General Committee Meeting - June 2023 Transcript

1 ATTENDANCE & APOLOGIES ¶

▶ 00:00:06

Nothing was transcribed under this heading — a stretch of the recording with no speech the model could make out.

6.9 2022 DELEGATIONS OF AUTHORITY ANNUAL REVIEW ¶

▶ 00:00:42· Carried unanimously 7-0 from council's minutes

00:01:00 Council employees are required to undertake numerous activities and decisions every day in order to properly serve the community and keep Council operating. In order to ensure this is able to be done efficiently and effectively and equally to ensure that Council can focus on high-risk strategic issues, the Local Government Act allows Council by resolution to delegate powers of the local government under the LGA or another Act to the CEO. Subsequently to that the LGA then allows the CEO to on-delegate these powers to appropriately qualified employees or contractors of Council if necessary. Beg my pardon. I confirm that this stage of the review and this report is only in relation to Council to CEO delegations and it is a requirement under the LGA that delegations from Council of the CEO be reviewed annually by Council in order to ensure that the delegations align with any relevant legislation changes and new legislation enacted. Thank you. After receiving our Annual Delegation Updates from LGAQ this year, the Governance Branch commenced the 2022 Annual Delegations Review in September 2022 with the intention

00:02:00 of 1 reformatting Noosa Council's Council to CEO Delegation Register to align with LGAQ and industry standards. Secondly to realign the register and powers included in Noosa Council's Council to CEO Delegation Register to better align with LGAQ recommendations and industry standards. And thirdly to provide the new CEO the opportunity to review and suggest powers delegated from Council to CEO to reflect his risk appetite and approach. In conducting this year's Annual Delegation Review, the Governance Branch spent an extensive amount of time consulting with relevant directors, the previous and current CEO, and councillors. This included two councillor workshops in which we explained in detail the delegations concept, the Annual Delegations Review process, the steps the Governance Branch undertook as part of this year's extensive review, and the outcome of the Annual Delegations Review this year, being the identification of 32 new registers for councillors to consider for

00:03:00 inclusion in this year's 2022 Council to CEO Register of Delegations. As such, the outcome of the two councillor workshops conducted over the past few months is the 2022 Council to CEO Delegation Register presented with today's report as Attachment 1. As you can see in the report in this 2022 review, Governance in consultation with councillors added 24 new registers to the 2022 Council to CEO Delegation Register. Governance in consultation with councillors has updated 11 existing registers. And finally, Governance in consultation with councillors has reviewed, with no changes, the remaining 49 registers. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Alex. We have a recommendation before us. Does anyone care to move that, Councillor Jurisevic: or a version of it? I'm happy to move the start of the recommendation. Move the start Councillor Wilkie: of the recommendation. Moved by Councillor Durrusevich, seconded by Councillor Finzel. Councillor Durrusevich? Councillor Jurisevic: I'd just like to acknowledge the comprehensive reporting and understanding that staff undertook

00:04:00 for councillors to get their heads around this. There is a lot of information contained within this, not only councillors, but the rest of councillors as well. I had a thorough review of all the information brought to you today. I'm happy to move the start of the recommendation, and I'm happy that we've reached a point that meets the needs of the Council game plan. So thank you again for all the time and effort put into that understanding. Councillor Lorentson: I have a question. Councillor Morrison. Just a question. In terms of delegating a function to a general manager and sub-delegations to a council officer, is that covered under the delegations? So do the delegations have delegations? Delegations include delegations, for example, a general manager can delegate to a council officer the right to assess a development application, or to delegate to a council officer

00:05:00 the duty to review an environmental assessment report. How does that work? Speaker 9: So through the Chair today, as Alex explained, you're looking at the first stage, which we need to go to formally through the Council. So that's the first stage, which we need to go through the legislation, and that is the Council to the CEO delegation chain. And what that means is if you do adopt the recommendations today, that will then allow the CEO to on-delegate those powers to council officers, be it a director, a manager, an officer, a project manager, anyone in council, in accordance, obviously, with consultation with the executive team, what is appropriate for the functions of that officer's role and responsibility. So to answer your question, today is just about council to CEO, that first chain. And then the second chain, which obviously takes time and consultation, we've already started

00:06:00 that process to consider that with the executive group and the managers on the ground. We consult closely to see, as they're the subject matter experts, to see what they need their teams and their staff and resourcing to have power-wise to be able to exercise their powers. So that's one of the main functions. So, yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Councillor Jones. I'm imagining that chain of command, sort of handing down of authority didn't occur, everything would be coming back to the CEO for review. Correct. That's correct. That's why we appoint directors, managers, give people designations of their duties and all the rest of it, so they can facilitate those functions. Speaker 9: That's right. The pressure would be very, very high on the CEO to do everything if it all stayed with the CEO, which is unpractical and unreasonable to expect. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. That's my understanding. Thank you. Mary Clay. We do want to make changes, Di, to the delegations down the track. What's the best way to go about that or do that? Speaker 9: The best, you can do it at any point, any point in time. And the best way to do it,

00:07:00 I believe, would be to workshop it with the operational team that's going to be impacted by the change. Find out on the ground with the team what is the consequence. Because every time you look at a delegation or you adjust things, it does have a flow-on effect in the administrative arm of the business. So have a consultation with them, find out the impacts, figure out if there's, you know, if it suits both parties. And then we can definitely put a new report up to council targeting that and for your consideration and resolution. And that can be done at any time? Any time. Thank you. Any time. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Councillor Stockwell. I'd like to move an amendment. And that's to add a further clause. Just enlarge it for you so you can see it a bit better. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Thank you. Thank you. The further clause to read further that the CEO be requested to bring forward a further report which reviews the current triggers for development matters precluded from delegation

00:08:00 with a view to providing staff with more specific less subjective criteria in concluding the results of a workshop, which is a new wording, including the results of a workshop. Councillor Jurisevic: Absolutely. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Our criteria including. Mayor Stewart: Keep going. There. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yep. Mayor Stewart: The results. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: The results of the workshop. Yeah. Which considers. Is that a consideration? Amongst other things. Councillor Lorentson: I'm going to get rid of that. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: No. No. Just considers amongst other things. Precluding. Take it. Decisions in the following circumstances. Where a matter relates to one, the clearing of remnant of concerned or endangered vegetation.

00:09:00 That's a decision. From a biodiversity or vegetation management act perspective. The disturbance of the habitat of a species listed under the Nature Conservation and Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act. An extension of approval that was made under a superseded planning scheme and or where there is a resolution of council to amend the planning scheme in a way that is relevant to the approval. For the removal. To the removal of a substantial operation to a structure or place of heritage significant identified in council's planning scheme or an adopted study of council. And five. A development where council has a direct or indirect interest as a result of its involvement in previous or proposed land dealings. Councillor Wilkie: I'll second that for the purpose of debate. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I do. So obviously this. We've had a range of community representations made to us about the Grass Street Court site. And it has. You know. There's been nothing that's come to this council or the council before it or the council before that. That has allowed us to do anything else but improve the situation.

00:10:00 In relation to the glossy black cockatoo habitat. But there's still. A strong desire. For the community to see. Any decisions relating. To sites like that. To be made by decision rather than staff. This just. Promulgates a review. And a workshop. That will allow us to understand. If we do go down this. Track of. Being less subjective. More prescriptive. What are the implications. So at the moment. It's up to staff to identify. What's. What's of significance. What's controversial. Whereas if we. Become more criteria based. It may be. More yes and no decisions. Which may be. In my view. A better way to go. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you Councillor Stockwell. Anyone else wish to speak to the amendment? That's a question for the CEO. Councillor Jurisevic: Councillor Joe. CEO is that. Clear enough. That. That there's nothing. Defined here. These are the elements. That may be considered. In a workshop. And the elements here. And that any. Any other issues. That. That may need to be considered. Could also be.

00:11:00 Brought up through a workshop. They're not all covered here. Or. There may be other areas. What I'm suggesting. Is there may be other areas. That aren't covered here. And that. That. Whilst the Councillor is. Has outlined five options. There may be other options. That we need to consider. I agree. Speaker 15: And I. And I. And I. Welcome the. The. The comments from. From Councillor Stockwell. But I think. The risk here is. We become too descriptive. In those. In those five points. There may be others. That we want to consider. Or less. I. My advice would be. That we keep it. To a workshop. To a higher level. Keeping in mind. That these are the points. That we've. That we're looking to cover. But. If we. If we put them into this. And we. Then we. You know. We limit ourselves. Or potentially limit ourselves. So I think it's better. To sort of. Consider this. But be. Be more broad. So that we can come back. Have a workshop. Talk it through. Make sure that we're all. All considerations are taken into. Into account. And we come back with a. With a. Fully. Fully worked through. Considered.

00:12:00 Adoption. Councillor Jurisevic: So the language workshop. Which considers. Amongst other things. Recruiting delegation decisions. On these items. Means that we've got. A greater scope. To review. Not just these five items. Yeah. That's. That's my. That's my advice. And it's for you to discuss. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: I just want to clarify. Councillor Finzel. Councillor Finzel: A question for the CEO. Through the Chair. Speaker 15: I think that's. That's for us to consider. And for you to consider. In a. In a workshop. Environment. So we do that more often. To ensure that. You know. With everything that we do. There's lessons learned. Yeah. And this is. You know. This is lessons learned. From many years ago. That we. If we can. If we can make. The system and processes better. Going forward. Then. If that's the way we want to go. Then. That's what we should be.

00:13:00 Threshing out. Should be talking through. And coming back with a. With a. Proposal that. That everybody is agreeing with. I'm. I'm more than comfortable with that. And that's. That's what we should put on the table. And. And. And talk it through. Councillor Finzel: Okay. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: Councillor Lorentson. Question to Dee. Section 50 of the Planning Act Regulations specifies condition 1e. That the CEO may exercise powers of the Council for an application other than the following. E being an application for a proposed development of significant community interest. What I'm thinking is. Is the amendment in front of us. The workshop. We're also looking at a potential amendment in the Planning Act. Where community. Significant community interest. Needs to perhaps be. Further defined. As including some of the points that's raised in the application. So my question to you is.

00:14:00 After the workshop. Is there an opportunity then. To consider potential changes and amendment in the planning. Regulations. 2007. Yep. Speaker 9: The delegations. Definitely after the workshop. If you. Have considered as a group. That you want to add additional conditions. To the delegations. That surround the Planning Act. You're more than welcome to. And we can definitely push it up to Council. Separately. Later on. If that's. If that's what. Speaker 8: If I can just add to that. Councillor Lorentson. I think you're requesting. Advocacy. To change something in the Planning Act. Regulations. Yes. Not ours. Oh. Sorry. Councillor Lorentson: Sorry. The 2017 Planning Act. So. Wow. Being specific. So. So. It just needs. The significant community interest. It needs. Almost to be. More clarity around it. What it actually.

00:15:00 Includes. Or excludes. Speaker 8: So I think. Yeah. This is what. That means for us. Because. I don't. You know. I. As much as we could try and advocate for that. I think that's going to be different. In. In different local governments. So I think it's. We need to be able to specify. What that means. In the Noosa context. And maybe Councillor Stockwell. Some of his. Things he's put up there. Start to. You know. Identify the applications. That might be of. Significant. Community. Interest. So we would do it at a local level. Okay. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Thanks. Councillor Wilkie: Look. I'll speak in favour of the amendment. I'm going to support it. It's suitably. Broadly worded. To allow. Us to. You know. Any other issues. That may come up. That have a relevance.

00:16:00 To delegation. So I think. It's suitably. Broad. To allow us. To do that. In the correct way. Mayor Stewart: Yeah. I'll support it too. Because. Can you move it down. Please. A little. Because we will. Be having. A workshop. Which is. The proper process. To ensure. That we are. Covering. That basis. So. I'm happy to support it. In its current form. Councillor Drissling. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. Likewise. I'm happy to support it. It gives. The opportunity. To consider. These. These. Items. That Councillor Stockwell has brought forward. But. Other things. Lessons. Learned. From. From past. Decision making processes. And. The opportunity. To bring those forward. And. Review. And see if there's. Any need. To. Improve. Or enhance. The decision making process. Councillor Lorentson: Councillor Lorentson. Supporting the motion.

00:17:00 The amendment. I think it's really great. What I would like to see. Is. If we can pan it out. Even further. To include. Things like. Petitions. Our community. Spend a lot of time. Signing petitions. And. You know. Petition. Grass. Tree. Court. 76,000. I think. We've got to give. Some. Some discussion. Around. What that means. Community interest. Should. Factor in. When. A community. Has. A very strong. Position. About. What they value. So. I'm actually. Really looking forward. To. The. Workshop. And. Commend. Councillor Stockwell. For. Putting. The amendment. Forward. Councillor Finzel: Yeah. In essence. I support. What you put up. Councillor Stockwell. I'm just wondering. To. Show. The board. You know. We can open up. Through. The workshop.

00:18:00 Or. Is that. Going to be. Just. Considered. Amongst. Other things. All right. Thank you. Look. I support. The amendment. I think. It shows. That we have. Listened. To our community. You know. This has been. Retrospective. And. Historical. So. I think. In terms. Of good governance. And. Moving. Short. To. You know. Engender. Trust. In our community. That we have listened. We have heard. And we are. Working. To the best. Of our ability. To ensure. That. You know. That. With whatever. Opportunities. We have. Before us. To implement. What. Is required. To. Ensure. That we. Have. Shown. That we have. Listened. And acted. On. Trying. To. Get. Outcomes. Into. Into. The future. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you.

00:19:00 Thank you. Councillor Stockwell used to close, put the amendment those in favour. That is unanimous, the amendment now becomes the motion to which only Councillor Jurisdict has spoken. Any other councillors wish to speak to the motion before Councillor Jurisdict closes? Councillor Stockwell. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: It is a much larger body of work than previous years and I think we should thank staff and for their patience to take the time to ensure that all councillors were fully apprised of what has been proposed and in what's come before council. It really has taken out, has ensured that anything delegated to staff doesn't have a decision making ability that is properly bestowed to councillors, elected representatives and I was quite happy with the final outcomes of those workshops and I think like the staff member, the delegation for instance will bear through. Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Stockwell.

00:20:00 Any other councillors wish to speak? Jody wish to close? No, I'll be put with it. Okay, I'll put the motion those in favour. Thank you. That is unanimous. Thank you Alex, thank you Guy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Thank you Guy. Thanks Guy. Councillor Wilkie: We now go back to the agenda, tender consideration plan community battery. And we have Annie Nolan. Welcome Annie. Speaker 7: Good afternoon councillors. Good afternoon. Okay, so what you have in front of you is the report about the tender consideration plan. And just as a bit of background, when the federal government came in, they actually committed $200 million to implementing community batteries right across Australia. And the first tranche of that was $29 million.

5.1 TENDER CONSIDERATION PLAN - COMMUNITY BATTERY (Referred from P&E 6 June 2023) ¶

▶ 00:20:32· Carried unanimously 7-0 from council's minutes

00:21:00 $29 million for community batteries in specific locations. There were a number of locations identified right across Australia where this grant funding actually had to be spent. And Noosaville was one of those locations that were stipulated in the grant funding. So council saw this grant funding as a significant opportunity to really pilot a community battery, which is very much an innovative and new piece of kit. There's not a lot of them around currently in Australia. And so we saw this as an opportunity to keep local solar that was generated on rooftop solars, particularly in Noosaville, keeping it local to be able to be utilised at night when the sun's not shining. So basically a community battery will act as a solar sponge, really sort of collecting that solar that would potentially be exported back into the grid, keeping it locally so that then it can actually be utilised when the sun's not shining. And particularly in the peak times.

00:22:00 So we saw this as a fantastic opportunity. And this would also complement our net zero emissions target that has been in the environment strategy of 2019 and also the climate change response plan as well. So this was a terrific opportunity, but we also recognised that we really needed an expert partner because this is such new and innovative technology, to actually be able to do the work that we need to be able to do in the climate change response plan as well. So this was a fantastic opportunity, but we also recognised that we really needed an expert partner because this is such new and innovative technology, to actually be able to do the work that we need to be able to do in the climate change response plan as well. So we identified that Yarra Energy Foundation, or noted as YEF in the report, is the only community not-for-profit organisation that has actually implemented an in front of the meter community battery. So we identified that Yarra Energy Foundation, or noted as YEF in the report, is the only community not-for-profit organisation that has actually implemented an in front of the meter community battery. And that one has been going for a year, as of World Environment Day last week, in North Fitzroy. And that one has been going for a year, as of World Environment Day last week, in North Fitzroy. And that is a real, true community battery that has got community benefit.

00:23:00 And that is a real, true community battery that has got community benefit. So, as a result of that, we actually put in the application in partnership with Yarra Energy Foundation and Zero Emissions Noosa inc. And a couple of weeks ago we were notified that we were successful in obtaining $500,000 for that grant to install a community battery within Noosaville. And a couple of weeks ago we were notified that we were successful in obtaining $500,000 for that grant to install a community battery within Noosaville. Normally over $200,000 be required to go out for tender. However, under the Local Government Regulation 2012, Section 230, Division 3, there is exceptions for medium-sized and large-sized contractual arrangements to actually put together what's called a tender consideration plan. And for that to be happening, it has to actually consider the objectives of the plan, how the

00:24:00 objectives are to be achieved, how the achievement of the objectives will be measured, alternative ways of actually achieving the objectives and why those alternative means, i.e. the standard ones, was not adopted, and the proposed terms of contract for the goods and services and a risk analysis. Of the market for which these goods and services are to be obtained. So what's in front of you is a recommendation to resolve, to prepare a tender consideration plan, largely in what's in the attachment one of that report, for the procurement and supply and operation of a community battery under Section 230 of the Local Government Regulations. And that we actually, you actually delegate authority to the CEO to prepare and finance the tender.

00:25:00 So this is very much what's in front of you, a report to undertake a procurement process in accordance with Section 230 of the Local Government Act. Councillor Wilkie: Good. Councillor Jurisevic: Councillor Joe. Yeah, thanks, Annie. You mentioned the element of in front of the meter. Yes. There are also batteries that are considered after the meter. Can you tell us a bit of the difference between how this system will operate and that system, because there will be benefits to differ based on where the community battery is located in relation to a meter, as I understand. Speaker 7: Yes. So there's either behind the meter or in front of the meter batteries. And so the behind the meter battery is really almost behind the fence on the system. So there's a difference on a particular facility property, if you like, specific property, exactly. And we have

00:26:00 actually got some batteries behind the meter at the J and also at the leisure centre. And what that is doing is absorbing the solar from that specific property to store and to be able to be utilised as well. There's not a lot of difference, but in front of the meter, what that does, it's actually connected in the low voltage network. And so what that will do in those properties that are actually connected in that low voltage network, and the low voltage network is really what you see at your end of your street. It's not the big transmission lines. It's that low voltage where you'll see the pad transformers. So what this does is if you are a solar generator from your rooftop solar in that low voltage network, and you were using all of your solar, you would be exporting it back into the grid. And what the battery does is basically take all of that solar that is excess that would normally go back into the grid, and it actually stores it in this piece of kit, this battery.

00:27:00 And so at night, when everybody comes home and turns on their air conditioning, their cooking, their TVs, et cetera, that's known as peak load. And that's when the prices of electricity gets very expensive as well, because they're trying to generate as much of electricity as they can. So what this battery will do is actually discharge back into the grid to enable the people on the local voltage network to be able to have a higher percentage of renewable energy at that particular time. Councillor Jurisevic: There may be people that don't have solar systems on their roof as a result of this, but we get some of the benefit of the community collective of solar systems? Speaker 7: It's very much a collective, Joe. So the people that are actually connected onto this low voltage network where it is determined, in Noosaville once that's actually determined, they won't see any changes to either their feed-in tariffs or their retailers. But what this does actually allow is that even if you

00:28:00 haven't got solar, because the battery will be discharging at night when the sun's not shining, all in that network will actually be getting a higher percentage of renewable energy. So it's actually doing a number of things. It's reducing energy, sorry, emissions from the coal-fired power station particularly. At that period of time. And it's also taking some pressure off the network as well, because what we're seeing is more rooftops are actually putting on more solar in a system that was only built for a one-way, basically from the large centralised generators through to houses. We're seeing almost a two-way system now. So what's happening is that the more and more solar, it's putting more pressure on the grid in terms of voltage control, as well as actually just being able to move this electricity in a two-way motion. So even if you haven't got solar, it will actually be taking some pressure off some of the future

00:29:00 prices potentially, because as we get more and more solar actually going into the grid, it's most likely that the grid will actually have to be upgraded to be able to take with this two-way flow. And that will obviously increase prices in the network scheme as well. Councillor Jurisevic: So thank you. That's where I get the concept of who gets the benefit financially on the after the meter or downstream of the meter. The entity that has the meter is the one that gets the benefit of the batteries on their tariff. A community battery doesn't quite work in the same way financially. What it does, what my understanding is what it will do from what you've explained there, is it's going to get the benefit of the batteries on the grid. So it's going to take the pressure off the peak load required from the supply end. And if there's enough of these community batteries, that will help bring the price

00:30:00 of electricity down in the longer term by not having that peak demand at the most expensive part of the cycle of energy generation. Is that correct? Speaker 7: That is correct. Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. I just thought it pertinent to understand the difference between the two methodologies and what the benefits will be to the community of having community batteries. At the end of the day, there's got to be some dollar value that comes out that is generated by this system. That's correct. Yes. Who gets that benefit? Speaker 7: So Council will be the owner and operator of this community battery. And so through a retailer, Council will be participating in the energy market. And so it will be actually selling, sorry, it will be buying energy when the energy is, when the cost of energy is really low. Councillor Jurisevic: I hear when there's a bulk load of solar. Going in. Speaker 7: Yes. Into the battery. That's exactly right. Yes. So during particularly around about noon, the middle of the day is when there's a lot of solar going in because a lot of people are at work and they're not actually using that solar. So it's going into the battery.

