More time to balance the budget has been welcomed by Kiama Council but meeting the new PIO will not be without challenges. Photo: Kiama Council.
Kiama councillors have accepted a new varied performance improvement order (PIO) which will give the council an additional year to achieve a balanced budget, but the lifeline is far from a get-out-of-jail-free card, with new terms and conditions creating additional challenges.
Having completed 70 of the 74 items required to meet its PIO, Kiama Council was on the home stretch to financial stability, but achieving a balanced budget by June, which may have meant cuts to services and staff, was a final hurdle that outraged the community.
The council has been given more time to meet that requirement after NSW Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig issued a notice of intention to vary the order.
“Like you, staff were initially relieved that we will get an extra allowance of time just to kind of smooth out the transition,” Kiama Council CEO Jane Stroud said to councillors at a recent extraordinary meeting.
“Obviously that helps because core to the organisation is the retention of our staff and nobody wanted to lose our staff at all.
“Whilst we are grateful for the allocation of extra time … this is not an extension, this is a completely new varied performance improvement order.”
Along with meeting a balanced budget by the end of the 2027-28 financial year, the varied PIO requires council to:
- Adopt a financially sustainable budget pathway by specified dates, incorporating a one-year extension to the need to achieve a balanced budget
- Sequence budget repair measures before higher-impact staffing, asset sales and outsourcing measures are considered
- Prepare a strategic business case for Blue Haven Terralong Village
- Review strategic assets and revenue opportunities
- Strengthen reporting requirements to the Office of Local Government
- Not outsource its domestic waste management service
- And complete additional governance and financial management actions within specified timeframes.
“A lot of the things that are in there thankfully are well underway – some of them are renamed, some of them are retitled – we are confident we will be able to meet the balance of them,” Ms Stroud said.
“Some of them are completely new and quite challenging.”
Council submitted feedback to the minister regarding the requirements, including on inconsistencies with capital grants not being included in cash flow, the timeline to deliver updates to the Strategic Finance & Governance Improvement Plan and the ban on outsourcing domestic waste management contradicting existing services.
“We already have outsourced, because we have to, because we do not process nor fill any of our own waste here,” Ms Stroud said.
“So what we were most concerned about was wording of the PIO does need to make sure that our existing contracts can still be met and honoured.”
While there were some concerns by councillors that the new PIO was just “kicking the can down the road” and disappointment that this option came at the “11th hour”, it was hoped the additional time and consideration could create better solutions for long-term sustainability.
“We are now able to look at options for many of the services our community values, including youth services, tourism services, our libraries, the Visitor Information Centre and Kiama Leisure Centre,” Mayor Cameron McDonald said.
“But it doesn’t mean all the difficult decisions before council have suddenly vanished.”
The public exhibition of the budget, delivery program and operational plan, fees and charges and statement of revenue policy has closed with the feedback from these documents and final versions to be presented to council to consider at another extraordinary meeting on 30 June.
