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00:00:00 Councillor Jurisevic: The Noosa Holiday Parks update report due the 31st of December 2022 and welcome Robyn Mercer to the table. Robyn if you could give us a summary of how the Holiday Parks have been going in the last six months. Speaker 2: Certainly, good afternoon everyone. The Holiday Parks program is delivering a strong financial performance year to date. Our revenue levels are 15% above year to date expected levels. Some of our expense levels have also increased and are trending above year to date levels and this is due to some of the variable costs that increase as our revenue does. Our preventative maintenance program that's been in place for about a year and a half is progressing well and reducing our reactive maintenance costs which is pleasing. Online reviews are strong Noosa River and Boring Point and Noosa North Shore at all at four and a half stars. Visitors year to date are 32,000. This is a 10% increase from the same period in the year before. So we're up about 3,000 visitors for the same six month period.
00:01:00 And lastly, the Noosa River contract which commenced in late November 2022 is progressing well. Obviously got through the busy period now. Operational systems and processes are in place and I'm very pleased with how it's progressing. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Any questions councillors? Councillor Lorentson: I'm going to start with, I'll start with opportunities. So on page nine you identify a list of opportunities. Something that, you know, I think I've talked about over the last two years. Is there an opportunity to open another caravan and RV park given the huge success of our, our existing sites and the numbers you just quoted at the moment increase of 3,000 visitors to our parks.
00:02:00 Has any consideration been given to, I keep going back to John's landings and I tried actually to do some research on it to understand how it was purchased, how we purchased it and the purpose or the intention of the purchase. And I don't have all the details. But my limited understanding is that it was purchased with the environmental levy at a cost of about $2 million. And the intention was to rehabilitate the site and then create an eco camping parking area. Has that ever progressed? Robert? Speaker 2: Yes, I'll talk to John's Landing first and then more broadly about the opportunities for more parks. So you're correct. John's Landing was purchased in 2017. A portion of that was withdrawn. The rest was with the environment levy and the rest was with general rates.
00:03:00 There was rehab works done by environmental services and we actually just had to catch up this week to see how that's all progressing and how we manage the non refuge areas that do have some commercial opportunity. I think probably the broader discussion about John's Landing is better brought to the councillors within a workshop environment where we can talk to what opportunities there are and how we would go about looking into feasibility studies. And so forth. Fantastic. I'm happy to provide some information about John's Landing separately. I would love that. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. In relation to expansion of the broad holiday parks program, there's definitely demand there for sites. The feasibility around that and the acquisition or use of existing land or acquiring land or leasing it. That's part of broader feasibility discussion. I guess. And council's commercial space. Again, probably best brought within a workshop environment.
00:04:00 We do have thoughts around what we could do. So it's definitely something that we're considering. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: It's my recollection that when we purchased John's Landing, we had something like a five year timeframe put on that for the environmental works to be undertaken and the rehabilitation works of the contamination stuff to be undertaken. So that five years must be just about due for a sit down conference about what will happen down at John's Landing for the future. Speaker 2: Yeah. There's a couple of internal stakeholders there with environmental services and then also some of the other areas that manage. I think it's Dave Burrows area. So there's a couple of internal stakeholders in that space. Councillor Wilkie: So everyone in the room. Frank. Robyn, again, I raised it last time. The occupancy of John's Landing. The occupancy of Noosa River Holiday Park. Looks like it's never been stronger. Ninety five percent occupancy. But the number of occupants have looked like there were a third that they were back in
00:05:00 2017, 18. I can guess what's happening there. In fact, groups are coming in, but they're smaller groups. What have you observed that's happening and does it reflect a broad trend around camping and touring and things like that? Yeah. Speaker 2: So you're right in that the driver there is that smaller groups, typically the older generation, are coming. So it's two persons rather than maybe four, like a two adults, two child booking. And they're staying for a longer period of time. So the occupancy remains the same. But the actual persons visiting the site has reduced. So you're correct there. In terms of a trend that's quite specific to that park. Yeah. You see that at other parks. So we have a quarterly catch up with local government offices that work in the holiday park space, which is a really great resource, actually, to bounce things off each other.
00:06:00 Some of the parks in North Queensland or around the Harvey Bay area have a similar trend because they're suited to that older generation that come up from New South Wales or Victoria. And then we'll park and stay for five or six weeks. Whereas something like Noosa North Shore at Boreen Point, we have a much higher trend in terms of that family base that comes through for weekends, a couple of weeks at school holidays, that sort of thing. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: And the revenue is up at all the parks, except for Boreen Point, where there was this below budget in terms of the revenue expected. What are you observing happening there that's different to other? Speaker 2: Can I see where you're looking in terms of revenue? Yeah, absolutely. Councillor Wilkie: So page four of the agenda, the budget for the year today is 367. The actual is 359.
