Council Beat with Liam Durkin
IF only all council meetings were this efficient.
In something of an anti-climax, Latrobe City Council’s final council meeting featuring the current council lasted less than half-an-hour (no, that is not a typo, as much as this writer is known to suffer that condition).
The meeting, held on Monday, October 7 was certainly a break from the norm, as Latrobe City Council meetings had been known (perhaps notoriously) to run well over two hours in the past 12 months.
Admittedly, the meeting was largely procedural, with hardly any agenda items to address.
Of the 130 pages that made up the agenda, 51 were taken up by council’s financial report, and a further 17 by its audit report, to go with 15 pages of minutes from the audit and risk committee meeting.
There was no strategic items or statuary planning items tabled.
All councillors were present, with Central Ward councillor Tracie Lund and South Ward councillor Melissa Ferguson joining online.
Interestingly, East Ward councillor Dan Clancey also attended online, for what was his final council meeting before stepping down.
Local businessman/entrepreneur Damian Andrews, who has been prolific on social media and online in the lead-up to next month’s council election, submitted two public questions on notice.
Mr Andrews’ first question asked about transparency in consultant expenditure and conflict of interest processes within council.
“Public financial reports show consultant expenditure exceeded budget by an average of $2.135m annually, totalling $12.814m over budget 2018 to 2024. What processes ensure transparency and proper disclosure of potential conflicts of interest between consultants and councillors/council staff?” he asked.
Latrobe City Council Chief Executive, Steve Piasente explained that consultant expenses as a percentage of total actual expenditure from 2019-24 averaged 1.8 per cent per annum.
“As part of our transparent reporting, council is presented a report on the Accumulated Cash Surplus for the year with actuals measured against the adopted budget. Council has delivered a cash surplus at the end of each financial year for the past six years,” Mr Piasente said.
“In relation to the second part of the question regarding the disclosure of conflicts of interest, I can advise that, in all procurement decisions, councillors and officers are bound to declare and manage conflicts of interest as specified in the Local Government Act 2020 (‘the Act’).”
Mr Andrews followed by asking if council can provide a public report detailing the financial performance of individual projects compared to the original budgets set out for them.
Mr Pisente moved to assure that “Council has, and will continue to receive, transparent public reports that detail council’s financial performance against the available budget.”
The chief executive pointed out the range of reports available to the public; namely the Quarterly Budget Report and Quarterly Contract Variations Report.
Council moved to provide ‘in principal’ approval to the performance and financial statements of Latrobe City for the last finalist year, with West Ward Cr Brad Law (in his last meeting) and Central Ward’s Cr Graeme Middlemiss to certify the performance and financial statements in their final form on behalf of council.
Latrobe City Mayor, Cr Darren Howe mentioned Cr Law was “on fire” during his last meeting.
This motion was carried, although West Ward Councillor Sharon Gibson opposed, and was backed by East Ward Cr Dale Harriman and Cr Ferguson.
In opposing, Cr Gibson cited language used in the report.
“The parts that I am concerned about is some of the comments,” she said, pointing to sections listed under ‘Operation Position’.
Reading from the report verbatim, Cr Gibson said: “The forecast is to remain in deficit due to restrictions on council’s ability to increase revenue and increase depreciation expenses resulting from the recent major new infrastructure”.
“What I would rather see is ‘okay we have an issue there, and we are looking at how we can address that’ – but it doesn’t say that,” Cr Gibson said.
“The last one is Governance Satisfaction saying about community satisfaction, and how we actually engage with the community and we consult with the community. I suggest that if we went out to our community they wouldn’t necessarily agree with the comments.
“It doesn’t tell us what direction we will go to address issues.”
Acknowledgments were made by East Ward Councillor Kellie O’Callaghan and Cr Harriman.
Cr O’Callaghan acknowledged the tragic passing of Ella Hunter from Toongabbie Pony Club, and Morwell teacher Susan ‘Sue’ Briggs, who died aged just 55.
Cr Harriman acknowledged Traralgon Football-Netball Club on their premiership success in the Gippsland League, and in keeping with a bet he made with a mate, acknowledged Woodside Football-Netball Club’s senior football premiership in the North Gippsland Football-Netball League, which came at the expense of his old club, Traralgon Tyers United.
