounds right. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Anything further? Really? Councillor Lorentson: All done? All done. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah, just, Oscar, Joe mentioned permits before. Could you just give us a rundown of the sort of permits you need to acquire, get in place before we can start that sort of work? So for the existing dredging, we've got the permit. So we've already got the permit for the areas highlighted, the wrong screen, all the way along the foreshore. What we're going for now is like a blanket permit. But I'll let Angela talk a little bit about that. So the permit is a permit that we've got along the whole of the foreshore, and it highlights Speaker 3: more of the nourishment zones, the habitat, and where we actually in what's seen from. So DEF asked to go for that and up that existing permits. But we need to run the dredging program without the new permit, and still we have approvals
00:20:00 with permits coming. Councillor Wilkie: And just to give us some idea what the permits cover, it would involve us, for example, if we were stipulating you wouldn't dredge in a fish habitat protection area. Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. So there's sediment tech, fish habitat, and then DEF into the environmental fauna. That's along the waterways. After that, we go through and get our terms of the permits. Speaker 3: We get the areas of nourishment and areas of dredging, and then we get the highlighted terms of what we can do in what zone and at what time. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Now, Oscar, there is one area that isn't quite right there. I know dredging works happen there quite often. It's opposite Munna Point on that map. Is that a separate contract? Is that private works? Or is... And what... Is that not included as part of this? Speaker 3: So the holiday apartments that are on the opposite side to Munna Point, they're all
00:21:00 privately owned. Yeah. Under that, they have... With the jetty, all jetty owners get a private permit to dredge at foreshore. And I believe those apartments have got their own private dredging permit to do the foreshore on Harish along that zone. So they do that privately. And the council maintains, obviously, at the Munna Point and at Water Outlet and the other part. Councillor Jurisevic: So we do public lands and they do private lands in their own? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: I'm sorry. Sorry, Oscar. Just to... I'm just sort of curious. When I go through the internal and external consultation, lots of managers. Did we seek expert sort of advice, hydrological expert advice, I don't know, technical advice on this? Or is this not required? Speaker 3: So, look, we've got external contractors.
00:22:00 So... And I see... We have a few of our CPM that work on our permit. And this was obviously done through Daniel, who is a postal expert in that field. So as for the tender itself, it clearly outlines the scope of work that would be required. And then with the permit, we'd end up with probably more of a external consultation with hydrologists and the likes. And that's difficult. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. Thank you. Member, Councillor Stewart, Councillor Wilkie, Joanne, all in favour, Harry, thank you Oscar, thank you Oscar, thank you for the diagram, move on to item 3, the 2021 annual disaster management financial report.
00:23:00 Speaker 4: Yeah, so apologies that James is out working with some engineers on some of our cameras and our UHF works today, so he couldn't make it. Yes, and setting up for future. So yeah, I'll talk to this report. The key part of this one is in the last round of meetings we provided you with a report and review of the works that were happening. The various projects, but we didn't give you a financial summary of where we're at. So that's what this is really just an attachment to the previous report, just to let you know that we're operating within the boundaries and the limits that we've got from a funding point of view and we're tracking quite well. With the most recent disaster that we're now dealing with and the works that that's now bringing forward and the amount of work that we're all now having to deal with,
00:24:00 we actually got a, we're waiting for the final, but we've got an extension from QRA today, so this money now, we've got an extra six months on this. So some of these projects that we're going to do between now and June 30 and maybe have to really squeeze in given the extra workload, we've now been given that extra six months, so that's a good thing for us to actually be able to continue and do these works properly. You would see in there that where we thought we might have some, some, left overs, if you like, some money, unspent monies that we would find, so we've got some other projects lined up, but we would have to sort of squeeze them in to get them in by the June 30. So this gives us the ability to say, well, rather than just rush them, let's do them, plan them properly and coordinate them properly and go forward. Councillor Lorentson: Larry, is that standard? Unspent money can be allocated to other projects? Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a range of projects I think that they'll, this is put forward, and these are probably different to most other funding exercises as well,
00:25:00 because it's, you know, it's emergency, it's disaster funding, so it's really more flexible and do what you need to do. You don't know all your projects up front when you initially put it forward. Some of them emerge as you go forward, so I think that's what's happening. Councillor Jurisevic: If we didn't have a raft of projects up our sleeve, we wouldn't be able to facilitate that. Yeah, that's right. Mayor Stewart: Larry, I was at Federal yesterday, and they have these great things, Red Cross, they're $30 each. They're little transmitters almost, they charge your phone, they're radio, they do a whole lot of things. They're about, they're a torch. That could be in a, and they're for isolated people who, you know, people who, you know, want power or that sort of thing. Is that something that, you know, we could look at if we had some leftover funding, that I guess it transcends between a flood or a fire? Like it's, it's just a disaster, and everyone who saw it thought it was a great, they're $30 each. Potentially that's something that we could, you know, could be used for the flood zone. Certainly, I'd be happy to look at that, yeah. Yeah, because it's practical, and we could give those to our residents, or our, you know, ones at risk. Speaker 4: Yep, yep, no, I haven't seen that, but I'm happy to explore it further.