00:07:00 It's under seven and a half. Whereas the other ones are up considerably on budget. So this one, this is the only one that's down. What's happening? They're still consistent with that. Yeah. Speaker 2: The numbers are still really good. I think last financial year was our record level there. It was just over 650. Councillor Wilkie: So these numbers are based on what you saw last year? Speaker 2: Yeah. So probably moving into this year, I might have budgeted a little higher and it probably would have been a little more reflective to have a lower expectation. The numbers coming through show that we've got a good chance of hitting that expected revenue level. I'm certainly not worried about it, just because it still is, if you extrapolate that six months over, you know, we're at 350. Yeah. We're at 50k for this six months and you double that for the year, we're still looking like performing really strongly. Councillor Jurisevic: It's still 55% of the current budget. It's over 50% of the halfway point.
00:08:00 The major holiday period is obviously in that December period, but also January follows strong after that. Speaker 2: Correct. Yeah. Still performing strongly. Councillor Wilkie: So, you know, like the occupancy rate is still a lot higher than it was the previous years. That's right. Speaker 2: Yeah. So the occupancy rate is up. I'm just wondering whether those numbers are reflecting correctly there. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: It just struck me as odd. Speaker 2: Look, can I check that? Yeah. Sure. And I'll take that on notice and come back to you. Councillor Jurisevic: To kind of explore with that, the expenditure is below expected, the current budget as well, by a few thousand dollars, so. Speaker 2: Yeah. But yes, broadly in terms of revenue, I think we're progressing well. Councillor Lorentson: In terms of data, do we have any data companies that track where the campers visit and spend their money? I know that Macalus, that's a group that I think Tourism Noosa engage.
00:09:00 Yeah. And they scraped the numbers. They're not only identifying age or the demographic of the visitor, but where they're actually spending the money, if in fact they are moving around, or whether they just go to Coles and just sit in a caravan. And I think that that would be really great information if we are looking at expanding our opportunities for alternative or extra sites. Speaker 2: Yeah. So One Eight, which was the management company at Boring Point in North Shore up until November, and then they... We have a whole range of data really around point of origin based on postcode, the demographics.
00:10:00 We can make age assumptions around the type of equipment they travel with. So I said yes to that. Just because it offers great insight, it was a great opportunity. So, yeah, that dashboard tells us things. We've got a heat map. It tells us where visitors are coming from. If you click on Boring Point, you can see that the visitors from Victoria in 2017 compared to now, there's a lot more coming from those areas of Australia to our regional hinterland areas, which is indicative, I guess, of the expanding popularity away from some of our coastal areas. But that data also tells us how far in advance people are booking, where they're booking from, how long they're seeking, when our high patterns of booking intensity occur, by phone, by email, and definitely gives us the ability to inform decisions around any expansion.
00:11:00 In terms of the expenditure throughout the region, the Caravan Park Association of Australia, which is the largest caravan park association in Australia, has an economic report where you can input data, and it tells you the total extra income that you're adding to the region. The economic benefit. The economic benefit, that's right. We haven't drilled down to where that's being spent. I think with sites like Boring Point or North Shore, they're probably ducking into town. But we can also see, just visually, I go to Boring Point quite a lot, you can see that over the last couple of years, the coffee shop there wasn't open all the time and now it's open every time I go and get a coffee. Yeah, so things like that, you can start to see that those higher numbers of visitors to those regions are definitely benefiting the other businesses within those areas. Councillor Jurisevic: When the RV park at Cooroy was, just to follow on from that, was initiated for the first year or two, the caretaker there had a box for receipts so the people that were staying could show how much of an economic benefit or how much of an economic spend was occurring within the RV park.
00:12:00 That's one very simple methodology to apply for a short period of time. And while I'm thinking of that, I note that it's not mentioned in Holiday Park's updates, where does the RV park sit within our remit? Is that under your remit to manage or? It's leased. So that's why we're not seeing reports on it anymore, it's actually being managed by the Chamber, that's why. Councillor Wilkie: That's correct, yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, please, I was just thinking, is the Chamber required to give us an update on the status of that? Councillor Wilkie: It's there. Theirs to manage? Their operation. Councillor Jurisevic: So it'll go in there, it'll go in their report, their annual report? It's there. I'll have a look at that. Okay, thanks for that. Councillor Wilkie: So the Chamber is investigating new accommodation and tourism experiences.
00:13:00 Could you give us some examples of what that might mean? Speaker 2: Yeah, so those, it's quite... Does this mean upgrading? Probably broad, but also looking at the opportunity of converting some camping sites to a fixed accommodation proposal, such as a camping or a cabin. Yeah, so it's not an uncommon approach. Several other local government parks have a proportion of fixed accommodation units. Sunshine Coast has, I think the tender closed yesterday or the day before, had a tender out for glamping, conversion of some glamping sites at Clottentree. Councillor Jurisevic: Camping sites at Clottentree. Speaker 2: That's right, yeah, they had some capital funding for that. So it's really just looking at the opportunity of a yield improvement. If these sites are campsites at a certain occupancy and a certain tariff, what does that revenue look like? Is there benefit to the region or our commercial performance for conversion to a fixed accommodation unit if the occupancy was X and the cost was Y?
