Council are seeking Committee members with highly developed skills, experience and knowledge that could do the following:

• Financial Management/Accountancy
• Community Involvement
• Infrastructure Management
• Project Planning
• Project Management
• Local government or public service
• Business sector
• Construction Industry
• Risk Management

Members will have experience of boards and committees, with strong capacity to work cooperatively with other professionals.

They would have highly developed inter-personal and communication skills with high levels of integrity and ethics. As well as, suitable qualifications, industry accreditations and have links to professional associations.

The Community Infrastructure Advisory Committee (CIAC) will provide Council with high level input that leads to the development of: (sic)

The role of the CIAC is advisory and would include the following:

• Examine project proposals, evaluation, and priority list.
• Support Council in responsible decision-making using principles to determine capital works programs.
• Examine large emerging proposals / unplanned initiatives to fit within strategies or request a feasibility study.
• Formulate advice / feedback to Council for consideration

The CIAC will consist of six members with specialist skills and knowledge as well as Council staff.
The CIAC positions are voluntary and unpaid.
Membership will commence on the formal appointed by Council and conclude on 30 October 2023. 

All preferred candidates will be required to complete relevant background checks (including but not limited to police checks, reference checks, medical checks and psychometric testing) prior to the candidate’s employment being confirmed. 

Editor Comment: Such a high-profile committee and no payment, entirely voluntary in nature? Hardly surprising that they did not attract candidates and that leaves vested interests as the keenest to get onto such a committee. Which group or interest would like to be one of 6 ratepayers allowed to direct the course of Council capital works program and circumvent the ratepayers, elected Councillors and public at large?

Either the staff are of the view that Councillors are unable to represent the community as a whole and so this group is needed to put a non-staff face on the process whilst allowing the staff to continue to make all the decisions or the staff themselves have shown themselves to be unable to properly prioritise projects.

Either way it seems that after the next election in 2021 until this committee expires in 2023 that the CIAC committee will stand between staff and the elected Councillor group. 

An inexperienced Councillor group would be hard pressed to overturn recommendations from the staff and this so-called ratepayer group. The group would meet only 4 times per year, and they are tasked with an enormous volume of work. It just does not sound possible and looks more like a rubber-stamping exercise for what is supplied by the staff.

Perhaps one of the capital works projects they get to investigate is the magical disappearing and reappearing Municipal Office Project. This project was thrown out by the elected Council group in 2017, reinstated by the staff one week after the Councillors were dismissed then a month later when the capital works details had been hidden from public gaze, the CEO says the project is no longer in the budget. The $30 million staff put into the budget for an unallocated expenditure months earlier however has not been mentioned since so who knows.