From the Council Chamber - meeting November 12, 2024
By Pittwater Greens Councillor Miranda Korzy
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Council kicks off discussion about funding our future
What are your priorities for council and how much are you prepared to pay for them?
That’s the issue councillors want to hear about from residents, following a vote last week to place proposals for a Special Rate Variation (SRV) on public exhibition tomorrow (Monday November 18) for eight weeks.
This is a vexed issue, as I told last Tuesday night’s council meeting, especially given the council’s budgetary problems coincide with a cost of living crisis for residents.
Many in Pittwater will point to the promises of the forced council amalgamations in 2016, which have clearly not protected the council from the financial problems it is experiencing.
However, these problems are widespread across NSW, in both merged and unmerged councils. With federal and state inquiries into council finances underway, the problem is well recognised.
As the SRV proposals note, Covid, natural disasters and higher inflation over the last four years have impacted our budget.
For several years now, the condition of council assets has been deteriorating due to a lack of funds for maintenance. Staff say we have assets worth more than $107 million in either poor or very poor condition.
The seriousness of the problem is shown by staff projections showing Asset Management Plans need an extra $15.1 million per year to renew and maintain existing assets, along with $10.4 million per year to improve services and for new assets.
This has resulted from “a growing divergence between costs and rates”, the council report said. Sydney’s inflation over the four years to June this year was almost double the increase in income from rates. When road and bridge construction costs are included, the gap between CPI and rates income is $23.6 million. This is at a time when grant funding has also diminished and we have cost shifting from the NSW government - for example on the Emergency Services Levy, which rose this financial year to $9 million.
I believe we must face the reality of the situation, that the council has been short of funds for some time and many ageing assets have been run down below acceptable levels.
In Pittwater we have roads, footpaths and rockpools in dire need of repair. Parents worried about snakes have been out mowing the lawn in parks and reserves over the previous couple of summers - because the council can only afford to cut the grass once a month. Residents are angry that compliance officers and rangers are not visible, with no proactive inspections of building sites, trees cut down illegally and dogs running loose on every beach in the district. Meanwhile, our bush reserves are overrun with weeds. As with built assets, the longer we leave them, the more work and money it takes to fix them.
In response to our funding shortages, staff proposed the following four options:
- Reduce services - the current path, with a rate increase from July 1, 2025, in line with the NSW Government annual rate peg of 3.8 per cent, or a cumulative increase over three years of 10.7 per cent (or $149 for median residential rates.)
- Maintain services – fund asset renewal and maintenance gap, environmental and natural risk reduction. This would involve the rate peg plus an SRV, totalling 6 per cent each year for three years. The total cumulative increase would be 31.1 per cent over three years (or $546 over three years for median residential rates).
- Improve services – option 2 + deliver larger renewal projects. This would involve an extra 8.3 per cent increase (rate peg plus SRV) each year for two years and 8.4 per cent in the third year. The total cumulative increase over three years would equal 39.6 per cent (or $769 over three years for median residential rates).
- Increase services – option 3 + accelerate infrastructure delivery and increase services. This would involve an extra 10 per cent increase each year for three years, with a total cumulative increase of 46 per cent over three years (or $934 over three years over three years for median residential rates).
The three latter options would require Council to apply for a rate increase above the IPART approved rate peg (called a Special Rate Variation) to increase funding for maintenance, infrastructure, environmental programs and community services.
Staff have not modelled an option for no rate rise - given even option 1 would involve deep cuts to services and possibly assets.
However, they have already reviewed events and services (such as the Hop, Skip and Jump bus, World Food Markets, and partnership with NSW Surf Life Saving Championships) that could be dropped, which would save $2.7 million.
Consolidating council offices and depots, and possibly selling off community facilities would raise nothing in the first year but could perhaps raise $4.5 million in the following three years.
Meanwhile, the CEO Scott Phillips has already restructured the administration to reduce the number of divisions from six to five, with the loss of one director (senior executives, including the CEO and directors are paid in line with NSW government pay scales for local government).
Some councillors at the meeting called for a comprehensive examination of areas in which cuts could be made to the budget. Narrabeen Independent Vince De Luca proposed an amendment to the motion calling for a review of the council staffing structure and salaries, vehicle pool, land assets, fees, events, grants, marketing and communications.
I supported this amendment along with Pittwater Independent (Liberal) Councillor Sunny Singh, the other three Greens councillors Ethan Hrnjak from Frenchs Forest Ward, Krystin Glanville from Curl Curl, and Bonnie Harvey from Manly, Bob Giltinan and Mr De Luca, both Independents from Narrabeen.
However, we were outnumbered by Your Northern Beaches councillors Sue Heins, the Mayor, and Jody Williams, both from Frenchs Forest, Ruth Robins from Narrabeen, Nicholas Beaugeard and Joeline Hackman, both from Curl Curl, Sarah Grattan from Manly, Rowie Dillon our other Pittwater councillor, and from Manly Ward, Candy Bingham from Good for Manly.