00:26:00 Mayor Stewart: Yeah, the Red Cross had, I'll get some information. Speaker 4: Please, yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: We'd have to see whether it would be eligible under the criteria of the... Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right, yeah, so we'd have to look at that, but, but certainly there's something, more than happy to explore it. Yeah, that's good. Councillor Jurisevic: Any other questions? Speaker 4: Give me any really detailed questions, and I'm going to have to take it on those, on this one. Councillor Wilkie: I have got one more, please. There's, there's a lot of detail on page 14 and 13, and James is probably more across it, but a lot of worthy projects, like the all-weather track to Teewah, does that mean upgrading the existing track, or? Speaker 4: That track's already been done, so that work's been done. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah, it's completed. Speaker 4: Yeah, the existing track is my understanding. Councillor Wilkie: Does that mean they made the track all-weather, did they raise it with gravel or something? Speaker 4: Yeah, we used it, it's the, it's the surface that we, that we put on, and I believe we put gravel on it. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, is that, is that to the Airstrip, or? Yes, yeah. That's the Airstrip, not to Teewah. Not to Teewah Village? No, that's the one to the Airstrip, at Teewah.
00:27:00 And that was in, in the, it's been bridged out in the paper below, if you look on page 11, it actually includes a construction all-weather access track to the Noosa, and it goes to all territory. Speaker 4: Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Now, under, under, under, under point one, the second dot point, I'm paying, I'm paying on the, oh, I paid on the letter, on 1, the second dot point, construction all-weather access track to the Noosa. Speaker 4: I think that was done. It was done before my time, but I think it was done very early. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah, great. And the other question I had was tourism marketing. Do we get that money Speaker 4: from tourism? No, I asked the same question this morning. It goes to property. It's a fund that our property team here, I think Robin Mercer is the one who's got it, and it is basically to bring people back in after the fires. It was a market there, but we obviously haven't spent it.
00:28:00 Mayor Stewart: Larry, the money that was spent with the communities on the resilience projects and preparedness projects that Cheryl and James were doing out in the communities was terrific. That was so well worth it. I think it's just arming our community with knowledge. It's so helpful, you know, and preparedness. They were terrific, and they were so well attended. They had a, you know, Cooran had a whole full of people, and so I think that's just money so well spent in this instance. Speaker 4: The thing I've noticed lately in the dialogue and the speaking that's happening now is it's all about resilience as opposed to repair and replace, which is a great thing to now Councillor Jurisevic: really latch ourselves on it. There's a reason for that. Queensland finally created a recovery plan. I was part of that process, went down to Brisbane with the first draft. The word resilience barely existed in the first draft. The final plan
00:29:00 got resilience, resilience, resilience all through. So, yeah, resilience is the focus, and that's... Speaker 4: So that's where our focus needs to be. Councillor Jurisevic: Well, it makes more sense to turn around and reconstruct assets with resilience in them. That's how we like the life as well, because that's what used to happen. So you're trying to get money out of the band. You're watching an asset being replaced at the same level, or being funded to the same level, and then, you know, if there wasn't additional funds there, the asset would go under again, so resilience was the key word that we made sure we needed in that recovery plan. Speaker 4: So it gives us a better opportunity now when we're asking for more funding, or even this funding, you get a better hearing from the powers in terms of what we're proposing along the resilience line, as opposed to just like the like, which I think is a really important step. Councillor Jurisevic: And we'll ask you first, you probably don't know the answer to the replacement of damaged gazebos at this event, I know we replaced the three old timber ones with one gazebo at Wayne, and we were looking at the opportunity for a second gazebo down there. Did we replace the second gazebo down there?
