A comparison between the time periods of October to March show how many briefing sessions were worked through by the Councillors from Oct 2018 to March 2019 and the Administrators from Oct 2020 to March 2021. The result raises several concerns.
Councillors worked through 76 sessions whereas the Administrators could only manage 37 in the matching period.
The breakdown by month is as follows:
Councillors 2018/19
Oct-Nov 34
Nov-Dec26
Feb16
Administrators 2020/21
Oct-Nov 18
Nov-Dec 13
Feb` 6
Analysis of briefings on the important topics of Budget, Annual Plan, and Rate Strategy are even more worrying.
Councillors worked through a total of 14 sessions on the important topics of the Budget and Annual Plan. The Administrators on the other hand have only had one session.
That session was back in Oct 28th, 2020 when they were briefed on an overview of 2019/20 financial results, the impact on forward budgets and Long-Term Financial Strategies.
Councillors 2018/19
Oct-Nov 6
Nov-Dec 5
Feb 3
Administrators 2020/21
Oct-Nov 1
Nov-Dec 0
Feb 0
That is not even step one in budget discussions. To date, the Administrators have not had any input into the current budget process and as of now, presumably do not know what the officers have in store for us ratepayers this year since they have not been briefed. Nice oversight skills costing us ratepayers loads of money for nothing.
Whereto from here?
Councillors brought the Budget and Plan to the public for 28-day consultation in March 2019. There is nothing in the March 2021 Council agenda this week on that matter regarding the consultation period for the budget.
Looking ahead we see Council have scheduled a meeting date on the budget for 14th April and then two more on June 2nd and June 9th, 2021.
Presumably, the April date is for the budget to go out for consultation and the June 2nd one presumably is for Council and Administrators to hear ratepayers’ submissions. A week later they can approve the draft budget so will perhaps spend a couple of minutes looking at ratepayer submissions before approving none of them.
An interesting aside.
The municipal monitor criticised the Councillors unjustly for “delaying” the budget process by one week back in 2019 when they completed their part on Feb 20th, 2019.
Seems the Administrators have not even started yet as of Mar 17th, 2020 so appear to be at least 4 weeks behind by comparison.
They appear to be scheduled to “finish” at the consultation period 4 weeks after Councillors did.
Don’t anyone tell the Minister!
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