11 October 2022 - Ordinary

Good evening, councillors.

Thank you for your attendance this evening to Hawkesbury City Council's meeting on the 11th of October 2022. We'll start with an acknowledgement of Indigenous heritage. Hawkesbury City Council acknowledges the Darug and Darkinjung people as the traditional custodians of the land of the Hawkesbury. We pay respect to all Elders, past, present and emerging, and acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of the country. I'll now hand over to the General Manager.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

For members of the public attending the meeting are

Advised that in the event of an emergency, you will be asked to proceed in an orderly manner to the nearest exit following the guidance of our warden. I would also like to advise that in accordance with Clause 5.33 of the Code of Meeting Practice, meetings of the Council are recorded. In the terms of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act, this may involve the recording of personal information provided at the time of the meeting. The recordings are made to assist staff in compiling the minutes of the meeting and to enable the broadcasting of Council meetings. The provision of any information that is recorded is voluntary. If any person does not wish to be recorded, they should not address or request to address the meeting.

The recordings may be made available to other persons where such access is in accordance with the relevant regulations. The recordings are stored on Council's record management system. Meetings of the Council may be separately recorded with the prior authority of the Council. For the benefit of those persons who will be addressing the Council tonight, it is expected that you will refrain from making any insult, allegation or unfavourable personal remarks about any person present or not at this meeting. This request relates to both your address to Council and in any answers given in response to questions from councillors. For the benefit of all other persons who are attending as part of the public gallery, it is also expected that you will refrain from making any insult, allegation or unfavourable personal remarks about any person present or not during the meeting.

In accordance with the Local Government Act and regulations, a person who engages in disorderly conduct may be expelled from the meeting. Finally, it is requested that any person participating in or attending the meeting has a mobile phone, that they either turn it off or switch it to silent. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you, General Manager. Do we have any apologies? I can see that Councillor Dogramaci is absent this evening, so we'll note his absence down. Are there any declarations of interest? Councillor Djuric.

I will be declaring a pecuniary interest in item 170. I have completed the form of special disclosure of pecuniary interest under clause 4.36 of the Code of Conduct and have provided that to the General Manager.

Thank you, Councillor. I'll also declare a less than significant non-pecuniary interest in item 178, and we will read those items out at the time of those matters.

Okay, confirmation of minutes. Can I have someone move and second that, please? Thank you, Councillor Reardon, Councillor Conolly.

All those in favour, please raise your hand. It's unanimous. Thank you.

We have no items subject to public address, no condolences or mayoral minutes. So as per the agenda, I will now move the items en bloc. Can I have somebody to move the items en bloc, please? Thank you, Councillor Reardon, seconded by Councillor Conolly. All those in favour for the items en bloc, please raise your hand. In favour are Councillor Reardon, Councillor Vigel, Councillor Sheather, Councillor Conolly, Councillor Kotlash, Councillor Calvert, Councillor Djuric, Councillor Lyons-Buckett, Councillor Wheeler, Councillor Zamprogno, Councillor McMahon. Absent is Councillor Dogramaci.

Okay, the first item to discuss this evening is item 170, proposed standard instrument amendment for agritourism. Councillor Djuric, can you please read your declaration?

I declare a pecuniary interest on the basis of my interest in my principal place of residence, which is impacted by the proposal, and the effect of the proposal is potential appreciable financial gain. I have completed the form of special disclosure of pecuniary interest under clause 4.36 of the Code of Conduct and have provided that to the General Manager, and I will remain in the meeting.

Thank you, Councillor Djuric. Now, before we begin this item, I will draw Councillors' attention to the fact that you would have received an email this afternoon with a memo outlining that there has been a change by the State Government in terms of the due date of giving them Council's position on the matter. So the State Government have said that the due date will be pushed back to December. However, as per the email, you would have read that staff's advice would not change regardless of moving it to December. So the recommendation, as per the business paper, would stand. Based on that, I'll open to debate, but can I have a mover and seconder, please? Councillor Reardon, seconded by Councillor Sheather.

