A recommendation to Monday's meeting urges the council to authorise the chief executive to negotiate a 12-month extension with the Richmond Football Club firm, subject to Wodonga Council doing likewise.

A debate occurred in secret at last month's Wodonga Council meeting with its chief executive Matt Hyde saying "councillors made a decision on the contract in the confidential session of the July council meeting and that decision will be made public in due course".

Albury's response is listed for public debate, with issues surrounding the matter outlined in the agenda for Monday night.

In a report, council's leisure facilities boss Michael Stanton notes the struggles Aligned Leisure has had in coping with COVID fallout.

"The current season has been a challenge, particularly driven by staffing difficulties associated with the COVID-19 pandemic," Mr Stanton wrote.

"As a result, the service level and presentation of the facilities have noticeably dropped off over the peak period of the summer."

However, Mr Stanton argued difficulties would only increase if the council decided to switch contractor now or take control of the Albury and Lavington pools in-house.

"Albury City has limited industry connections and the self-management of the facilities would require significant time and resources from the people and culture and business and lifestyle clusters to develop an organisational structure and position descriptions and attract and recruit large teams to manage the aquatic facilities," Mr Stanton stated.

"Self-management of the aquatic facilities would require significant establishment costs with no financial advantage during operations."

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Nevertheless, the need for Aligned Leisure to be more amenable to public feedback has been acknowledged.

Mr Stanton pointed to that being addressed over the coming pool season.

"The key areas for improvement include the presentation and cleanliness of the facilities and pools, the provision of associated services particularly café operations and staff engagement," he outlined.

"Aligned Leisure management has already recognised the need to obtain greater direct feedback on their operations to better assist them in providing their service.

"They have committed to providing the following, from the start of the 2022-23 swim season: online portal for customer feedback; encouraging feedback at facilities via verbal or written formats; monthly communication updates on the actions they have taken in response to the feedback."

Aligned Leisure was engaged by Albury and Wodonga councils to run their pools in 2018 and entered a five-year contract which is due to finish on June 30 next year.

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