thank you councilors and good evening
ladies and gentlemen to anyone that's
joining us online for this our
unscheduled council meeting of Wednesday
the 11th of October
2023 I declare the meeting open at 6:30
p.m. councilors we could recite the
opening declaration together we the
councilors of the City of Ballarat declare
that we will carry out our duties in the
best interest of the community and
through collective leadership will
maintain the highest standards of good
governance we would first like to
acknowledge the traditional custodians
of the land on which me we meet the Wada Wurrung
people and we recognize their continuing
connection to the land and waterways we
pay our respects to the elders past
present and emerging and extend this to
all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people that may be joining us online
this evening this meeting is being
broadcast on the internet and the
recording of the meeting will be
published on council's website councilors
we have one apology for absence which is
Councilor Moloney who is on a leave of
absence moved councelor Johnson seconded
councelor Hargraves all those in
favor counselors the motion is carried
Councilors is there any disclosure of
interest in relation to the item there
would be none councelors as this is an
unscheduled council meeting the only
matter for consideration is as listed
which is the in Principal Financial
report and the performance statements
for the year ended 30th of June 2023
so the officers report 4.1 in
Principal Financial report and performance
statements for year ended 30th of June
20123 and I'll ask Mr Hosler director of
corporate services to give a
summary uh thank you and through you Mr
Mayor the report before Council presents
the 2022/23 financial report performance
statements for council's in principal
approval the requirement to prepare
these documents is a legislative one
under the the 2020 Local Government Act
the report and statements were presented
to council's audit and risk committee on
4th of October the audit and risk
committee did not recommend any
significant changes but instead
suggested some minor presentation
changes that were considered and then
updated as appropriate by offices into
the versions of the documents before
Council the committee have advised
Council that in its opinion the
accompanying statements have been
prepared in accordance with relevant
legislative and professional reporting
requirements and recommend that Council
records in principal approval of the
report and statement councilors will
also find attached to the agenda the
closing report of the auditor General's
Representatives outlining the report and
statements are fairly presented and that
an unmodified audit opinion is expected
to be issued for both the financial
report and performance statement
officers seek council's in principal
approval of the 2022 financial report
and performance statement prior to their
submission to the auditor if there are
changes recommended by the auditor the
CEO will be authorized under the
resolution before Council to
implement any changes prior to the
statements being signed for inclusion in
the annual report thank you Mr Mayor thank
you director Hosler any questions of the
director councilors I'm in your hands
move counselor Johnson do I have a
second councelor McIntosh is
the second councelor
Johnson thank you Mr Mayor as part of
council's audit and risk committee have
been able to take part in a a review of
the financial report and performance
statement like to express uh my thanks
to the members of the audit and risk
committee for their thorough
consideration of these two documents
there was a range of constructive
feedback provided by the committee 2
offices which has allowed us to make a
range of changes to uh enhance and
clarify the information presented in
both
reports I would also note that the
committee has recommended that we as
Council provide our in in principal
support uh to the financial report and
performance statement in terms of
financial highlights for the 2022 23
Financial year Council has performed
well against its projected budget with
an improved operating surplus of 3.8
million we've maintained a strong cash
position with significant financial
assets to pay for our future commitments
including Capital Works projects adopted
via our budget process and major inter
intergenerational projects including uh
those currently being completed such as
the Central Library Bridge Mall and her
majesty theater our level of borrowings
have reduced as a result of the 2022 23
surpluses being used to fund capital
projects as opposed to the scheduled
borrowings that were to occur this
financial year or rather last Financial
year now Council has delivered one of
our highest uh capital expenditure
programs spending 77.4 million on
capital projects across the city so I am
pleased to offer my support uh to both
the financial report and performance
statement thank you councelor Johnson
councelor McIntosh as the
second uh as the second Mr Mayor I'd um
like to concur with the comments made by
councelor Johnson uh this is an
important part of our our work as a
group of councilors to make sure that we
follow through these processes um
appropriately and also implementing
those changes to the statements as
recommended by the auditor general is an
important part of this uh recommendation
that's before us uh there are some
significant Works uh that councelor
Johnson mentioned the likes of her M
Bridge Mall um library and so on that
are all being dealt with as part of um
this process and we need to continue
monitoring with a great deal of um
oversight and also focusing with a great
deal of um detail as well on what we're
delivering uh the challenges that might
be ahead of us and also the things that
we can can learn from in the past uh so
for all of those reasons I support the
recommendation as it's written thank you
councilor McIntosh councelor coats uh
yes Mr Mayor a question if I can um I
realized I did have a question so uh
just in terms of um favorable items that
are listed there the employee costs are
really self-explanatory in that you know
like a lot of organizations that
challenges associated with recruiting um
suitably
qualified staff is is an issue that's
well spell out in the attachments but um
the materials and services might be an
area that community members you know
might have
uh queries about or be curious about so
I'm just wondering if if the director or
the CEO could could maybe add a little
bit more commentary to that so um for
example some of the unders spends are
related to timing issues and then
there's another issue that's mentioned
in there regarding to um uh passive o
Open Space contribution as well so
perhaps if we could have a little bit of
context for the benefit of community
members who might be interested in those
thank you councilor coach director
hoslo uh through you Mr Mayor thank you
Council coach for the question um yeah
Council coach has almost um highlighted
some of the key things that uh we as
officers have I gu identified in terms
of underspend for major commitments that
that we have within the organization and
those um items are highlighted on page
23 under Note 10 um so there are a
number of projects that are in progress
that we're working on um that we haven't
got to the point of being able to incur
the cost for materials um and services
at this point in time um and this note
really just highlights that there are
commitments that we've made um that
we're looking to ensure we um keep money
for in the future and that we're able to
through our car over process uh which we
considered last month still have
expenditure authority to complete these
projects more specifically in regards to
passive open space contributions the
these are funds that we receive that
have a specific purpose um I think under
legislation I might need to check with
my uh fellow director there but the
these are funds that have a specific
purpose which we've not had an
opportunity to expend yet uh which we do
hope to do in the future thank you thank
you
director any other Council wishing to
speak for the
motion thank you councils I'll just
speak very very briefly and from an
observation Point um of participating
the audit and risk committee and
councelor Johnson has already
highlighted some of the significant
areas but I just want to probably Echo
some of the the comments that the chair
of the audit and risk committee has said
over the number of meetings that I've
participated in this year is the sense
of willingness of staff to come and
present that has been probably a
significant cultural change I think when
sometimes people are asked in any
industry to appear before an audit
review we often think it's going to be
critical of us and we think that you're
going to find faults so is there things
to hide where I've seen a really
confident level of staff that have come
along to engage in the process
understanding it is a requirement of the
legislation that there is externals
which look at what we're doing to make
sure that the Proby and the Integrity is
fair and just so I think from the uh the
CEO to congratulate you and the team for
that steps over time to create a
cultural change across the organization
that is about delivering the best
outcome for our community with full
transparency on all decisionmaking that
keeps Council laws informed along the
way or for decisions that are requiring
of a council resolution and I think that
was a strong recommendation of the chair
that said he has noticed that shift over
time so it's great recognition across
the organization ation as
well the report also suggests that even
though these are um interim giving our
support the expectation is that the
thorough audit will be signed off at the
next level so I think that's a
confidence base for us to be in so I
commend the report as
well councils if there's no other
comments in relation to the item I'll
put the motion all those in
favor thank you the item is carried
councils that is the only item for
discussion in this meeting so I will now
close declare the meeting closed at 6:40
p.m. thank you to everyone that joined
us for that brief meeting and we look
forward to seeing you again
soon