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00:00:00 Councillor Lorentson: I would like to start with an acknowledgement to country. I would like to respectfully acknowledge the Kabi Kabi people as the traditional custodians of the lands and waters that form the region we call Noosa. Council pays its respect to elders past, present and future and welcomes the ongoing role that indigenous people play within the Noosa community. Attendance, welcome Council Wilkie, welcome Council Joe Jerusavik and Acton CEO Larry Sengstock. There is an apology from the Mayor Claire Stewart and I note that there is no other councillor in attendance today and no one in the gallery. So I'll start with confirmation of minutes, can I have a mover? Thank you, Council Wilkie
00:01:00 and a seconder. No discussion, all in favour? Thank you. Presentations and deputations, there are no presentations and deputations so let's go straight to reports for consideration of the community. 5.1 Sunrise shops, shop 6 lease. Speaker 1: The report in front of you today is seeking a one year extension to an existing lease at Sunrise shops, particularly in relation to shop 6, which is a bakery and cafe in the area. The current lease ends in April next year and we're seeking for a one year extension.
00:02:00 The reason for this is that over the past year at Sunrise shops we've had quite a few moving pieces, so to speak. We've had a new anchor tenancy established within the centre, we've had a number of small capital projects, we have shop 7 currently being fit out for a new retail offering and we've had the roof and guttering replacement ongoing which has been quite a big piece of capital work. In light of that we're looking to gain a period of operational stability, which will also give us some time to consider the future leasing strategy and tenancy offering at the site. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: Fantastic, I'll throw it to the councillors. Anyone have any questions for Robyn or Trent? Councillor Wilkie: Thank you Madam Chair. Robyn, why only one year? Again, I still don't understand why. There have been good tenants, there have been good tenants, there have been good tenants, Speaker 1: there have been excellent tenants. Yes, there have been excellent tenants. Councillor Wilkie: And why are you opting for a one year extension rather than the five year, five on five like
00:03:00 Speaker 1: they've had in the past? Certainly. There's a number of reasons there. This lease extension will take them through to April 2025, so it is still quite a future looking period of time from present. We're looking to see how the IGA stabilises and we've got a Butchers of Noosa going in in shop 7 and we've also got the aged hair open up. So this isn't a process to cease the current kind of offering that we have. It's just probably letting the dust settle a little so that we consider what the future options are and what Councillor Wilkie: the community needs are in the future. So to give the council and the leaseholder Speaker 1: more flexibility. That's right. I think we've got a great community and retail offering at the Sunrise shop. So it's not a matter of looking to change that up. It's probably just securing some
Deputation: DARREN MCCLENAGHAN - RACV RESORT, SHANE ADAMDSON & JUSTIN ¶
00:04:00 time to consider what the next 10 years looks like there. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Yeah, as far as I'm aware, there has been a bakery there for a lot of the shops in my mind. So the question I've got is similar to Councillor Wilkins' is why would we want to retain a bakery at the shopping centre for a lot of the years? Well, I think it's more of a long term than the short term lease. Secondly is, are we doing some sort of a review of the overall tenancy make up that may lead into this or with regard to why we're not extending this beyond a year? Speaker 1: No, there's no strategic focus on looking at something different into the future. I think what we're trying to do is strike a balance between our obligations to, you know, comply with the local government act and regulation about equitably offering spaces out to the market whilst also retaining a good retail product offering that we've got
00:05:00 at the Sunrise shops. So in light of that and the moving pieces that we've had the last year, this seems to strike a balance. Councillor Wilkie: Are the tenants happy with that? Speaker 1: Yes, the tenants have accepted in writing that they'll enter into another year period through to April 2020. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: But under normal circumstances, what sort of lease arrangement would we be offering a tenant at the shopping centre? What's a typical tenancy arrangement? Speaker 1: Certainly. Councillor Jurisevic: The IGA or the chemist or any of those? Speaker 1: The IGA is probably a little bit unique in that it's an anchor tenancy, so it's got a much longer tenure to it. The Butchers of Noosa lease that we recently entered into was a five year initial base period. But I know it's probably going to be a little bit longer than that. It's probably one that I would want to discuss with colliers around bakery offerings and typically what they go to market with. But absolutely, you'd be looking