Any comments, please? Councillor Wheeler.

Sorry.

Go to someone else, sorry.

Then I'm happy for it to go.

Sorry, I'm merely typing up an amendment. Oh, that's right. Just a couple of questions. Sorry, stop looking, I found it. I'm just wondering where Airbnbs fit into agritourism. Do they sit outside the legislation? General Manager ?

To Director of City— Acting Director of City Planning, or?

I refer to the Manager Strategic Planning.

Thank you.

Yep, they sit outside of separate legislation in terms of short-term accommodation, so it sits outside of this.

Okay, thanks .

Anyone else wish to speak?

Based on that, I will put the recommendation as per the business paper. All those in favour, please raise your hand. Councillor Reardon, Councillor Veigel, Councillor Sheather, Councillor Conolly, Councillor Kotlash, Councillor Calvert, Councillor Djuric, Councillor Lyons-Buckett, Councillor Wheeler, Councillor Zamprogno, Councillor McMahon, and absent is Councillor Dogramaci. Thank you, Councillors.

Okay, moving on to the next item for discussion, which is item 177 , status of Hawkesbury Roads. Can I have a mover and seconder, but then before I do, I will be going to the Director of Infrastructure to introduce the item. Councillor Conolly, seconder? Councillor Veigel. Thank you very much. I'll now hand over to the Director of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Councillors, this report is a frank and possibly a jarring report, but it's an honest one that is a reflection of the past and an appraisal of where we are at the moment. It's a report that I think would meet, or rather contributes to, the considerable task that lies ahead of us, which is to start to rebuild the trust within our community. There are two levels, I suppose, that this report looks at. The first is something that is common with virtually every road in New South Wales, and I dwell on this not because it's an excuse, but because it is the reality that what we are seeing is an extraordinary set of circumstances that has broadly damaged the road network and led to failures across thousands and thousands of kilometres of road.

And that has been, excuse me, the incredible rainfall, both in volume but extent, as we now are coming into our third La Niña. That has a few issues, prime among them being the shortage of contractors, the shortage of materials, and otherwise the resources, even the staff required to address roads. As you will have read in the report, in one instance it's taken four months to secure the services of a contractor, and even then they can only give us about five days, and that's kind of around the Christmas time. It is a— A situation that is certainly, I think, unprecedented in the last 20 or 30 years. I think you'd have to go back, dare I say it, well before I was born to see such a situation in terms of the extent, both in scale and nature of the impact on our road network.

The second level then is where we find ourselves here at the Hawkesbury, and I think it's fair to say that as an organisation we've lost touch with how the broader industry has evolved, how it has developed over time in response to managing what is, I think, a far more complex task than previous generations perhaps thought it to be, which is the management of a road network. We aren't at the level of industry best practice. We lack sophistication in the way we do things, the way we track our data, the way we record our data, and that means that we are often making decisions without being entirely informed.

That also goes to some of our practices, and again, one need only drive around the network to see some of the issues living out in many, many locations on the network of the impact of practices which haven't contributed towards the development and the upkeep of what is, again, a complex road network. The report acknowledges the position we're in, and it validates the lived experience of every single one of our residents every day as they wrestle with travelling on the road network. It sets the foundation for, and it charts the first steps, or the next steps I should say, towards addressing this in the long term, and it is going to be a long-term fix. There is no short-term silver bullet to fix this issue.

It addresses the entrenched and the systemic problems. But it also makes a commitment to sustain the increased effort, an increased effort which has seen productivity well above what we've achieved in the past over the short term. It also provides a commitment towards better communication with our community, and that's something in my past, I don't know, I tend to measure my time here in floods, in my past five floods, 10 months, I think it is, that, you know, it is something that we really can improve. And that's telling our community what we plan to do and when we plan to do it.

