Agenda Riverina Joint Organisation Board Meeting Thursday, 8 August 2019 8.30a.m. for a 9.00a.m. start Agenda 1. Apologies ......................................................................................................................................... 2 2. Move to Committee of the Whole .................................................................................................. 2 3. Declarations of Interest .................................................................................................................. 2 4. Confirmation of Minutes of the Previous Meeting ......................................................................... 2 5. Business Arising from Previous Board Meetings ............................................................................ 2 6. Correspondence .............................................................................................................................. 2 7. Executive Officer Report ................................................................................................................. 3 7.1 JO Funding Arrangements ....................................................................................................... 3 7.2 JO Strategic Plan and Statement of Regional Priorities. ......................................................... 3 7.3 JO Audit ................................................................................................................................... 4 7.4 JO Working Party Meetings .................................................................................................... 4 7.5 JO Core Activities – Advocacy and Lobbying .......................................................................... 6 7.6 JO Core Activities – Intergovernmental Co-operation ............................................................ 7 7.7 Governance and Compliance Activities .................................................................................. 8 8. JO Chairs’ Meeting .......................................................................................................................... 8 9. Financial Report .............................................................................................................................. 9 10. Urgent Business without Notice ................................................................................................. 9 11. Resolution to Move out of Committee of the Whole ................................................................. 9 12. Next Board Meeting .................................................................................................................... 9 1 1. Apologies The Executive Officer to advise the meeting of apologies. Recommendation: That the Board receive the apologies. 2. Move to Committee of the Whole The JO Board may conduct its business as a Committee of the Whole. The JO Board is required to move a motion to that effect at the commencement of the meeting and to move a resolution at the end of the meeting to come out of Committee of the Whole. Recommendation That the Board move a motion to conduct its business as a Committee of the Whole. 3. Declarations of Interest Board Members and senior staff of the JO are required to declare any interests in relation to matters on the agenda. 4. Confirmation of Minutes of the Previous Meeting The Board to confirm the minutes of the 6 June 2019 Board meeting. Recommendation: 1. That the minutes of the 6 June 2019 Board meeting be confirmed as a true and accurate record. 5. Business Arising from Previous Board Meetings The following matters arise from previous meetings: - Letters of Congratulations to Federal Ministers - completed Recommendation That the Board receive and note the Report 6. Correspondence The inwards and outwards correspondence is listed in Attachment One. Recommendation That the Board receive and note the Correspondence 2 7. Executive Officer Report 7.1 JO Funding Arrangements At a meeting of the Joint Organisation Chairs held on 1 August, the Minister announced that a one- off grant of $150,000 per Joint Organisation would be made for the current Financial Year. The funding is for project delivery aligned to the Strategic Priorities. There are no guidelines yet, however the OLG has advised that they would be released in the week commencing 5 August. The Minister’s Announcement (Attachment Two), talks about a single project, however the OLG advised it could be for more than one project. In addition the OLG’s focus appears to be on “capacity building” for JOs, which is not mentioned in the Minister’s release. It is somewhat disappointing that despite repeated requests, over the last 12 months, from all the JOs for the Government to take a co-design approach when formulating grants and programs that once again, the JOs have not been consulted about the design of this funding. Recommendation: Following the release of the Funding Guidelines, that the JO Working Party meet to determine the project or projects that the Riverina JO will submit for funding. 7.2 JO Strategic Plan and Statement of Regional Priorities. We are still working on finalising the Strategic Plan; however our Regional Priorities document has been uploaded to the JO website. SCCF Funding has been released, there is an opportunity for JOs to apply for the funding however because it is allocated on an LGA by LGA basis this will mean that we have to lodge 7 applications. I have discussed this with James Bolton to see if he could find a way around the problem and he says that there isn’t one. He has however, undertaken to try and get applications that are across multiple LGAs considered as a single project. We have a number of activities in our Regional Priorities that relate to youth, which is a priority for this round of SCCF funding. I would like to propose a project that I am tentatively calling the Leadership, Engagement and Employment Program (LEEP). It would deliver on our “Grow your Own” workforce activities in the Workforce Development Priority and the developing leadership.in Leadership and Collaboration. One of the outcomes would be a regional person to work with the Members on the delivery of all the projects. The projects that would come under the LEEP umbrella are: - Working with Schools – targeting high school students and including the Build a Bridge, Work Inspirations days, work experience and School Based Traineeships. - Promotion of cadetships and traineeship - Professional Placement Program – targeting CSU students who would undertake 4 weeks of work experience in their occupation in a council. - Careers in Local Government activities – expos etc - Take Charge Youth Forum and Take Charge Youth Workshop - Take Chart and Volunteer – there is a strong nexus between volunteering and work. We would be proposing an enhancement/expansion of the existing programs and the development of new ones. The project would run over 3 years, we would be asking for about $60,000 from each LGA. 3 This is a project that should be developed in consultation with the Operations Working Party, if the Board wants to proceed. Recommendation: That the Riverina JO explore the opportunity to submit for Strengthening Country Communities Funding and the CEO work with the Operations Working Party to develop a project for funding. 7.3 JO Audit The audit process for the JO has commenced, with Crowe Howarth sending through lead-up documentation that requires completion. Courtney Armstrong at Coolamon is assisting with the process. It is somewhat disappointing to find that the auditors have not tailored the audit to reflect the JO’s operations but instead are applying the same audit as it would to a council. At the most recent JO Chairs’ meeting, all the Joint Organisations complained about the cost of the audits. For example Canberra Region JO’s audit is several thousand dollars more than ours and they have only 300 transactions in the year with most of those being payroll. It appears that none of the JOs were asked to provide an estimate of their level of transactions prior to the quotes being sought by the Auditor General. It is very unclear what was used as the benchmark for determining the level of work required and consequently the costs involved. As a result of the audit being the same as council audit, we have been asked in the documentation to provide copies of the following policies: - Related Parties Transactions Policy - Disaster Recovery Plan; and - IT Security Policy Attachment Three is the Timetable for the Audit. Recommendation: That the Board write to the Auditor General: 1. for advice on the methodology used to determine the level of work required for the audit; and 2. to express disappointment that the audit does not reflect the low level of complexity in relation to the JO’s operations. 7.4 JO Working Party Meetings Both Working Parties met on 10 July. The Terms of Reference were reviewed for each Working Party and the Members agreed that they should be put to the Board for adoption (Attachments Four and Five). Operations Working Party The Operations Working Party discussed the Audit Office Proposal and Engagement Plan and noted that the requirements were the same as a council’s and that the JO Chair will need to sign off on the draft Financial Statement at the August Board meeting. They also noted that the fee for the work was quite high. The Working Party also discussed the issue of integration with the REROC Technical Groups. It was suggested that REROC could invite the JO to be part of the Technical Groups