00:14:00 Councillor Wilkie: Yes. Yeah. And under opportunities again, can you break down and explain to me what consolidation of business improvement and growth phase and transition into a higher productivity and revenue phase means? Speaker 2: Certainly. Yeah. So probably the journey is 2020. It's COVID year. Yes. And then beyond that, we really stripped back to the foundations of the business, looking at the operations, the contracting environment, the facility management and also our systems. So things like identifying and I would call that the growth phase. So it's things identifying gaps. What's not being maintained? Where is our service level dropping and we need to invest in improving that. So that involved mapping out a whole range of activities, figuring out how to fund them, whether we would fund them, whether we would approach the market to deliver them and then pretty much saying, well, I think we need to increase our costs a little whilst our revenue is increasing.
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00:15:00 So growing our costs and revenue in parallel to be able to have a service level. The main driver of that was our maintenance program. So we've got a strong maintenance program in place now, which reduces our reactive costs. You can see walking through the parks that they just present better. And that means that then we've got the ability to look at our pricing, our occupancy is up and the experience is better. So you get to a point where you grow on both sides of the balance sheet and then our costs are really uncomfortable that the level of investment can maintain our service level. And then we look for improved yield opportunities. So that's that transition into a higher productivity phase. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. I sense there was a lot in that. Speaker 2: Yes.
00:16:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Well, two points out of that. Speaker 2: It's not always the fun stuff, but if you don't do it, it's a house of cards. Yes. Yes. So build a strong program and then expand on top of that. Councillor Wilkie: The language was a bit impenetrable for me anyway. Speaker 2: No, I'll take that one on board. Councillor Jurisevic: I find that hard to believe with the wordsmith that was a former journalist in our midst. Councillor Wilkie: I have one other question. You mentioned the on-charging for electricity at Noosa River High. It's about to go there. Where are we with that? Speaker 2: Yes. So at the moment I'm developing a range of options of how we achieve our two main goals. So one, the whole mission was to reduce electricity use and the other financially is to achieve a return on investment of the powerheads that were swapped in. I'm developing a range of options of how we go about that that I'll be presenting to Director of Corporate Services. And then we'll bring that to a workshop later in the year.
00:17:00 Okay. Yes. There's a number of ways of going about that. We need to consider how we charge for that and what that means to the consumer base and what are the different mechanisms, but just not losing sight of what the whole intent was. Councillor Wilkie: Yes. Speaker 2: Yes. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Everything inspires confidence. Thank you. Appreciate that. Speaker 2: Thanks very much. Councillor Jurisevic: And the understanding by the visitors that that charge will apply. I would have suggested that would have been one of the methods you were talking about there with regard to the question that Frank was raising with transition and high productivity and revenue phase. It's one of the revenue streams that you've identified as an option. As far as the website goes and web traffic, do we monitor that and see how that compares perhaps with other sites? That's right. Speaker 2: Yeah. There's Google Analytics where you can dig into the back end of your website and see what your traffic click-through is like and how long people stay on pages. Councillor Jurisevic: Do we do any monitoring of our- Speaker 2: Yeah. Yep. We dug in there. Councillor Jurisevic: So we have got some analytics there and we're monitoring that.
00:18:00 Yes. Is there opportunities there for improvement and enhancements perhaps? Speaker 2: Yes and no. The whole point of the website is to provide information and then convert that to a booking. And we're not seeing a whole range of issues there. 1A post start of the Noosa River contract implemented a bot on our website. So now you can just click on it and ask questions and it'll generate some information. So that's all about providing as easy access to information as possible. But yeah, I don't see a whole lot of upside there. I think we're in a pretty good space with our website and our communications. Councillor Jurisevic: Clearly pretty visible by the number of people that are booking. Yeah. Speaker 2: Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: That's it from me. Anything else? Councillor Lorentson: Yep. I've got a couple. Risk, going back to your trending patterns of wet and inclement weather impacts. In terms of risk and impacts of climate change, have we prepared our holiday parks to adapt
00:19:00 to those impacts and have we fully understood what those impacts are? You know, I reference Noosa River Holiday Park and, you know, we're seeing it around the corner at Noosa Woods in the Long Pondy Place, issues of erosion. Living seawalks and tidal gates, are these things that your department looks at or is that a separate body of work? And we consider it as part of our coastal hazard or climate response plans or coastal hazard adaptation plan. But major risk, you know, sea level rises plus high tides, there's, you know, potential
00:20:00 consequences. So my question is, are we investigating or preparing for those risks? Speaker 2: Sure. I'll probably speak to Boring Point and North Shore separately to Noosa River. So we start with Noosa River. In terms of monitoring, yes. I jump on every now and again and have a look at when a high tide is and we just see where the water levels are. Can't think of the name of the branch within Council that manages the foreshore and erosion, but I know they do a range of works to monitor our foreshore environment. We're not seeing that the impacts of tidal movements or sea level are changing our environment there at all. It was interesting in the floods in February last year, I did expect that we would have some flooding and I was on the phone saying move the guests back, but we actually didn't experience any flooding through that environment. We do have in place retaining walls and the sites sit up higher.