What I'd also like to do is to shout out to our staff because they have put in a tremendous effort against the backdrop of an incredibly difficult set of circumstances. Not only have they had the unfortunate task of responding to five floods, but often for many of them, they live here and they have to drive these roads when they go to the shops. They have to drive these roads when they take their kids to school. They have to drive these roads when they go to their doctor's appointments and get their groceries. And unfortunately, they also cop it from a community that is understandably frustrated. But they have put in an enormous effort. In the short term, we've seen productivity with no additional resources, I hasten to add, of 150%.

That's double effectively what they have been doing against a normal situation, and they're doing that through overtime, they're doing that through weekend work, they're doing that through being taken off their normal duties and jumping on the end of a shovel. It's not enough, we acknowledge that. The problem is greater than we can resource, but they are doing the best that they can. Finally, the report also outlines some important and some critical first steps that we've made. So we brought in a new structure in August, a structure that supports our direction in bringing the approach to managing our infrastructure assets up to a modern day standard. We've commenced a service review of our outdoor operations, looking for ways to improve the way we do things: better data, better tracking, better flow of information so that we can again keep our community informed.

And we've also had a very hard look at how we conduct our asset management through an internal audit. So with that, Madam Mayor, I'll hand back to you.

Thank you very much. I appreciate those remarks. Before I say anything, did anyone else have any commentary they'd like to add?

No? Oh, Councillor Sheather.

Yeah, thanks, Mr Mayor. Madam Mayor,

My apologies. Just sitting a bit close here, that's all. The first line of the executive summary: almost 40% of Council's budget is allocated to drainage infrastructure. With the plans you've got and the work you've done, where does that leave us with that 40%?

Through you, Madam Mayor, that's one of the things that we have to grapple with into the future. So we have the skeleton for a new team. We've got a plan to look at our long-term asset management. The 2017 asset management plan, which was the last one, is so far removed from where we find ourselves today. It's not possible to make any sort of use of it in terms of forecasting where we're going to be or how we're going to use that 40%. It's really a case of this year is about doing what we can to hold everything together, focusing on the flood restoration. We know we have to do that. We know we've got a lot of work there to do. But it's also an opportunity to do a really damn good job of rebuilding some of these roads that were impacted, and so that we don't have to come back to these in five years or ten years' time.

And then with a view to investing the time and the resources into giving due consideration to that long-term asset planning, accounting for the whole of life cycle cost for our roads.

Yeah, thank you. With the work that's been done and there's... There's a lot of work that we don't see to make this happen. I drive around the country a fair bit, and I was out west recently, and the roads out there, I mean, some of our roads are really, really bad. And we know we drive on them. And if you don't drive on them, come out to my place. So, and I'm well aware of the frustration that was spoke of. But when you see some of the roads out there, we're pretty lucky. They're really bad. So it concerns me how we're going to do it financially. There's a lot of cost involved in those projects, and there's a lot of money that's going to come in from grants for the roads that have been flood affected.

So we'll certainly see some improvement when that starts to roll out. But we've got to play a lot of catch-up, big time. And, you know, we need to be mindful as councillors how we're going to do that. Something's got to give somewhere. And I'm not suggesting a rate rise in any form, I might add. We've got to be smarter. We've all been around a while , and I think we've got an opportunity to move forward and help the projects. Well, we've got to make them work. So, Madam Mayor, you know, I think that they're the sort of things we need to talk about, the briefings and stuff that we're spoken about in amongst... The talks we're going to have amongst ourselves, how that might happen, and get some advice from the staff on how we might achieve that, because it's not going to be easy, but it's something—well, I think it's the most important thing today that we've got to do.

Thank you, Councillor. I'll just add my comments as well. And the last sentence you said there, Councillor Sheather, is correct. It is one of the most important things we have to do, because as a council, we are there to deliver services to our community. And the one thing that every single resident sees every day is the roads that they're driving on, so you're 100% correct. I want to first of all thank the staff and, of course, our Director of Infrastructure. Since coming on board, and it's very, very raw and honest in this report, where it says multiple times, and rightly so, that the systems previously in place lacked sophistication and maturity, and there were poor practices within the council in terms of managing the road assets and the road maintenance and repairs that needed to be done.