00:06:00 at a minimum of three years and then probably something up to five so that it's got enough weight in it for a business to be interested in outlaying anything up front. And also longer term enough that it allows for a business to get established. Councillor Lorentson: In terms of impact volume, do you have any thoughts on that? Has it been good or bad for business? Speaker 1: There's been a few challenges along the way, just in terms of the parking requirements during a construction period, but we're managing that as best we can. So working collaboratively with the aged care site and their builders to manage it. Yeah, there's been a few challenges this year. Councillor Lorentson: In terms of concessions? So we're allowing a 12 month extension to the existing lease. Are there any concessions
00:07:00 given that there is these challenges with the construction site adjoining the precinct, the shopping precinct? Speaker 1: Not at this stage. Concessions aren't on the cards for us. No. Councillor Lorentson: I don't think you could actually be drawing in more business. Sorry, all that was my original question. How is business here? Is the workers helping the business? Normally they're good for businesses. Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, I think I can't speak to the individual shops and what their patronage is like. I know from the smart meters that we have set up that we have every day between 1100 and 13 unique individuals visit the shopping centre each day. And we know that we've got an IOT counter there that measures visitation. And that's been a steady trend across the year and increased after the IGA started trading.
00:08:00 So I think that patronage levels and trading, I would be comfortable saying that it seems to be performing well. Challenges like car parking for people who want to utilise the shops and go there, there's a little bit of back and forth there, but we've been able to manage that fairly well this year. So overall, I wouldn't say an impact. No. Councillor Lorentson: Someone who frequents the shopping centre a bit, Robin, and maybe it's just the times that I go in and out, it's a parking school. Yeah. Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you for the feedback. Councillor Lorentson: Great. Any more questions, Councillor? No, thank you. Great. Happy to. Okay. Can I have a move, please? Happy to move it, Madam Chair. Seconder? Seconder. Thank you. All in favour? No more discussion? Thank you, Robin. Thank you, Trent. Thank you, Robin. Thank you, Robin. Thank you, Trent. Thanks. Kay and Mel will go to report number...
00:09:00 Oh, sorry. The report's been noted by the committee. 6.1, the capital program, 2023-24 delivery status. And welcome, Shaun and Mel to the table. Okay, Mel. Hello, Mel. Can I ask if you could just give us a summary or a view of the report? Thank you. Speaker 2: Not a problem. So, this provides a status update on the capital works program as at the 30th of September. The total budget provision for the capital works program is $51.3 million. Of that carried forwards were $19.5 million. The infrastructure team is responsible for $43.3 of that, with the remaining $8 million of that. Relevant to community projects, fleet and other sort of projects like that. The disaster recovery program is now in excess of $100 million and is being undertaken in parallel to the capital works program.
00:10:00 At 30th of September, Council had expended $7.7 million, which is 15% of the capital works program budget, and had another $8.7 in commitments. The hot construction industry, which we've been experiencing over the last few years, is noted to be improving. But continues to provide constraints to delivery of projects. The road reseal program has expended $1.4 of the $5 million budget, and our grant funding revenue is $10.7 of the $51.3 million. The design team are providing support to 62 projects with a combined design and construction value of around $18.5 million, and the planning team are working on roughly $1.7 million worth of projects, which have a construction value in the future of over $55 million. And there are currently 74 multi-year projects in the capital works program. Councillor Lorentson: How do you feel, Mel, throwing those numbers around?