00:31:00 Huge solar generation. Yes. And that's when that happens, the price on the wholesale market is lowest. And emissions is lowest as well. So this battery will actually be purchasing low cost, low emissions energy. And storing that, and then at night it will actually be discharging that. And so what that will potentially be is a revenue source for Council. We also want to say that this is very much a pilot project. So we're still, you know, we can't guarantee what that's going to be like, but it is potentially a revenue source for Council once we take what the maintenance and operational costs of the battery will be. And then we also get some revenue from the whole, operating in the wholesale market as well. Councillor Jurisevic: So whilst there may not be a direct tariff benefit to the consumer, what there could be is a feedback into Council's revenue, which may take some rates, general rate, the impact

00:32:00 of rates. Speaker 7: And potentially that revenue source, depending on the significance of it, that could actually be used for further projects for emission reductions in the community overall as well. Councillor Jurisevic: So that we could get a greater flow of community batteries or a greater number of community batteries, so that the benefit across the Shire is greater. Potentially. A larger income source, potentially, as a result of more community batteries going out there, based on the findings of this pilot program, and eventually a revenue source that may help offset some of the waste channels. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: And any interjection there? Can you just talk a bit about Energex interests and what they'll be doing with community batteries? Speaker 7: Yeah, sure. So as I said, there were 56 batteries that were actually put out as part of this grant opportunity. And the DNSP, or the Distributed Services Network Provider, i.e. Energex, they've also actually

00:33:00 gone for this grant as well. So they have collected, I think there's 13 down in southeastern Queensland that Energex is actually utilising. The difference between a community battery and one run by DNSP, particularly looking at the model that Yarra Energy Foundation is operating, is that, as we just explained, by Council actually owning and operating and actually maintaining the community asset in the community, it actually has that community benefit, as we just explained. What Energex will probably be doing is actually more of grid stabilisation. So to make sure that the voltage and the flow of electricity is going to be more stable. So that the amount of electrons is stabilised. And so it will be more for their business case, as opposed to a true community battery. There will be some emissions reductions, most likely as well. But by actually Council owning and operating this battery, we will actually have a rules based so that we actually charge the battery when the emissions from electricity is really,

00:34:00 really low, and discharge so that we actually are reducing our emissions overall for the community. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Chair? I'm sorry. Somebody else got another question? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: You go first. I'm just going to move them. Councillor Jurisevic: Well, we don't have any questions. So yeah, just to further explain that to people. I mean, yeah, my understanding is the community battery will be similar to the sort of things that service providers like Energex and Ergon and that will be facilitating to, yeah, smooth out the system and actually take, in the longer term, take the peak load off. Correct. We're discussing one battery. Yes. But a network of batteries will take that peak load off and help bring . Speaker 7: That's right. Yes. And there's the federal government has also just recently announced an expression of interest for further funding for batteries right across Australia as well. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Councillor Stockwell is moving. Can we have a second please? Second. Second, Councillor Finzel. Councillor Stockwell. Yeah. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: This is really exciting. When we think about the council's vision of being different by name, what staff have

00:35:00 done here has really embodied that. It is about looking at a problem and coming up with a different solution that is totally in keeping with our strategy. You know, in 2016 when we adopted a zero emissions for council operations, the community got excited. They went away and formed Zero Emissions Noosa as an incorporated group and they then asked in our 2019 environment strategy to make that a community target as well. And this project goes towards achieving that target. We would not have got there had Zero Emissions Noosa not invested their intellect, their time. You know, we talked about the volunteers, but if we were to pay a consultant what Zero Emissions Noosa Inc did, it would probably add $50,000 to $100,000 on to the project because they are the ones that looked at where is this being done well. They're the ones that, you know, with any that went down, well didn't go down, but got connected with Yarra Energy Foundation to identify the current best practice and to

00:36:00 create that network of interested organisations in future development of this. And so I believe we're the only council in Queensland that will have done this when we do it. We have got $500,000 of federal money flowing into the Shire as a result of that network. And it is really important that we heard from Annie that, you know, this problem of a system designed for a one-way monopolistic central generation in an age where energy generation is highly distributed. If we're going to be able to adapt that so that we do have distributed energy and we can do it at a lower cost than it would otherwise be in the future, then we have to go down this pilot process of working out how to do community batteries well. It's likely that in the future there'll be large numbers of community batteries or some

00:37:00 form of it to offset that grid destabilisation. But also, you know, even businesses say, I believe in Noosa Junction, if you want to put solar power on your business in Noosa Junction, the business case is not as good as elsewhere because the grid's already overloaded. So they won't give you export licenses into the grid. So community batteries can overcome some of those problems. And as we've heard, each one of these will start to reduce the emissions of this community by storing solar power generated during the day and using it at night. And I suppose to finish, I started with you to finish. You know, in the 80s, we talked a lot about thinking, acting, thinking globally, acting locally. This is what this is. You know, by drilling down to a very small, one neighbourhood, one transmitter, if enough of those get put in, we'll reduce the global problem of climate change. And that's why it's exciting. Councillor Lorentson: Councillor Stockwell. Councillor Lorentson. Just a few questions, Annie, if that's okay.

00:38:00 Home batteries versus community batteries. I'm sorry, virtual power plants. I don't know if you've heard of them. I just want to know if you've heard of those. What's more efficient? A shared approach or individual approach? Speaker 7: It's horses for courses actually and I think somebody said, we're not going to solve this problem with one silver bullet. It's going to be a lot of silver buckshot. So it very much is dependent on the situation. So obviously community batteries home batteries are still quite expensive. And so that's an issue. And if you can afford to put in a community sorry a residential home battery go for it absolutely it's not a one or either solution so what this does is it enable people who either haven't got solar haven't got batteries to actually start getting a higher percentage without actually having to pay a premium for it of renewable energy in that mix so that's the difference so we want to not discouraging people from putting in their own household batteries but this is another solution at a different

00:39:00 Councillor Lorentson: part of the actual network. So council owns the batteries and I'm referencing community land trust is there an opportunity down the track where we would actually consider the residents becoming sheet owners of their own local battery is that something that we may entertain? There's a lot of potential in that and what Zero Emissions Noosa Inc Speaker 7: is also actually currently doing they got a funding grant funding from the state government to actually develop a roadmap for putting actually in a number a whole network of batteries right across across Noosa Shire and part of that is actually looking at the various ownership models that could potentially be out there so yes this is and Yarra Energy Foundation talks about this as being very much in the grant phase where you know it's still very innovative very new so we there is

00:40:00 a lot of grant funding around at this stage but once we actually start to get the data like our energy foundation has done for the last year we understand how the battery operates the revenue sources you know the operational maintenance requirements etc then we'll have a much better understanding and that could open it up to a whole heap of investors including community. Councillor Lorentson: And my last questions I've read that next generation of batteries might come with the EV charging stations and that's so exciting so we don't have like you know a heap of community batteries they're connected to EV charging stations do you know any more about that? Speaker 7: Yes again that's another opportunity it depends on where the battery would actually be located and whether it's um relevant to actually have an EV charger in there but certainly they in Victoria

00:41:00 they're now starting to actually put community batteries um connected to EV charging stations Councillor Jurisevic: so it's all very exciting it is yeah a couple more questions too from the Councillor Lorentson to this question um uh I think it's good to get it out there in the in the public understanding um so a community battery doesn't preclude a homeowner from having their own battery within uh within that's correct and um the batteries that you meant you mentioned um community facilities or council facilities um we've recently installed a couple of batteries on the downside on the leader um can you give us a little bit more of an indication of where they where they've been and what they were what they were installed for sure um yeah these batteries Speaker 7: are actually as a as a result of another grant um that we went into um yeah again partnership with Zero Emissions Noosa Inc and also uh University of Southern Queensland

00:42:00 as the actual lead applicant and that was under the bushfire resilience grants program and so what this um project was to do was to actually install some batteries at our evacuation centres so that they could actually power the building in the event that we actually lost power so it would actually power essential services and um they're actually just installed fairly recently at the J and at the leisure centre and they're connected to their essential services so we would get power and lighting for a short period of time probably we if we used it effectively it would um power that probably overnight maybe depending on time until a generator is available to be yeah yeah yep and in the meantime when it's not actually being used in those circumstances um these batteries will actually be storing the excess solar that we're generating at those facilities and particularly at the J for example where we have a lot of night time activities we'll actually be utilising more of our stored solar power at night time rather than getting it straight from the grid

00:43:00 Councillor Jurisevic: another question with regard to the lifespan of the batteries what is the envisaged lifespan of batteries i'm working on the whole of life of the of the concept here as to when renewal is required Speaker 7: again it's it's a bit dependent um but basically the manufacturing guarantee is for 10 years however it depends on the charge and discharge cycle of that particular battery and so based on the estimations that we've been that have currently been done we're looking at probably 12 maybe even 15 years as well but again this is a pilot so i can't put my hand on my heart and say how long they're going to last Councillor Jurisevic: i'm imagining then that one of the elements of the revenues this generates could be put towards the whole of life and the renewal element at the end of the life of the batteries yes that's exactly what would happen thank you the only other question is with regard to

00:44:00 recyclability of the batteries um there's been some some element of discussion with uh out there with regard to solar panels and solar panel recycling batteries of this type what is the composition of the batteries and what is their capacity for recycling at the end of their life Speaker 7: yeah this was another reason why we really liked working with yarra energy foundation because they did a huge amount of research looking at the actual type of batteries and the battery that they are recommend recommending for this um the Noosaville installation is they looked at all the various environmental considerations as well and the battery that they've chosen um they're actually 95 percent recyclable and they're also manufactured with 100 percent renewables as well so they are very cognizant of not actually solving another problem by creating another problem and yes lithium is actually recyclable and manufactured where uh they are manufactured it's

00:45:00 uh sorry there's a whole various components of the actual batteries and the actual batteries are they're swedish but they actually then go into a norwegian uh component and uh i'd have to i have to Councillor Jurisevic: check on that do they have an office or a they actually have a presence in brisbane as well and Speaker 7: energex is also selecting these batteries um for their installations on pole top batteries in ipswich and they're actually looking at developing a center of excellence in brisbane possibility of development Councillor Jurisevic: or of construction of any sort of these batteries here in australia i couldn't tell you they haven't Councillor Finzel: discussed anything no not as yet council himself yes thank you mr chair thank you um i haven't really got questions i am really excited about this this opportunity um i moved here into the east shire early in the 80s and it's been my vision and dream to see how we can support a small community like pomona to actually be able to have civic ownership of our own power that we generate so it's really

00:46:00 exciting when i first came off the campaign i met with zen and land care actually to have a discussion around regenerative agriculture and we moved towards this idea of the community battery and so it's really exciting to see this progress and get to this point where we can you know seriously look at how we harness that solar power energy with benefit back to our community and especially excited about revenue opportunities that we can all benefit so um i really support this and i'm looking forward to seeing this rolled out in the community thank you thank you Councillor Wegener: council tom um one quick question um is this so is the battery going to belong to council and in will we be depreciating it as time goes on so that we will we will replace it at the end of its life yes great okay i'd just like to um speak to this and just uh thank um annie's visionary work

00:47:00 and i'm just so proud that our council supports you in this um i'm very appreciative and um respect you've worked with with zen and kennedy and vivi griffin and the yara energy foundation and it's just very very forward thinking and so this is a fantastic thing for us thank you very very much Councillor Jurisevic: another question before i speak to it um i'm just trying to um get a concept of where something similar like this uh may exist any is this similar but obviously a lot smaller in scale to the tesla battery that was installed in south australia on that with regards to again a different part of the network so um that's the high voltage but on the on the line side rather than on Speaker 7: the yeah and uh energex is also actually putting some in um on the medium voltage um network as well and there is one just outside of uh toowoomba that we've actually been invited to if we would

00:48:00 like to go and actually have a look at it i'll speak to it Councillor Jurisevic: yeah well uh council finzel alluded to some opportunities there but as uh as an electrician i've been watching this space very very carefully for quite some time with regard to the challenges that the solar uh the uptake the high uptake in this country of solar uh has created and uh some of the challenges that it presents with regard to uh the network but also the uh the criticisms of uh of the uptake of renewable energy sources like solar uh from those that uh see other uh other sources as uh as more feasible and the like this i see as the answer to uh a lot of that the uh the opportunity to take the duck curve uh for those that uh want to want to look at the technology the terminology being thrown around with regard to when uh the greatest percentage of solar is

00:49:00 available to the network and um and sitting there without somebody to go able to be stored this is actually the solution able to be stored at the at the peak of peak of times and able to be discharged at that time when the peak load comes on at night so it's using the the natural um cycle of the day with regard to power generation and power renewal or entering into the system to deal with the peak uh that comes when people aren't home so uh i see this as a great solution going forward i see the opportunity of yeah community buying community ownership on on on both uh both concepts i see um entities uh um doing downstream uh options and and actually making cheaper power available to their uh to their uh the occupants of uh strata title and uh and major uh major living developments along those lines aged care developments and things along those lines so i see this as an exciting move forward into uh into battery technology and the future of uh the future of

00:50:00 power supply and uh and grid stabilization thank you thank you Councillor Lorentson: i want to thank annie and sim not only for your hard work but leadership in this area of sustainable um communities um also i wanted to just quickly note um sort of i get what all this is about it's about growing um renewables our share of renewables in the grid and ultimately reducing emissions but we we're in a cost of living crisis um and i know when i go home i think for the first half hour my husband's telling the cost of groceries to kids registration to opening a bill energy bills going up so i think um as a council we have a responsibility a duty of care to do what we can to

00:51:00 a acknowledge this cost of living crisis and b um do what we can so thank you again for your leadership um annie um really exciting times well done annie yeah oh i can i just add a thank you to as well as Councillor Finzel: the team and everyone but the valued volunteers that work really hard in this space they give hours and hours um to you know collect data engage with community and how valued they are in the Councillor Wilkie: space thank you it's worth reiterating that this five hundred thousand dollar brand will um deliver a more stable local energy grid um residents will have access to renewable energy at no extra cost it'll be part of what they're getting in um the revenue generated from the The rate payers will help you with downward pressure on rates.

00:52:00 Energex is moving this way, I believe. And also the partnership that's been established with ZEND is excellent. I also would like to thank by name Anne Kennedy, Vivian Griffin and Jeff Acton and also your work. And it wouldn't have happened without that collaboration with the Arrow Energy Foundation. As Councillor Stockwell said, it's very highly skilled professional consultancy work that they've given for free. Thanks, Larry. Thank you. Councillor Stockwell has a question. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: There's been really valuable questioning and discussion. I think while the revenue flow from this particular pilot might be small, and in my view it's really ideal to go straight back into the Zero Emissions Community Climate Action Grants, we know that we're negotiating with Energex to get a similar charging policy to what exists in the Arrow Valley, the Arrow Energy Foundation circumstances. I actually think, you know, there is models for community ownership,

00:53:00 but I also think there's a real opportunity for local government to look at renewable energy and their role in providing it. I think, you know, community batteries is one source of alternative revenue. Another one is if we do get community housing on council land, that we're actually building the renewable energy plant on the roof and selling electricity to the occupants at cheaper than what they'd get otherwise. I'm really hopeful that this will emerge into so that, say, by the 2028 local government elections, that we no longer have three R's. We have four. That councils become roads, rates, rubbish and renewables. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Councillor Stockwell. I'll put the motion as a paper. That is unanimous. Thank you. Thank you, Annie. Mayor Stewart: Thank you very much. Councillor Wilkie: Next up is Environment Grants. Environment Project Grants, Round 18, Montague Environment Collaborative Grants, Round 2,

00:54:00 and Environment Organisation Alliance Grants. We've got a few conflicts of interest. Mayor Clare, would you like to go first? Mayor Stewart: Councillor Stewart informed the meeting that I have a terrible conflict of interest in this matter. It's Lynne McCready, a director of Treason Noosa, is a friend. So, as a result of my conflict of interest, I will now leave the meeting room while the matter is considered and voted on. Thank you, Mr Chair. Councillor Finzel: In accordance with Chapter 5B of the Local Government Act of 2009, Councillor Finzel provided the filing declaration into the meeting of a declarable conflict of interest in the matter. So, I, Councillor Finzel, inform the meeting I have a declarable conflict of interest in this matter, as Lynne McCready, a director of Treason Noosa, was involved with my 2020 election campaign with Future Noosa as a volunteer,

00:55:00 which is no longer an entity. As a result of my conflict of interest, I will now leave the meeting room while the matter is considered and voted on. Thank you, Councillor Finzel. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Just a question. Yes. Lynne, did you have my standard declaration in the election to Lynne McCready? Councillor Lorentson: Yes, I have it, but it's right down here. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Oh, that's okay. We can do it. It doesn't have to be in order. There's plenty to go through. Speaker 5: Councillor Wilkie is going to be needing an acting chair to take on the acting. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. Can I... I need to be able to read my convoluted... Speaker 5: There we go. Councillor Wilkie: I, Councillor Wilkie, inform the meeting that I'd like to declare a potential... I'll just make that a declarable conflict of interest for item 5.2 environmental grants to the Noosa Education Hub Grant. Susan Francis is the partner of Barry Cottrell. Barry Cottrell is the president of the Bridge and Beech Community Association, the PDCA. The PDCA supports the Bridge and Beech Bushcare Group. Bridge and Beech Bushcare Group will feature in work being showcased to school students

00:56:00 by the Noosa Environmental Education Hub. I and all the PDCA and all the Bridge and Beech Bushcare Group stand to gain personal material through this grant to NEEH and make this declaration out of an abundance of caution, given the possible scope and interpretation of conflict of interest rulings. I believe I can make an impartial decision in this public... in the public interest in this matter and leave it to the meeting to determine whether I can stay in the meeting with it. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: And then do we have to appoint a acting chair? Yes. Or do we just put that to the CEO for the time being? Speaker 15: Yes. Okay. So... So I'm happy to take that... Take the... Take the... The role of chair to... To deal with this matter. Yes. I don't think we need to. Yes. Speaker 5: You need a resolution. Speaker 15: So we're not going to do a resolution for that? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I think we just do it with the CEO.

00:57:00 And then I'll... I'll just move to Councillor Wilkie. I'm sorry. Councillor Wilkie: Do you want to go back to the... Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Oh, I can't do that. Yes. No, you can't. I'll move. I'll move. Councillor John... Excuse me. Councillor Lorentson: Can I have a look at the wording for this of Frank's declaration? Sorry. Councillor Jurisevic: Before... While we do that, I'll move that we... I actually... Whilst we deal with this matter, we hand the... I didn't... Councillor Wilkie: I didn't actually... Right. Therefore, I would choose to remain in the meeting... Okay. I did think there was more... I... No. That's just standard wording. Councillor Jurisevic: So we... Again, we've decided that we can hand it over to the CEO because it's only determining whether the chair has a conflict. So do we need to have a resolution in that regard to hand the chairmanship of the meeting to you in the interim while we decide this matter? Or can we just do that by delegated authority as such?

00:58:00 Or the two councillors can... I'm asking whether we have to make a... If one of the councillors would take over the chair, then we'd have to move... Councillor Lorentson: If I nominate Joe takes over the chair, please. Thank you. It's probably a bit easier. Councillor Jurisevic: I... I... I... But... Yeah. I just didn't... Whether we need to nominate you to do that or whether we... You will have to second that, Joe. Councillor Wegener: No, I can second. I'm still here. I... You can't because you've got a conflict. You can't... Councillor Lorentson: You can't do that. Where's my conflict? No, Tom doesn't have a conflict. Councillor Wegener: I don't have that. You don't have a conflict, Tom? Oh, this is great. Tom can... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the... Councillor Jurisevic: And that's the environmental... And that's the environmental grants... All in favour? Motion carried. Councillor Wilkie: It ought to be noted that Councillor Stockwell did not vote on the matter. Councillor Jurisevic: Councillor Stockwell and Councillor Wilkie did not vote on the matter.

00:59:00 Right, Teslas, we have Councillor Wilkie's declaration before us. Are there any questions that you wish to ask of Councillor Wilkie in respect of his declaration? Does anybody want to move a motion that Councillor Wilkie stays or does not stay in the room? Councillor Lorentson: I would like to move a motion that he does not participate in the consideration and vote on this matter because and therefore a reasonable person would not trust that the final decision is made in the public interest. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay, so we have Councillor Lorentson, we have a seconder. In the interest of, I'll second that, in the interest of discussion. Councillor Lorentson: Yes, do you wish to speak, dear? I will speak to it. My decision for Councillor Wilkie to leave is not because I don't believe that he would be impartial on the matter.

01:00:00 It's because in his own wordings that the need to exercise abundance of caution and also passing that PUP test. The man on the street considered that the decision was made impartially. Doing it more in protection of Councillor Wilkie and that's the reason I've asked that I believe he should not be in the room. Sorry, Linda, can I go back to Councillor Wilkie's declaration? Councillor Jurisevic: Just read the intent, please. Councillor Wilkie, it's my understanding that you've had some, some challenges with regard to how you've presented your conflict in the past in this regard. I acknowledge the abundance of care, the abundance of caution element here.