And I think it's a really bold thing for us as a council to say that we were lacking, but we're going to fix it. And I think that restructure and that asset review is very welcome, and I know it's very fresh. And I think that the best thing we can do, and we know, the 12 of us know that residents come to us consistently with road issues, whether it's emails, phone calls, or face-to-face out in the street at the shops. It's the one thing they talk about the most. And I think that we just need to be really honest and say that right now the job is bigger than us. And it's not just Hawkesbury that's been impacted; it is most councils throughout New South Wales. And the issue doesn't come down to a lack of funding, because based on this report, if you look at attachment one to the back of the report.

Which is the infrastructure recovery program summary. That's a complete package funded by the disaster recovery money, so that's guaranteed, that money. And I guess while I'm looking at that attachment, I'll just say there's actually two things that we need to fix in this report already, which is the fact that when this report came out, it was five floods. It's now six. Can you believe that in a matter of days? And the other thing to fix, which was a welcome piece of information from the general manager, is that package three, which is listed in the report as in procurement for design, has actually just today, this afternoon , the general manager has signed off and that has switched to in design.

So what that shows you, even from just a few days ago where this report came out to now, there has been movement within this report. And what that shows you is that the staff are working hard, knowing that this is a real problem for our community. And I'll just add there too that it's clear from our business papers that significant progress has been made over the last 12 months to ramp up the delivery of the capital works program and our expenditure on road maintenance. The graph on page 82 of the report shows that our capital expenditure was almost double in the last financial year at $38 million compared to the last five years. Furthermore, the annual financial statements are also on our agenda tonight.

They show an asset renewal ratio for the last financial year of 150%, which is over double the ratio from the previous year, which was at 73%, and is also 50% higher than the OLG performance benchmark. Now I know that probably sounds like a bunch of French or Spanish to our residents out there, what does that mean? But please let me reassure you that what that means is that our staff are working exceptionally hard and meeting their targets in really challenging environment right now. And, you know, our staff, as said before, they live in this area. They're hearing the negative comments out there, and we just have to keep reinforcing that they really are doing their best. And Mother Nature is just a beast right now.

And, you know, whether that's in the Hawkesbury or whether that's anywhere else, we are just copping it left, right and centre. So, you know, it's bigger than us, and we have to be very honest about all of that as well. And I think the honesty comes down to making sure people know it's not the funding. As I said, attachment one comes under disaster recovery funding. The additional attachment that we got emailed, the 2022-23 road capital program, is money that comes out from the budget and the intended SRV pool of funds that haven't even been touched yet. So there's a whole bunch of roads on there, and what I really ask the community is to please take five to ten minutes to have a look at this report.

The information is there. It's also our role to tell the community where to find the information and make sure they themselves are educated on what is going on. Every single day on our website, the staff are putting where our road crews are. You couldn't get more transparency than that. Right now, if you look at package one again, which is something that I'm focusing on —sorry, the attachment one—package one is currently in procurement for construction. Now let me put this on the public record. Package one consists of Benson's Lane. I know a lot of people will be happy with that. Cornwallis Road, Cornwallis Lane, Cupitts Lane, Grono Farm Road — Councillor Sheather will be happy to hear that — Pitt Town Bottoms Road, which is probably right now the road I get the most inquiries on is Pitt Town Bottoms Road, Sackville Road, and lastly West Portland Road, which is probably the second road that I get the most inquiries on.