The motion then reverted to the original staff proposal. I supported that proposal because I think it is important the community is aware of the council’s financial position and options to improve it. Staff are required to investigate spending cuts anyway, before an SRV is considered by IPART - the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal.
Ms Grattan, speaking to the motion said the community had been living through a period of high interest rates, so it was not surprising we “have this gaping gap”.
“We can’t just continue taking tea and biscuits from the lunchroom,” she said.
It was a tough time if you had a mortgage, but people also wanted to “continue with Christmas”, with the council paying for events like local fireworks.
Ms Glanville said there was nothing inevitable about a rate rise, and the motion was simply to put the proposals on public exhibition, while Mr Hrnjak said he had liked Mr De Luca’s proposal but without it, he could not agree to send the proposals to public exhibition before Christmas with so many people struggling financially at the moment.
Mr De Luca agreed with Mr Hrnjak’s position, saying: “In view of the economic crisis, perhaps now is not the time to be slapping people in the face with increased rates.”
Ms Hackman noted the legal requirement that the proposals be exhibited before February for the council to be able to apply for an SRV on time for a decision for the 2025-26 budget.
She was concerned about those in the community who were struggling, however, she was also worried that the council’s unrestricted cash and investments have been run down. Council’s financial staff have a target of $50 million for unrestricted cash and investments, including: $30 million for liquidity and to cope with shocks such as natural disasters; and $10 million for unexpected new opportunities. However, on the current trajectory, the council will have only $36 million in this category by the end of this financial year.
The motion was finally passed by a majority, with myself and Ms Dillon, the Mayor, Deputy Mayor Ms Robins, Mr Williams, Ms Hackman, Mr Beaugeard, Ms Grattan and Ms Bingham in support.
Mr Singh, Mr De Luca, Mr Giltinan, Mr Hrnjak, Ms Glanville and Ms Harvey, opposed the motion.
If an SRV was to go ahead, I would want to see:
- Cuts to discretionary spending, such as events.
- A significant increase in the number of compliance officers and rangers.
- Funding for improvements to core infrastructure including roads, footpaths, storm water management and rockpool maintenance.
- A big increase in spending on environmental assets - including bush regeneration and the tree canopy.
- And spending to develop our Coastal Management Programs, important to planning for sea level rise.
I would now encourage everyone in Pittwater to get involved in this conversation about what we want as a community and how we can afford it.
Community engagement continues until Sunday January 12, 2025. Council will host consultation sessions including in person and online.
Council’s Annual Report highlights council maintenance problem
As the school report season approaches, council tabled its own Annual Report at Tuesday’s meeting, with highlights including: introduction of the first Urban Night Sky Place in Australia at Palm Beach; the adoption of a new Northern Beaches Waste and Circular Economy Strategy; and $73.5 million in infrastructure and asset improvements.
Due to electrification of council facilities and street lights, council has saved a cumulative $2.52 million on electricity bills, spending $5 million from its 100 per cent renewable energy agreement. That has already saved the council $1.9 million in the first four years of the seven year contract.
Staff noted that although the council met the six financial benchmarks set by the NSW government, it failed to reach two of its infrastructure benchmarks. This was due to insufficient spending on maintenance and renewal of infrastructure, leading to the staff proposal for a Special Rate Variation on the same agenda.
However, the report indicates the underlying financial strength of the council, with assets worth $5,889 million, liabilities of $186.5 million, and an operating surplus last financial year of $44.1 million. Excluding grants and contributions for capital purposes, the surplus was $14.9 million.
The report can be seen here: https://northernbeaches.infocouncil.biz/Open/2024/11/OC_12112024_ATT_2405_EXCLUDED.PDF
Councillors voted unanimously to place the report on the council website.
Graffiti removal costs $500K but incidents down nearly 40 per cent
Northern Beaches Council spent $500,000 last financial year on graffiti removal, a report to last week’s council meeting found.
As a result of concerns about the issue, the council will task its Community Safety Committee to consider graffiti-related problems at its meetings, and to set up a sub committee to deal with it.
The request follows a report to council’s Tuesday meeting in response to a motion last term from former Pittwater Liberal councillor Michael Gencher, calling for a graffiti taskforce.
Mr Gencher’s Pittwater colleague, former councillor Karina Page, spoke during the Public Address session at Tuesday’s meeting, calling for money for a taskforce to deal with the issue.
“Graffiti is not just a cosmetic problem but deeply effects the community,” Ms Page told the meeting.
“The current approach has been relatively successful but the number of cases reported indicates there is a problem.”
Another Pittwater resident speaking during the public address session, Mark Horton, told councillors that graffiti was “a plague that’s rampant on the Northern beaches and worldwide”.
Mr Horton said the council report was “nothing more than a fob off”, and called for a working group (or taskforce), use of surveillance cameras around Mona Vale, a public education campaign explaining the cost of cleaning up graffiti, and more dances and live bands to engage young people.