01:01:00 Has that changed the way that you have presented this declaration as a direct result of those elements? Councillor Wilkie: Yes, what I've learned is it's not important, the important thing is that you make a declaration to declare the link. The grant is going to Noosa Environmental Education Hub. I noticed that the Peregian Beach Bush Care Group was mentioned in the report and I understand, they're not going to be the recipient of the grant. I understand that Noosa Environmental Education Hub will be showcasing the work of the Peregian Bush Care Group. So out of an abundance of caution, I've made this declaration so it's open. Councillor Jurisevic: That's why I was trying to get from you what the link was. Councillor Wilkie: Which is, I've come to learn it's the most important thing for them. That's the important thing, not whether you stay in your room or not. Okay. Councillor Lorentson: Okay. Can I? Councillor Jurisevic: No, you can't.

01:02:00 No, you can't, Councillor. For the moment we have a resolution before us. Thank you. That you've moved and I've seconded. We can continue to ask questions of Councillor Wilkie with regard to the elements of that conflict if you wish to. If there's anybody, if nobody else has any further questions, we can vote on the resolution before us with regard to Councillor Wilkie staying in the room and participating in the matter. Councillor Wegener, have you got any questions or anything further to add? Councillor Wegener: No, it just seems the Environment Hub is very, is removed several, yeah, considerably removed from Councillor Wilkie. Councillor Jurisevic: Councillor Lorentson, you spoke. I'll give you a right of reply at the end of everybody having their opportunity. Councillor Lorentson: I have a, I have a question, Joe. Councillor Jurisevic: You can ask a question. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: Yep. My question, thank you, is can I please understand, so the User Education Hub. Can I just get a little bit more detail, Frank? What is the connection again with the PBCA?

01:03:00 I just need to understand that a little bit. Councillor Wilkie: Well, the, the, I noticed in the report that the Peregian Beach Beach Bush Care Group was mentioned and in the work, Council Workshops about this grant, I came to understand that Nursing and Environmental Education Hub will be taking students to see the work done by the Peregian Beach Beach Bush Care Group. Peregian Beach Beach Bush Care Group is auspiced by Peregian Beach Beach Community Association. But they're not the recipients of the grant. No. Councillor Wegener: I think one of the biggest issues facing as councillors is self-censorship and self-censorship means that you're afraid to talk about anything because or you're very limited with the scope

01:04:00 of what you can talk about because you've actually supported a good cause in the past and by supporting a good cause in the past all of a sudden you're limited to what you can say now is self-censorship or being stifled in this way so when the vote on a particular matter and the issue is so far removed through various stages of if one group does this influences that group it just goes too far and I worry that we've taken this conflict of interest thing to a place where it was never meant to be in the first place which is inhibiting and not really supporting people. I don't want people in their efforts to make a better world through being a part of these groups who want our councillors to be a part of community groups and by overdoing the conflict of interest concept we're actually limiting or not advancing that we are stifling ourselves

01:05:00 so I'm very very and I've said this many many times I'm very very wary of taking the conflict of interest to the ridiculous ends so I do not support the motion. Councillor Jurisevic: I'll speak to the matter as well. I appreciate where Councillor Wilkie is coming from and the tenuous nature of that that relationship has been that has been challenged in the past but I think that this is a stretch too far with regard to the environment education hub showcasing the work of a community group and and the elements that go there so I won't be supporting the motion put in the meeting. Councillor Lorentson: I'll speak. You can. You can close. I also thank Councillor Wilkie for, A, exercising abundance of caution and giving a little bit more detail so I could understand the actual association. So thank you, Councillor Wilkie, but I'm satisfied that the link is really quite far removed.

01:06:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Okay, so we'll put the motion. Those for Councillor Wilkie being required to leave the meeting. Raise your hands. Those against. The motion is lost. Councillor Wilkie may remain in the room and I believe we should... I know you need to move the motion and allow it. Oh, we've got to do the other one, don't we? Yes, we've got to go to the other one. My apologies. Yes, I'll move the alternate motion, which is that Council note the declarable conflict that Councillor Wilkie determined that he may remain in the room. If you could do the relevant wording, please. I'll second that. I'll move it. I'll second that. Councillor Lorentson: I'll second that. Any second? Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: And that is that Council note the declarable conflict of interest by Councillor Wilkie determined that it's in the public interest of Councillor Wilkie participates and votes on this matter because Council believes that he...

01:07:00 It's also consigned to you? Not the old wording. No. Neither he nor the community association. Is that what we have to say? No. Neither he nor the Bridge and Bridge Community Association nor the Bridge and Bridge Community Association again personally or materials from this grant to the NEP. And that's in the public interest that Councillor Wilkie participates and votes on this matter because Council believes that... Deputy Mayor Stockwell: You're just missing a... There's a few words missing there. Councillor Lorentson: Yeah, I'm just... It's just standard wording so I'm going to have to fix that. Councillor Jurisevic: That's a reasonable person. We trust that the final decision is made in the public interest. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: And at the top, Council believes that he... Yeah. He's losing. Councillor Jurisevic: Second one. Just after that. That he... Neither he... No. Because it's three down.

01:08:00 That he nor the... Oh, okay. Nor the... That's not true. Okay. Mayor Stewart: Yes. Okay. Do not vote. Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: Moved by me. Any discussion? Any further discussion on the matter? Any questions? Councillor Wilkie and Councillor Stockwell do not vote on the matter. Councillor Lorentson: And Councillor Stockwell. Councillor Jurisevic: If there's no further discussion, can I have a vote from the councillors? All in favour? Carried unanimously by these three councillors on the... Remaining on the floor. And Melinda. Councillor Wilkie and Councillor Stockwell do not vote on the above motion. Yes. All right. Speaker 8: Finish with that one? Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: And in light of that, that should enable us to return the chairmanship of the issue to Councillor Wilkie. Yes. Speaker 15: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 12: We'll resume the chair. Yes.

01:09:00 Deputy Mayor Stockwell: And before we start, that first one that you've got for me. Because Councillor Wilkie has declared his interests above, I need to declare the same thing with one minor change. So if you could cut and paste that one there. Speaker 5: This one here? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah. The one that you declared. Speaker 5: And you had... Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah. Speaker 5: Yours was $500, wasn't it? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Mine was $500. Councillor Lorentson: So you have four COI's then, is that right? Councillor Wilkie: We're going to have four COI's. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: It'll be lunchtime before we do anything else. Councillor Jurisevic: Can we clear the law in one declaration though? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I'm happy for that to be taken as read, considering the recency of which we considered the matter. Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: With respect to the necessary changes of Councillor Stockwell and the donation of this?

01:10:00 Mayor Stewart: Okay. Councillor Wilkie: So we'll vote on that one first. Yes. Can I just ask a question? Is there anyone that would take the right of the room, or has taken the right of the room? No. No. Okay. How many are there? How many COI's do you have, Councillor Stockwell? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I have Landcare, Mayor of the Captain Committee, and Tewantin Noosaville. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. We'll work to the one on one. Is that the way we can do it, or do we have to? Councillor Jurisevic: I suppose that's the correct way. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. So we've got the first one, which is similar to mine. If any of you, Councillor, wish to move a resolution about Councillor Stockwell? Councillor Jurisevic: I'll move the resolution that you had in regard to noting the declarable conflict of interest and terminating it. Yes. This is a public interest that he remains in the room. Councillor Wilkie: I'll leave that one. Yes. Thank you. Speaker 14: And I'll just change the lighting.

01:11:00 Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Do you think maybe the Parliament would have gone to do this? They should have changed the laws, wouldn't they? Yes. Councillor Wilkie: Council of Jurisdict, seconded by Councillor Weger. Councillor Jurisevic: Nothing to discuss. I think the question you asked and the questions asked previously

01:12:00 are the same. I think the only link here, Councillor Stockwell, the only link here that I understand is the donation. In the same way that Councillor Wilkie had an electoral donation. No questions and nothing to add? I really wish to speak to this one. Councillor Wilkie: Tom, do you wish to speak to this one? No. The important thing is that Councillor Stockwell has declared it, so it's transparent. It's on the record. Those links are there for everyone to see. Jody, do you close? No. All in favour? That's unanimous. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I don't think you can vote, sir. Councillor Wilkie: OK. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: We've got a good vote for all of them. OK. Councillor Wilkie: Can I? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: No. Councillor Jurisevic: All right. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I didn't get any declaration that you... Councillor Jurisevic: No, not during the declaration, I believe, because it would have just been in order. Perhaps not last.

01:13:00 Deputy Mayor Stockwell: No, no, it's any time. OK. Otherwise, you could potentially... Councillor Stockwell can stay in the room. Councillor Wilkie: Hang on. Now we're going to deal with the next one. That's right. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: That's it. I wish to inform the meeting that I have a declarable conflict in the matter in relation to the application by Noosa District Landcare Group due to my long-standing connection with the organisation as one of the inaugural members on the unincorporated group dating back to the 1980s and a current ordinary member. Although I have a declarable conflict of interest, I do not believe a reasonable person could have a perception of bias. Considering the community nature of this relationship, I will choose to remain in the meeting room. However, I respect the decision of the meeting on whether I can remain and participate in the decision. Councillor Jurisevic: I'll move that Councillor note the declarable conflict of interest by Councillor Stockwell and determines in the public interest that Councillor Stockwell participates in votes on this matter because Councillor believes that he does not stand to receive a personal benefit or loss in relation to this matter and does not have a close personal relationship with land care

01:14:00 and therefore a reasonable personal trust that the final decision is in the public interest. Councillor Lorentson: I'll second that. Councillor Jurisevic: Seconded by Councillor Lorentson. I might change the wording of that. Close personal relationship? Yeah, I think that's all right. Close personal relationship should be the language used. Does not have a... No, that's bad. Yeah. I think the language there is incorrect. Sorry. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: What's the understanding of the word? Councillor Jurisevic: Does not have a conflicting... Deputy Mayor Stockwell: It's due to the community nature. Councillor Jurisevic: Sorry. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Due to the community nature of the relationship. Thank you. Due to. Thank you. That's, you know, so... I'll read that again. The council made the declarable public interest by Councillor Stockwell to determine that it is in public interest that Councillor Stockwell participates and votes on this matter

01:15:00 because council believes that he does not stand to receive a personal benefit or loss in relation to this matter due to the community nature relationship with land care and therefore a reasonable personal trust that the final decision is made in the public interest. Got no questions at all? Anything to add? No. Councillor Wilkie: Again, it's important that he was declared, cleared of all conflicts of interest, and one way to get him to stay in the room. Councillor Lorentson: Mary, have you got any questions for Councillor Stockwell about this one? No, just consistency also in decision making. Councillor Stockwell has always made this declaration, and we've always agreed that he remain in the room, and trust that the final decision is made and back to the public interest.

01:16:00 Thank you. Councillor Wegener: Councillor Tom. Clearly, you have no contract currently with Landcare. Councillor Jurisevic: I'll close just to reiterate the fact that this is consistent with the declaration that Councillor Stockwell has made in the past, and the decision of Council to allow him to remain in the room. Councillor Wilkie: I'll put it to the vote. Those in favour? That's carried. Councillor Stockwell and Councillor Wilkie do not vote. That's carried. Next, conflicts of interest. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I wish to inform the meeting that I have a clear conflict of interest in this matter, as I have a long-standing relationship with MRCCC, as a previous government employee and a long-term collaborator since 1994. I have in the past had a small contract below the limit, for a prescribed conflict, and prior to the declarable timeframe. I was up until the last AGM Council's representative on the committee, and in this role, I played a role, and in this role, I played a role rather than him.

01:17:00 Councillor Jurisevic: And in this role? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: In this role, I played a role in facilitating and developing the group's revised catchment strategy. Although I have a declarable conflict of interest, I do not believe a reasonable person should have a perception of bias, considering the community nature of this relationship. I will choose to remain in the meeting room. However, I will respect the decision of the meeting on whether I can remain and participate in the decision. Councillor Jurisevic: I'll ask the question that Councillor Wegener asked of you previously. Do you have any contracts or any obligations with MRCCC currently? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: No. Assist voluntarily now? Only as a volunteer. And the small contract I had was well before 2014, which the Act says that's a cut-off period. Councillor Jurisevic: And the relationship is only as a member of MRCCC? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I'm no longer a member. Councillor Wegener is now no longer a member representing Council.

01:18:00 Councillor Jurisevic: But you are representing Council. Are you a member of the MRCCC? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: No, no. I might still be the, what do you call it? Councillor Wilkie: Appointing? Councillor Lorentson: I'll move that council note the declarable conflict of interest by Councillor Stockwell and determine that it's in the public interest that Councillor Stockwell participates and votes on this matter because council believes that a reasonable person would trust that Councillor Jurisevic: the final decision is made in the public interest, although he has a declarable conflict Councillor Lorentson: of interest, I do not believe a reasonable person could have a perception of bias considering a community nature of this relationship.

01:19:00 I vote that Councillor Stockwell. Councillor Jurisevic: Sorry, Linda on the second line it says because council believes that and therefore is not required throughout the act. He aced those. That's it. That a reasonable person would trust that the final decision is made in the public interest. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Can I also clarify in terms of council, through this question, Noosa Council is the member of the member, not the individual council. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you for clarifying that point, I wanted to clarify that relationship in that regard. Whether it was a personal relationship or only in the council. That's a lot. Thank you. I second it. Councillor Wilkie: I second it. Thank you. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: Amelia, would you speak to it? Councillor Wilkie: No. No. Councillor Jurisevic: I need to acknowledge that I think this is consistent with the previous declarations of Councillor Stockwell remaining in the room and for consistency I'm happy to support the resolution.

01:20:00 Tom. Councillor Wegener: I'd like to note that the last two conflicts of interest I would consider a badge of honour. You know, that's actually what you expect of councillors is to have these conflicts of interest because they have these long relationships with these community groups. And although this process is cumbersome, I think it's important that these grants come before council for a vote and not be just delegated to staff. So, it's a long process, but it's worth it and that's what we have to do. Councillor Wilkie: Again, without lying, I can say that it's depleted, much transparent, terrible conflicts of interest. As I was saying the word, I support them and I'm not going anywhere. Councillor Lorentson: Amelia, do you wish to close? No. And I will say what you said, Frank, although it is, you know, a long process, we have made a commitment to be transparent and open to the community and I think this is honouring that. So, I commend Councillor Wilkie, Stockwell for making these declarations.

01:21:00 Councillor Wilkie: Looking for a vote. That in favour? That's unanimous. Councillor Stockwell and Councillor Woodley do not vote. Do you have any more answers? One more. Here we go. Councillor Jurisevic: One more. Are you serious? Really? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: I never thought that might just be easier to do. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Councillor Stockwell asked for four. I wish to inform the meeting of a decreable conflict of interest in this matter. On the 24th February 2020, I sought a review of the Independent Council Election Observer as to the public claims of the future NUSA team of which Lee McCready was publicly identified as campaign manager. Lee McCready is the director of tourism NUSA. Although a declarable conflict of interest, I do not believe a reasonable person could have a perception of bias because the ICO review was an advisory service, not a statutory process and my queries at the time were in the public interest and neither I nor Ms. McCready stood to personally gain or lose from the advice, that advice. Therefore, I would choose to remain in the meeting room. However, I respect the decision of the meeting on whether I can remain and participate in the decision.

01:22:00 Councillor Jurisevic: And I will move that Council note the declarable conflict of interest by Councillor Stockwell determined that it is in the public interest that Councillor Stockwell participates and votes on this matter because Council believes that a reasonable person could not have a perception of bias because the ICO review was an advisory service, not a statutory process and Councillor Stockwell's queries at the time were in the public interest and neither he nor Ms. McCready stood to personally gain or lose from that advice and therefore a reasonable person would trust that the final decision is made in public interest. Councillor Wilkie: I'll second that. Seconded by Councillor Lorentson. Councillor Jurisevic: Joe. That's consistent with the position that we've had all along with this declaration by Councillor Stockwell. So I'm happy to support it once again. Councillor Wilkie: We now have a councillor to speak before John Haynes. I put the motion those in favour. That's unanimous. There's another one of lots in favour. But we're looking good today. Mayor Stewart: We're now up to the recommendation. Councillor Wilkie: Do we need to adjourn? Do we need to refresh? And restore? What are we talking about?

01:23:00 Welcome Rebecca. Could you give us an overview of what we're looking at? Speaker 5: Happy to. So this report is to present an overview of the... Sorry, we've got the wrong item on. Councillor Wilkie: Sorry, my apologies. Oh. So this report is to present an overview of the... Thank you. Speaker 5: This report presents an overview of the applications received for the current grant round. There's three components to the environment grants. Project grant for single year projects.

5.2 ENVIRONMENT GRANTS - ENVIRONMENT PROJECT GRANTS (ROUND 18), MULTI-YEAR ENVIRONMENT COLLABORATIVE (MEC) GRANTS (ROUND 2: 2023-2026) AND ENVIRONMENT ORGANISATION ALLIANCE GRANTS (2023-2026) (Referred from P&E 6 June 2023) ¶

▶ 01:23:13· Carried unanimously 5-0 from council's minutes

01:24:00 Multi-year environment collaboration grant for a collection of community groups to come together for a grant application. And then environmental organisation alliance grant to help with organisational costs. And these are really well subscribed. We had a total of 300 applications. There were 375,000 available for allocation of suitable grants. And there was 17 in total received. These applications were checked for their eligibility against the relevant grants policy and guidelines. The applications were then reviewed and assessed by senior staff in the environmental services team with experience assessing grants and with environmental subject matter expertise. They were moderated then by the environmental services manager before workshopping with the councillors and then this report to council.

01:25:00 So we allocated funds against... We recommended the allocation of funds against each of these three grants and the details of them are provided in attachments one, two and three of the council report. Councillor Wilkie: Questions councillors? Someone care to move the motion? Happy to move. Move to county of Jerusalem. I'll second it. Joe? Councillor Jurisevic: I think there's a large number of very worthwhile projects that have been presented here in the environment sphere and I'll heartily support all those that have been doing grant funds. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. Any councillors wish to speak to the motion? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Councillor Stockwell? I do so. It's really important to look at what we approve and how much the community's involved in implementing our environment strategy. So in 2016 we didn't have an environment strategy.

01:26:00 Our grants didn't have any priorities. There was no such thing as multi-year grants and there's no such thing as these alliances. So what really we see here is that the groups are oversubscribing the amount of money we've got to help us achieve. They're improving our natural environment and our waterways, but also to reduce waste. So it's really good to see Tourism Noosa in there as an industry body who is adopting an ethic of stewardship and being the leader in reducing waste, particularly from events and the plastic free Noosa. We're looking at programs that run across not just our Shire and we're only funding a part of them. Like Find a Frog in February is a program run by the MRCCC up north in Harvey Bay in the Fraser Coast, right down to us, and we link it into our local programs. We've seen the Kinderland Bush Links. We've started the Sunshine Coast Council there. We have volunteers going onto people's properties to help them look after the areas of high

01:27:00 conservation value. We've got some money in there to help the expertise in community-based water quality monitoring and MRCCC. To help us do the coordination of that effort throughout the Noosa Shire. So there's some really good projects. A lot of them are continuing. They're trying to continue to eradicate or control the Pax Coral Creek, which invades our creeks and waterways. And also, obviously, Noosa Landcare with the project up in Kin Kin to reduce the sediment layer that's going into the Kin Kin Creek and down into the river that won an international acknowledgement. So that's really good. I think it's a really good thing that we've got that kind of development and engagement with the piece towards. So, yeah, it is really important to, when we give out these grants, we're giving money and the volunteers generally are giving two or three times the amount in volunteer labour. Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Morrison.

01:28:00 Councillor Lorentson: I'm going to note Noosa Environment Education Hub, their grassroot foreshore management custodians of place. I think that's what these grants read to me. When I look at the grants and how much money is allocated to our environmental grants, it speaks about place and it speaks about what we as a community value the most. And clearly, it's our environment, our competitive edge. So thank you for your report, Rebecca. Yeah, you're welcome. Speaker 5: Yeah. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you very much. Councillor Jurisevic: John, I will ask a question. With regard to the value of this project, I think it's really important for us to know what the value of return on investment with all of these community groups. Do we have a figure with regard to what the return on that investment is with regard to volunteer hours? Because most of this work, as I understand it, is done by volunteers in our community. Speaker 5: Yeah, we don't, Joe. I think it's a really good idea, though.

01:29:00 And we would like to be able to provide some detailed reporting on the outcomes of these grants at the end of the grants that are currently in place. And it is far spotless at the moment to be able to show that value add across the community for these various projects. So many of them are really useful extension to the programs that Council was operating within in-house, and we would otherwise need to do them in-house if it wasn't for the initiatives from the community. So they do add a lot of value to the work we do. Councillor Jurisevic: And the elements of projects… Thank you. …are not supported. I would imagine have a significant impact on the health of the nursery and the elements of erosion within the erasing of the awareness of erosion in this regard to hinterland properties and what flows into the nursery or has flowed into the nursery from the past.