And I was out on West Portland Road yesterday, as I promised some residents I would be, just checking on the conditions of that. And you really do have to drive to the conditions. It’s quite shocking out there. And so our staff are well aware of it, and they’re putting it into their program of works. And yes, as the mayor today, I had a tyre fixed because I hit it on a pothole, so you couldn’t walk in anyone’s shoes more than that, I think, right now. So again, let me say thank you to the staff for what you’ve done. This report is here. I’ve put it on my social media this evening that the report’s there. If you can do the same, put a link to the report and just let everybody know it’s out there, and we will get there eventually.

Obviously it’s subject to weather and more events happening, which we all just hope and pray doesn’t happen. But at least there’s a plan. It’s a transparent plan and is now open to the public to see. So thank you very much. Anyone else wish to speak? Councillor Zamprogno.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. My question is for the Director of Infrastructure. I certainly appreciate the depth of this report. I can see a list of infrastructure recovery funding, and I can see that set into the broader context of our road capital program. What I was hopeful of seeing was evidence of how existing capital programs have been delayed and where any identified road program prior to all of this might be. Reconsidered. In other words, if we've got fund earmarked for a particular road, and it was for a particular portion of that road, but now because of the degradation of the rain and the floods and so forth, maybe that money would be better spent on a different part of that road, even within that envelope. And I can't see that. So could you speak to whether that's also a factor in our program? Through you, Madam Mayor.

When we developed the capital program this year, we have a 10-year plan, which is completely out of date, I hasten to add, but we have a 10-year plan which informs the long-term financial plan. That tells us how we're going to spend our money loosely over the next 10 years. When we were developing this program, we essentially went through and tested every road that was identified in previous years that hadn't been spent or that was scheduled for this year, and we said, is investing in that the best use of this money at this time? So that, for want of a better term, unlocked about three and a half million dollars through that process, and we reallocated that to other roads that were in more need of rehabilitation at that time.

Now, it's always a balancing act, and unfortunately, we're in the situation where things are deteriorating at a rather rapid pace. Where there's a case for needing to shift money around, we certainly take that on board and do a bit of a review. The reality is, however, we do need to provide some lead time and some certainty so that we can get designs, procurement, et cetera, done. So we do have to make a call about now about what it is that we're going to fix so that we can get the designs done, get the geotech investigated if it requires geotech, pavement designs, and then procured and out to market. What we're working on at the moment is essentially what is the list of unfunded works which desperately need doing.

And that will give us a quantum that we can either start to pick off, should we achieve some savings through the delivery of the capital program, or if there’s opportunities for additional grant funding that come out of any other levels of government either. Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Councillor. Just before I put this to the vote, I will just draw the community and the councillors’ attention back to attachment one, which is in the report, where it does list all those road packages. You’ll see at the top, before it lists the road packages, it also has a heading called projects. And anyone who is watching in the community at home, that lists those really key major projects that are the result of significant flood damage. And I did just want to highlight to those sectors of our community that those projects are in the report, in addition to the road packages. And that’s, of course, the Thomas James Bridge, Cornwallis Road, Colo Heights Road, the new bridge, and Greens Road at Lower Portland, plus some other ones there as well.

But those, we are very well aware of the issues that you are going through. A whole suite of councillors went out a few weeks ago to see those areas, and a couple of councillors, including myself, are going out again to Lower McDonald on Saturday. So I’ll have another look at the Thomas James Bridge and, of course, hoping the ferries are operational by then. But I did just want to say to our residents in those sectors of the community, we know those are significant road projects, but as you can see, they’re at the top of our priority to try and get some relative normalcy back in your lives. So with that said, I will put—oh

Sorry, Councillor Wheeler. Thanks, Madam Mayor.

Look, I think this report is a necessary but actually really depressing, well, depressing and a bit anger-making read. I want to pick out a few of the things that are noteworthy. Firstly, Council now has a team dedicated to infrastructure recovery, and I think, you know, people would probably have argued that we needed a team dedicated to infrastructure recovery before we had five natural disasters on the hop. And certainly that was part of the purpose of the SRV for those who supported it. But we clearly need some significant recovery efforts now. The other thing I think that's worth noting here is that our roads network is extraordinarily large, over a thousand kilometres, which makes us unique as a metropolitan, or really in our case a peri-urban council.