The report said the 2024-25 operational budget for graffiti was approximately $600,000 and noted the average number of graffiti removal jobs per month in 2023 was 492, a decrease from 827 in 2022.
By September this year, the average number of removal jobs was 254 per month. The greatest number of incidents last year was in March, at 834.
“Over the past 12 months, Council has received about 2,5000 customer requests to remove graffiti,” the report said.
“Combined with around 1,400 incidents of graffiti located and cleaned through proactive graffiti patrols, this results in the removal of an average between 1,000 to 2,500 m squared of graffiti each month.
“About 5 to 9 per cent of requests relate to private property.”
Four murals had been painted at Mona Vale, Curl Curl and Manly last year, funded by a grant of $71,500 for graffiti management, from the Department of Communities and Justice. Since then the number of incidents reported had fallen 39 per cent, and 72 per cent in area of Park St, Mona Vale.
Staff advised a graffiti taskforce, or working group, to provide guidance on strategies and action plans would cost $50,000 per year to run, requiring an additional initial budget of $100,000 for expert advisors. That would have required budget cuts from elsewhere and the report said: “The group would be very large and similar in resourcing to the existing Community Safety Advisory Committee.”
Instead, the majority of councillors voted to adopt the staff’s alternative recommendation to:
- Continue to employ rapid removal approaches (with requests removed within five days or one business day if offensive);
- Seek grant funding to provide skills development for young people at risk - in partnership with police and specialist youth services;
- Address safety issues with the Community Safety Committee; and
- Continue to work with Transport for NSW, other state agencies and land owners, to identify strategies to minimise graffiti (with reduced access to state owned assets).
All councillors supported this option - except Ms Grattan who was absent from the chamber.
New boat and trailer parking strategy on the way
The council will develop an action plan to deal with the large numbers of boats clogging up roads on the Northern Beaches, following a report at Tuesday’s council meeting.
The proposal for an action plan to be devised within six months, including a budget proposal, was put up by Mr De Luca, with detailed requirements including:
- a strategy for enforcing existing parking restrictions, with increased monitoring and patrols in known hotspot areas.
- the identification of specific streets or zones where designated parking areas for boats, caravans and trailers can be introduced, in consultation with local residents and businesses, with a priority given to high-demand areas such as Bayview and North Manly.
- development of a targeted education campaign focused on raising awareness about appropriate storage for boats, caravans and trailers, as well as responsible parking, particularly in hotspot areas.
Mr De Luca said trailer parking was one of the area’s biggest issues.
“All sides of the NSW government continue to kick the issue down the road,” he told the chamber.
“... This report fails to deal with how we can deal with this issue into the future. We can’t have public roads turned into carparks.”
Once again, Ms Page, who had called for the report while she was on council, addressed the chamber about the issue, saying it was undeniable the LGA had a problem with trailer parking.
She outlined some of the report’s statistics, including that 17,000 trailers are registered on the Northern Beaches, with nearly 300 complaints (288) to council in the past year about boats, trailers and other large vehicles.
“We need to engage the community in solutions,” Ms Page said.
“Residents I have spoken to are prepared to accept more signage as a trade off.”
The report said 43 fines had been issued during the last financial year for offences related to abandoned vehicles and 240 penalty infringement notices written for offences related to unregistered trailers.
During the same period, the council had received 137 requests for signage to manage unattached trailer parking.
Several hotspots were located within the council area, with complaints often received relating to Bayview and North Manly - due to water access nearby or the availability of on street parking in non-residential areas.
I spoke in support of Mr De Luca’s amendment, saying trailers and tradies’ utes parked on both sides of Pittwater’s steep, narrow roads, blocking buses from driving along them.
They also created blind spots for residents forced to walk on roads in Pittwater, I said, and read from a resident’s email to me:
“Cars often come around the corner near Georgia Lee (Place in Clareville) far too fast and then they come upon the boats and trailers parked on Hudson Pde,” the resident said in an email I spoke from.
“We have no footpath so pedestrians need to walk on the road.
“Recently a mother was pushing her child in a pusher and a car raced around the corner and was on the wrong side of the road.
“It was only sheer luck that there was a couple of pedestrians walking to help her quickly lift the pram onto the nature strip.”
All councillors voted to accept the report with Mr De Luca’s amendment, except for Mr Beaugard who opposed it, and Ms Grattan who was absent from the chamber.
Local teacher and activist Pru Wawn to be honoured with local tree planting
Council supported a condolence motion for long-time Pittwater resident, teacher, environmentalist and activist Pru Wawn at Tuesday’s meeting.
With Ms Wawn’s daughter Ruby, partner Scott and friends in the gallery, council: recognised her significant contributions to the Pittwater area and wider community; expressed its sympathy to Ms Wawn’s family, friends and all those groups of which she was a member; and agreed to plant either a Spotted Gum (Corymbia maculata) at Paradise Beach or a Swamp Mahogany (Eucalyptus robusta) at Clareville Beach in her honour. (See page 138)