01:30:00 Yeah, absolutely. Speaker 5: That project and many of the others are really good capacity building projects. They raise awareness, they improve understanding, they come with a solid science base and they enable a lot of improvements to the way properties are managed and environmental outcomes on the ground. Councillor Wilkie: Just a question, Rebecca. We've funded two wildlife rescue groups, rescue and care groups, Wildlife Noosa and Wild Cairn Australia. Is the difference between... Between the two, just the one is more regional, like Wild Cairn takes a regional approach and Wildlife Noosa is more Shire-based. Can you distinguish between the two? Speaker 5: I don't have that detail. They both do fantastically. They do that, certainly do. Councillor Wilkie: We're happy to support them.

01:31:00 I can find out. Okay, sure. I support them. Speaker 5: Great. Councillor Wilkie: Jodie, would you close? Yeah, I will. Oh, sorry, Tom. Tom, there you are. Councillor Wegener: Just, you know. Thank you very much, Rebecca and the team. These grants show a nexus, or it's a nexus between the community and the council, and I just would love to see it more publicized, because it is so fantastic with the acquittals. I'd love to see, you know, make sure that as the acquittal comes through, that the public, that it is publicized, and even when they get these things to be publicized, of course, that's our job is probably to publicize it as councillors, but they are very, very important, and that we did like to see them further acknowledged, because it gives the groups hope, like, you know, somebody, people, group of people who say, we need to make change, but we just can't do anything. Well, you can do something. These grants are there for the groups to get. Like, people feel maybe non-empowered, but they should be empowered, because the money's there, so it's fantastic. Thank you.

01:32:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Mm. Councillor Jones, you just closed? Yes. Thank you, Chair Stockwell, for delving into some of the projects that are there. I think we need to acknowledge the efforts of, not only the organizations, but the volunteers that give their time to facilitate all of these, as Councillor Stockwell alluded to. Councilors Wilkie and I actually had to call on Wildlife Rescue a few weeks ago, when we saw an injured kangaroo on one of our trips, and saw the work firsthand that Wildlife Rescue did to advocate for wildlife. And, you know, we've had to take care of an injured animal, and the true nature of the work that's undertaken. And many of these other projects, you know, all use a lot of volunteer hours and volunteer time, so I want to congratulate and acknowledge the work of all these organizations in reducing, in undertaking these projects, but also in reducing the responsibility of Council, undertaking a lot of the work that Council would otherwise have to undertake.

01:33:00 And the value of return is greatly appreciated and benefited by the community as a whole. Thank you. I put the motion to those in favor. Councillor Wilkie: That is unanimous. Thank you, Rebecca. Speaker 5: Okay. You're welcome. Councillor Wilkie: Um, Councilor Stewart and Finzel can come back in the room. Thank you. Two, if you're still here. Councillor Jurisevic: One, oh, sorry. Councillor Wilkie: I haven't gone home yet. We've got CLI's on the next one as well. Speaker 12: Delegated Authority has got COI's as well. Okay, thank you for the help today.

5.3 PLANNING APPLICATIONS DECIDED BY DELEGATED AUTHORITY APRIL 2023 (Referred from P&E 6 June 2023) ¶

▶ 01:33:34· Carried unanimously 4-0 from council's minutes

01:34:00 Councillor Wilkie: We're up to planning applications decided by Delegated Authority. Welcome Patrick. Could you just give us a brief overview today? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Let's do the declarations first. Mayor Stewart: Oh, declarations. Okay. In accordance with Chapter 5 of the Local Government Act 2009, I, Councillor Stewart, inform the meeting that I'd require a report to be interested in this matter in relation to the application about ultimate properties, Number 9, proprietary, limited TTE, which is listed as item 17 of the support over friendship, filial and rock of treaty, who is associated with the applicant. The result in my head is that I will now admit him in the manner as he said and vote for. Thank you, Claire Stewart. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Wilkie: You know your man, Councillor Patel.

01:35:00 Councillor Finzel: In accordance with Chapter 5 of the Local Government Act 2009, I, Councillor Stewart, I be of the Local Government Act 2009. I have a declarable conflict of interest in the matter. My council has been to inform the meeting that I have a declarable conflict of interest in this matter in relation to the application by Elton Properties, number nine, P-L-T-T-E, which is listed as item 17 in this report. Lena Creedy, who is associated with the applicant, was involved in a volunteer capacity for my 2020 election campaign with Future Noosa, which is no longer an entity. As a result of my conflict of interest, I will now leave the meeting room while the matter is considered and voted on. Thank you, Mr Chair. Councillor Lorentson: I, Council Lorentzen, inform the meeting that I have a declarable conflict of interest in regards to item 11 of the Delegated Appointment Report. Due to my personal relationship with the applicant, Mark Bain and the Bain family, who are family friends, we have attended social events together and our children have attended school together.

01:36:00 As a result of my conflict of interest, I will leave the meeting room while the matter is considered and voted on. Thank you, Councillor Lorentson. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Just for something different. Hi, Councillor Stockwell. I wish to inform the meeting that I have a declarable conflict of interest in this matter in relation to the application by Elton Properties, number nine, P-L-T-T-E, which is listed as item 17 in this report. On 24 February 2020, I sort of view it as the Independent Commission Council Election Observer. Since I just declared this, I will move that you accept this as being read and that, therefore, I will choose to remain in the meeting room however I respect the decision of the meeting on whether I can remain and participate in the decision. Councillor Jurisevic: Councillor Jones. In that vein, I will move that Council ordinate the declarable conflict of interest by Councillor Stockwell in terms in the public interest that Councillor Stockwell participates

01:37:00 in a statutory service, not a statutory process. Councillor Stockwell's queries at the time are in the public interest and neither he or Ms MacGree seems to personally gain or lose from that advice and, therefore, a reasonable person would trust the final decision is made in the public interest. I have a seconder for that case, Councillor Tom. I do so on the basis of the earlier item having been undergone and being consistent with the, whatever Councillor Stockwell has brought this matter before. Thank you. We'll put it to the vote. Those in favour? That's carried unanimously. Councillor Stockwell can stay in the meeting room. Councillor Wilkie: Welcome, Patrick. Could you just give a bit of overview of what we're looking at here, please? Okay. Speaker 13: We have the report for the applications that were decided by delegation for the month of April, 37 applications, combination of minor change applications, material change of use, development permit for building works, reconfigs, and operational works approvals forms the list. Councillor Wilkie: So they're actually decided?

01:38:00 Speaker 13: These have all been decided. Councillor Wilkie: Just for clarity, councillors actually have nothing to do with this decision-making process? Speaker 13: That's correct. They've been made under delegation. Councillor Wilkie: And this is just simply for reporting purposes? To acknowledge the work done by staff. Speaker 13: The volume of work coming through. Councillor Wilkie: Approvals given by staff under delegated authority. Councillor Jurisdict. No move. Councillor Jurisdict. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: We have a seconder. Seconder. Councillor Wilkie: Seconder, Councillor Wegener. Councillor Jurisevic: Jo, you can speak to it. Only to acknowledge the vast number of staff and the great work they do in dealing with these under delegate authority. Okay. Councillor Wilkie: I have a question just to clarify. When there are notations on these individual applications that say exemptions, height, setbacks, does that mean the relaxations have been given to height and setbacks? Speaker 13: Yes. The direction to staff is to make sure that what has been applied for is reflective

01:39:00 when they finalise their assessment of the application. For argument's sake, they could apply for three variations but only two are approved. So we need to make sure that's only coming through in the report. So what is in the report is reflective of what has been approved. That's correct. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. So if there's, if height is referred to, does that mean that there is likely to be any significant relaxation for the height of the building Speaker 13: going under delegated authority? It would generally be a minor variation noting that we do have areas which require substantial amounts of fill for flooding around Noosaville so that might be more significant in those locations but generally, it's quite minor. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. So it would be, the buildings would generally be, say if it's two storey, eight metres above natural ground level. That's correct. Yeah. Thank you. Anybody else wish to speak in motion? We'll put motion over in favour. That's carried. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Wegener: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

01:40:00 Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Welcome back everybody. Up to the next item, 5.4, which is Maritime Safety Queensland Regulation of Boating Facilities Demand Forecast Statement 2022, which was referred from the Services and Modernisation Committee, where it was well canvassed, lots of questions asked and spoken to, but has been referred due to the significance of the issue, unless any other councillors who weren't at that committee would like to ask questions or make comments. Welcome, Shaun and Rebecca. Could you give a survey, please?

5.4 MARITIME SAFETY QUEENSLAND RECREATIONAL BOATING FACILITIES DEMAND FORECAST STUDY 2022 ( Referred from S&O 6 June 2023) ¶

▶ 01:40:23· Carried unanimously 7-0 from council's minutes

01:41:00 Mayor Stewart: Isn't this going to confidential as well? Councillor Wilkie: No, just the attachments. Speaker 10: If the Chair, I could clarify the expectations for Maritime Safety Queensland, if you like. Yes, please. So I spoke to Maritime Safety Queensland officers yesterday. They're happy for the report and its recommendations to be publicly considered. Yeah, their sensitivity was about the diversion control of the BTM report, which was attachment one. The State Government... They've undertaken these similar reports across the whole of the State of Queensland, and obviously they want to be, you know, have the ownership of the release of all the reports across Queensland. So it was more about recognition that it is a draft report, and they would like, the State Government would like to be in control of the final BTM report at the appropriate time as approved by the State Government. Councillor Wilkie: It's likely the final draft will take on more of the comments made from staff and councillors at the last meeting. Speaker 10: Most likely. He didn't... The officer I spoke to made the observation that the recommendations haven't materially changed, though they have actually included a lot more information on user patterns using new technology, such as mobile phone data.

01:42:00 Okay. So we haven't seen the 21st of April report, so I can't say exactly what's in it, but he verbally just indicated that the recommendations are very similar. Councillor Wilkie: So it shouldn't affect our recommendations? No. Speaker 10: No, so it was, he just wished for me to reiterate to the councillors and any of the community who may have a copy of that draft report that it is draft and subject to final State Government endorsement and release, and it is a major, quite exciting initiative for the State to actually have undertaken assessments across the State of that state. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Shaun. So given some people might be listening for the first time, could you give an overview of what this report is all about? Speaker 10: Yeah, I'll refer to Rebecca, so... Thank you. Speaker 5: So Maritime Safety Queensland commissioned a report on recreational boating facilities on the Noosa River and has done an assessment of what future needs might be required for upgrades or increased facilities.

01:43:00 And they've made recommendations relating to seven priority projects following a detailed assessment by BMT consultants. The report makes recommendations... The report makes recommendations relating to a submission back to MSQ on that study. So it acknowledges the great body of work and also acknowledges the need for a regional approach when planning for boat launching facilities. Noosa River is a very busy river, it's well in demand, however, it's a small river system that is often at capacity during peak times, and we would request that consideration be given to all water bodies across the region in future planning of new facilities or upgraded facilities. Noosa River is a very busy river, it's well in demand, however, it's a small river system that is often at capacity during peak times, and we would request that consideration be given to all water bodies across the region in future planning of new facilities or upgraded facilities. We would also wish to have further discussions with MSQ on funding opportunities for the onshore components of boat facilities, not just the in-water facilities themselves at boat ramps.

01:44:00 we would also wish to have further discussions with MSQ on funding opportunities for the onshore components of boat facilities and then we've made some specific recommendations around design criteria for six of the seven projects. Chaplan Park future boat ramp at that location is one that we feel shouldn't be taken forward for various community considerations in terms of the impact on the parkland in that location at Noosaville. Councillor Wilkie: at Noosa River. Councillor Stockwell and Wegener, you and Finzel, you weren't at the committee so are there any questions you have for staff about this report? Any other councillors have questions? Councillor Lorentson: Just one question, just from community, Rebecca. So just can you clarify the next steps? Where to next and what can our community, who are quite anxious in this space,

01:45:00 what can they expect? Speaker 10: So the consultation processes have been run by the state government rather than by council. We've just tried to be transparent in our examination of issues with councillors and councils to ensure we try and reflect what our organisation's beliefs are. In terms of the next steps, firstly the positive indication back to the state government that the low hanging fruit projects which they fund, such as the pontoons at Noosa Woods, Speaker 8: Yes. Speaker 10: Gympie Terrace and also duplication or provision of a pontoon at Lake Street, a low hanging fruit that we should try and proceed with forthwith to try and improve the functionality of those facilities. The next thing is that we've actually got budgeted a foreshore master planning process for the Noosaville foreshore, which is actually out for an invitation to quote at the moment.

01:46:00 And detailed consideration of the Noosaville boat ramp facility is one of the key deliverables of that area. Yes. So if you like, that would be the first cab off the boat. We also make recommendations in the report that we need to advocate to the state government to actually fund the onshore components. And we've tried to make that clear in the report so that the community are clear that we haven't currently budgeted for capital works expenditures for the onshore components. Are we able to get additional funding from the state? And as a result of the Noosaville foreshore processes, should council be contributing more to the Noosaville boat ramp upgrade as an example? Subsequent to that, Lake Street, Tewantin is envisaged to go through a similar design exercise, as is the Doonella Bridge Hilton Esplanade facility and also Moorindil Street. So we sort of put a program in there. I think the key message we've got back to the state is that we're really keen to pursue improvements to six of the facilities.

01:47:00 We need to have to figure out how to fund it. Does that answer your question, councillor? Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Perfectly. Thank you. And I believe there is a funding bucket from the state government that's over $100 million in the space. Is there the ability for us to advocate directly to the state government for those funds to assist? Potentially and also not just obviously we're responsible for off the board there on the water, but to assist with those upgrades to the foreshores and the trailer parking and that sort of thing? Speaker 10: My understanding is that the report indicates that the priority one projects would cost about $138 million across the state to fund. So the state government department responsible only have approximately $5 million funding available. Only five. Only five. But the maritime safety Queensland officer said if he was optimistic, so that there might be a budget announcement associated with the budget for the state government. And usually they have a lot of advocacy work undertaken by local communities to increase the pool and to prioritise particular projects.

01:48:00 Mayor Stewart: We could certainly advocate based on the need and the evidence we have and the fact that everyone knows New South Wales is a water place, we could advocate. Speaker 10: And noting the busyness of our Moosa River and the fact that our existing facilities have oversubscribed. Mayor Stewart: And will that be the budget this year that obviously they're going to the state budget, the state government budget, I'm not sure when that is? Tomorrow. Speaker 10: Tomorrow. Yes. I can't answer that, Councillor Stewart, so I'm not sure of the answer to that question. Councillor Jurisevic: Your comment and what's been asked there caused me to ask another question. One of the things that seemed to come out of this report was not taking into consideration the capacity that's already been utilised on the river, i.e. acknowledging that Moosa, particularly the Noosa River is a very busy waterway already.

01:49:00 In relative terms. In relation to other waterways. Where in our recommendations do we, is it in B that we raise concerns that the elements of, it does talk about capacity to accommodate statistical growth, but it doesn't talk about the review of the current usage and the capacity of the river as it currently stands to accommodate that. Speaker 10: It is captured in Recommendation B about raising concerns. If we're looking at boating in the Noosa area, we should also be looking at access to Tin Can Bay as well as to Palmerstone Passage because they're destinations for longer periods. In our view, the lack of a regional approach with this report, because they were doing it simultaneously across all the local governments across Queensland, would have been quite an easy exercise to do rather than break it into just Noosa, then Sunshine Coast, then Brisbane. So that's where we get it.

01:50:00 I suppose the remit of their report was just looking at boat ramp facilities rather than capacity of the Noosa River to actually absorb more usage. It wasn't the remit of their particular report though. Councillor Jurisevic: As far as work on boat ramps in the Noosa region, has there been much in the way of upgrades in the recent past by MSP? Speaker 10: My recollection, and councillors may note that I actually did a similar investigation into upgrading boat ramp facilities in 2006, so for council, there has been no significant improvement since that date to actually provide. And what we've happened is we've had more usage of the informal facilities at Moorindil Street and also Hilton Esplanade at the Lake Doonella Bridge. Councillor Jurisevic: In comparison to that, would we have a comparison? I mean, is that the situation in other boat ramp facilities, or have other boat ramp

01:51:00 facilities received significant works in recent years? Speaker 10: Across the state? Councillor Jurisevic: Well, even in the southern region. Speaker 10: I can't answer that, councillor. Do you want to speak? Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: Someone can move the recommendation? No, I think it's me. Moved, councillor Finzel, seconded, Jo. Councillor Finzel, would you speak to the motion? Councillor Finzel: No, I think it's all been covered. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: Yep. Councillor Jurisevic: Jo? Yeah, no, I will. It was a bit tongue in cheek of me to ask that question of you, because I know from first-hand experience, having gone to Embalmer, having gone to River Heads and the like, there has been a significant amount of spending on some upgrades to major boat ramp facilities and boat launching facilities, and ferry facilities. To access places like Fraser and those, I've seen some significant spend and significant

01:52:00 upgrades. And to hear that our area with our busy river system haven't had that equivalent spend makes me want to see the appropriate level of upgrades done. Some of the low-hanging fruit that we've identified that could facilitate better boat movements are those floating boats. And I look forward to seeing the State develop the simple things that can be delivered in the short term and a bit more review with regard to parking facilities and some of their management of the challenges that boat rents present going forward. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Stockwell. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: It's interesting that the item is called a recreational boating facility demand forecast study but the outcomes are actually a training outcome.

01:53:00 I really want to congratulate staff who have done in the review and particularly to sections 4 and 5 of the report. And if I can read the first part of section 4. The study uses statistics to determine demand and assumes that growth is unrestrained and will equally receive boating demand in the LGA in equal proportion to other water bodies. The study does not provide any assessment of the capacity or ability for the Noosa River to absorb growth which is a flaw in the methodology. It is a huge gap in the thinking. To me it's really important that when we do talk to them that the staff are really confident saying that this council does not plan like that. This is not the only state government process that is happening at the moment where the tail is firmly wagging the dog. Okay.

01:54:00 Growth and facilitation of growth is not demand management and that's what section 5 goes in. What the purpose of this study should be is how do we make safe and enjoyable recreational opportunities on the Noosa River for the boating public. And then you plan about what's needed to achieve that. Now our staff have come up behind the scenes with some interesting concepts about how we might distribute boat parking. How we might integrate environmental repair with boating parking and facilities. Now the detailed draft is now confidential. I would hope by the time that it comes out in public that they're not silly enough to include concepts which include the filling of the Noosa River for cars. I mean if I was getting that from a consultant I would be having very very strong words. So I think MSQ should be similarly saying you've embarrassed us by putting that out in public.

01:55:00 Because the Noosa River isn't going to be filled for car parking. Unless we have a very big change in politics. Politics at two levels of government. Anyway, I think it's really important that we reinforce the principle that in Noosa we manage growth by planning for the true carrying capacity of our assets. This is very much linked to our destination management plan. But also we do that by using modern technology and modern demand management and price signals that ensure that the most efficient and effective use of the evapotransit. And I think for us as a council we want to be looking at what facilities do we need to make better access for our residents. Like the concept of a resident only grant at the end of Moorindil Street for example.

01:56:00 Versus how much we want to cater for peak demand. Like I was astonished to find that a visitor could come up and park their boat trailer in one of the car parks. Adjacent to a ramp for 24 hours or more. You know we have to look at demand management and time control. So that we have appropriate time, appropriately located spaces. If you want to park a trailer for a long period there should be opportunities further away from the river. And access to and from by other means. So I think I appreciate the work done by staff and the recommendations. And hopefully it gives them some level of support that at a political level we'd like to see those areas particularly in section 4 and 5 pursued. Councillor Wilkie: Ms Stewart did you want to say something? Mayor Stewart: Did you have a question? Councillor Finzel: No I'll speak to it. Mayor Stewart: Thank you Shaun for the analysis of the report.

01:57:00 Because the report is generic in nature. And we're one of many councils in which it seems that Maritime Safety Please already had that kind of approach. So we know that one size does not fill. That we're all very different across our 77 local councils in Queensland. However all we must focus on is that there is a need and a demand. And that's clearly not been met. And as you said we've had no upgrades or any changes since 2006. And certainly demand has increased since 2006. Some 17 years ago. That's right yes. So we know that we're under resourced in regard to our boating facilities. So I think what we now do and I appreciate and you've highlighted on what we can now do. Feature on page 7 of our S&O agenda. And we have to look at what we can achieve in the short, medium and long term. I think as Councillor Orenston said the community are keen to know what can be done in the short term. And I think you've highlighted that. So I think that doing something is better than doing nothing. And as I said there are certain, you know we've got a long way to go in looking at what we can achieve with the funds we have available.

01:58:00 I think as Councillor Drusvich said you know it's a shame that Noosa hasn't received their fair share of the funding in regard to other councils. And it's certainly something that I'm happy to advocate to the State Government for. Or any councillors happy to advocate for funding to the State Government to receive that. Because we are very much an outdoor water sports loving. Whether it's stand up paddle boards, whether it's non-motorised, whether it's motorised. You know our river is very much loved and used. And we need to ensure that we have necessary facilities not over demand. But we certainly need to ensure that we can cater for all our, well our residents is number one. Whatever they do. So I think that funding is always great when it's not coming from our ratepayers. And so that's something I'm certainly happy to advocate for. But thank you for as I said you know your detailed analysis, appreciate it.

01:59:00 Thank you. Any other councillors? Councillor Finzel: I just wanted to yeah, firstly thank everyone. I think just coming off what Mayor Clare said in roles of advocacy. I think even though the report from the State has seen that it hasn't met us like Councillor Stockwell said on that real localised level. About the limited capacity. I think those gaps in the report and we feel that those areas. That weren't addressed actually gives us as a council a really good opportunity to identify and focus on those areas. That as a local government area that we want to see you know more recreational use and opportunities for our carrying capacity. To be you know addressed and funding to come from other levels. So I see this as a really good opportunity to actually help inform us with our local planning and management of the river. And maybe that will help us inform our river plan. Or how we want to move forward. So I actually welcome the opportunity to really now give targeted advocacy.