No other council in Sydney has a roads burden as large as ours. The value of our road network has increased, has almost doubled to 959 million. That's an extraordinary responsibility for a council with a rate base the size of ours, which means that whatever money we spend has to be spent really well. And I also note that the report states that it will take at least 18 months to get our processes, not our roads, our processes, up to standard. There are some things in here that I think are particularly troubling for me as someone who's been on this council for six years, but I'm very grateful that they are now being brought to our attention. The comment that Council has not previously developed a fit-for-purpose maintenance management system, and that in fact we are ad hoc and reactive.

We've been talking about this for some time. Lee Williams and Paul Rasmussen have been talking about this as councillors for more than two decades. Based on the experiences of Councillor Williams, I raised this in 2016 and was advised by the then Director of Infrastructure that we just needed more money and that all our processes were fine. Clearly, that wasn't the case because we went to the community and we asked for the funding. And what I think is particularly galling is this other comment. The SRV funding has not flowed through to an additional asset delivery due to, in part, adequate staffing. Now, there was significant pressure from members of the previous council not to increase staffing whenever the General Manager attempted to.

That's on us, and we have to wear that. And our community, who paid for the SRV, are now bearing the brunt of that. We rely on our staff to advise us and to deliver. And in the case of roads, unfortunately this hasn't happened, and our community are rightly angry about it. What we've got now, though, is the perfect storm: poor processes, including preventative maintenance, poor initial condition of roads, and now repeated natural disasters that have impacted on those roads. And so here we are with this staggering damage bill of $190 million.

We've seen, though, and it's in the report, a 233% increase in sealed roads maintenance, 7,400 potholes filled, and 17,735 square metres of sealed road repairs, and that's just the figures to September.

Apart from praying for sunshine, I'm not—and identifying where our problems lie and coming up with a plan—I'm still not entirely confident that we can get enough warm bodies to fix this. And this is urgent. We've got people in Lower Portland who still can't get home because they can't get their homes fixed due to road collapse. Their insurance is running out this month. I don't know what they're going to do. I'm particularly concerned about the mental health of our staff.

They don't just drive our roads; they live here and they read our social media, and some of those comments are really damning. We need to be really careful as councillors that we don't allow this to be used to rubbish our workforce—the people on the ground, people who don't get to make the decisions, the people who are not driving any agenda, the people who are just living with the consequences of our decision-making. And so, for those councillors who have run around using this as a bit of a stunt to make themselves look good, I would say stop it, because it's our staff who are bearing the burden of this. People shouldn't feel bad about coming to work because the magnitude of their job is insurmountable.

We need to use this as a way forward. We need to make sure that we support our staff through this with honesty, good communication , and the genuine support of our greatest asset, which is the staff who are on the ground every day. I don't know that this is going to get better in a hurry. We need to be honest about that, and I think we need to present— A united force behind our staff as we try to deal with this.

Thank you, Councillor Wheeler. I'm not sure of your comments about a stunt there. When promoting the report is something I've asked all councillors to do through their social media channels to show the community that the report is public. Can I clarify that?

That's not what I was referring to.

I'm

Happy for you to clarify. I'm referring to a councillor in particular who has been all over social media talking about how council is incapable of meeting its obligations. Oh,

Thank you. I'm not sure what you're aware of. I'll speak to you later. Thank you for clarifying. But the one thing I do want to repeat that you've just said is ensuring we protect our staff, and I think that's something that we all have to do a lot because the negativity on social media—and something I've said too in interviews recently—is the social media gossip is not what should be relied on. It really is factual information, and I hope that this report gives that factual information, whether it's pretty or messy. Councillor Lyons-Buckett.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just had—Councillor Wheeler touched on quite a bit of what I would have said, but I just had a couple of questions just mainly around on going forward. There was a recent announcement about a Betterment Fund from the New South Wales Government. Can we just have an update of whether we're likely to see any of that money, and will that be dedicated to specific projects as such?