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00:30:00 Speaker 4: I'll have to take that one on notice. Councillor Lorentson: I'm going to ask a question, Larry, that was, has been raised by a resident in the North Shore, and the question is, how accurate are our disaster mapping? So, given recent flood events, is our mapping, our overlays, flooding overlays, and bushfire overlays, are they actually accurate? Speaker 4: The two that were in our recent committees for the disaster management would see that we're now using flood maps, which is a much better, and we're able to actually look at sort of moderate and high levels of flooding, and see what the impact is going to be. And where it's going to go within our, within, you know, even Gympie Terrace, as well as over in the, in the, around the lakes and the, and the, and the North Shore. And it was, it was really beneficial to us this time. And what it did is gave us, we, we mapped it to the high levels, to the, to the most, the highest level, which then gave us the opportunity or the knowledge to say, well, these, these places possibly, we can't get to them, but they possibly have been impacted.
00:31:00 So therefore we go and check them straight away. So it gave us a much better ability to, to track it. And then also from a, a, a recovery point of view to get out there and actually check them. So the flood mapping is the same as what the state government uses. So it's, it's, it gives us a, a common, common piece. Plus using Damien McGarry as our, as our hydrologist was just invaluable. He was genius. Absolutely invaluable. Councillor Jurisevic: The other thing that Damien's added was depths. Now we show, we show areas of inundation, but not necessarily depth. Of course the sky was down. The furthest down. In fact it was. Yeah. Councillor Lorentson: Because there are streets down. I, I, we were driving down. We've got friends down at Lake Wyver Drive.
00:32:00 And depending where you, and it made no sense, but there were some homes that were surrounded by water. Yeah. And others that weren't. Yeah. Mayor Stewart: He was a genius. He's, he's, yeah. Wow. Speaker 4: The other thing we were able to use was drones this time. So we got a group from Brisbane to come up. But they came up with their bigger drones and we were able to map basically or view the whole of our region now. And it's just again invaluable because now we know the water levels. We know if somebody has been impacted then we actually know who they've got pictures of.
00:33:00 So we're much more advanced in my understanding than ever before. Councillor Lorentson: And you talk about resilience and this get ready program, but that's really got to be a strong messaging we must give to community is what are you going to do different next time? Because there is going to be a next time. Absolutely. Absolutely. And a next time and a next time. And if we do nothing, nothing will change. So that's got to be messaged very strongly. And I use the example Paige Furnishes because 10 years to this date, they were inundated. And I think at the time the loss was over a million dollars. This time round, they were prepared. And they did. They did. Bloodgates. So that's... You know, that's what I tell the community, learn.
00:34:00 Yeah, we know it's coming. We know it's coming. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: We've had this conversation through email and we're doing a debrief tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. And that topic of conversation will certainly go around that date with a debrief tomorrow as to what resilience opportunities there will be. What we can look at for the infrastructure that has been regularly inundated and what we can look at for funding for the future. Mayor Stewart: But even the sandbags, Ian, they were so important to the community. Absolutely. That was fundamental. And getting the sand to the areas. And SES did such a great job in coordinating all that. All those things that you can prepare and get the community ready for. Councillor Jurisevic: One of the good things about floods and storms is that if we get a warning like that, that we have that time period. We didn't get a lot of warning. It was almost instantaneous when the requirements started. It was very, very important. But with storms and cyclones, we usually get at least an element of a pre-warning so that we can prepare and prepare the community given that time.
00:35:00 Councillor Wilkie: Well, on that level, in terms of warning, climate change scientists have predicted that 10 years previously, prior to 2019, that around that time we'd have catastrophic fire. That occurred. We've got a climate change adaptation response plan that talks of more intense storm events such as the ones we're talking about today. We've got a lot of actions coming out of the climate change adaptation plan. That's coming up for consideration in the budget. So that's all part of disaster preparedness as well. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. Hence the learnings of what we see and any changes we have to be able to adapt and try to predict. Yes. Through the ... Mayor Stewart: I think it's really important to acknowledge, too, the ... Yeah. ... substantial input from the federal and state governments. We've just got $1 million. There's so many other Shires here, too, for this round.