00:11:00 $74 million, $51 million. That's a lot of money, and a lot of programs and works and projects are on the run. It's a dynamic. Speaker 2: It is. It is. It's a large program. And it's a lot of work. It's exciting to be working with such large figures and involved projects for the community. Councillor Jurisevic: I don't know about you, but I like throwing those sort of numbers around. I like it. It's great. It's great. It's great to see the Russian getting on the winning, playing a bit of catch-up with regard to some of the projects, but also getting a lot of work done for the community, I think, as we acknowledge and appreciate some of the projects out there. I just want to say thank you for the format that this report is in, the listing of the projects and their status there. I think that's actually a good overview of, easily readable and easily understood overview of the status of all the projects at this point in time. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: All right. Questions? Council? Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, like $51 million capital works program, and that's not even to mention the $100 million
00:12:00 budget. So that's quite an accomplishment for the team to be overseeing and ultimately responsible for a program that massive. You mentioned the supply chain issues, the availability of staff, the overinflated costs, positions being unfilled. Well, my question is, how widespread are these challenges for other councils and also the construction industry generally, and what are more NUSA-specific problems, if you can separate them out? Speaker 2: I might defer to Shaun on that one. Yeah. Speaker 3: If you refer to recent announcements by the Lord Mayor of Brisbane City Council, who slashed their budget by 10% to be able to bring the program in on budget, and more recent announcements of the Prime Minister about needing to, you know, reduce the scope of, you know, the
00:13:00 Queensland infrastructure projects, is a good example that it's very widespread. Our colleagues in other local governments in South East Queensland are having exactly the same problems of resourcing staff and also being able to, you know, contain costs within reasonable parameters. We've seen the number of briefings we've already had with councillors and the capital works executive about refining our program this year, and some of the approaches we've taken on, like Ed Webb Park, you know, that we've had significant cost overruns, but we've seen that we've committed the finances to be able to do the job properly. Also on the SEMP, or the Dog Beach Sand Nourishment, you know, to redirect funds to actually do the job properly, and also on the VHF project. Now, as part of BR2, Business Review, Budget Review 2, we'll be coming back to Council with a landing on where we're at with the budgets and what programs may need, other programs that, you know, may need to be deferred to next financial year, which is not necessarily
00:14:00 a bad thing because we probably expend a lot of the budget, but we don't have the resources in the budget to achieve the full list. And if you remember the briefings we've had with you about the green list, the yellow list, and the red list, there's going to be a further update on that, so the councillors have confidence and clarity about what we can deliver this year. In parallel to that sort of project programming with the Acting CEO, we're doing quite a substantial workforce planning process at the moment, because these, the scale of our capital works program is not just confined to this year, our forecast for at least the next three years indicates an ongoing scale at the same level, and we're not resourced to be able to deliver this continuing scale. And if you look at our carryover budget, it's gone from $2 million up to $7 million and up to $19 million. This financial year, which indicates we're not getting through the work. So we're preparing for a new initiative about how we resource infrastructure planning better for at least the next three financial years, and that'll be considered as part of council's
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00:15:00 24-25 budget process. Councillor Wilkie: I want to thank you and your staff for being so upfront about the delivery challenges that we face, and just laying it all on the line because that's the reality, and the open reporting has been very helpful. It's been very helpful for us to get our heads around what difficulties lie ahead. Speaker 3: I think we just want to be in a position where we're not delivering everything over budget. We're delivering the most important projects to council to a good quality. That's probably my own personal view, is that let's do it properly, and get them to do it, and perhaps the less urgent things can wait until we've actually got the budget to do it properly. Councillor Wilkie: It's a very hardworking team. Councillor Jurisevic: It's clear the challenges that have come post-COVID, the supply chains through COVID, and post-COVID are still struggling to arrange. The three levels of government all trying to deliver the large array of projects.