02:00:00 For the areas that I see in the report from State that we feel don't actually manage that really localised area. So yeah I think you can look at it as something we can really focus on moving forward. To fill those gaps that we have identified and our recreational uses of the river. To move forward and give some positive outcomes to our local community through our planning. So thank you. Councillor Lorentson: Councillor Lopes. On page 16 of the B&T report. 2.3.2 outdated facilities. A review of recreational facilities around Noosa indicates no significant increases to boat ramp capacity in the last 30 years. So. Sorry. Excuse me. So to me the issue in front of us is not about addressing or facilitating growth.

02:01:00 It's about addressing just immediate issues. It's about catching up. So I'm quite encouraged and excited by the recommendation and the report in front of us. I think there are real opportunities for us to catch up. In those last 30 years. The Noosaville foreshore management plan. And the initiation of planning processes with MSQ&T, MR to upgrade facilities. Noted in the recommendation E. So to me it's really catch up. And we've got the opportunity. So anyone listening. This is really our first real step forward. Councillor Wilkie: Karen do you wish to close. Councillor Finzel: Just again thank you for all the work the staff's done. And looking forward to future conversations and opportunity to advocate in this space.

02:02:00 So thank you. Councillor Wilkie: If the motion doesn't favour. That is unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

02:14:00 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

6.1 132007.12.9 - MINOR CHANGE TO EXISTING APPROVAL FOR MATERIAL CHANGE OF USE, TO INCREASE THE USE AREA FOR A COMMUNITY USE - EDUCATION - TYPE 3 ADULT (ADMINISTRATION ONLY) AND INCLUDE BUSINESS USE OFFICE TYPE 3 - VETERINARY SITUATED AT 88A & 90 GOODCHAP STREET, NOOSAVILLE ¶

▶ 02:14:52· Carried unanimously 7-0 from council's minutes

02:15:00 Thank you. 38AM, 90 Goodchap Street, Noosaville. Welcome Georgina and welcome Patrick. Could you give us a bit of an overview please? Speaker 2: Yes, so I suppose we're all familiar with the site. We're on the corner of Goodchap Street and Eumundi Noosa Noosa Road. The application in front of us today is for the purpose of oncology treatment, which will include a purpose-built building. This building is going to be located in the southeastern corner of the lot, so the Eumundi Noosa Noosa Road road frontage. The three main aspects of this application that's informed the assessment of our application, given us a bit of guidance, is in relation to car parking, an increase of GFA on the site, and infill of a pedestrian link, which is internal to the existing building, which is referred to as Building A in the report that we have in front of us. So in terms of car parking, the location of the bunker will result in removing 17 car parking spaces,

02:16:00 and such spaces will be offset across the site. The applicant seeks to maintain a number of spaces previously approved under their prior approval, which is 369 spaces. So they've managed to incorporate that into the existing development layout, as well as provide five additional spaces on the site. The application was referred to an external traffic consultant, who has reviewed the application and agrees with the applicant. With the maintaining the 369 car parking spaces, rather than, despite the increase of floor area, sorry. And this is given the nature that the use is not a high turnover, and the bunker can only treat one person at a time. It is to be noted that this is comparable to a recent approval that's been approved at Noosa Civic, where weight was given to the extension where it was approved for oncology.

02:17:00 And a car parking relaxation was also provided then, so this is somewhat comparable to the two in regard to the car parking arrangement on the site. In terms of the increase of floor area, you'll be noted in the report that we don't currently comply with one of the acceptable outcomes. But in this instance, in this situation, the design of the building is considered reasonable and appropriate. There's also been some conditions imposed in relation to landscaping, so we can increase and improve that on the site. And then thirdly, we have, the applicant has proposed to infill a pedestrian link, which is internal to Building A. And the purpose of that is to, I suppose, facilitate connection from the existing internal arrangement to the oncology bunker. It is to be noted that in this respect, there was a comment made by a member of the public who operates in one of the businesses within Building A,

02:18:00 and did have concerns in relation to the infill of the pedestrian link. However, having a look at this site, it's believed there's still alternative routes of access. The pedestrian crossings remaining in its place, it's getting realigned. And there's also stairways from the lower level car parking space to go up to such a tenancy. And I suppose, for these reasons, as well as contained in the report, the minor change has been recommended for approval. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Georgina. Thank you. Any questions about the recommendation? Joe, questions? Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, I'm just trying to piece together some of the information here on the diagram. If I go to the, which is the three downloads I've got here, the Development Planners Report, and I go to page, figure three, two, site plan and floor plan, I think it's two and three.

02:19:00 I can see where the blue shaded area in figure three is the proposed building extension. That's the additional area. That's the, that's where it's proposed to be located on the Noosa-Cooroy side, which is probably the lesser utilised because the frontages are all on the Goodchamps Street side. But I notice in that Traders Lane, there are arrows. Indicating entry and exit to Traders Lane. Now, my understanding is Traders Lane actually has a gate upon it. So is that going to be opened up as a result of this and access to Traders Lane? Speaker 2: No. So the existing arrangement will remain. So part of the prior approval, there are some conditions that relate to the use of that area only for service vehicles and ambulance access. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. So that is just emergency access only or in certain circumstances access? Yes. Okay. I just saw those arrows to and from and was wondering whether that changed any of that frame.

02:20:00 I didn't read anything, but those arrows made me question it. And so the figure in figure five perspective, which didn't just say anything other than perspective, that's what the bunker will essentially look like as a block addition, where you said the windows, the windows are actually facades to make it look like it's... Councillor Wilkie: That's correct. Councillor Jurisevic: An incorporation and the block treatment is similar to the block treatment of the actual facade of the building. So to try and make it blend in. Okay. That's my understanding there. I think that was... I think that was the only relevant questions I had in that regard. Oh, yeah. So the traffic flow now, the arrows indicating there on the site now indicate we're past our bunker. We have one-way traffic flow only. And to go downstairs or all the way along.

02:21:00 There was no... My understanding is there is an underground... An undercroft or underground car park. There was no proposal to... The reason I ask this is because we had another development proposal where a bunker of this nature was to be in the car park or even in the underground area. There was no thought to place it in the underground area. It was always off to the side as an addition. Speaker 13: That is correct. Noting that it complies with the setback requirements as well. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: As a result of that, it does comply with all the other setbacks. Speaker 13: It does. That's correct. Councillor Jurisevic: Because you preempted where I was going with that. Thank you, Patrick. That's it. Okay. Councillor Lorentson: I'm ending. Just a quick question, Patrick. This has come through as a minor change. An additional building or an extension of a building, 133 square metres, that's considered minor? Speaker 13: In the context of this overall development, where you've got one building in itself is over 3,000 square metres of GFA and the context of the whole site, it is certainly...

02:22:00 It is. Thank you. That qualifies that. Yeah. And it's a use that's consistent with the approval as well. It's not introducing a new use. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Speaker 13: Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: I did have another question, but I can't remember which. There are three attachments it relates to. I think it relates to the second attachment. Councillor Wilkie: And just to clarify, George, the addition, because it's an oncology bunker, one patient at a time, the car parking requirement of 360 car parks, does it remain consistent? Speaker 13: Well, it was considered that the existing extended car parking is suitable for the whole site. So whilst this floor area would normally require an increase in car parking, in this instance, due to the nature of the use, and that's been reflected in the proposed conditions. Councillor Wilkie: So it's deemed the car parking that will be available on the site is adequate? Speaker 13: That's correct. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Do we have a motion before we cancel? Sorry, Governor. Councillor Jurisevic: I've got another question.

02:23:00 I'm just trying to find the element. With regard to the planning schemes that currently stands, and with regard to lots being 1,000 square metres, and this one had 3,000 square metres. I'm sorry. This was approved. There's something about the size of the lots, Patrick. I'm trying to find it in the wording. Speaker 13: Well, the three- Councillor Jurisevic: And how large, under the planning scheme, how large a lot could be. Yeah. What was here was sort of three times that size. Speaker 13: So it relates to the gross floor area of a community, a building on a community facility's own site. Councillor Jurisevic: I think I found the existing development exceeds 1,000 square metres of building A already having a total gross floor area greater than 3,000 square metres. The proposal seeks a further 133 square metres. If it already exceeds the 1,000 square metres, having a total gross floor area of 3,000 square metres, how does a further addition- Yeah. Speaker 13: So when this was- .

02:24:00 When this was constructed, there was no requirement on gross floor area in this scheme or site cover. So this current scheme now has a requirement that buildings don't exceed a gross floor area of 1,000 square metres. This building exceeds that requirement. Now, the calculation that's been done, if you go to that figure three that you referred to before, it's actually of all the tenancies, and if you'll look at that, you'll see that there is actually a break in the building in several sections. We have a building that is of 3,000 square metres, a significant size, and the additional 133 square metres is quite inconsequential in terms of the scale of the existing appearance of the building, and noting the form of the development they're proposing in terms of the sculium roof, the materials that are similar to the development, we consider it will be a civil adjunct to the existing building. Councillor Jurisevic: The only reason for that, the way I'm reading this, the only reason for that limitation

02:25:00 is because it's in the community facilities zone. Speaker 13: That's correct. Councillor Jurisevic: So if it was in another zone, like a commercial development, like a new specific shopping centre, it's well over 1,000 square metres. Speaker 13: That's correct. Councillor Jurisevic: It doesn't have the same zone. That's correct. Okay, so it's because of the zone that it's in that that restriction is what applies to Speaker 13: the new things. And I think we need to be mindful of the types of uses that we sometimes put into these zonings that they actually do require a significant amount. I think floor plate as well. So you do have some instances where 1,000 square metres may not be suitable. Councillor Jurisevic: Well, here's the element I'm trying to understand. How is this a community facilities zone building, and a community facilities zone when it's a commercial building in the way that something like a shopping centre or some sort of commercial precinct building would be? Speaker 13: Because when you look at the uses that are permitted, that occur on this site, we're talking about medical facilities. Medical facilities. Councillor Jurisevic: School. Speaker 13: Yeah, education. Child care. Child care. Okay.

02:26:00 So it's certainly. Councillor Jurisevic: So that's how that incorporates. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: So just to follow up on that, I presume historically that it was deliberately zoned community uses so it wouldn't be able to go to the broader commercial use in that site and that was actually targeting to get more of these types of facilities. Speaker 13: That is correct. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I didn't recall it used to have a higher level of importance. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you, that explains the positive comments. Councillor Wilkie: Someone can move the motion please. Councillor Jurisevic: Have you moved? Moved yet. Councillor Griswold, seconded by Mayor Stewart. I don't really have a lot to say to it. I'm trying to understand the nuances of the development, the might of change, the need clearly for these type of facilities for the local community to provide additional assessment and treatment facilities for medical conditions associated with this development,

02:27:00 which has a number of medical facilitations within our support. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Very much so. Suspected motion. Put to the vote. That's in favour. That's unanimous. Carried 10 to Georgina. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 6.2 is Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation Annual Report and Operation Plan. Yes, you've done it. We have Kim Rawlings. Slowly, because Rebecca has just left. Speaker 8: She might have just gone to her place. Councillors, this report is the annual report from the Noosaville Spirit Reserve Foundation in accordance with the funding and partnership agreement. It outlines the achievements of the NBRF over the last 12 months.

6.2 NOOSA BIOSPHERE RESERVE FOUNDATION ANNUAL REPORT 2021-22 AND OPERATIONAL PLAN 2023/24 ¶

▶ 02:27:31· Carried unanimously 7-0 from council's minutes

02:28:00 It provides their audited financial statements and it also outlines their funding request for the future budget for council consideration. And an indication of what their current priorities are for the next 12 months. So this report is in accordance with the requirements of the funding agreement and meets the requirements of their reporting obligations for your consideration. Councillor Wilkie: And we will have the budget consultation feedback workshop tomorrow. Yes. And I imagine that's where you can thrash out funding requests such as this. Speaker 8: That's right. Councillor Wilkie: And take on board feedback about it. Speaker 8: Yes. Councillor Wilkie: Absolutely. Speaker 8: The NBRF have put a particular figure in that they've requested of $180,000 annual support. In the draft budget, council have allocated $125,000 or $120,000 support.

02:29:00 So, yes, there may be some feedback through that process in the consideration of the final budget. Councillor Wilkie: Rebecca, is there anything else you want to add about what we're looking at here, please? Speaker 5: As we've outlined it. I think she's outlined. Kim's outlined it quite well. So the financial report's been independently audited and the report's come back to say that the NBRF are in a stable financial position and that the financial report is sufficient and appropriate, complies with Australian accounting standards, and complies with the requirements of our funding agreement, which is key for council. Councillor Jurisevic: Joe? Yeah. You alluded to funding agreement there. How long does funding agreement take? How long does funding agreement go over? Speaker 5: It's a four-year term. Councillor Jurisevic: Four years. And are there KPIs in that funding agreement? Speaker 5: For their reporting requirements, for an operational plan, an annual report to be prepared, and an annual financial report as well.

02:30:00 Councillor Jurisevic: This report has ticked all of those parameters? Yes. With regard to the KPIs . I want to clarify. Speaker 15: I didn't actually see that outline. Councillor Wilkie: Right. Thank you. Any other questions? Staff, councillors? I'm going to carry me to move the motion for the report. Moved by Councillor Morrison. Seconded by Councillor Juicidict. Councillor Morrison, you have to speak to the report. Councillor Lorentson: Yeah. I'll just say that the partnership shows our commitment as a council in supporting organisations and people committed to our goals. Which I think is very important. Which is conserving and protecting our natural and built environment. I would also like to note and thank the volunteer boards for their commitment to their biosphere. But also note their in-kind contribution.

02:31:00 And that's noted in the report as annually exceeding $390,000. And I think they gave themselves a value of about $200 per hour. So thank you. Thank you. That provides considerable value, both back to the NBRF and also to Noosa Shire. Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Lorentson. Anybody else wish to speak? Tom. Councillor Wegener: Well, I'll just speak as a director. I'd just like to say that the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation is evolving, and in the background, as Councillor Stockwell has said, that there's movement with the biosphere, perhaps sharing resources with NICA and other groups. And this whole concept of informing, helping, assisting Council with the public face, with projects out there, is going forward with the Biosphere Reserve Foundation.

02:32:00 And it's actually been on a really nice, consistent track going forward for quite some time. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. I just wish to speak for Councillor Lorentson and Councillor Finzel. Councillor Finzel: Yeah, I just... I guess we'll have opportunity to talk about it, like, at the workshop tomorrow. I did just wonder... I flagged the 68% of contract for support staff on page 223. That's a report I've got. I just wonder, like, that just seemed a significant amount to me. I'm not a business expert, but... Anyway, I guess we can discuss that further in terms of percentage of expenditure going back to support staff. Speaker 8: We provide a funding amount on an annual basis. It's not specified in the funding agreement what the amount is. That's to be dealt with and decided by Council on an annual basis.

02:33:00 But what it does say is that we'll provide support for both operational needs to support the organisation and then project funding. Council provides an amount, and then the NBRF determines how they spent that. Whether it's spent on operational administrative support or whether it's spent on projects. We don't... We don't specify what the percentage is. It's the NBRF's decision how that's done. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Right. Jo? Yeah, look, I'd like to congratulate the NBRF on their achievement to date. Achievements to date, I should say. I think the report indicates a number of well-structured and well-thought-out projects that they've been undertaking and supporting, particularly with regard to koala conservation, blossom plants, and including a koala vaccine trial.

02:34:00 I think it's correct. They are incorporating opportunities for students to be involved in operations here. They are generating one of the things that we talked about, the opportunities for external funding opportunities coming in, and they are certainly displaying an opportunity of external funds coming into the organisation to help facilitate this, the search for grants and the like. And I think that the results and the projects they've been undertaking have been well worthwhile. The return on investment in most of these projects from three to seven to one in some regards is phenomenal. Phenomenal return for a community-based organisation. And the science that they incorporate in all of their projects and deliveries is commendable. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Brian. Yes, the reports are a very valuable statement

02:35:00 of what's happened over the last year. I think the Sustainability Forums are driving, I suppose, this organisation in probably a different, more defined role than what perhaps was envisaged back in the 2014-2016 council. So I think what these documents and the review that sort of identifies the four strategic objectives of the current board members, which includes inspiring positive behaviour change, of leveraging the brand to attract purposely collaboration and partnerships. And the other thing that we saw in those projects is that role in science brokerage, like global government's not great about finding innovative solutions to real world problems. But if we work well with the Biosphere Board, their links and their partnerships with the university and other researchers can help solve some of those problems because one of the other strategic objectives is really, number one, is to make sure that Noosaville maintains its UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status.

02:36:00 That's not a given. You know, every 10 years we have to prove we're doing the right thing and we're managing it. And yes, this is a demonstration of a sustainable community where people and nature are in the right balance and that we live in a great place and all the little critters and fauna also enjoy living here. Councillor Wilkie: Mary, you wish to close? Councillor Lorentson: Yeah, I'd just like to add that I have taken part in quite a few of the symposiums and opportunities. At the NBRE, including the marine symposium, the shark program, Rodriguez PhD on ascertaining the cultural, social value of our beaches, spoken to JD about wetlands, attended the sustainability forum. So I really speak from someone who's actually been part of the Biosphere.

02:37:00 And I think that's the opportunity it provides, not just to myself as a councillor, but also for all the residents. It's our opportunity to be a stakeholder in conservation efforts. So I, again, just take the opportunity to thank the NBRE, the volunteers, and that brain trust. You know, again, sustainable communities work not in silo. It's not just council. It's these environmental community groups that are helping us achieve our goals. That's all. Councillor Wilkie: With the motion, those in favour? That is unanimous. Thank you, Rebecca and Kim. Speaker 5: Thanks, Kim. Thank you, Kim. Councillor Wilkie: Next up, we have encroachment policy and organisational procedures. Again, we have Mel and Rebecca,

6.3 ENCROACHMENTS POLICY AND ORGANISATIONAL PROCEDURES ¶

▶ 02:37:52· Carried unanimously 5-0 · 1 division from council's minutes

02:38:00 and we have some COIs. Speaker 15: Can I speak first? Yes. Chair, we've got some legal advice this morning from King & Co, that the draft policy does not constitute a planning scheme. Even though it's Shire-wide, because it's not a planning scheme, it does not. So just so everyone's aware. Therefore, it does not come under the airmen of the ordinary business matter. Exemption contained in section 150EF1B of the Local Government Act 2009. Just so that's essentially the reason why there are a number of COIs on this particular. But it is a policy, not a planning scheme. So therefore it doesn't, it's not exempt from conflict of interest. Okay. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: Councillor Lorentson. I, Councillor Lorentson, inform the meeting that in considering the encroachment policy and managing any perceived conflict of interest, members of my family have had encroachments in the past,

02:39:00 and there may be encroachments in public areas that I am not fully aware of. To manage any perceived conflict of interest in relation to the matters, I believe it is fitting to declare a conflict of interest in relation to the consideration of this policy, and as such, exercise an abundance of caution. I also note the legal advice received this morning from King & Co that the draft policy does not constitute a planning scheme as defined, and therefore does not come within the ambit of the ordinary business matter exemption contained in section 150EF1B of the Local Government Act. I will now leave the room and not participate in the discussion. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson. Councillor Jurisevic: Councillor Finzel. Councillor Finzel: I, Councillor Finzel, inform the meeting that I declare a conflict of interest in this matter as of March 2020, Mr Peter Butt, who I believe is an executive member of the Eastern Ventures Protection Association,

02:40:00 who are submitters in the Eastern Ventures Portion Management Plan, which addresses management issues relevant to encroachments. Peter Butt donated $1,666.66 to my 2020 election campaign, where I was one of three candidates that were asked to work now as future nooser, which is no longer an entity. As a result of my conflict of interest, I will now leave the meeting room and I will make this decision and vote it upon. Thank you, Councillor Finzel. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: I would like to declare my potential, I'll make that a declarable conflict of interest for item 6.3, Shire Wates, an encroachments policy in early 2020 I received an electoral donation of $750 from Susan Francis. Susan Francis is the partner of Barry Cottrell. Barry Cottrell is the President of the Bridge and Bridge Community Association. PBCA has made submission to the Christian Council to address illegal encroachments. Please take it up, do its job.

02:41:00 Just address illegal encroachments. I, and all the PBCA, stand to gain personal materials through the introduction of the Shire White policy. However, I'll make this declaration out of an abundance of portion, given the possible scope and interpretation of conflicts of interest rulings. I believe I can make an impartial decision in the public interest in this matter. I leave it to the meeting to determine whether I stay in the meeting room. Councillors, this is similar to the declaration made about the Eastern Bridges foreshore management plan not being ordinary council business. Speaker 15: It's up to the... So it's chair now? Yeah. So it's up to... To be appointed as chair, appoint somebody as a chair? Councillor Wegener: I nominate Joe as to be the chair. Okay. Speaker 15: I'll sign that. Councillor Wegener: I take it. Mayor Stewart: Okay. Councillor Wegener: Yep. All in favour? Do you have a declaration? Are you... Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Are you going to vote for yourself? I'll support you.