00:21:00 So commercially we're protected in that space. The management of the foreshore and erosion sits with another team within Council, but we do talk. Boring Point and Noosa North Shore, we've had quite a challenging year to be honest with a lot of the rainfall, water sits, disrupts operations, bookings being cancelled. We've invested in a ground and road maintenance program this year by, I've worked with the managers to identify which sites flood. So we collated information and then arrange contractors to build up sites with road base, make sure the gradients are such that the water moves away, look at where water sits and put drainage in place and a few extra culverts here and there. And we've really seen the benefit of it. A lot of the time now when we have rain events, the water moves away, guests still have a good time and we don't have the operational disruption.
00:22:00 Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: There may be a question for Mr CEO on notice, but I understand that the infrastructure team has done designs for the Hulking Terrace foreshore involving living foreshore banks. My question would be, would that, is that likely to extend around Monor Point as well and take in the Noosa River caravan park? Speaker 3: Through the Shire Council. Yeah, through the Shire Council or Wilkie. At this stage it is a design that can run the length of the river. The focus will be just on the Gympie Terrace foreshore, but given that we do have assets there at Monor Point, revenue generating assets, not just looking at adaptation, but mitigation of the effects of future climate change. So that design should be able to continue through. At this stage it is just designed for Gympie Terrace area and as Robyn was saying, we're a little bit higher there. Having said that though, we know that climate change knows no boundaries or heights into the future. So it works within the team that will deliver adaptation and mitigation.
00:23:00 That design should be able to travel through. Yeah. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Yeah. We not only have an asset, we also have a coast gate. Yes, we do. Councillor Lorentson: One last question and maybe a little bit off track. Illegal campsites. I know it doesn't sit in your department, but maybe it should, Robyn. Just issues, and I'll use Noosa Woods, because over the Christmas period and recently there's been a lot of illegal cars parked there, either overnight or camping. The issue is amenity issues and toilet facilities. I think we're going off the remit of the holiday parks here. No, but it's camping. And I'm using this opportunity just at least to bring it home. Can we look at at least opening the toilet facilities down at Noosa Woods after four
00:24:00 o'clock? Because the campers that are there are using the bushes and it's come to my attention and I'm not sure how I'm going to address it. Councillor Jurisevic: I think it's probably a question more for the CEO. Speaker 3: I've spoken to the CEO about this. Yeah. Through the Chair, Robyn, I might respond on your behalf in relation to that. It is Robyn's area sits within corporate services. There's two elements of the council that would manage the opening and closing of toilets, so parks and gardens, and then infringements are sitting within local laws. So we have two streams within two departments. There is work. I met with the director yesterday to be able to first and foremost look at what we can do in relation to signage and infringements. So there is work that is being done in relation to that. And that signage will be specific to no standing. But we also want to ensure that our community has amenity. If I put forward a no standing from 7pm to 4am, we've got to remember the local fishermen
00:25:00 that at the right tide also wants to go down and enjoy the amenity of what they have there. So there's some work that we're undertaking. There's a compliance operation. I'm happy to discuss that within closed, within council. Thanks. When we do undertake operations, we want to ensure that they have the maximum impact. And we don't generally advise in advance as to what we're doing, but there will be compliance operations undertaken. And I do have the two departments within infrastructure and then also community working together on signage within that particular area. But we don't want the unintended consequences of members of our community that want to enjoy that amenity at different times of the day and night not able to do so will be infringed inadvertently. So we're managing through that process now, Councillor. Thank you so much. Thank you. Great. Anything further, Councillor? Councillor Wilkie: Not for me. Thank you, Madam. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Councillor Wegener in the audience has a question.
00:26:00 Speaker 5: Trailers. Do many of the campers at Luna Point bring their boats down and park their trailers in public areas and then camp in the campgrounds? Speaker 2: I'm aware that they bring their boats and there's storage of trailers either within their site or within car parks inside the holiday park environment. I'm not sure of the use of Russell Street for that, no. Councillor Jurisevic: It is a public place of boat rent that's available. That's right. At Luna Point. But not specifically the use of the caravan park, so. Speaker 5: I know that there's quite a few trailers there. Whether the worst case for them in the campground or the people that bring their boats while they're camping. Councillor Jurisevic: For those that do bring their boats, yes. And there's facilitation within the camping facilities. Thanks, Robyn. Thanks, Robyn. Nothing further? I'll move them over. Councillor Wilkie, seconder Councillor Lorentson. All in favour? Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Robyn. Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you, Robyn. Thanks, Robyn. Thanks, Robyn.
