Council Meeting Tuesday 15 September 2020 Notice and Agenda of Meeting to be held via MS Teams and Live- streamed. Commencing at 4:00 pm Vision for the future Australia’s most liveable city. Chairperson: Administrator, Noelene Duff PSM Administrator, Cameron Boardman Administrator, Miguel Belmar Chief Executive Officer: Glenn Patterson Order of Business 1. Statement of Acknowledgement ...............................................................................................................3 1.2. Reading of the Diversity Statement...........................................................................................................3 2. Confirmation of Minutes ............................................................................................................................3 3. Declarations of Conflict of Interests and Personal Interests .....................................................................3 4. Public Question Time ................................................................................................................................3 5. Officer's Reports for Consideration ...........................................................................................................4 5.1. Treatment of Hardship Assistance for Ratepayers in 2020/21 .........................................................4 5.2. CEO Performance Review..............................................................................................................10 5.3. s11A Instruments of Authorisation for Planning Staff .....................................................................14 5.4. Provision of Animal Pound Services - Contract Extension .............................................................25 5.5. Endorsement of City of Casey Municipal Emergency Management Plan ......................................28 5.6. Berwick Waterways Development Contribution Plan - Road Deviation........................................164 5.7. Road Discontinuance – Nettle Drive, Hallam................................................................................169 6. Consideration of Reports of Committees ..............................................................................................174 6.1. Record of Discussion....................................................................................................................199 7. Petitions ................................................................................................................................................200 8. Urgent Business....................................................................................................................................200 9. Closed Council ......................................................................................................................................200 Council Meeting - 15 September 2020 Page 2 1. STATEMENT OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 1.2. READING OF THE DIVERSITY STATEMENT 2. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES 3. DECLARATIONS OF CONFLICT OF INTERESTS AND PERSONAL INTERESTS Declaration by Councillors of any Conflict of Interest or Personal Interests pursuant to Sections 79 and 79B of the Local Government Act 1989 (the Act) in any items on the Notice Paper. (Note that Section 79(2)(a)(i) of the Act requires Councillors to disclose the nature of a Conflict of Interest or a Personal Interest immediately before the relevant consideration or discussion). Section 79B also requires that the Councillor declaring a Personal Interest must seek consent from Council to be exempt from voting on the item. 4. PUBLIC QUESTION TIME Council Meeting - 15 September 2020 Page 3 5. OFFICER'S REPORTS FOR CONSIDERATION Officers’ Reports Treatment of Hardship Assistance for Ratepayers in ITEM: 5.1. 2020/21 Corporate Services Ward: NA Finance and Rates Bernard Rohan Purpose of Report: To extend the current hardship assistance for ratepayers to 31 December 2020 Recommendation That Council resolves that in response to the COVID-19 crisis, and in recognition of the very challenging time that many in our community are experiencing, the City of Casey continue to implement: freezes on interest on outstanding rates to 31 December 2020 a decision to not pursue legal action on outstanding rates until March 2021. Officer Direct or Indirect Interest No Council officers involved in the preparation of this report have a direct or indirect interest in matters for consideration. Council Plan Reference 1. People Driven 1.1 An inclusive, safe and connected community Executive Summary The impact that the Corona Virus (COVID-19) has had on the community as a public health crisis has been significant. The economic impacts of the crisis, and the necessary Government action to address the crisis, have also been significant. During 2019/20 and in line with State Government restrictions, Council closed a number of facilities and there were adverse impacts on service delivery. All revenue to Council during 2019/20 was adversely affected by COVID-19 and moderated development activity. During this period, Council continued to provide critical services to the community with reduced access to budgeted funding sources. On 23 June 2020, Council put a freeze on charging penalty interest for overdue rates from 1 March 2020 to 30 September 2020 for those facing hardship, and management has taken steps to moderate operating budget activity, including through centralising decision making on recruitment, to ensure only essential vacancies were filled. Council Meeting - 15 September 2020 Page 4 There is a need to extend the hardship relief to ratepayers through to 31 December 2020, in recognition of the continued disruption that COVID-19, and the associated Government restrictions has had on the community. Background and Economic Context The unprecedented economic challenges facing Casey today are significant and difficult to reliably predict. For Australia, the GDP data for the June quarter is expected to represent the biggest economic contraction in decades (approximately 7 per cent) based on recent commentary from the Reserve Bank. The RBA’s current forecasting assumes that the Australian economy to contract by around 6 per cent this year, with Victoria stage-2 COVID-19 outbreak adversely affecting the recovery efforts nationally. Scaled-back activity is observable across industries and with consumption and employment. Unemployment rate continues to increase, and is expected to reach around 10 per cent in late 2020; although the true unemployment rate (taking into account worked hours) is higher. The annual inflation rate to June 2020 was -0.3 per cent and the June quarter’s inflation outcome was the largest quarterly fall in the 72 year history of Australia recording CPI. The RBA is expecting inflation to return to positive territory in the current quarter, but to average between only 1 and1½ per cent over the next few years. Wage growth is also expected to be low, averaging 1½ per cent over the next two years. For Casey, these impacts are localised and in many cases, more pronounced than national averages. As a community the effects on the commercial sector and employment levels are significant, and the adverse impact of restrictions on vulnerable members of the community are heightened. City of Casey Financial Impacts Council considered Casey’s financial results for 2019/20 on 1 September 2020, in which the Financial Statements highlighted that all revenue to Council during 2019/20 was adversely affected by COVID-19 and moderated development activity. It is not possible to reliably isolate the direct consequence of COVID-19, as revenue lines experienced a range of source of disruption. It is however noted that relative to budget settings, revenue from rates, charges, user fees, statutory fees and fines and other revenue (predominantly investment income) was $8.3 million lower than budget and that COVID-19 disruption certainly had an impact on this result. Rates Levied at Casey Rates represents almost half of the revenue to the City of Casey and the largest share of funding sources. The City of Casey’s 2020/21 rates apply the State Government’s 2 per cent rate cap – the total revenue from rates previously raised in 2019/20 is set to increase by 2 per cent (plus growth from supplementary rates). The 2 per cent rate increase underpins the long-term financial performance of Council in meeting the challenge of maintaining services and infrastructure delivery for our growing community, not just in the 2020/21 year, but sustained into the future, particularly where contracts are in place and where scheduled cost increases are committed. Foregoing the rate increase would have a $50 million impact over ten years on Casey’s financial position. The approach for applying the rate cap in 2020/21 was broadly similar across Victoria. A recent survey of the 79 Victorian local governments highlighted that: 56 councils (71 per cent) have applied the 2 per cent rate cap in 2020/21 7 councils (9 per cent) have applied rate increases of between 1.5 per cent up to 1.95 per cent 16 councils (20 per cent) have applied zero per cent rate increases in 2020/21. Source: https://www.finpro.org.au/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Rates-20.21-year-rises-waivers-and-adoption-timings-31-August-2020.pdf Council Meeting - 15 September 2020 Page 5 Whilst revenue from rates is the primary source of income for the local government sector, all Councils are mindful of the impact that rates have on the community, in particular those that are affected by hardship associated