Council’s future discussed at meetings
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COUNCILLORS and staff have been presenting the Fit For The Future Options Paper at public meetings in Gundaroo, Yass and Murrumbateman.
Mayor Rowena Abbey and General Manager David Rowe addressed the meeting in Yass on Wednesday, giving a presentation of the issues detailed in the Options Paper currently open for public consultation.
Ms Abbey explained councils across the state have been challenged to assess whether they have the capacity and scale to be financially sustainable for the long term.
“We were identified as being one of the councils that should probably try to stay fit for the future and to stand on our own [rather than merge with another council], she said.
“So our job is to actually prove that we can.”
Merging with other councils, such as Palerang for example, would put our council in the position of having to absorb their backlog of works (such as rural roads maintenance) and adjust to their higher rates.
“For example, Palerang has assessed their backlog [of works] as being $82 million, we have $16 [million].”
“Obviously that is no great benefit to us, to have to do a merger with a council that’s in a worse financial state than our own.”
She praised the efforts of the community working group that has been meeting regularly over the past months to debate what options should be presented to the public.
“The 40 people involved in the working group have been a diverse group of people – there are young mothers, pensioners, farmers, business people, real estate agents. We’ve had a really broad cross-section… of the community.”
Mr Rowe went through the three scenarios (details can be found in the Options Paper below).
He agreed with an audience member that the first scenario was a “worst-case” option that did not elevate council to the Fit For The Future benchmark.
Neither did the second option, but it did bring it closer. It relies on an assumption of $200,000 savings each financial year to 2018/19.
Scenario three proposed infrastructure improvements with a rates increase of seven per cent above the rate peg for five years, with all of the roads/bridge maintenance of scenario two plus additional infrastructure improvements.
“Some way or another we’ve got to get our expenses to equal our revenue,” he told the meeting. 
“You can’t keep operating in a deficit situation … we have as a council been providing the same level of services over a number of years, but with that widening gap to provide that [level of] service, council has actually budgeted a deficit, which under anybody’s terms is not sustainable in the long term.”
He stressed the rate rise proposed in scenarios two and three would apply to rates only, not also the water and sewerage fees included in the rates bill.
He said the working group had identified only one area where they agreed council should cut services – the old sale yards.
In fact, many wanted more expenditure on roads maintenance.
The $6.1m Federal Government funding announced this week for the Murrumbateman water pipeline was a surprise though, and had not been factored in to the Paper.
Audience member and developer Michael Gray said the Options Paper didn’t mention council’s coffer from developer contributions.
He said the shire’s real estate market had been through an enormous boom, “where has all that money [from DA contributions] gone?”
Mr Rowe said that $6 million coffer was sitting in the water and sewerage fund and remained separate to this issue.
Mr Gray was also concerned about the sell-off of public assets.
“Selling off assets makes me nervous.
“Why can’t we sell off the assets but put them into assets that earn something in return? Rather than just dumping [money] into roads for a year and not getting any of that money back.”
At the Murrumbateman meeting last night, one audience member said he wasn’t happy with plans to build the water pipeline to Murrumbateman because Yass water was substandard anyway.
Another was relieved about the funding because he was concerned about the town’s bore water supply running dry with the advancement of the Fairley development.
The public meetings will continue at Wee Jasper Hall (May 18), Bookham Hall (May 19), Wallaroo Wattle Park Hall (May 20), Binalong Mechanics Institute (May 21), Bowning Hall (May 26) and Sutton Hall (May 28). All meetings go from 6pm-7.30pm.
Councils are required to submit their proposals to the Office of Local Government by June 30.
You can view the full options paper here.
