Staff have followed a protocol of minimising (wherever possible) overtime or leave in lieu, reducing leave balances and tightly managing budgets. Since making this change in March 2024, we have managed to reduce the amount of money spent on overtime by 11% for the full financial year of 2023-24 as compared to 2022-23, which is a saving of $335,000. Actions taken have meant that despite this financial year’s combined increase to the Local Government State Award and superannuation of 5%, we have contained the increase in employee costs to almost half this amount at a total of 2.6%.
Strict budget controls are being followed with unspent budget allocation being redirected to support other critical areas of expenditure, such as essential capital works and responding to impacts of weather events. Budgeted items have been critically reviewed, including memberships to professional organisations, subscription services and IT licenced systems, advertising, uniforms and mobile phones, to cut costs.
Our accounting methodology has been adjusted to build a budget from the bottom-up by ignoring historic budgets to develop a realistic account that is reflective of the cost to deliver our current services at the current agreed service level.
Teams within the organisation have reviewed their costs and current service levels and proposed ways to be more efficient, providing more than 400 ideas for savings and revenue, that have been reviewed by Council’s Management team. Implementation of these ideas have so far meant a cost saving of more than $1.5 million.
A executive restructure of the organisation has completed, achieving annual savings of $1.6 million.
As efficiency ideas are implemented, the savings will be reported in the Financial Sustainability Productivity and Efficiency Report and adjustments will be made to Council’s budget through the quarterly budget review process. The latest report went to Council on 28 October 2024, and reported general fund savings of $3.2 million from June to September 2024.
The operating hours of more than 20 facilities and services in the Shoalhaven are reducing as part of the ongoing work to address Council’s financial position in the immediate and long term.
Adjustments to the opening times of swimming pools, libraries, waste depots, customer service and visitor information centres were presented to the 29 July Council meeting (Agenda: CL24.215). Staff suggested 38 reductions to facility operating hours to support a reduction in operating costs.
A thorough vetting process was then undertaken to determine which services could be reduced to achieve a financial objective with the intention of minimising disruption to the community.
The operating hour adjustments will result in a reduction in operating costs of $456,000 per annum (so far, Council has reported a reduction of budget of $320,758 (Agenda: CL24.287) and the remaining saving will be realised in the FY2025-26 budget) If all changes had been approved, a total annual saving of $1 million would have been achieved (but with a more significant community impact).
Operating hours changes that have a more significant impact on the community will be required in the future if Council’s financial position continues to be in deficit.
The current changes include:
- reduction in Greenwell Point, Milton and Shoalhaven Heads village swimming pool opening season from 22 weeks to 16 weeks – December to mid-March
- closure of Ulladulla and Huskisson Sea Pools during winter
- close Bay and Basin Leisure Centre at 2pm Sundays (instead of 4pm)
- close Ulladulla Leisure Centre (excluding the gym) on Sundays between April and September
- close Nowra Aquatic Park between May and August and reduce summer extended hours to six-week holiday period
- reduce Bomaderry Aquatic Centre opening hours on Sunday by two hours and extended summer hours to six-week holiday period
- close Sussex Aquatic Centre on Sundays
- reduce Nowra Library hours by one hour on Saturdays
- close Sanctuary Point Library on Saturdays
- close Ulladulla Library on Sundays and reduce Saturday opening time by two hours
- close Nowra Visitor Information Services on Sundays and reduce Saturday hours
- close Ulladulla Visitor Information Services on Sunday and reduce Saturday hours
- reduce Council Contact Centre hours by 30 minutes
- reduce Nowra Administration Centre counter service hours by 1.5 hours per day
- reduce Ulladulla Branch Office counter service hours by four hours per day
- reduce Berry, Sussex and Callala Bay waste depot from seven days to five days per week during the summer period
- reduce Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre Café opening hours by 30 minutes on weekdays and close on Sunday, except when there is a booked event
In November 2023, Council had 1,103 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) positions. With the new CEO in place, the headcount has dropped to 1,078 FTE in November 2024. This includes the 217 FTE employed by Shoalhaven Water, leaving 861 FTE being paid from Council's General Fund.
The process of recruitment is being strategically managed by Council’s Executive Management Team (EMT) to determine the urgency and necessity of filling vacant positions and extend vacancies wherever possible to reduce wages costs.
As a result of this process, there is a notable decrease in the number of roles being advertised.
For example, from 1 February to 31 October 2023, 228 vacancies were advertised while from 1 February to 31 October 2024, 131 vacancies were advertised. This represents a 41% reduction in recruitment in 2024 compared with the same period last year.
There are a number of roles that Council is legally required to provide under NSW Government legislation that must be fulfilled as well as those needed to meet the expected services.
The workforce can change to meet adjustments to its service levels, (e.g. operating hours of administrative services, libraries, swimming pools and maintenance of parks, roads and facilities), however any changes are a decision of Councillors.
At any given time, Council has anywhere between 30 and 60 positions vacant as a result of resignations, retirement and maternity leave positions. Since November 2023, advertising and filling these positions have been delayed where possible.
The construction of new buildings and facilities such as libraries, parks and playgrounds have been reviewed to determine if it is feasible to proceed with them in the next financial year or if they need to be re-phased to a future date.
A series of reports have been presented to Council (the Councillors) for consideration at Council meetings.
Decisions so far
- on 11 December 2023 the Council revised its capital works program and removed 60 construction projects from its commitment list for the remainder of the 2023-24 financial year to be considered for future years (Minutes - CL23.454: DPOP 2023-24 - Quarterly Performance and Budget Report (July - September)
- at its meeting on 25 March 2024, Council determined that it would place a number of construction projects on hold (Deferred from Agenda 11 March 2024: Minutes - CL24.68: Financial Sustainability Monthly Report), including:
- Bay and Basin Leisure Centre refurbishment planning and design works
- construction of Bob Proudfoot Pavilion, Sanctuary Point
- redevelopment of Bomaderry Basketball Stadium
- construction of stages 5 to 7 of Boongaree Rotary Play Park, Berry
- investigation, planning and design works of skate parks and pump tracks in Sussex Inlet, Sanctuary Point, Bomaderry and Worrigee
- construction of Berry Spinners and Weavers building
- construction of Berry Showground animal nursery
- investigation, planning and design works of Kangaroo Valley playground.
Council also decided that a redesign of the Sanctuary Point District Library to be of a smaller scale, be investigated.
- at its meeting on 8 April 2024, Council determined that it would place a number of construction projects on hold, including:
- at its meeting on 6 May 2024, Council determined that it would place 4 BLERF showground projects on hold (Kangaroo Valley, Berry, Milton and Nowra) (Agenda: CL24.117 Financial Sustainability Monthly Report)
In total, 13 significant projects were paused since March 2024. The estimated total project cost to deliver the 13 capital projects was $105 million.
The majority of the projects did not have a funding source identified for the full cost of the project (the unfunded amount totalled $65 million across the 13 projects).
Pausing projects resulted in previously accepted grant funding being returned to their respective funding bodies, as well as a reduction in Council’s budget 2023/24 financial year loan borrowings of $2.5 million, and further reductions in anticipated future year borrowings.
Council's adopted capital budget for the FY 2024/25 is $126.9 million. The final program is $61.3 million less than the amount proposed in the FY 2023/24 Budget, which was set at $188.2 million.
Applications for grants are being considered against the resourcing capacity of the organisation including the number of staff, program management and order of priority against other current projects and tasks as well as long term financial implications to maintain and operate any new facilities.