Frequently asked questions

Any reduction in staff would mean a reduction in services.

While there's plenty of services that councils are legally required to do — such as regulatory compliance, DAs, maintenance of roads, facilities, etc. — there’s some additional community support services that could be cut back.

We have some hard decisions coming about what we should reduce, and we’ll make sure everyone’s informed along the way.

Staff are doing a lot to cut costs wherever they can. Managers have been tasked to find operational efficiencies across their budget over the next financial year, which will be reported to the Council each quarterly report.

Additionally, processes have been put in place to qualify projects and recruitment needs, review asset sales, vehicle fleet and asset maintenance so we can better scrutinise and plan our operational needs and costs to secure efficiencies for the long term.

There’s plenty of work to be done to keep providing the services needed by local communities and the maintenance that’s needed across the city.

There’s also a number of roles that Council is legally required to provide under NSW Government legislation that must be fulfilled.

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 to reduce costs, wherever possible.

At the 29 January 2024 meeting, Council resolved that the Executive Management Team (EMT) "consider placing a staffing freeze on all recruitment positions except where the EMT determines whether the position is required or to be filled by internal recruitment to provide a career path for existing staff." (Minutes from 29 January 2024 Ordinary Meeting - CL24.41: Application to Lodge a Special Rate Variation).

As a result, the directors and CEO review each vacancy and any new positions to determine if and when they’re required. As an example, 17 positions were withheld from proceeding with recruitment during April.

Any proposed new positions are being scrutinised by the executive to ensure they are absolutely required; tested to see if they are critical to fulfill a grant-funded obligation, to keep the doors of a service open or to provide vital works or a service. Workforce planning is based on achieving a strategic objective that is set by Councillors and continues until the objective changes.

The highest order of strategy for councils is the Community Strategic Plan, which is a 10-year plan that sets targets for the organisation to achieve the community’s vision for the city. Currently, staff numbers and roles align with this overall strategy.

Of course, the workforce can change to meet adjustments to its service levels, such as operating hours of administrative services, libraries, swimming pools and maintenance of parks, roads and facilities – which is a decision of Councillors and something that’s being worked through now.

The diversity of Council’s role requires people with specialist skills and qualifications in a variety of professions including engineering; planning; environmental sciences; recreation; information technologies; administration; governance; health; finance; economic development; social sciences, and more.  

Recruitment can be limited to current employees if there are staff with the necessary experience and qualifications to be considered for the role. Jobs are advertised outside the organisation when either internal recruitment has been unsuccessful or there is no one internally with suitable qualifications to fill the position.  

As an organisation looking to continuously improve, it remains important to broaden our skill base and seek specialist experience from professionals who have worked both inside and outside local government. We continue to offer our staff opportunities to work across the business and we support our people to up-skill, but there will always be roles that need qualifications and experience unavailable within our staffing pool. 

There have been no additional positions in these teams for more than two years.

Even with grant funding, projects still require additional financial resourcing and staff to undertake.

While this cost gap is different for each project, any amount of money is needed to balance our budget and reduce the projected annual deficit of $25-$35 million.

Secondly, the cost of operating and maintaining any new assets when we have a backlog of renewal of existing assets, is beyond our projected income at this time.

It’s unfortunate that any projects have had to be stalled. We know that each one is valuable to Shoalhaven communities and have been the focus of Council staff for some time.

All projects that have been deferred this financial year will be reviewed and considered against other priorities, such as maintenance and renewal of existing facilities in the annual budget.

Any projects that are not in the list for the 2024-25 budget will be held over for future years and assessed and prioritised against the need and budget at that time.

There has been no decision to cut mowing back to reduce costs. Equally, we are being financially prudent and not doing any additional maintenance that would be outside our current budget.

It’s been prime grass-growing conditions of recent months, making it difficult to get equipment onto the sodden grounds without risking damage to the surface of the parks and reserves.

We take care of around 1,200 reserves, so it is going to take some time to get on top of all the long grass.

We are working to address the Council’s financial sustainability and regret that this is having an impact on our ability to support some of the wonderful events and arts our communities create.

These expenditure cuts have also been applied to capital works projects and the recruitment of Council staff.

Funding for the Tourism Event Support Program had been allocated in this year’s financial budget and had to be absorbed to reduce the projected annual deficit.

Previously, additional expenditure would be covered by cash reserves, which are currently too depleted by the costs of recovering from consecutive natural disasters and the COVID pandemic to draw upon now for discretionary purposes such as capital works projects or sponsorship projects.

We absolutely appreciate all the value that the events bring to our area, which is why we typically invest in them every year.

It’s regrettable that we can’t support you this year, but we know that there are other offers from governments that you may be eligible for, such as the Destination NSW Event Funding streams which are open now.

A proposal will be presented to the elected Councillors for their consideration to apply to IPART for a rate variation in 2025.

In January 2024, Councillors resolved not to proceed with a SRV at that time and to implement a number of measures to save costs and increase revenue to improve Council’s financial position.

As outlined in AEC's Financial Sustainability Review (2023), the only way to permanently improve the financial position of the organisation and continue to provide community and regulatory services; maintain roads, footpaths, buildings, parks, playgrounds, sports fields and other infrastructure across the city, is to increase revenue and be more efficient.

Without enough revenue, we are unable to invest in maintaining our assets, such as roads, drainage and buildings. And the longer we wait, the more it will cost to repair or rebuild.

While we have already embarked on initiatives such as property sales, reviews of fees and charges, fleet vehicle and service level needs, a Special Rate Variation remains necessary to bring in long term, sustained income to cover the gap that remains between expenditure and income.

Any proposal for a Special Rate Variation would be shared with the community for feedback before Councillors decide whether or not to make a submission to IPART. If that does occur, there would be more opportunities to provide feedback directly to IPART as part of its consideration process as well.