Through you, Madam Mayor. Yes, it's a joint funding between the New South Wales and federal government, $200 million for everyone who is in the Northern Rivers. It's a competitive process, so we will have to apply for it. My understanding is that there's retrospectivity can be allowed for. We only started—really only got the detail on Friday, so we're working through what that looks like at the moment, trying to understand how it fits in with the recovery works. The last thing we want to do is to delay any of our reconstruction efforts on the off chance that we have a punt on some betterment. So there's going to be some decision making that I have to do over the next couple of weeks. But yeah, I've got my staff looking at that and the details and what's applicable.

In terms of specific projects, it is limited to infrastructure which was damaged in any one of the number of natural disasters since and including the fires. So yeah, I mean, in all honesty, we could soak up all of the $200 million in the Hawkesbury. I

Don't think we're going to somehow, that's the thing. Thank you for that. The other question was around going forward and this issue of the lack of contractors and also in some instances material supply. So how are we going to work to address that in the future? How are we going to feed into a statewide approach to that? Because it's quite clear there's a disparity. I've just been in the Northern Rivers and there are contractors upon contractors upon contractors. Eighty-five percent of the holiday accommodation is government-funded contractors working there to fix their thing. So how do we get our voice in there for the future? How do we get a more equal distribution of this type of thing from the state government? Is that something that your recovery team or your department will take up, or is that more a political style of approach?

Through you, Madam Mayor, it's not so much an issue for the state. I think what I'm keen to see is how the different approach we've taken with our flood recovery works is going to respond. So in the past, we have, for want of a better term, drip-fed projects out to market. That has some pros and some cons to it. The approach we've taken with our flood recovery team is to package up works into generally packages of between five and ten million dollars. The hope is that that will be a far more succulent feast for a contractor and give them some certainty and some security of ongoing engagement and essentially make it worth their while competing with the likes of what's going on in the Northern Rivers. The Aerotropolis, NorthConnex, you know, it's an overcooked construction market, and we're making it as attractive as possible for contractors to bid on our works.

Great, thanks. Thank you. Any other councillors? No, then I'll put the recommendation. Oh, sorry, right of reply, Councillor Conolly. No, not necessary. I'll put the recommendation as per the business paper. Please raise your hand if you support. Thank you, Councillor Reardon, Councillor Veigel, Councillor Sheather, Councillor Conolly, Councillor Kotlash, Councillor Calvert, Councillor Djuric, Councillor Lyons-Buckett, Councillor Wheeler, Councillors Improgno, Councillor McMahon. Absent is Councillor Dogramaci. I declare that carried.

Next item is item 178, and I will just read out my declaration of interest. I'm declaring a less than significant non-pecuniary interest. In point 2 of the report, it talks about signage as part of the livability program, but nothing here that is specifically listed there is an interest. Points 3 and 4, just clarifying my partner does have a commercial lease in a local and state listed heritage building. For transparency, but because this is only establishing working groups, I'm not sure what the working groups have intended to do yet, so therefore no pecuniary interest. So can I have someone please move the recommendation? Councillor Wheeler, seconder? Councillor Reardon. Councillor Wheeler.

Thanks, Madam Mayor. There's an additional 0.5 to the recommendation I've sent through to the staff. It's, so the additional, sorry, the first four points of the resolution in the business paper as they stand, and then an additional 0.5, which is calling for Council to enable the staff to set meeting times for this committee, because it's a committee made up... Of in large part community members, and many of them are professionals who work either in or outside the LGA. They do need some certainty of those meeting dates so that they can plan around them and get to the committee meetings. So this just enables the staff to do that. It also allows the staff to deal with the items that need to come back to the committee for discussion, some of which are grant funded and rely on input from the Heritage Committee to be completed. So hence the point five.

Can I just see if the seconder is happy with that, Councillor Reardon?