02:42:00 Yes, I'm just reading through, just reading through the declaration. Sorry, I'm trying to get an understanding. Yeah, all right. Councillors, do we have any questions for Councillor Wilkie in this regard? Does anybody want to make a resolution in this? Mayor Stewart: I'll speak to it. Councillor Wilkie, I'm going to stick to what I've always done. I think I voted for you to go outside the room and have an environment for caution in the Eastern Bridges so I can maintain my continuing ability in that. Councillor Jurisevic: So you're moving that Councillor Wilkie would leave the room? Yes. Mayor Stewart: I will. I will. Yes. But I'm normally just moving. That's all right. Councillor Jurisevic: That's what you're normally, just getting clarifying what you are, what the resolution that you're moving is. Do I have a seconder? Councillor Wegener: I'll second for the purpose of the debate. Mayor Stewart: Councillor Wegener. Councillor Stewart. Do you wish to... Did you have a reason? No. No, I was just, I was informed in the meeting, Mr Chair, of my position. Not of necessarily moving. Councillor Jurisevic: So you're not moving the resolution? Mayor Stewart: No, I wasn't moving it. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: Sorry, my misunderstanding. Mayor Stewart: That would be, that would be... My misunderstanding. I thought you were moving the resolution.

02:43:00 No, because the resolution is that Councillor Wilkie... No, I'm not moving it because it was originally that he participate. Councillor Jurisevic: All right. So disregard that, that what, I misunderstood the Councillor Stewart was moving the resolution? No, I was just... Not declaring a position. I was just... Pretty formal position. Okay. Councillor Wilkie... Mayor Stewart: Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: What we've got at the moment is an opportunity to ask questions in order to move a resolution with regard to Councillor Wilkie's... Standing in this matter, do any of the Councillors have a position with regard to whether Councillor Wilkie should stay or go? And prepared to move the resolution in that regard? Councillor Wegener: All right. I'll move that. Councillor Wilkie stays in the room. Councillor Jurisevic: So I will note that Council... Note the declarable whole thing of interest by Councillor Wilkie that determines in the public interest that Councillor Wilkie participates and votes on this matter because Council believes that... Yes. Neither Councillor Wilkie nor the BBP... Can we just correct the wording there? Neither Councillor Wilkie nor the BBCA stand to gain personal returnees from the introduction of this Shire White Policy and therefore a reasonable person

02:44:00 would trust that the final decision is made in the public interest. Is that what you're moving, Councillor Wilkie? Exactly. Do I have a seconder? Councillor Stockwell? I can't. You can't? Oh, because you've got a declarable conflict. Okay. Well, I'll second it. Councillor Wegener, do you wish to... Councillor Wegener: Speak to it? Well... Speak to it? Yeah. Again, despite... You missed my wonderful elocution and... What is it? Speaking lyrically? No. What is it? Make you love to say. Anyway. That it's important that we have people involved in the community here and it shouldn't be a stifling effect on our ability to go out and do things within the community and be, you know, help community groups. So we don't want to self-censure ourselves by always leaving the room. We want to work with them to declare the conflict of interest. Councillor Jurisevic: I'm going to say... Waxing lyrical. I'm going to say that we're consistent with what we've iterated in the past and the position

02:45:00 we've had throughout the meeting today that I'll support this element of the... Of the... Of the resolution. So I do agree that... I don't believe I'm the councillor working on... BBCA stand to have any material gain through this. I understand that many groups have given the opportunity to submit towards the policy and have positions with regard to elements of encroachment that I think many in the community do. So I'm prepared to support Captain Wilkie's statement in the meeting. Anyone else anything? Mayor Stewart: While maintaining consistency also I note that Councillor Finzel left on the basis that someone who supported her through the campaign through a monetary donation and also sits on the executive and was involved in this on that basis she left the room so I don't see too much... I don't see anything different between that and Councillor Wilkie so that's why

02:46:00 I'm... I'm also based on consistency in previous decisions I've made I think it's prudent in this instance that Councillor Wilkie remove himself from the room. Councillor Jurisevic: Alright. Okay. I've got a... Nothing... Nothing further to add Councillor Wagner to close? We'll put it to the vote. All in favour? Against? Motions carried two to one. Given that Councillor Wilkie is committed to stay in the room I would assume that Councillor Wilkie will resume the chair. Councillor Wilkie: If I... If I can clarify the difference between PBCA and EPA is that EPA members do stand to gain or lose materially or personally as a result of an encroachment's policy PBCA members do not. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Okay. Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Stockwell. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I too

02:47:00 wish to declare take out the potential not using the copy because there's a few changes wasn't there? Oh, we'll get it together. I would like to declare I can declare we'll accomplish the interests of item 6.3 so I won't encroach this policy. In early 2020 I received an electoral donation of $500 from Susan Francis. Susan Francis is the part of Barry Cockrell. Barry Cockrell is the president of Bridgham Beach Community Association. The Bridgham Beach Community Association has made submissions requesting Council address illegal encroachments. Neither I nor the PBCA stand to gain personally or materially or through the introduction of the Shire White Policy. However, I make this declaration out of an abundance of caution given the possible scope and interpretation of the conflict of interest rulings. I believe I can make an impartial decision in the public interest in this matter and leave it to the meeting to determine whether I stay in the meeting room. Councillor Wilkie: I'm not going to vote on this matter it's my work to share so I'm going to need

02:48:00 someone to Mayor Stewart: I'll move I have in the past I will do what I always do and that's remain consistent and I have moved that Councillor Stockwell votes on this matter because Councillor Stockwell neither Councillor Stockwell nor the PBCA stand to gain personally or materially or through the introduction of the Shire White Policy and therefore a reasonable person would trust the time decisions made in the public interest. So seconded. Seconded Councillor Drissidy. Ms Stewart. No, this is what I've made I have always voted in this way previously so to make as I said to maintain consistency I will continue on with that. Councillor Jurisevic: In a similar in a similar vein I do not see that the community group stand to gain personally or materially or through the introduction of the Shire White Policy and to be consistent with the way that we have addressed this matter

02:49:00 of conflict in the past I happen to support Councillor Stockwell remaining in the room. Councillor Higgins to speak. Councillor Wegener: Just on a on a policy side of it it's it's very good for NUSA to have experts such as Councillor Stockwell in the room to discuss these these issues that he knows probably more about than the rest of us. Speaker 12: So yeah. Okay. Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Stewart do you wish to close? Right. Is that it? What's that? That's it. Well welcome another two hours of conflict and there we go. Care to give us an overview of what we're looking at today please with this Shire White Encouragement Policy. Speaker 4: Okay. So the Encouragement Policy was has got quite a bit of background in the the

02:50:00 CHAP and also the Environment Strategy and one of the directions was that the Coastal Management Plan actually included an encroachments policy. Now in the first Councillor Workshop that we had at the beginning of last year it was it became really clear that it was a Shire White issue that needed to to escape from the confines of the Coastal Management Plan and that's what we've got here now. We've got a Shire White policy that applies to all council managed land not just bush land and I guess the real opportunity here is for us to work with the pieces of council land that are in our in our in our neighbourhoods. So this is the bit of bush land out the back of your house. This is the the trees that you walk under when you go to school. This is the the space out the front of your house where the services the public services are delivered to your house be it be it council lighting being able to move through the community being able to talk to your neighbours and I guess

02:51:00 that's that's why it's so important. The also we've had quite a bit of community input asking for us to better manage our encroachments in our council managed land. Bush land has been quite a focus for quite a few few of these groups but we're also getting a lot of requests to deal with issues in our road reserves. We did a little bit of work around how many of these matters we're receiving and we're receiving at least 100 every year. In many cases we're having to deal with those those situations again and again because they're not being neatly resolved. Community so we've also had a lot of requests from our council officers. They want us really strong frame a firm framework that allows them to deal consistently with these issues. That it doesn't matter what kind of encroachment it is. It doesn't matter who's doing the encroachment.

02:52:00 It doesn't particularly matter where it is. If it's having that level of community community impact or impact on the environment. If it's hindering our ability to to achieve some of our strategic outcomes that's that's what should be the driver around what we're doing. So we've created a bit of a risk assessment framework that allows us to do that consistent assessment and that's what we've got here. It's been broken into two sections. The policies says what we're trying to achieve and then the procedures actually break it down into the different types of council managed land to describe how we're going to achieve those outcomes. And I guess the biggest thing is that we actually if these encroachments are in the way of achieving these outcomes and achieving these community or environmental outcomes that we do have a recovery process in place as well. And I guess that also ties in with the other aspect

02:53:00 of this is that the implementation of the plan particularly the recovery is funded by council. That's been a major hindrance in the past. Every bit of bushland is different. It needs a site specific approach to how we do it. And we just haven't had the capacity to provide that level of input back into the enforcement process and that's part of what we've done here is actually having somebody that specialises in that that gives that framework. Yeah and this is while it's a new policy it's not actually we're not actually giving us giving ourselves powers that we didn't already have. It's all under local law for which is roads, reserves and other council managed land and assets. And it helps manage facilities in those areas by managing

02:54:00 access and by restricting the kinds of activities that the community can take in those areas. Typically that's driving vehicles in areas outside of those designated for it. So the constructed portions of roads, car parks, that kind of thing. And also the type of impacts that can cause problems typically vegetation damage, any kind of improvements or encroachments, that kind of thing. And yeah, that's where we are with the framework. Councillor Wilkie: And you're proposing an educated approach as well? Speaker 4: Oh yes, very much so. That's very much the first step in all of this is actually giving people a better understanding of how they can be a good bushland neighbour. It ties in with the planting of verges. It gives a really firm framework to how,

02:55:00 what kind of planting is acceptable in those verges. And I guess that community education and that two-way communication will be really important. It's been found to help change people's approaches to the bit of bushland behind their place. But we're also finding that our council officers are already having these conversations but they're finding that they're not getting the outcomes that they need without that sort of extra backup that the policy and the procedures will provide. Councillor Wilkie: Could you just talk a bit about the risk matrix that's going to be applied? It's not going to be just because someone has a weed on their footpath or doesn't know when there's going to be action. It's very much a risk-based approach. Speaker 4: Yes, so we've developed a risk assessment matrix looking at all of the types of impacts that you can have on council managed land. So,

02:56:00 where are we? Right up. So the first one is health and safety people and animals. So if it has negligible or low risk of injury to people using the space, it will be in that area. But particularly with health and safety risks, if it goes into the high or the medium in that capacity, it will be something that you have to act on. We're also looking at size and extent. So we have different sizes and extents in the different types that we've got there. So we've got roads, parks and council managed bushland. So basically we're going in bushland if it extends outside of the fire risk management measure in that specific location, it's regarded as medium or high risk. Bushfire risk management and access, one of the major considerations that we've got for encroachments into bushland is that it complicates our fire management access.

02:57:00 In a lot of cases it can be the bridging fuel between the back of the house and into the garden and the bushland. So that's making sure that we incorporate the fire management into any of our recovery procedures. Environmental harm. While this is probably most obvious in bushland areas, it is also a consideration for conservation and now other forms of bushland, other forms of council managed land. So say we've got erosion in a road reserve that drains, you know, everywhere's in a catchment basically. And also vegetation. Community amenity and enjoyment. And that it will be particularly important when it comes to a lot of our road reserves. It will impact on nurses' liveability, how our communities look. And that will be a consideration

02:58:00 in that. And yeah, and then if it impacts on the public service or the nearby private property. Now, each one of these will be assessed with a score from one for low to three for high. And if it gets above a certain level, it will be regarded as a medium or a high thing and will trigger requirements. If it's a low, it may not need to be dealt with. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: One of the challenges that faced nearby council was people planting fruit trees and taking over the verge out front of their place. So, I think one of the big problems. Speaker 4: I think the big problems that they had down there was that a lot of the public service element of the road reserve

02:59:00 wasn't maintained. So, there wasn't that through passage and things like that. Councillor Jurisevic: Or stormwater sewage. Speaker 4: Or stormwater sewage, or pedestrian, just pedestrian pass and somewhere to put the bins, you know, that kind of thing. This does allow for productive gardens and perhaps fruit trees if they're under two metres high. But we still need to maintain that function, that public service function. And also the amenity. Councillor Jurisevic: When you say public services, you're referring to the hard infrastructure or the infrastructure that runs through a person's property or down an easement or all the likes of it. Speaker 4: No, no. I'm talking about being a pedestrian can walk along the edge of the road without Yeah, that 1.5 will still be maintained. So, it needs to meet all the other criteria of verge planting. Yeah, it's just, it's got a productive element. And I guess the other thing there too is that we've highlighted that they don't have exclusive use of the area and they don't have exclusive use of the produce either.

03:00:00 Councillor Jurisevic: The fruit trees are there and they're free for the public to come in. Yeah. Because they're on public land. Yeah. For example. Great. That's one. Two. I noticed the concept, I think Councillor Woodley alluded to it, that education was at the forefront of this. And I noticed the good neighbour concept there. Now, that applies, I'm assuming that applies both ways, not just to the, probably, but also to Council. Yes. With regard to what its responsibilities are in maintaining fire trails and the like in reserves, I think. Speaker 4: Yes, very much so. Councillor Jurisevic: And so, going forward, this will help guide the elements of the project. And the maintenance that Council has to undertake going forward, perhaps where some of the maintenance hasn't been undertaken in the past. Speaker 4: Yeah, and I guess the other thing too is to highlight that the encroachments enforcement won't outstrip the potential that we have for recovery.

03:01:00 So, the speed of the rollout for this will be dictated by how much recovery capacity we have. So, we're not going to select, go in and take out an encroachment and then just leave it to go to whatever. That it is actually becomes an actively managed revegetation or regeneration or whatever's needed to get that back into good condition. And to also highlight that we will be retaining whatever fire management mitigation measure is needed in that location. We won't be taking it up to the back fence if, you know. Yeah. We won't be increasing people's fire risk, I guess. Councillor Wilkie: And in partnership with the property owner, if possible. Speaker 4: If possible, yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: The principle element here is that if an encroachment is noted, it's or otherwise pointing out something in the first instance by all that's required.

03:02:00 So, you might not be aware, but this is actually not permitted. And the person might go, I just wasn't aware. Speaker 4: In a lot of cases. Councillor Jurisevic: Simple fix. Speaker 4: In a lot of cases, they haven't even thought about what that bit of bushland is and what's happening out there. All the access is required or things like that. Yeah, that's right. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. Councillor Stockwell. Oh, yeah. Moved directly, don't you? I'll second. Seconded. Councillor Jurisdict. Moved. Councillor Stockwell. Brian. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: This is a big tick in terms of a long-term, very annoying problem in this council. So, one of the first two years of me being on council, I started to get community groups complaining about encroachments and how that impacts on their ability to look after and their ability to take foreshores. We know that one of the things that a policy does is makes consistently across the whole of our organisation. And it's not telling anyone anything they don't know, but in the absence of this policy,

03:03:00 we have different sections of council going out with different attitudes and different approaches and not always getting a really good outcome for the environment, the park, the road, whatever. So, now we've got a consistent approach. That's one governance issue that is really well addressed. And also, I think the risk assessment approach is really valuable. Now, it's taken a bit longer to get to this point than I would have liked. I couldn't imagine it being four years ago, five years ago. But what we've now got is good. The risk assessment approach and the criteria are really useful to both guide staff. But if you are a person that has got an encroachment, it should also guide you. You shouldn't wait for a council staff member to come knocking on the door. You should say, oh, okay. I'm high risk. I'm medium risk. I need to do something about it. And then it also will give them a list of identified preferred species. So, it's a really good list of native species that are suitable for our Shire that people

03:04:00 can look at. We've had the discussion about the section about vegetable and productive gardens on the road verges. That's a great discussion to have. It was one the council has brought up. I won't say that we had to convince staff, but we certainly made it clear that we supported it. And now the policy, now the procedures say council supports vegetable and productive gardens on road verges that are well maintained, well and consistently maintained, are of neat appearance, meet all the requirements that apply to private gardens and landscaping and road verges, and can be picked by school children on the way home. No, the last one's mine. But it's not a big thing in our Shire at the moment. In other areas it's bigger, where there's not a lot of space. But it is something that if it's not native, it should be productive. And to me, that's a big one. We also know there's been a lot of calls for compliance action. So, we started the Noosa River Stakeholder Advisory Group.

03:05:00 And the first thing they came to consensus on was the need to look at encroachments on the river, and particularly quite a lot that are in the frying pan area. And so this policy and procedures give us a framework to address that. And I'm not going into any great detail, but of course the eastern beaches are going to be a strong place, because the draft coastal management plan and the audit done with that identified that 90% of properties along the eastern beaches have some form of encroachment. That's massive. And that's, you know, we have to start in the highest risk areas. And that's what this policy and procedures will do. It will guide staff. It will make it really clear to individuals who, some of them, a lot of those encroachments probably existed before the current people owned the block of land or the house. And so it will give them a clear indication what's acceptable and what's not. And as I said, as Councillor Wilkie has been clear to point out, our approach is first

03:06:00 to make sure people understand what the policy says. And use what we already have in existence under local law 4 as the enforcement mechanism if needed. Mayor Stewart: Thank you very much. The 90% of, and this wasn't my question, but I will follow it up now. The 90% stat that the council stopped allotted to encroachments along the eastern beaches, do we know if that's legal or illegal? Do we know the breakdown of that? And do we have confirmation of this 90%? Speaker 4: It's 90%. It's more than 90% of the areas that we've mapped so far. Mayor Stewart: Along the eastern beaches? Speaker 4: Yeah. Along the eastern beaches. That being said, that's fairly similar to other areas. We just haven't done that very precise breakdown yet because it's backed up by past condition

03:07:00 mapping. We don't define encroachments as illegal or legal. It's just an encroachment is going over the boundary from one block of land into another block of land, if you know what I mean. And that's what we're looking at. Mayor Stewart: So they will, you think then, you're not just saying illegal if they went over someone's land? Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, basically, yeah. But that's, we don't, we're not using that term. We're just saying encroachments, basically. Yeah. And that's what it is. It's extending your use into another person's land or extending with a building or a garden or whatever. Mayor Stewart: And 90%? Speaker 4: Yeah. I was really surprised. I work in these spaces. And I knew that there was a lot. But when I actually went out and did the counting, I was really surprised. Mayor Stewart: A few more questions. So this is a whole of Shire policy?

03:08:00 Yes. It's not deemed to be more than that? That's great yeah yeah and it's it's um from what we've been told this is really not and i think you said it we're not um getting any more you're not getting any more new powers so to speak this is already things are being implemented across our organization by various different parts of our organizers or various different parts of the organization and consolidating it into one policy Speaker 5: yes yes so this gives us a little bit more guidance on how to take a consistent approach and also how best to prioritize the encroachment activities um that we're doing in terms of compliance that you know with with with the level of encroachments that there are out there there's no way that staff would be able to get to each and all of them um and nor would they wish to that risk matrix is really important for that to be able to have a look at the ones that are causing the most impact and that's what the community is calling us

03:09:00 to do is to to take a more active approach in managing those so they don't continue to proliferate but it's not going after the small fry by any by any means it's it's being able to understand how do we apply the existing powers that are in the local law in a clear and consistent way and being able to resource that within council Mayor Stewart: so a big um a big justification for the improvement policy has been the fact that it can pose a harm to people's safety encroachments can be across fire breaks fire trails fire access so i imagine is that the area it's going to be first targeted those that pose the most risk and safety to our community Speaker 5: yeah that's first and forefront um foremost in the risk matrix is safety being the first criteria where it does impede the ability for fire access personally of vehicles to be able to get through the the back within fire break areas behind properties

03:10:00 that we do have instances of where we have private gardens that go into those areas fencing hedges that make it really difficult to be able to get that important access through so yeah it's Councillor Wegener: definitely a priority thank you okay uh councillor tom it seems that you've seen the matrix the major matrix used in the environment area before for example choosing the the top nine and so for the animals um but this is going to be an evolving matrix it seems because as you make decisions and make a call and give a particular encroachment a number saying well it's a low priority medium or high priority but then you'll actually be able to reflect on that in the future and say well this is what we did there this is you know just down the street we're going to do the same thing here so there's going to be sort of a story decisis or a continuation of that what is it um started you know

03:11:00 started decisive is it's it's like an iterative process yeah it's when you did the same decision that decision kind of has standards for the next decision precedent precedent that's the word yeah so the precedent like you will will the the matrix be used as a precedent moving forward and evolving Our strategy and our enforcement of encroachments. Speaker 4: It will be used like that, I feel. It does give a really firm framework to document your decision-making process, to actually look at all of these aspects that may not be immediately obvious to everybody who's involved in this process. And, yeah, it will give you that framework. Like, if you're saying that... And I guess the other thing it will do, if you're seeing a lot of this similar type of impact coming through, that you can actually do a bit of education specific to that.

03:12:00 But, yeah, I agree that it will create precedence, hopefully. Councillor Wegener: Yeah. I'll speak to it. I think this is our most interesting and complex policy that has come to us so far. And the reason is it affects everybody. Everybody has encroachments. Everybody has land in front of their house. There is a road reserve or wherever, every park. We're always on public land, and there's always encroachments on public land. So it's a really to and fro, but it affects everybody on a daily basis, basically. So it's enormously important. And I think it's very good that you're bringing a language to this and the matrix because it gives measurements and parameters to be able to discuss the encroachments and bringing a way of talking about these things and measuring them and measuring the importance. It's really far-reaching, and the goal is certainty and clarity in what people are doing.