00:16:00 With an Olympics in the wind, the next 10 years are going to be challenging in trying to deliver capital work. Clearly, across all of those levels, as a result of the number of major projects that have been on the chart. Speaker 3: Mel, did you have anything to add to that statement? You're in the thick of it. Speaker 2: I would definitely agree with the resourcing side of things. I think that allowing a little bit more flexibility with next year to have those most important or critical projects to council, time and resourcing to be done to the top quality, I think is going to provide a big benefit to the community. Councillor Wilkie: Do the job, do it well, rather than try to do too much. Speaker 3: I think it's doing the job to brief, you know, to scope, so that's, you know, we're not talking about gold plating, we're not talking about that, but doing it to, you know, community and council expectations. Councillor Jurisevic: But also clearly articulating the scope of the work and the cost of the project before
00:17:00 we commence the project, as opposed to finding out it's a short form of it. Speaker 3: And it's fair because Mel and Devon have been involved in a whole new process of project initiation documents that put a lot more effort into programming, both time, resources and also costing. So that as we start planning for next year's financial budget, we've got even further improved confidence in the financial forecasting. Councillor Wilkie: Some more realistic cost estimates. Councillor Lorentson: Yeah. And in terms of resourcing, interesting what you said, we've actually got to forecast the resourcing, because if we don't have the manpower, we can't take up a lot of jobs. And is that possibly, like, one of the learnings, you know, we've had these really sort of goals with grant funding. If they continue, would we change the approach we're taking with grant funding? Would we be looking at, you know, less, not jump on everything, and understanding these
00:18:00 challenges? Speaker 3: Yeah. I think the key issue with grant funding is that, you know, it looks so shiny and this thing, but we also require resources to do it. And often you can have a grant of, let's say, half a million dollars, but you need to invest 200,000 staff and time to actually deliver it, and you haven't budgeted for that. And I think it's about that when we're assessing grant fundings and when we're assessing our program funding overall, that we've got the resourcing appropriately calculated in that we can deliver it. Councillor Lorentson: In terms of staff and role, what is the staff and role like in infrastructure? Speaker 3: It's quite challenging. I think it's a fair point to say that at the moment, so, you know, when you're working on projects where you've got cost overruns and competing resources, it's a, and then there's also a lot of employers at the moment who are jostling, you know, for new employees. It's a challenging space to be in at the moment. Councillor Lorentson: And in terms of key positions, are they all filled, or are they looking at getting some
00:19:00 key positions? Speaker 3: So we have successfully recruited the design team. We've got a design coordinator role with Mitchell Allen starting recently, and as a result we've been able to initiate the, that's right, the Noosa Junction master planning process that we've engaged with the Noosa Junction traders. So we've been able to start that project. We have an acting manager of infrastructure planning, design and development, Michael Balestra, so who's doing great guns, because that position was vacant for some time while the incumbent was on extended leave. And I hope to be able to announce an outcome for the transport and traffic coordinator in the near future, which will actually be able to give us, what's the word, legs on our, you know, backlog of transport and traffic projects. Councillor Jurisevic: Very good. Having moved, you start. Councillor Lorentson: Oh, one more question before we move. In Sundial Park, first of all, what a huge success, like seriously huge success. I hear from here to Lane to Coast, people just travel everywhere. It's just a destination. Question is, are there plans to put in a shade or provide toilets at Sundial Park?
00:20:00 Is that something that you guys are looking at doing? Defer to Shaun. Yeah. Speaker 3: So the project. This one. Yeah. Do you know that? I don't know. Councillor Lorentson: No, I'll leave that one with you. Thanks. Speaker 3: The project manager. Councillor Lorentson: It gets asked when I'm at the park. Speaker 3: The project manager for the pump track is actually developed in draft master plan, including additional shelter and pathways and furniture and the like, and undertaken some focus consultation about that with our parks department, with the view to actually do a project bid. So for future use. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. Can I have a mover, please? Jo and seconder. Seconder. Councillor Wilkie. Nothing to add? No. Anyone wants to speak to the motion in front? No. Keep on doing your great job. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. Just acknowledge. Difficult circumstances. Thank you.
00:21:00 Thank you very much. I'll pass on those regards. Thank you. Thank you. Facilitating all the projects for . Keep smiling. Councillor Lorentson: And let's keep telling our story. I'm going to keep a copy of this because we need to have a book or something in place so we can just pull out and just say, this is what council does every single day. Exactly. Speaker 1: Wonderful. Councillor Lorentson: Thanks, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I haven't called the vote, Amelia. Sorry. I haven't called the vote. Yep. So all in favor, please. And unanimously. Excellent. There's no confidential session. And I now declare the meeting closed five minutes before the Melbourne Cup. 1.53. Well done, Madam Chair. 1.53 p.m. And next meeting. Thank you.