The Council has scheduled three meetings in 13 days despite planning to reduce down to one meeting a month to save money.
Council held a meeting on January 25 with only six items on the agenda.
Another meeting is scheduled for February 3 and a third meeting on February 8.
The February 3 meeting is to allow Administrator Rik Hart to decide if Council-under-administration is going ahead with a proposed pitch to IPART to ask for the current rate increase to stay for another seven years beyond 2024.
Notification of the meeting is not on the website but it was earmarked at the December 20 meeting last year.
The Council met on December 20 to release a whole ream of reports for public consultation during the holiday period.
They included the operational plan – the budget and capital works program and fees and charges – for next year.
Council has to prove to IPART it has consulted with residents over its plans. Council should unveil the responses at the February 3 meeting. And then the Administrator will make his decision.
The February 8 meeting is expected to deal with the proposal to reduce council meetings down to once a month, a cost saving exercise. Council said the approximate cost of conducting a three-hour Council meeting is just over $6,000. By reducing the number of Council meetings to one per month it is anticipated there would be an approximate saving to Council of $4,000 per month or $44,000 annually.
Merilyn Vale
The Administrator says by reducing council meetings from 2 per month to just one will save money? They is a problem also with the maths there are 12 months in the year or is he proposing to reduce the year to 11 months?
What he should have said was that in reducing the meetings he is also reducing the amount of Public scrutiny of forcing through policies that would be unpalatable to ratepayers and residents of the Central Coast. He has already started by not publishing council sitting dates and agendas. What seems to be happening is reducing his workload for which he should take a pay cut! Half the work should be half the pay that would save $130,000.00 per year a vastly improved saving.
These decisions he and the CEO are making should be discussed by elected councillors not paraded as a forgone conclusion. We need to bring back democracy now.