03:13:00 And I think that with the veggies that we've brought up, it gives you very consistent ideas to say, oh, there's the policy. I can read this. It's clear. I can put my veggie patch in it, providing people can still walk past. I think it does that, and so I think it'll make life easier for a lot of people that want to do stuff on the verge on public land. What can they do? What good can't they do? It's fantastic. So good luck with the carrying it through. It's going to take a big budget and a lot of work. But congratulations for taking this step forward. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Thank you, Joe. Yeah, I concur with those thoughts. Words on the board in front of us, develop a clear plan, providing education, awareness, and community access to materials to be developed to support community understanding. And I think that's a large part of the, a large part of the element, community understanding, understanding what is public land and what public land is there for. We all have an element of public land in front of our house. It's not everybody encroaches on it. Everybody is responsible for maintaining an element of it and mowing their front verge.

03:14:00 The involvement to have some shade trees on the front and things along those lines at the council determine the, the nature of, so the great part of this policy is not what you can't do. It also incorporates what you can do. So it's not just about big stick. It's about really facilitating the understanding of what public land is, the value of public land, and the need to keep it clear away so that people can walk safely down. We don't have, we don't have footpaths everywhere. We, and not everybody wants to walk on the roads. So if you can walk safely down the, down the grass, major strip or refuge, or whatever you want to call it. We've gone on a major strip. We don't, don't use that term here in Queensland that much. I don't utilize that anymore that much, but it's to understand the elements of it. Fire trails in particular, you know, I, I know a property not far from where I live, continue their, their back fence right across the fire trail. And it's important for them to understand that, sorry, this, this is a fire access trail.

03:15:00 You may abut the, the reserve, but that part of the reserve is the fire trail. And in the event of an emergency, you're going to be the one screaming, saying, hey, the fire's coming my way. You can't get a fire truck in there. If we can't, can't explain that as clearly and articulate that, the reasons why those fire trails are so important, so that vehicles can defend property and life when required. So I think this is a, a great, a great way forward. I said, I think it's important that we have that. I said, I think it's, other councils have, have been challenged by elements such as street trees and that on, on, on street, street birds and the like. This, this, this helps guide anybody that's interested in undertaking that in the ways and means that they can approach council to, to facilitate that. But the levels of encroachments where particularly fire trails are, are impacted and gardens are extended into internal areas and things,

03:16:00 I think, I think are things that are important to explain and understand that, that they have to deal with going forward for this community as a whole. Councillor Wilkie: Congratulations on getting this policy this far. I think it's, it's vastly improved the way council engage, will be able to engage with, and, and harness the goodwill in the community. Currently, as the Mayor said, we, we have a local law, which basically criminalises any form of encroachment. Any form, form of interference with vegetation or a public road reserve or a nature strip is, is basically not permitted under the local law. But we know that there are very many good intentioned people in this community who take pride in their, what they call on their nature, on their footpath, for example, who want to help manage the bush. The bushland areas at the rear of their properties want to help maintain the fire access trails. I see this policy as a way of providing guidance to staff to enable them to take an educated approach to assist the goodwill people in our community who are wanting to contribute and help manage these public spaces.

03:17:00 And also take a, a risk-based approach to the encroachments that are posing a risk. It won't have, hopefully, won't have an impact. It won't have local laws, offices, attending areas where very, the issues are very, very minor, posing very little risk to anyone and are basically the subject of, of, of some other sort of dispute. So, yes, as Councillor Drissett said, it's, it's an educated approach. We've developed, developed a clear implementation plan outlining education, awareness, communication materials to be developed to support community understanding and implementation of this policy. It's like lifting a veil of darkness that's been sitting over this area, and inaction has been sitting over this area for a long time. I think it's a very skilful piece of work.

03:18:00 It's written from the right, with the right intentions and outcomes in mind, which takes, which, which recognises the goodwill that's in the community. It's only a very small percentage of, of instances where there's bad faith and resistance. But I think that it provides the opportunity to work with each and every body. I think that it provides the opportunity to work with each and every individual who's, who has some form of encouragement. Like, and we all do. So, congratulations on, on this piece of work. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Can I just speak to it? Can't miss Julie. Mayor Stewart: Who moved it? Councillor Drissett. Councillor Wilkie: Brian. Brian and Jo. Mayor Stewart: Has everyone else spoken to it? Except. Councillor Wilkie: Except you and then Jo has. Mayor Stewart: Jo hasn't spoken to it. Jo hasn't spoken to it. Brian has spoken to it. Brian has spoken to it. Brian has spoken to it, yeah. I will support this. This is a Shire-wide policy. I think that's really important to note. Shire-wide. It, and certainly I draw attention to, as Councillor Drissett said and Councillor Wilkie, this is an education awareness and communication policy.

03:19:00 It's not necessarily a big stick. I support this because we were told that we have had, have had hundreds of complaints coming in and some very clearly around safety and about access to fire trails, about people being unsafe, feeling unsafe or not being able to get in and out of their properties because of the encroachments. And that is something that certainly needs to be addressed. And I think it's a policy that isn't, as you said, Bec, we are not necessarily garnishing a whole lot of new powers. We are bringing together a whole lot of policies that have been across various areas of our organisation, consolidating into the one, which is important and it streamlines the process and it gives certainty and clarity to the organisation and to council staff and that's a good thing. And it gives certainty and clarity to our community, which is also very important.

03:20:00 Thank you. Thank you. So I will support this. Can I stop by to Mr Clems? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Oh yeah, I will. I think it's really good to clarify what it is and what it isn't. I think, I know he didn't mean it in the legal sense of the word, but you're not a criminal if you break the local law. These are more misdemeanours in most cases. We can't send you to jail for planting the wrong tree on your footpath, but it puts And yes, it does talk about encroachment policy and having a response that's commensurate with the level of risk to the community in terms of safety, e.g. bushfires, but also in terms of the level of risk to our assets, our natural assets, the things that people enjoy so much about living here and visiting here. There's also consideration of that. And there's one thing that it also discriminates on, which happens to be talked about. It defines what a new encroachment is.

03:21:00 And the process for dealing with new encroachments is different to the historical ones. So it's quite clear in this policy, if you've done it over the last 12 months, that you're going to be, you know, there's going to be a different stepwise process for you. You know, it's not going to be, if I go out and do a new one, single forgiveness rather than commission. It's going to be the new encroachment. And we do have what the community asked for when we had our representative presentations last year, is more of a zero tolerance approach. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. I'll put the motion those in favour. That is unanimous. Thank you, Melissa. Thank you. Keep doing your work. The councillors can come back in the room. Thank you. Welcome. Speaker 14: Hello, Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea is relatively new to the waste department, but I thought it'd be worthwhile her seeing through the experience.

6.4 CONTRACT NO. CN00338 - SUPPLY, INSTALLATION, COMMISSIONING & MAINTENANCE OF AN EPS THERMAL COMPACTION UNIT ¶

▶ 03:21:46· Carried unanimously 7-0 from council's minutes

03:22:00 Councillor Jurisevic: We had to take some interesting things, you know, some interesting HDLs and that sort of thing. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: The old EBS thermal compaction, you know, this must be the 10th one we've had, isn't it? Speaker 14: There's been a few. I've got a very short list of them. The contract, the contract, the contract. It's just a contract, yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. Speaker 14: Are we, can I start or? No, we're waiting. We're waiting. We're waiting for the audience to return. Councillor Wilkie: Here they are. So we're talking about a contract on CN00338, supply, installation, commissioning and maintenance of an EBS thermal compaction unit, which is a polystyrene thermal compaction unit, a report's written by Waste Project Manager, Chelsea Bennett, and we have Kyla here as well. Yeah. Would you like to give us an overview, please? Speaker 14: Yeah, I'll cover for Chelsea since it's her first one, so.

03:23:00 Just as a quick background, we did undertake a trial involving an EBS thermal compaction unit, Eumundi Noosa Noosi Landfill, sort of back end of last year and to the early part of this year. The trial yielded pretty noteworthy environmental and economic benefits by diverting this waste stream away from the landfill. Considering the findings and the recent tender process, this report offers a recommendation to grant contract CN00338 to IS Recycling under a lump sum agreement totaling $227,000. The contract encompasses a 12-month period for service and maintenance, encompasses the provision of supply, installation, commissioning and maintenance, as previously discussed. Upon receiving approval of the award, we expect the commissioning process to be completed by the end of this year. We expect the commissioning process to be completed by the end of August this year. Any questions?

03:24:00 Councillor Jurisevic: I've got one comment in the report. It says it's anticipated the system will divert approximately 50 tonnes of EBS, Nirofane. Nirofane is pretty light. Speaker 14: Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: What sort of volume would 50 tonnes come in? How many football fields are we talking about? In my mind, this has got to be a vast quantity as far as the volume goes to have 50 tonnes of such a lightweight material. Speaker 14: Yes. So during the trial, the data we collected suggested we were averaging between 20 to 25 tonnes over half a year. So we've taken the extrapolation of that data to 50 tonnes. 50 tonnes from a volume perspective is about 2,388 cubic metres. So that's the sort of volume we'd be displacing with 50 tonnes of polystyrene. Councillor Jurisevic: My understanding is we've got to... I mean, this is being diverted well from landfill at this point in time. We've actually got a stockpile of it sitting aside.

03:25:00 We've had the white bags there at the landfill for some time to collect this and to not let it go into landfill. Speaker 14: I dare say that 50 tonnes might be an undervalue in terms of what we're actually sending because we haven't actively advertised to all commercial entities that we're taking polystyrene. Councillor Jurisevic: This is my next question. Speaker 14: Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: What's the opportunity here going forward? I know from the past, the electrical wholesalers that I've spoken to and have come to me and when this service ceased, we actually facilitated this service in the past and the service ceased for a while, we stopped collecting it. They all came and said, hey, you're not helping us. We're doing the bit for you. We're collecting it all here. We want to be able to take it to that next step. What can we do? We've got the service back, the trial with the machine and the like.

03:26:00 We've got electrical wholesalers. I'm managing retailers. The list, plumbing supplies, wholesalers, retailers, all of those that have products here, but also the general public when they get their product home, that styrofoam packaging, here's an opportunity to make them understand that there's a new stream, a new supply chain and a new waste stream that you can make a free, you know, to come and dispose of so that we can then extrude this, take all the air out of it and turn it into these hard blocks. Speaker 14: Yeah, well, I think we've got, I mean, the machine's been sized for 200 kilograms an hour and so there's enough capacity there for us to absorb any material that's produced locally. There's also probably enough capacity in there for us to absorb any other material from any range that we may have through our MOU with Gympie. So there's a potential that we can take this in and turn it into a revenue generating stream

03:27:00 for Noosa. So that's the other potential out of this machine. Councillor Jurisevic: So just with regards to volume, what is the extrusion or the compaction rate from what it starts out with to what it ends up with? Speaker 14: I couldn't, yeah. That's around 90%, I think. Yeah. So Chelsea's saying 90% production. Councillor Jurisevic: 90% reduction in the volume of it down to, thank you. Mayor Stewart: Thanks, Shire. Yeah, thank you. It's $90. Yeah. Councillor Driscoll's just talking about potentially making that, but we're saving through maybe $1,000 potentially, aren't we? Speaker 14: Yep. Mayor Stewart: So straight up, which is fantastic. Speaker 14: Yeah. So every tonne we put to landfill costs us about $160 in operational cost. So if we dive, and that 15 kilos makes up one cubic metre of a tonne of which you'd automatically displace through waste. So from that sort of tonnage or that sort of displacement, we've managed to reduce that

03:28:00 cost of 2,000 or 3,000 tonnes. Mayor Stewart: So it's better for the environment, better for the back profit. Speaker 14: Financially, yes. We've just spent $9 million on a landfill last year, so any volume we can save is a huge saving for us internally, yes. Mayor Stewart: Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: John, one other question. Yeah. So with regard to a $270,000 investment. Speaker 14: Yep. Councillor Jurisevic: Anticipated processing cost savings of approximately $381,000. So within a year, we should recover the cost of this and it should continue on. Speaker 14: To be brutally honest, I think we probably paid for it in the last seven months trial. Wow. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: That's the reality. Yeah. That's a great outcome. Yeah. That's a great outcome. Councillor Wilkie: Do you want to issue one of them? I will. Hang on. Councillor Jurisevic: So you actually want to jump to my... Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

03:29:00 Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Yeah. This is without a doubt one of the elements that I've championed in the past because I've brought the concept of the extrusion machine back from the waste conference many, many years ago. I spoke with the previous waste manager and we started diverting styrofoam back out of the landfill, not back out, but being dumped into those baskets and started getting that collection. The original concept of this was it was taken off site and delivered, but the opportunity there to see... And it's clear here that for a reasonable investment, you get a return on that investment. Yeah. So it's a no brainer to turn around and facilitate this, the diversion from landfill, the volume and the waste there. And we haven't even tapped the entire mark. To make people understand that here is a way of disposing of something out of... There's an everyday usage, an everyday packaging that can be better constructed.

03:30:00 90% reduction in volume as it goes through this process and also creates a return to council. Not only on the savings of it going into the landfill, which we don't have to pay for, but in the product that it creates, which then goes back to create more styrofoam. So it's closing the loop. It's creating the circular economy. It's facilitating a great need and a great diversion of waste from our landfill. And I congratulate staff on getting us to this point where we can facilitate this service for the community. Thank you. Councillor Lowes. Councillor Lorentson: Congratulations, firstly, Cooroy and team. Fantastic. My question is about end users. So I think that anything we do with waste, you need to transition into a circular economy. Who are the end users? As surfers, epoxy surfboards are made from EPS. And the EPS is a sort of a circular economy.

03:31:00 It's very light, very good if you want to do progressive turns. My kids have them. They snap them because they are so light and super fast. But who are the end users and have we gone out to them? Speaker 14: So at the moment, we're looking at trying to get a contract with the actual installer. And they will take the material back off us and put it back into the market. And it'll be basically recycled. It's going to be recycled. EPS. So it will go to a very varied suppliers to use rather than virgin EPS. So it could go into surfboards. It could go back into products that we get a TV from electrical companies or whatever. So that end market, I think, from a complete circular economy, it would be great to control that better. But we would need a manufacturing step in between. So we'd need some advanced manufacturing on site. That would take our product and turn it into another product to be able to utilize in

03:32:00 circles. Councillor Lorentson: And that is the vision, isn't it? Long term, that's your vision, Kyrone, to see it all happen on the landfill site? Speaker 14: I think with various products, I think we are looking, as you've just made the point, to advance manufacturing. It really depends on the material, how much material we produce, the investment in that advanced manufacturing and the market afterwards. So there'd be a lot of work to do at that back end. But I guess the focus for the team and myself at the moment is to establish quality products, which are base products that can actually go to some market. And then that just diverts them away from landfill. And typically the markets will then open up after that. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. Thank you. Tom? Councillor Wegener: When you say polystyrene, it's expanded polystyrene and extruded polystyrene. The two types of polystyrene? Speaker 14: No. What we're doing is extruding expanded polystyrene basically back to a, it's not natural form,

03:33:00 but it's a condensed form that can actually be then pulled back and used as expanded polystyrene Councillor Wegener: again. Okay. Well, there's two types of polystyrene, extruded polystyrene and expanded polystyrene. But I assume that both of the types of polystyrene will be able to go into the same stuff. Speaker 14: Yes. Councillor Wegener: I'd like to speak to it the most. And maybe I'm not popular when I say, you know, polystyrene is a fantastic product. I mean, my gosh, you can make so many things out of it. And I think the fact that manufacturing here uses the stuff, it's used a lot and having it being able to be recycled is really, really important. Actually, I would think that not only surfboards, but I think that there's quite a few businesses that will just say, hallelujah, I can take care of my waste, I can feel good about this, I can take my business into this way, furniture, whatever. Even houses are being made out of polystyrene now.

03:34:00 It doesn't burn. You can make unburnable polystyrene, which is unbelievable. So there's a lot of future for it, even though it's not wood, it's still pretty darn good. And the recycling is just fantastic. I think it opens doors for manufacturers in this area. Councillor Wilkie: Can I stop for a minute? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Oh, look, I'm going to have to respond to that. I think felonia is a fantastic product. And cheap recycled and non-recyclable and carbon-based things are not going to crash home. I understand where council Regan is coming from. But yeah, this is a problem product. And the culture that has made it such a huge problem. You know, buying things online and expecting everything to arrive with 15 layers of protection is what's driving the huge growth in it. And it would be a real shame to have a new staff member here without fully initiating

03:35:00 them. And I know mechanical engineers are always interested in buying new gadgets. But I believe you may have a background in chemical and a pretty good process engineering mind. So can you assure me in terms of this process that we've looked at everything we need in terms of receiving, storing, treating and removing the product, that there is no additional risks or no potential constraints that can be created by buying this particular machine? Speaker 3: Absolutely. So we've assessed the process from receivables. We've been assessing the changes that we might need to make to the layout on site so that we're not introducing any new safety risks of perhaps contractors or businesses pulling up with big vans of broccoli boxes from the fruit shop and unloading that in. Making sure that we've assessed safe unloading areas, ensuring that we've got no fly away

03:36:00 materials. So we're going to be looking to contain the shed that we're processing in really well. Looked at all of the, any concerns around manual loading. Handling of the product going in as well as coming out the other end and right back down to where we're storing it just before it gets taken away. So a full assessment of that. Speaker 14: And the other thing to just add to what Chelsea said is the plant is a package plant. So it actually is, has the ability to unbolt from the floor and be moved. So if there is a change in layout of the site, we would be able to move that equipment to a different layout and potentially build a better shed for it to go in. If that was to go ahead. Very good. Councillor Jurisevic: I've got a further question. It's going to power in the unit. I mean, you know, something like this obviously has a power need and a power requirement. Do we know what the power element is and how much of it can be delivered through solar

03:37:00 power or alternative energy sources rather than? Speaker 14: Yeah, I think, I mean, it consumes power. There's no doubt about that. And when you heat something and compress something, you're usually using a fairly significant motor. At the moment, all the power at the landfill site is pulled off the mains. One of our projects that's going through is to look at a slightly different usage for the landfill in terms of solar power. And so we would obviously be using solar power to run this if that were to go ahead and be feasible. Councillor Jurisevic: So the capacity to relocate this machine, new sheds and future planning with regard to solar power on roofs of sheds and the like is something in the pipeline for the future of the landfill? Speaker 14: Yeah, I think as part of what Chelsea was saying, the long term vision of the site and procuring this bit of kit in particular, it's packaging, it's package set out allows us

03:38:00 to do exactly that and change building, change power input and allow us to run on that. Councillor Jurisevic: That's a slightly questionable left field. Can the machine be used for anything else? Speaker 14: I would... Councillor Jurisevic: I was thinking of the balers being used for cardboard being able to be used for foam, for example. Yeah. But has this got any other potential uses? Speaker 14: I wouldn't be able to say with confidence at the table, but... Councillor Jurisevic: I don't know whether that's been looked into whether there's any other uses if it hasn't. Speaker 14: It works off compression and heat, so... Speaker 3: Can I add just an additional part to what Kyra mentioned? The other attractive feature of this machine is that we've got a silo that will allow accumulation greater than what will probably the rate that we'll require, so we will be able to run the machine without the extruder, which requires a lot of thermal energy on, so we can actually

03:39:00 stockpile just using the shredder and accumulate that material in place before we turn on the thermal compartment of the machine as well, so that will allow us to operate in the most efficient manner. Councillor Lorentson: In terms of noise and odour, is it noisy and does it have any, you know, does it emit any odours? Speaker 14: So noise will be insignificant on a landfill. Odour-wise, there will be an odour that comes off if you're heating something up. There's two other sites that are operating with this particular machine in Queensland that don't have any filtration or extraction systems. We've chosen to put on a carbon filter, and the carbon filter will absorb any odour, if any, and put it through the carbon filter and exhaust outside. Wouldn't it be right to have odour from a dump site? Well, that's the other bit.

03:40:00 It's... Councillor Jurisevic: You know, being styrofoam, is there any toxicity in what's given off? Probably. Speaker 14: There's the... We're getting an independent report on the material coming out of the machine, pre and post the carbon filter, to confirm that. Councillor Lorentson: And I know the contractor's offered a full refund of $20,000 for the ventilation system in the event that it does not meet these standards, permission standards. Yes. Just a question. Councillor Wilkie: A couple of years back, we had a polystyrene washout on our beaches from jetties. One of it was very broken up and collected with sand. Speaker 14: Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: If that was to occur again, does the machine have the capacity to handle that polluted material? Speaker 14: I think you have to be very careful with polluted polystyrene. And it's probably not the sand as much of a concern. I don't think the sand would be great for it.

03:41:00 But what is probably more of a risk is metal and harder elements than the concrete. So all the pontoons that we received on the landfill, we actually aimed at stripping them down into different fragments, so polystyrene, metal, concrete. And it was very difficult to separate the polystyrene from how it had been plastered together with the concrete and the metal. So the risk of actually... We had the machine on site. We were trying to put the polystyrene through the machine at that time. Councillor Wilkie: So how big is the machine? Speaker 14: The one we've got now is very small. The footprint's probably three by three metres. Yeah. Something like that, the actual footprint. It's transportable. Yes. Yeah. This machine's transportable that we're looking to procure, but it's in sections. So it's bigger sections. And obviously, the throughput's a lot higher. Councillor Jurisevic: So what sort of a footprint will it transport? Any idea? You must have set aside. It's somewhere in the shed. Yeah. Speaker 3: Yeah. It's...