00:27:00 Have a nice afternoon. Thanks. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Carried it out, actually. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 6: Thank you. Good afternoon everyone. So this is a status report of the capital program as of 31st of December. The total expenditure at that time for the 22-23 program was sitting at $26.7 million out of $57.1 million. This includes $11 million in carryovers. Infrastructure services have direct control over $50.7 million and then others, including ICT and fleet, are sitting at $6.4. As I mentioned earlier, expenditure is sitting at 45% and we have $10.7 in commitments. We're still experiencing problems with the market at the moment and we're trying to manage them within budget limits and PCG and CWE.
00:28:00 The road rear seal program is sitting at $1.6 out of $5.7 million for the year and also the design team is working away on designs for this year's program as well as looking at works for next year's program. The planning team, as mentioned earlier, is working on projects such as Gibby Terrace and there's currently 32 multi-year projects in various stages of completion. Councillor Jurisevic: I know it's not your area. I know it's not your area, Craig, but perhaps I know if Trent or the CEO can help us out with page 13, which is having the whole of the Shire mobile library service solution. The new mobile vans, are they ready? It looks like we've taken delivery. Where are they being stored and when will they be on the road? Speaker 4: Through the Chair, I don't believe we've taken delivery yet. I think we've got one or two more site inspections to finalise the last of the fit-out.
00:29:00 The vehicles are progressing well. I've seen burners, obviously I haven't seen it in person, but looking forward to it getting on the road in the next few months, but I don't notice exactly when the delivery date is scheduled. Councillor Jurisevic: That's right, I've just noted the photos in here and they seem to be in a shed. I thought, have we given them a home, have we? Speaker 4: No, not in our shed as I'm aware. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay, that's good. Thank you for clarifying. That seemed odd that the photos were there in a shed. I thought, well, we've taken delivery. Councillors, any questions? Councillor Wilkie: Craig, just to clarify, where in the report did it mention the progress of the resale program? Is it in there? You said $1.5 million has been spent at that. Speaker 6: There's a list of roads, gravel sheathing. Councillor Lorentson: Aged oil. Aged oil. Aged oil. Aged oil. Aged oil. Speaker 6: So it's got the... Councillor Lorentson: Clear one, Black Mountain. Councillor Wilkie: Oh yes, $1.6 million, $5.7 million budget.
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00:30:00 So we're halfway through the year. Is that a concern for you, the progress of the resale? No. No. Councillor Jurisevic: We're currently doing Beckmans Road, which will be a substantial amount of that. Yeah. And that's the whole of Beckmans Road, or the substantial part of it's Beckmans Road? Speaker 6: It's a substantial part. Councillor Jurisevic: The worst of it? Speaker 6: Yeah, we have limited budget, and we're just hitting the bits that are in most need. No concern with the resale program. Councillor Wilkie: If I go to the last line in your report, Craig, this is an enormous amount of work that's being done. You said the staff turnover rate is 30% for the past 12 months. How are you managing this? Can you tell us what are the causes of the high turnover rate? Speaker 6: It's probably a host. Yeah, I think obviously we had the year where people were moving on, the year of resignation,
00:31:00 where there was job opportunities, COVID appeased in some ways, and people could start travelling again. And so there was that change. What's also happened is the project management area is red hot. You know, there's jobs everywhere. We can't fill roles. Everyone, people can't fill roles. That's probably what's happened post-COVID, people with itchy feet are moving and travelling and changing jobs. What's also happened is the infrastructure boom, which is, you know, affecting project management roles. So there's opportunities for more money. But what I am seeing now, and this is just probably in the last two to three weeks, is that it's starting to settle down again, and I'm seeing more applications coming in, and I'm seeing people from within the area, which is very good. So I'm seeing a change, and that may be due to economics, I think, and people may be predicting or an uncertainty what's going to happen this year.
00:32:00 So they're probably settling, thinking, oh, actually, you know, I could go and chase that high money, or I could get a stable job. Councillor Wilkie: Are you sensing we're over the worst of it? Speaker 6: I think so. I think I'm seeing higher numbers coming in in roles that we're advertising, and I'm seeing people from within the area, which is a good sign. Councillor Wilkie: And grading your time here, have you ever seen the turnover rate that high before? I have. Speaker 6: When was that? Gee, I've probably seen it twice. It was the economic, probably in the 90s, the early 90s, it was a real high up. Yes. And then again, I can't predict the year, but I've seen it probably in the 2000s. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. So once every 20, once every decade, it might happen. I think it's economics, really, basically. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: So congratulations for getting the amount of work done while managing that.
