March 2019 – President Peter Clee

Purpose of Report

To Inform Council and community of activities and to provide the community at large with information that is important and noteworthy.

What’s been happening……

Well our CEO finished up at the end of March and accordingly I would like to welcome Russell Anderson, the acting CEO who will look after council and community needs in the interim.

The previous CEO was to update his Position Description Statement so that we could utilise it to commence to advertise for a replacement, this was not done.

On his leaving we also discovered that the Annual Budget had not been commenced. Nor had the 5-year Strategic Plan been started (despite a year or longer of the CEO saying that the plan was started, had commenced, was nearly finished) …… it was not. Nor had he started our 5-year financial outlook. The council asset register has not been updated in 2 years.

The acting CEO has hit the ground running and has commenced work on all of the aforementioned documents. He has already finalised a 5 Years Strategic Outlook and a draft document may well be available for public comment shortly, well done Russell.

A walk through the CEO residence revealed a property in poor repair. Basically, it would appear that the residence in uninhabitable. It is not the least bit ready for a CEO to move into at this point in time.

The acting CEO will obtain some quotes for repairs and maintenance which will need to be done before we start a new CEO.

The CEO and I will do a full asset audit over the next few weeks.

I recently attended a meeting of TOPROC. Several items were discussed including the need to identify a regional waste dump to replace the Shoal Bay site when it comes to end of life in the next few years. Toproc have been keen to identify an emergency waste site to be used in the event of another disastrous cyclone hits the top end council areas.

At this point in time, Council has not passed a finance report for 4 months. The reports have been inaccurate or incomplete and council did not have the confidence to accept the information that was tabled. The acting CEO has made it a priority to ensure that the data provided is accurate.

I will be holding a Community Forum on 1st May @ 7.00pm in the community centre. On the agenda will be many items of interest including the proposed Caravan Park and the council verge policy. Come along and make sure your feelings are aired to councillors.

Where have I been ….

19th March                            Ordinary Council Meeting 27th March                            ABC Radio – Grass Roots 28th March                            TOPROC Meeting @ Litchfield Council 29th March                            Commonwealth Bank to change bank signatories. 2nd April                                 Weekly meeting with CEO 9th April                                  Weekly meeting with CEO 10th April                               LGANT – Mayors and Presidents Forum – Katherine 11th April                               LGANT General Meeting – Katherine 16th April                               Weekly meeting with CEO 16th April                               Ordinary Council Meeting