Thank you, Councillor Wheeler Thanks. So I'll just very briefly speak to the items in there. I'm very grateful to be elected the chair again. I want to make note of the addition of the two Darug women representatives who have now joined the Heritage Committee. That's been incredibly helpful already, just in one meeting, in centering our discussions and but also enabling us to have First Nations input on First Nations business, which is vital, I think, for us if we're going to really move forward with recognition and with reconciliation. The committee is very keen, as they always are, and very generous with their knowledge. We've got three working groups already formed. You can see from the minutes.

The Heritage Study Working Group met last week. It was a very productive meeting. Lots of useful information was given to staff. There was an excellent exchange of information between members of that working group, including the uncovering of some documents that various people thought had been lost to them. So both Council's planning department, the library and the Heritage Office, and an excellent sharing of that information, which improves our records but also saves the staff involved a lot of time. And, and us potentially a lot of money if we don't need to go back and find that information all over again. And this has really provided a restart, I suppose, to the community heritage study, which had stalled due to COVID.

So having felt a bit despondent about that process before going into that working group, I can now see that we will actually make some good progress. We do have a need for more structured meetings for both the members and the staff, so I hope Council could support the additional 0.5. Thanks.

Thank you, Councillor Wheeler. Anyone else wish to speak on the item? No? Then I'll put the recommendation with the additional 0.5. All those in favour, please raise your hand. In favour are Councillor Reardon, Councillor Veigel, Councillor Sheather, Councillor Conolly, Councillor Kotlash, Councillor Calvert, Councillor Djuric, Councillor Lyons-Buckett, Councillor Wheeler, Councillor Zamprogno, Councillor McMahon. Absent is Councillor Dogramaci. I declare the item carried. Can someone please move that we move into confidential? Councillor Conolly. Councillor Lyons-Buckett seconded that. We'll now move into confidential.

Thank you, Councillors. I'll just hand over to the General Manager to read out what happened on block— in confidential, sorry.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. In regard to item 180 regarding the acquisition of part of 39 Sams Way, Mountain Lagoon, whilst in closed session the Council resolved on the motion of Councillor Lyons-Buckett, seconded by Councillor Zamprogno:

1. Council undertake compulsory acquisition under sections 186 and 187 of the Local Government Act for an area of land shown in Attachment 1 in the order of 768.7 metres squared within part of 39 Sams Way, Mountain Lagoon, Lot 62, DP 700643, being proposed Lot 621, 622, 624 in DP 1270744 for the purposes of fire control. 2. Council approve the making of an application to the Minister for Local Government for the issue of a proposed acquisition notice, PAN, under the Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act 1991 with respect to the acquisition of the land. 3. Council approve the making of an application to the Governor for the publication of an acquisition notice in the New South Wales Government Gazette under the Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act 1991 in respect of the acquisition of the land.

4. Following the acquisition of the property, Council classify part of 39 Sams Way, Mountain Lagoon, Lot 62, DP 700643, being the area of land shown in Attachment 1 as operational under section 31(2A) of the Local Government Act 1993. 5. Council grant delegation to the General Manager to execute any documents on behalf of Council associated with the compulsory acquisition process which do not require the seal of Council to be affixed. 6 . Authority be given to the assignment of lease and any other relevant documentation in association with this matter to be executed under the seal of Council. 7. Details of the resolution to be conveyed to the affected landowner, together with the advice that Council is not and will not be bound by the terms of the resolution until such time as the appropriate documentation to put such a resolution into effect has been agreed to and executed.

For the motion were Councillors Conolly, Calvert, Djuric, Kotlash, Lyons-Buckett, Veigel, Reardon, McMahon, Sheather, Wheeler and Zamprogno, with Councillor Dogramaci absent for the vote.

Thank you, General Manager. That concludes all of Council's business this evening and I call the meeting closed at 7. 18. Thank you very much for your attendance, Councillors. Appreciate it. Thank you. Good night.