00:33:00 We're not there yet. I know. Thank you. Thank you. I know you're not here. It's all right to judge, aren't we? Councillor Jurisevic: But the results are in the bag, Craig. I'd like to congratulate you and the team on the completion of the Tewantin Bypass Stage 1, the roundabout. I think the improvements in safety there, I haven't seen an accident there since the roadworks began. And now that they're complete, I'm hoping we never see another accident or rarely see an accident there, because there used to be almost a daily occurrence, minor in nature, although some more serious than that. But I think that's a major safety improvement, safety upgrade for the community. So thank you for the time and effort taken to undertake that project. Also, the upgrades of Noosa Parade, the corridor there, as those trees start to grow and that avenue starts to develop, I think the appreciation of the upgrades to the landscaping and all the rest of it will be felt by the community far more strongly. Also, some of the other works undergoing at the moment, the Noosa Trail 5 upgrade and soon to be commenced, the McKenna Drive Community Sports Complex. So excellent work. So there's some fabulous projects, including the bridge works and all the other work and
00:34:00 capital works that you guys are undertaking and designing. There's some great work out there. Speaker 6: Great team. Thank you. I'll pass that on. Councillor Lorentson: I've got a couple of questions, Craig. Sure. With regards to the Noosa Heads dog beach nourishment, have we obtained the state government approvals? My understanding that we were still waiting for those environmental permits. Speaker 6: I'll have to take that on notice. Oscar's not here today, obviously. And Cody, he's off. He's just having a little break. So I'll have to take that on notice. And I'll respond to that. Councillor Jurisevic: My recollection is we do have the... We were very close to the approvals. If we don't have the approvals, it's the timing of it is to be after April. And I think that's based on what the approvals allow with regard to fish habitat and other
00:35:00 things in that regard. So my recollection is that the dates are based on the approvals. Speaker 3: Applications are lodged. We're waiting on the approval to come through. It should be imminent. But it's the window in which we can undertake the works. It's not necessarily the approval. It's when we can undertake. But we're ready to go as soon as we have that approval within that required window. Councillor Jurisevic: So the approval still isn't through? Speaker 3: That's my understanding. Councillor Jurisevic: It's not. Speaker 3: No, it's not. Councillor Jurisevic: My understanding is you're correct then. I thought that was based on the approval. Councillor Lorentson: I thought that was based on all the challenges that have come with this huge capital works program. And you reference labour equipment, materials increase in cost, staff turnover, to name a few. What's Council's strategic position moving forward regarding grant funding? Will we continue to jump on every available grant?
00:36:00 Is it more better? Or are we looking at being a little bit more strategic with that? I don't know. I'm understanding now that there is a cost to accepting, you know, every grant that comes around. Speaker 6: Yeah. So my understanding is that we have a policy in place. My understanding is that all the grants are coming up through the execs team. That's right. Yeah. Right. So there's a strategic oversight. Yeah. Speaker 3: Through the Chair absolutely a strategic approach in how we're delivering our grants. And while it's great to be able to have grant renewal funded by other levels of government, what that can also do is cause us additional cost in relation to depreciation. So we do need to be able to manage that if we are out of our depreciation schedule. Upgrading assets. There is not just the staff cost to be able to manage and deliver that project, but then there's also additional cost from a financial perspective. So it's multi-layered. Any of those grant applications coming through our executive team and if they are at the
00:37:00 required delegation or there's additional risk, it will be a report through to Council for Council to then understand. And whether that is at the application point or whether it is if we've been successful in receiving to ensure that there's that final degree of oversight if there's additional cost and risk that we have those governance measures in place. Fantastic. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: And I'm not talking down the extra, I think it was $17.5 million worth of external funding. Like that's money that our rate payers don't have to come up with. So that's a huge benefit. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. And the other thing that's important to note is those funds aren't available forever. So we've been fortunate to obtain the amount of grants that we've had, but there's no guarantee that they'll be there next year. And we know with federal grants and other grants, they start to dry up and they start to dwindle and different governments come in and grants come and go. So we can't rely on grants. Councillor Lorentson: I think those rivers of gold, Joe, with the-
00:38:00 I think they're coming to an end. Councillor Jurisevic: From an economic perspective, they probably can't afford to continue to offer that amount Councillor Lorentson: of funding. With the Olympics 2032, I think tourism infrastructure, there'll be opportunities. A different pool of money. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. And maybe while we're on the topic of grants, there's 57 million capital works going on here and 17 odd million of that grant money. There's also the disaster recovery grant fund over there. Can you tell us the sort of figures we're talking about there in terms of tens of millions that we're dealing with as well? Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I've heard- Through the chair, Councillor Wilkie, the quantum's nearing $80 million. 18? 18. And grant funded? Yeah, through the Queensland Reconstruction Authority. Yes. And the disaster relief funding arrangements. So that's from the February through April rain event that occurred last year. So there's some- Yes. Of course, Black Mountains. But we're looking at 21 landslips overall.