00:36:00 But I mean, two weeks ago, the federal government, it was $4 million they gave us for fires and fire tech. Now, that's 8%. $500,000 is 1%. I was saying it's just for 1% rates. So that's an 8% rate rise if we were to pass that on to our community. But we don't have to do that because we're being funded. So these are all ... And especially in disasters and disaster preparedness, federal and state governments have been really helpful in this space. And we should acknowledge that. Councillor Jurisevic: Well, we know with the current flooding, New Grants have been announced every day with regard to impacted industries and areas. Yeah. So they are quite a plunder. Yeah. Things started in the back two. In fact, they're normal. They're normal as soon as possible. At least provide the facilitation so that we can help those and deal with those areas in the meaning of those. Mayor Stewart: Because we'll need the money. I mean, how much ... There's a lot of areas with 95 damage to infrastructure assets and roads. We'll need that money.
00:37:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Because we all know once everybody's inundated, everybody's impacted, I mean, the resourcing and the capacity to deliver on that sure takes extra time. Yeah. And staff. Mayor Stewart: Look at James and Sean now. I mean, they had to ... Yeah. Yeah. Staff would put out developments. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: Absolutely. And while we're talking about disaster recovery, I noticed the beach plan was operating on the eastern beaches this morning, though. Speaker 4: Yes. Councillor Wilkie: Yes. How long will that be there for? It's great to see it there. Speaker 4: That was just our ... That was just to trial it, I think. Getting to the bottom of that as well. It was there this morning to trial it. The problem is it doesn't pick up the really fine, but we wanted to trial it and see what happens. So I haven't got the final result of that. But tomorrow we've got vacuums coming as well. So we're doing that tomorrow. But that'll be interesting to see how that works. It works in parks, but working on sand, I'm not too sure yet. So we'll have to see how that goes. Councillor Jurisevic: But at least, you know, if there's a mechanized means of picking up at least the largest and the volume of it, which may not facilitate the smaller stuff, there's always going to
00:38:00 be a challenge. Speaker 4: Yeah. And the North Shore is where we've got to turn our attention now. Councillor Wilkie: Have we heard how they're going with the big pontoons today? Speaker 4: No, not yet. No. No. But I know there's more up at North Shore is my understanding. So we've got to get on to that. But they're struggling. The machines that they've got to remove them are struggling to get to them and get them off. So it's a challenge. Yeah. It's not something we just have sitting around waiting for that sort of thing to happen. That's the problem. It's very unusual. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. We're diverging from the fire. Yes. Is there any more questions about the report before it's cancelled? No. Speaker 4: I think the only last thing I'd say is the ability to have a full-time dedicated resource to this has been enormous. Like previous, but just over the last two weeks, it's been amazing. But you know, all of this stuff that's happening, all of the funding that he's been able to
00:39:00 access, it's been a real, you know, he's been exceptional. Councillor Jurisevic: And I'm glad you finished on that point. I just wanted to say exactly the same thing. James has been amazing in this space. There's only one person in this space. We need to look at making sure that we don't burn out our one reliable resource and asset that we have there. Exactly. And that we continue to have somebody that's as valuable as him in this space. Speaker 4: No. Invaluable. Invaluable. Councillor Lorentson: As part of the debriefing, do you go out to community and ask whether they feel that communication was adequate, whether council provided enough resources to them? Is that part of the debriefing? Well, that's essentially happening now with our hubs. Yeah. That's the hubs is to gather that information. Yeah. My feedback is brilliant so far, so. Councillor Jurisevic: We've got one on one teams out there with one on one team on one, working with each of the individuals as they come forward with whatever they bring forward. It's the time factor of people, you know, after the event to get in there and be able
00:40:00 to converse with them. But we do, I was up at Pomona this morning with Cheryl and the team up there. I know we had teams in Kin Kin. We had teams at Lake Edmonds Boulevard today. North Shore tomorrow. So we're getting out of all those. Councillor Lorentson: Cooran tomorrow. I'm sorry. Councillor Jurisevic: So we'll have teams in there until we've exhorbed the day. Councillor Wilkie: And that said, Kerry did acknowledge that communications were patchy in parts. And we did have residents in places including Lake Edmonds. Eastern beaches. Who got the notifications after the flood. Yeah. So they're reviewing what's going on there. So there's always room for improvement. Oh absolutely. Councillor Jurisevic: That's why we have a debrief. What went well? What do we need to improve on? How do we enhance that for the future? Councillor Lorentson: Yeah. Yeah. So I'm sort of just, I think I'm on subject. But what are the planning implications? We've got flood and bushfire.
