While renewing council meeting procedures will be on the agenda this year for Indigo Council, achieving $1 million in savings has been deemed a problem for newly elected councillors.
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As requested in the July meeting, Corporate and Community Services Director Greg Pinkerton brought forward a strategy to reduce the 2017/2018 budget by $1 million so the council remained financially stable.
Cr Bernard Gaffney was the only councillor opposing the motion to only “note” the strategies, calling it “interesting” the savings be deemed an issue for after the election.
“When you read the changes to Local Law 3, which doesn’t have to be brought down until 2019, this council is expected to hoist it upon the next council,” he said.
“I found it disappointing the only way they could cut the costs and save $1 million was to cut services.”
Among a wide range of proposals to achieve savings were cutting council contributions to disability respite care, local SES units and maternal and child health services by $150,000, $40,000 and $51,000 respectively.
Other options were improving internal efficiency within council, reducing opening hours of swimming pools and cutting community grants by $10,000.
Cr Jenny O’Connor reinforced wording in the motion that it would “not be appropriate” for the current council to make a decision on the strategy.
“$1 million out of a small budget like this invariably has an impact on services and when the new council comes on board they’ll make a decision around that,” she said.
Deputy mayor Peter Croucher said the strategy was “interesting reading”.
“I recognise it’s only noting … who knows what the new council will say anyway,” he said.