03:42:00 We'll probably be looking at maybe a six metres square for the shredder and the silo. And then we've got a conveyor running into the extruder, which is probably another four metres square. Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Finzel, a question. Councillor Finzel: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the report. I've just got a question around, you know, in the building industry where they use those prefabricated panels for, you know, wall configuration, and they've got the styrofoam in the middle. Has this machine got the capacity to, I don't know, extract the styrofoam out of that? Even construction is one of our biggest landfill problems. Speaker 3: We wouldn't be looking at accepting any polystyrene from building materials. Oh. So, you know, a lot of that material actually has flame retardants in it that are actually prohibited. We're not actually allowed to put them into the machine.

03:43:00 So, that will affect the ability to export the materials. Councillor Jurisevic: That's the question that I was... That was the next question that I had with regard to the forms of styrofoam that we can export. A lot of slabs and building and construction now has a lot of styrofoam in the construction of slabs. A lot of offcuts and levels of that. Is that type of styrofoam able to be put into the process? Speaker 14: It depends on the nature of that polystyrene. So... Councillor Jurisevic: So, there is some... Speaker 14: Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: So, there is some coding regarding the type of styrofoam coming in? Speaker 14: But the predominant volume of polystyrene that we get through is from packaging. Councillor Jurisevic: Councillor Lorentson then alluded to surfboards. I mean, surfboards. Are they made of the type of styrofoam or do they have coverings over them, too, in case? Speaker 14: Yeah. Usually, they're either covered in epoxy or fibreglass. So... Councillor Jurisevic: That would preclude that sort of stuff from... Yeah.

03:44:00 I mean, unless it was... Yeah. Unless it was stripped or shredded in some way, which would be a very heavy manual process, I would imagine. Speaker 14: Yeah. Or there'd be a pre-treatment. Councillor Wilkie: It's obviously cash positive for rate payers and it's a good indication of how clean environmental practices are also economically very sensible as well. Be fair to say we're done. Anybody else like to speak to the information? Mayor Stewart: I just want to thank Chelsea and Kyrone for this. It continues on with that war on waste. We really appreciate doing all these great initiatives and it lands on the back of the MOU the other week, which is fantastic. So we're taking some giant strides in this space and really you're a great team and we're grateful and appreciative that you have our backing. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Anybody else wish to speak before Jo closes?

03:45:00 Jo refused to close. Just like to say I'm delighted to see this piece of equipment finally arrive and be known to be an understatement. I want to thank you both and the team for all this work that's undertaken in trialling and getting us to the stage where we've been quite successful. All the work that goes into the understanding. Styrofoam's not the ideal product that we'd like to be. I'd like to see mushroom compost versions of styrofoam come to the fore in the future and hopefully we can still extend those. But whilst we have this product in the environment and it's heavily utilised as it is, this is a far better outcome than landing in our landfill. It's a positive return to the community with regard to landfills and the environment. It's a positive return to our industrial space and on a product that it creates with a return to the system. It keeps it in a circular fashion.

03:46:00 So it's certainly not going to waste and it's certainly going to be the opportunities for reuse and remanufacture of styrofoam. So well done. Thank you for all the hard work and the investigation that's gone into making this possible. And I look forward to the ribbon-cutting ceremony when we get there. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Put the motioners in favour? That's unanimous. Thank you, Chelsea. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Cheers. Thank you. Next up is the Financial Performance Report. Acting Financial Services Manager, Pauline Coles. And newly appointed, freshly minted Director of Corporate Services. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. May we have a summary, please? Speaker 6: You certainly can. Okay. So, good afternoon, Councillors. Operating revenues continue to outperform forecast, as do operating expenditures, which

6.5 FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE REPORT – MAY 2023 ¶

▶ 03:46:32· Carried unanimously 7-0 from council's minutes

03:47:00 is slightly under forecast for the end of May. Operating revenue is $1.9 million above budget, which is being driven predominantly by interest revenue of $855,000. And that's because QTC have shifted their rates on general cash holdings in line with the increases in the previous year. And we've also done some reinvestments as well. Fees and charges are below budget. These are predominantly development assessment and plumbing and building. Although I am aware that there potentially could be some more development assessment fees coming shortly. That downside has been offset by a sale of goods and services of $595,000, predominantly related to holiday parks and community facilities. Other revenue is above budget of $595,000. And that's relating to the recovery of the waste bin purchases by Clean Away. So we recover the cost of purchasing those bins. That's $110,000. Our insurance recovery relating to the properties and facilities that were damaged during the

03:48:00 flood event. So that's $128,000. And then some internal plant recoveries as well. Grant revenue is up $203,000 a year today because of some receipt of some flood management grants as well. So that's come through as well. Operating expenditure is $794,000 under budget with employee costs $162,000 under budget. Materials and services are $679,000 under budget. This is a combination of factors. So civil operations is currently $555,000 over budget. And holiday parks is $274,000 over budget, which is offset by some additional revenue. But waste, strategic planning, development assessment and infrastructure planning are also under budget. So that's offsetting and putting us over. Tourism and economic development expenditure remains on track. And overall council operating position at May is $2.6 million above budget.

03:49:00 Now typically projects are finalised towards end of financial year. So we do expect some expenditure to come through in June, which you'll likely see that come down a little bit as well. Capital revenue is above budget. And that's due to further advance payments of the Queensland Recovery Authority disaster projects from February 2022 event. Year to date, council has expended 78% of its four year capital program, which equates to $44.3 million, with a further $7.5 million committed. Council's cash holdings at the end of May was $111 million, with $50 million of these funds invested in high yielding term deposits to maximise their returns. And this has led to an increase in cash holdings at the end of May. And that has contributed largely to the upside in our interest rate revenue. Council's cash holdings are higher than we would typically expect to see at this time of year. And this is predominantly due to the advance payment of funding from the $80 million QRA program. We've got a net $17.9 million currently held in reserve for these works.

03:50:00 Council is also holding $10 million relating to advance payment of four years worth of waste levy subsidy. In accordance with council's financial sustainability policy, we are also holding a minimum of three months cash cover, as well as cash reserves to fund the operations for June and July, until the first rate run of the new financial year. Also provided in our cash holdings is the remainder of the FY23 capital program, as well as the $9 million of the projects that were pushed into the following year as part of Budget Review 2. And we also hold funds in restricted funds for NASA 2.0. This includes natural disaster rehabilitation, waste management services, developer contributions and unspent levies. We do provide a breakdown of these cash components quarterly, and you will see one in the next month's report. So that will break it down even further. Overall council's financial position continues to be on track and is meeting its financial

03:51:00 sustainability target. Mayor Stewart: There's been a fair bit of talk about, you know, the fact that we've got a lot of cash holding. Do you want to give us some background or explanation to that and shed some light? Speaker 6: So we generally run at around 60 to 70 million holding in cash, and that covers our general operations. So we hold three months to make sure that we meet our financial sustainability ratios, and that can be up to six months. And that's why we retain our QTC credit rating of a sound position. We obviously have a lot of restricted funds. So all of the special levies and the separate charges, like the environment levy or the heritage levies, where there's funds that are not spent, are held in reserves and cannot be used for anything other than those purposes for which they were collected. As I said, we also have grant funds, particularly QRA, which is our large one at the moment. But we hold in reserve to fund those projects specifically.

03:52:00 Councillor Jurisevic: And how much current QRA amounts? Speaker 6: $17.9 million. And we've just received some more coming in. So that will continue to happen as the project rolls out, and we'll get funding coming through for that. We also have about $5 million worth of surplus cash, which hasn't moved since our last report. We have had a significant sort of movement, I suppose, from this time last year, and that's related to some overspends on some of the capital projects and some unexpected work. But at this stage, in the last quarter, we haven't moved anything further than what we were. Mayor Stewart: Because we seem to have under $3.17 million, obviously we have to have a target rate in three months for cash expense cover, and we're at $13.6 million. Speaker 6: So in terms of how that ratio is calculated, it takes the whole balance of our cash holdings, and that includes a lot of restricted cash. And that's why it looks quite high. I can do a bit more of a breakdown for you next month's report that will show you the different components. Speaker 8: That would be great.

03:53:00 Speaker 11: So, as I alluded to, we keep our three months cash cover, which we constrain. And we only have a remaining $5 million of what Queensland Treasury, who review our long-term financial plan, call surplus or free cash, which in the scheme of cash cover is only another few weeks' worth of cash, given our operations annually. So of that entire cash cover position, not much of it is actually covered. It's actually free or excessive cash holdings. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Just to follow up, like the surplus cash you have is the $5 million target. And what I think I heard you say and what I think I heard in the budget deliberations was over the last year, we've actually gone down substantially because of the high cost of providing things like the Noosa Parade overrun and bridges, et cetera. So the challenge in the budget ahead of us is try and build that up to a reasonably healthy

03:54:00 balance. Because it's not only the amount of money we use to fund new capital works, but it's also that buffer for emergency. Correct. Speaker 6: So it's to fund emergent works and capital programs, or to provide a co-contribution to a grant application, or to pay down debt if we were wanting to pay down debt. It's important. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: So while it's really healthy in terms of all the grants, we're probably at the end of that rivers of gold phase of coming up, and that may become a little bit more important. Speaker 11: So if we were to fast forward 12 months' time from now, once we've gotten through the bulk of the construction work on our QRA reconstruction funds, which is a lot of that setting aside, and another year through that prepayment on the state waste levy, you'll find that our cash holdings in total will be substantially lower. And we will still only be in the middle of the year. We'll be in a position where we have a limited amount of surplus, or free cash. We'd like to think that we can retain the remaining what we've got left of $5 million

03:55:00 and not erode that, because once it's gone, it's gone. That's about our long-term sustainability. But you will see those cash holdings degrade over the next 12 months as we get through the back end of that bow wave or rivers of gold, as Councillor Stockwell alluded to. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. DA, plumbing and building fees in the loan budget, are we seeing a downturn? Speaker 6: So I think in terms of building and plumbing, there's been a resourcing issue in terms of pushing their revenue as well. So they've had some issues recruiting, but that's kind of impacted on theirs. DA is probably more of a timing of applications as well, and some of the short-stay. So that includes the short-stay revenues that we've forecast as well. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Last question. With regard to, I mean, we always get this, I'm just thinking of it now, with regard to holiday parks, where there's a revenue and an expense, and the two offset each other. Is it possible to add, in brackets, a net under the revenue, what the net position is

03:56:00 of elements like that, where we have? Councillor Lorentson: Yeah. We can do that. Councillor Jurisevic: Is that a difficult? Councillor Lorentson: No. That's fine. Councillor Jurisevic: We can do that. It's one thing having an income. We've got a positive net income or a negative net income. Speaker 2: Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Just thought of that thing. I'm going to look from one to the other, and it was all just sitting there going, okay, yes, we know it's offset against an increase in associated operating costs. So the net value is one. Speaker 14: Yeah. Sure. Councillor Wilkie: All right. Does anyone care who's on the call? I don't know. We have Joe. Seconded by Stuart. Joe. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you again. Great to see you. Seeing your financial position. Our capital expenditure continues to remain above $40 million a year, and delivering it with our team downstairs. It's a dedicated, devoted team that put it in. Plus, we've got disaster projects on the go at the same time.

03:57:00 So, Larry, to the guys in the team downstairs. Shaun's a lot here, isn't he? Yeah. So, to pass on our thanks for the level of delivery that they've been doing over the last few years, particularly under challenging times with COVID and ever increasing prices and the like, it's an incredible situation. Our operating revenue and operating expenses remain above track and on budget as does our capital revenues. So that's a credit to the way that our finances are managed and the finance team. Thank you again. I think the result and anyone reading this financial statement would see that this council is in a good financial position and well managed. Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Thank you for another great report, and I'd like to lend my congratulations to Trent. We're very lucky to have you, and congratulations on the appointment of the new director. We can stop saying acting now. We can drop the acting and the official director. So, thank you. Very well deserved.

03:58:00 Well done. Congratulations, Trent. Councillor Wilkie: All right. Pretty good? Further comments? Motion those in favour? That is unanimous. Thank you, Pauline. Mayor Stewart: Thanks, Pauline. Thank you, Pauline. Thank you, Trent. Thank you, Trent. Thank you for the report. Please enjoy. Speaker 6: We don't get rid of you, though. We didn't have the badge. Should we call you up? Okay. So, the Local Government Act 2009 empowers council to generate revenue from fees and charges by fixing a fee by way of a local law resolution. Fees and charges can be set to recover the cost of delivering regulatory activities, like planning and permits, as well as based on commercial full cost pricing principles, including a return on assets employed for business activities, like waste and holiday parks. The proposed 2023-24 schedule comprises over 1,000 fees and charges, which generate approximately $25.3 million. And that includes just fees and charges, as well as sales of goods and services to fund the delivery of council services.

6.6 2023-2024 FEES AND CHARGES ¶

▶ 03:58:18· Carried unanimously 7-0 from council's minutes

03:59:00 Pricing to recover the true cost of services provision is necessary to ensure that council generates sufficient revenue from its activities in line with its financial sustainability policy. And it also provides a diversified revenue base and ensures that the cost of services provided are equitably borne by those who benefit from them. The proposed 2023-24 fees and charges will come into effect on the 1st of July. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: We do this early each year because there are people in the community who have to give clients quotes about what the likely fees and charges are in a month's time. As I said, the process used to you is the same as others, is that it's a review of the costs, who's involved and for how long, to provide a service with a view that as much

04:00:00 as is possible, that the charge is not one that has to be subsidised greatly by the general rate payer if they don't benefit from it. Councillor Jurisevic: If anybody was wondering of the range and diversity of services the council delivers, this is the place to have a look. Councillor Lorentson: In terms of... I've got a question. Sorry. In terms of tourism events, we've had some discussion around streamlining events and reducing red tape. Has that been reflected in the fees and charges or is that going to be taken to a separate workshop and discussion? Speaker 11: Through the Chair, I connect to that one. It would be taken to a separate workshop and discussion. That was obviously if we wind the clock back to our recent adoption of our realignment, part of the discussion about major events through that process. And as our new Director of Development and Regulation commences next month, part of the

04:01:00 remit of that director is to work with their managers and those across the organisation so we can look at the approach and refine that. Councillor Lorentson: Fantastic. Speaker 11: So at this point in time, the fees are remaining as they are. Fantastic. Councillor Lorentson: And just a comment, and I declare I have a dog. So in terms of dog registration... That's rough. That's rough. In terms of dog registration, et cetera, is there an opportunity again to bring to a workshop or a discussion, Council, to re-look how we distribute our dog number two bags? Registration, what do we get with the registration? It would be great to get new supply with those components. Yes. I think, for me, it's the cost of all dog bags because, you know, I walk my dog every day

04:02:00 and I would guess maybe one weekend a month I'd be lucky to score a green bag at a dog beach. So, you know, for me I always keep thinking, wouldn't it be great, and then for that 93 bucks or whatever we're paying in registration, to be then sent a year's worth of green bags and onus on the dog. Speaker 11: I'd have to take that on notice. I do think there's another fine action to take on notice for a new director when they start next month as well. Councillor Jurisevic: Could be a fee for service then? Speaker 6: I was going to say, it'll probably add additional costs because it does fund other things besides those sorts of things. So it's animal control and all that sort of stuff. So those animal registrations are used for other purposes relating to animal control. Councillor Jurisevic: Perhaps an opportunity to advocate to local retail outlets to stop the appropriate type of bags

04:03:00 so that people can have hospital bags available. Right, put the motion. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I want to close. Close? Yeah, it's important. I think it's just wonderful that in local government we can start with a $500,000 community battery and end with a two cent doggy food bag. It all strikes out adversity. Councillor Finzel: Right. Councillor Wilkie: Put the motion. Those in favour? That's unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Pointing to a show holiday. Speaker 15: I'm not doing the show holiday. Councillor Wilkie: Larry Sengstock. Great. Show holiday. Mayor Stewart: Approved. I'll move it. Councillor Finzel: I'll second. Councillor Wilkie: Moved. Mayor Stewart. Seconded. Councillor Finzel. I don't know what would happen if we did. That is the 13th of September 2024 as being decided.

6.7 APPOINTMENT OF 2024 SHOW HOLIDAY ¶

▶ 04:03:39· Carried unanimously 7-0 from council's minutes

04:04:00 Is that an incumbent on us? Yes. Speaker 15: And some reason incumbent on us as council to identify and appoint the date. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: And I hope council scores theme on the day is Black Friday, not. Oh no. Yes. Mayor Stewart: I don't know. I don't know. I haven't done that. Councillor Finzel: I won't know. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Thank you, Larry. A lot of witches hats could be there. Councillor Wilkie: Put the motion. Speaker 12: This report is recommending the appointment of Ian Rushworth as the new member of the Audit and Risk Committee. There are two external members on the committee. The other two members are two councillors, currently the Mayor and Councillor Wegener. The previous incumbent of the role was Kerri Phillips and her term ended in March.

6.8 APPOINTMENT OF AUDIT & RISK COMMITTEE EXTERNAL MEMBER ¶

▶ 04:04:35· Carried unanimously 7-0 from council's minutes

04:05:00 So we put out an expression of interest and we received 35 applications and they were shortlisted to five and those five were interviewed and assessed. And Ian came out as the preferred candidate. So a little bit of background to Ian is that he's currently Head of Internal Audit with the Department of Children, Youth, Justice and Multicultural Affairs. He's quite experienced in this space and I've been advised by the selection panel that he does have a strong understanding of ICT and cyber security issues. So the report is primarily dealing with the appointment. What it also flags though is that we're currently undertaking a review of the report. It's a review of the effectiveness of the Audit and Risk Committee and that's being done independently and it's really appropriate because QAO have actually identified that the effectiveness of Audit and Risk Committees is really important going forward. So that review has just commenced, it's an independent review and we're also looking at our internal audit function and independent review of that, the same firm is doing it.

04:06:00 So the reason I'm raising that is that we're expecting that there will be a number of recommendations that will come from that review. And it may highlight opportunities for us to improve the operations of the committee. It might be numbers of members, make up of the committee, et cetera. So that's something to further consider. The actual membership of the committee is dealt with in our Charter for the Audit and Risk Committee and that's a Council resolved policy. So any changes to the committee, the make up, et cetera, will require a change to the Charter and that would also require a further report coming to Council. So I just wanted to highlight that because that is happening as well. Councillor Wilkie: Questions, Councillors? Madam? Councillor Lorentson: External member sitting fees. Have they moved since 2021? So it's 800 per meeting and other external members 600 per meeting?

04:07:00 Speaker 12: That's right. I can't remember. We did increase them and I had a feeling it actually might have been 21 but I'd have to double check that. They were lower. But we did increase them. It does acknowledge the fact, the amount of time and effort that the members have to put into actually reading the agendas, the reports, providing advice and actually physically attending the meetings, which, you know, virtually is a day, even though the meetings are sort of scheduled across the day. So it does acknowledge that. Interesting. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Chair, do you have a question? I was more a comment so I'll wait till I'm in conversation. Dave's actually answered the question I had. Do you want to? In the Executive Summary, it turns around and talks about the Risk and Opportunity Studies, Council and Colleges, Cyber and ICT, System Security, and I didn't read anything with regard to Ian's qualifications in that regard. Can you just clarify that? Speaker 12: Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: In that we have to get some sort of a clearer understanding or a clearer background on his ICT qualifications?

04:08:00 Speaker 12: He doesn't have an actual qualification. His qualifications are not in ICT. It's more his experience. And because he's also previously worked at KPMG as well. So he brings the in his experience. So as well. Councillor Jurisevic: John, allow someone to move it. Speaker 12: Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: I'll say that. John moves seconded by Ms. Stewart. John, just to speak to it. Councillor Wegener: Yeah. I was on the committee that interviewed him and he was, you know, just everybody gave him a very high score right off the bat. And the last Audit and Risk Committee said, look, you really need to look at your ICT. You have to look at probity. You have to look at, you know, the potential for, you know, do things going wrong in there. And so this person just seemed to be the perfect person at the time to show up and take on the new Audit and Risk Committee member. Mayor Stewart: Great. Thank you. I just want to thank Debra Wilson and Chancellor Wagner for being on the committee because it's extra. So thank you for that. I'm looking forward to meeting Ian.

04:09:00 He's a very important position. And he sounds like he comes with great credentials. So thank you. Councillor Lorentson: I've sat on the Audit and Risk Committee prior to Tom Wagner. So I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Kerri Phillips. He was outstanding. And I worked so much for her. So I don't know whether in terms of an amendment or just a no go. But I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank her for her contributions to the Audit and Risk Committee in her capacity as an external member for the last two years. I wish her well. And I'm sure that. Yeah. Speaker 12: Yeah. And I just want to let you know that I personally contacted Kerri through this process because she was an applicant and passed on that, those comments that we really did appreciate her input and really valued it, et cetera. So we have done that. But we can do that more formally in a letter from the CEO, which would be really appropriate.

04:10:00 And so, yeah. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Always good to have new eyes and a fresh perspective. Yeah. To keep an eye on our operations and our Audit and Risk Committee. Yeah. Welcome Ian's appointment. I'd like to also thank Kerri for her time on the committee, as we've alluded to. And I look forward to getting to meet Ian and have a little bit more of an interview. Yeah. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. And ladies and gentlemen, that is the last item on today's January 10th meeting closed. Thank you, councillors.

8 MEETING CLOSURE ¶

▶ 04:10:48

Council's recording ends before this item. Where a meeting resolved to close its doors, that is what the end of the recording means — see what council discussed in private.