00:41:00 One in 10. One in eight year event. Are there going to be any planning implications given that we're looking at coastal erosion on eastern beaches? One in 100 event. And there are planning implications. Is that a question I should be directing to the CEO or to Larry? Speaker 2: Through the Chair, Councillor Lonson. It's probably too soon. But as Councillor Wilkie spoke about, this is about adaptation, about resilience. How are we going to take this forward? What are we going to do as custodians of the area? As the council? To regulate in a way that still gives us the ability to have our day-to-day freedoms but keep us away from flood, keep us out of fire? How do we deal with the changes that are coming? And these were looked at for a little while as 20, 30, 40 years away. Don't worry about it. But as we've seen, this is now happening. We've got tunnels in Sydney that are flooded.
00:42:00 What then happens next year and the year after next? So we will probably have to pivot very, very quickly as a council. Do we then resource up? Having James as a resource has been absolutely brilliant for us. But he's got a day job. He runs our assets for us. Are we going to have to resource up in this specific area to have specialised staff to be able to be there full time? These are the questions that will come before us and they may need to inform this budget. But if it's not this, it will definitely be the next and how we start to take that forward. But it is going to affect us how we look at planning in the future. What is our duty of care as a council? And even though somebody may sign a disclaimer on that property, we can't step away from that duty. We still have that. So probably too early straight after this event. But I think given the impact that we've seen down the east coast in our large populated areas from the events of the last fortnight, there will be change.
00:43:00 And those conversations with the community and particularly with the local government as well, we don't believe in climate change. It's like, well, you need to look out the window. You need to see that this is happening right here and now. It's gone past that argument. How are we more resilient? How do we adapt? What do we do with our infrastructure? And then how do we ensure that the bridges we build and the roads that we construct aren't then going to be affected again? So there's work to be done. But yeah, probably not in the short short. We'll get through and do our debriefs, work out what we can do better. But we are going to have to plan. And it's going to be day-to-day business. It'll be BAU. This will be part of what we do. Yeah. Councillor Lorentson: I think the point that I was trying to make is on the issue of equity, that we understand that hazards include bushfires and floods, not only in our communities, but also across coastal erosion. And the issue of equity as to any restrictions or prohibitions that we place on planning
00:44:00 in regards to coastal erosion, that there's got to be, again, some equity, that that's got to be also addressed in areas that are high risk bushfire or flood zone areas. Councillor Jurisevic: I would suggest that if we continue to improve and update our flood mapping, use a lot of those overlays and bushfire mapping and all the rest of those overlays now form part of the planning scheme. And people are informed and aware of that. And I believe the planning scheme does adapt to those elements. And because of that, strategic planning is another element to add to the planning scheme and review what happens along that corridor. So we've got the elements already. We've updated mapping and improved the enhanced knowledge and awareness through better technology. So I think we're going to have to do that.
45 minutes in ¶
00:45:00 Councillor Wilkie: The different sorts of hazards that we're adapting to as well, like with flooding you can build up the block or build the house on stilts. With fire you can have clearing around the lot, you can use certain materials. With coastal hazards and erosion, it's a different thing if the land is not paid. It's a different sort of hazard that you have to prepare for. Mayor Stewart: I just want to thank Larry and all the team. It's an opportunity. You guys have been brilliant over the last two weeks and you and James and Sue and Kerry and Joe and all our emergency services. So thank you so much Larry. Speaker 4: No problem. No problem. So let's hope we gave it a little bit of a break and don't get another one. Mayor Stewart: Everyone went above and beyond and thank you so much for all your support too. Really appreciate it.
00:46:00 Councillor Jurisevic: And the realisation that whilst the rain has stopped, there's all that work. That's right. Now the hard work begins. On top of their normal workload and all the work that we're already doing. You've got to be very aware of how hard you're putting in. Yeah. And we've got to make sure that we increase work loads. For team members. Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Now I'll pass it over. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, please do. And you guys on the team. Yep. Speaker 4: Yep. Can do. Happily. Councillor Jurisevic: All the best. Good. Speaker 4: Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Thanks Larry. Thank you. I think that is the last one. Thank you Councillor Jones. Thank you Chair. We will close the meeting.