00:39:00 Over 100 roads affected, culverts affected, bridges affected. So it's significant for us to be able to not only recover our assets to the standard that they were, but then where we have the potential for betterment and building and resilience, that we have the ability to do that. Very close work with the QRA on this. And as always, they're fantastic with their support for our council. Yeah. And that's only a fairly new- Councillor Wilkie: And it's been managed by externally, all that work goes, mostly. Speaker 3: Through the chair, majority- It's a strain on the team. It's a strain on the team, majority external, because we can, given the criteria around the DRFA funding. We do have the ability to be able to outsource that. It's additional work that none of us could know was coming down the line. But we are looking, and Larry and I spoke yesterday in our catch-up, that we may have some resources that we can fund through different means that we bring in on an internal basis. We still carry the risk, and we want to make sure that we have direct oversight over such
00:40:00 a significant amount of funding. Yes. Councillor Wilkie: And you mentioned, Mr. CEO, you mentioned about $80 million worth of grant-funded disaster recovery works to be done. That all won't be done this financial year. Yes. And is there, are we any close to having an estimate of how many of our works can commence? Or is it all going to be likely in the 2023-2024 financial year? Yes. Speaker 3: The delivery of that. Through the chair, Councillor Wilkie, what we're seeing is some minor works are being delivered. Design works being done. Yes. Yes. And it is, it's one of those situations where the disaster occurs, the assessment's undertaken, the funding then is granted and agreed, particularly for the larger pieces of work. We then go through our procurement and tendering processes. Once that design's been agreed, we then put on the contractor to deliver. So it is more so the next FY that we'll see the majority and the bulk of that work getting delivered. But where we've needed to deliver emergent works and the correspondence that I have come
00:41:00 through from the acting CEO at QRA, advisers, pretty much nearly out a week. So we're just looking at the weekly basis that there's $120,000 that has been approved and delivered against $250,000. So every week I'm getting correspondence coming through. That goes straight through to our infrastructure team and then also through to finance to ensure that we're processing and delivering against, I think they're the form 10s that we need to sign off on. Yeah. Very good. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Interesting to hear the CEO add the word, add the word resilience there, because that's a fairly new concept with regard to state recovery. With the recovery plan, with the word resilience, we're starting to add it, and funding for resilience. That means more money is being put into the pot to ensure that we're not just putting light for light, but we're actually trying to build above and beyond the flood incidents that are, or the incidents that are occurring. So. Councillor Wilkie: And is it the $25 million price tag from Blackmar? A little bit higher now. 27. Councillor Jurisevic: About 30. Councillor Wilkie: About 30. Councillor Jurisevic: And elements of the maintenance, as the CEO alluded to, elements of the maintenance like
00:42:00 Upper Pimbaran Creek Road that you and I had a look at. I went up there the other day and I could see some of that culvert clearing had occurred. So the minor elements have been done. They probably worked with our QRA funding had occurred, and the design work and the next phase to do that upgrade, and those are the elements of where landscapes have occurred is now underway. Councillor Wilkie: Greg, do we have any sense of how much of this $57 million capital work program is likely to be pushed out for next year? Speaker 6: Carryovers at this stage. Carryovers. Yeah. We're working through BR2 now. And that'll be coming up to Council in March. So we'll need to get through that exercise first, because what that'll do is work out what projects are going to be pushed out. So we'll have a better understanding in March, and there'll be a report coming to Council in March regarding BR2. So that's shifting money, money in, money out.
00:43:00 So that'll give us a better indication, and then between March. Councillor Wilkie: That's only next month. Speaker 6: Yeah. Yeah. We'll firm up the carryovers. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. Speaker 6: But I think we've got $10 million in committed. So we're sitting at $27 with $10 million in committed. So we'd be looking to achieve, say, we achieved $35 last year, so we'd be looking at figures similar. Similar. Councillor Lorentson: Wow. Okay. Happy to move it. Councillor Jurisevic: Move Councillor Lorentson. Happy to second it. Councillor Wilkie. All in favour? On the agenda is Council's remuneration. I've just got to be careful with my tongue on that one. Deb, would you like to give us a bit of an overview on, or a summary on the item before us? Speaker 1: Okay, good afternoon. Yes, so the purpose of this report is to inform Council of the determination of the Local Government Renumeration Commission,
00:44:00 which actually looks at the categories of local government and also sets the remuneration for councillors, mayor and deputy mayor. An increase has been recommended to take effect from the 1st of July, and the way that the Commission calculates that is it takes on board a number of factors, things like increases in the CPI, amounts paid to state parliamentarians, and different wages increases across the board. So there's a variety of factors, and it's detailed in the Commission's report, which is also attached to the Council report. The other element that's identified in this report, and this is a contribution that's got in this report is in relation to Council's, I suppose, category of financial sustainability. So did you want to talk to that, Scott? Speaker 3: Yes, thank you, Deb. And through the Chair Council, as you'll note within the report, there's an additional element that I've added in there,
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00:45:00 and that is discussing the financial sustainability review that the Department of Local Government, has undertaken across all councils in Queensland. What that has seen is that our council is now sitting at a higher tier, and as a result of that, our financial sustainability will be reviewed against some of the larger councils. And from my understanding, Noosa has always sat on the edge between Category 4, Category 3 council because of our population, but what I'm recommending for Council for future reports is that you, as a Council, will be expected to manage the strategic financial performance of this council at a higher level than what it has been previously. While you've always had to manage the finances and the strategic performance of the organisation, you'll be pegged with much higher councils. For me, as a Chief Executive Officer, my view would be is that you should be remunerated at the level in which you're expected to perform,
00:46:00 as not only our elected community members, but then, ultimately, our community members. And finally, our Board of Directors. So, we'll have further reports. There will be a review on the categorisation of councils this year. And if Council sees fit, myself and Deb and the Executive Team, we could put forward a submission to the Remuneration Commission for Local Government to look at a change in the category of council within Noosa. But that requires further workshopping, further reports to the Council table. Certainly not a decision for today. Not for today, but it's just not for today, but just for noting. And I think it's really important that Council is aware that from the recategorisation or the tiering that has occurred within the new financial sustainability requirements, in that of the 77 councils, we sit in the top 17 councils within the state.
00:47:00 In terms of size, Mr Seed? In terms of taking in our size, our geographical location, our population, and then also our financial performance as well, too. So, there's a number of categories the Department took into account to be able to then create the new tiers. But, yeah, we're sitting against the likes of Brockhampton Regional Council, Gympie, Gladstone Regional Council, some of the larger ones. And that really demonstrates where Noosa does sit. It is a further decision of the Council to make in the future whether you want to go down the path of looking at a change in category. But I think it's important, while we're looking at your remuneration, we ensure that what you're being asked to do as elected members matches the remuneration that you receive as well. So, if that's the position... Councillor Wilkie: So, that's a separate scale to the figures that are...
00:48:00 That's a separate scale to the figures that are appearing in that, in this report. Speaker 3: Through the Chair, that's correct. Councillor Wilkie: There you are in that flow-through of figures that we've got here. Yes. And it's just a different category would be a whole different set of figures. That's all right. Yeah. Question. If we're being asked to meet a higher standard of rigour in terms of financial sustainability, what will that mean in real terms? Are there different ratios we have to achieve? What will it mean in real terms in terms about how the reporting that the staff will have to prepare for the Council for this? How will what we do now change as a result of this recategorisation that's been... Speaker 3: Has it... Is it automatically been deemed that we are going to be recategorised? Through the Chair, Councillor Wilkie, yes, it has been deemed by the Department that we're sitting within a new tier category. And exactly what you've said. So, we'll be looking at some changes in our ratios
00:49:00 and our sustainability requirements that we have. This year, we'll be undergoing a credit review from the Queensland Treasury Corporation. They happen every few years in a standard practice. We'll be presenting as an executive to the Queensland Treasury Corporation in the coming weeks to be able to set our framework forward for the credit review. It may or may not affect this round, it is still new in relation to what the Department has put together. And we're yet to understand what the full impact is going to be. But while that has occurred and we have been put into a higher tier, should the remuneration category be reviewed? I have a personal view that... Councillor Wilkie: So, they're not inextricably linked? Speaker 3: No. And through the Chair, it was actually... Councillor Jurisevic had asked me that and I have sought the advice from the Department and know that they aren't linked. They aren't linked. However, it's worthwhile, I think, Council undertaking an exercise to review. If there is a view of the Council to work towards a submission,
00:50:00 then, as Council officers, we're very happy to be able to do that on your behalf and take that to the Commission. Councillor Wilkie: So, as part of the more work that needs to be done, we'll get a better understanding of what it will mean in the day-to-day running of the Council in terms of more rigorous reporting, for example. Speaker 3: Through the Chair, absolutely correct, yes. So, very late last year, this was finalised by the Department. We'd gone and double-checked the requirements. We've had the change in your remuneration, so we wanted to report this to Council. But we also thought it's important just to flag where we may be going in the future for you in relation to this. And this report was a great opportunity to be able to do that and start a conversation internally as to what next steps might look like throughout this year, if we go down that path. Speaker 1: And I would just add to that to say that the Commission does, in that year before the election, does have a requirement to review it, the various categories, the basis, as well as which Councils are in which category, so to speak.
00:51:00 And the report identifies that they will be calling for submissions early in the year. They would normally call a little bit earlier. However, with COVID and things, things got protracted out. So, we are expecting to be... ..expected to be invited to put forward a submission. Councillor Wilkie: So, in real terms, we're a Category 3 Council. And in terms of financial sustainability reporting, we're being deemed to be a Category 4 Council now. Is that right? Yeah, correct. And that's happened. Yes. OK. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: It's interesting to note that the ABC had a report on the radio the other day that quoted our salaries as significantly higher than what they're currently moving to. I think that already recategorises into a much higher credit. Councillor Wilkie: ABC never gets it wrong. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. OK. Anything further, Councillors? Any further questions? I'll put it to the vote. Councillor Lorentson: I'll move the mover. Second. Councillor Jurisevic: Move it. Mayor Russell Lauriston. All in favour? Moved unanimously.
00:52:00 Thank you, Deb. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you, Deb. Thanks, Deb. Councillor Jurisevic: The next item on the agenda when I get to the end of the report is somewhere down here. What page, Mr. CEO? What page are we on? Speaker 3: There are no further items. Is that the last item, is it? That's the last item. That's the last item on the agenda. Councillor Jurisevic: Oh, that's right. It is the last item on the agenda, isn't it? No confidential session today.