City of Boroondara Annual Report 2019-20 City of Boroondara Annual Report 2019-20 Contents Corporate governance Annual Report Overview Welcome to the Annual Report 2019-20 1 Governance 79 About this report 1 Management 83 Symbols in this report 3 Governance and management 85 checklist Report of Operations Statutory information 90 Introduction 4 Council snapshot 4 Financial Statements 100 Highlights of the year 6 Challenges and future outlook 8 Performance Statement 157 The year in review References 168 A message from the Mayor 10 Message from the CEO 12 Financial summary 14 Operations summary 17 Boroondara Community Plan 23 Our response to COVID-19 pandemic 30 Our Council City profile 33 Council offices 35 Our councillors 36 Council wards 38 Our people Organisational structure 39 Council employees 42 Equal Employment Opportunity Program 43 Other employee matters 43 Our Volunteers 43 Our performance Planning and accountability 45 Council Plan 45 How we are measured 45 Theme 1 - Your Community, Services and 46 Facilities Theme 2 - Your Parks and Green Spaces 56 Theme 3 - The Environment 58 Theme 4 - Neighbourhood Character and 62 Heritage Theme 5 - Getting Around Boroondara 65 Theme 6 - Your Local Shops and Businesses 69 Theme 7 - Civic Leadership and Governance 71 City of Boroondara Annual Report 2019-20 Welcome to the Annual Report 2019-20 The City of Boroondara is constituted under the Local Government Act 1989 to provide leadership and good governance to the municipal district and the local community. Council’s roles include: • taking into account the diverse needs of our community in decision-making • providing leadership by establishing strategic objectives and monitoring achievements • ensuring resources are managed in a responsible and accountable manner • advocating the interests of our community to other communities and governments • fostering community cohesion and encouraging active participation in civic life. The City of Boroondara is committed to effective and sustainable forms of democratic and corporate governance to ensure Council and its administration meet community priorities. Our community has many opportunities to provide input into Council decisions, including community consultation programs, public forums and submissions to Special Committees of Council. About this report Purpose On 11 December 2017, Council adopted the Boroondara Community Plan 2017-27. The new Plan reflects our community’s values, aspirations and priorities for the next 10 years. The Council Plan 2017-21 outlines seven Themes supported by seven Strategic Objectives as identified in the Boroondara Community Plan. Each Strategic Objective includes a number of strategies, which contain annual commitments detailed in the Budget 2019-20 adopted in June 2019. The Annual Report 2019-20 documents the performance against the strategic indicators and commitments identified in the Council Plan 2017-21 and the Budget 2019-20. The diagram below depicts the structure of the Council Plan 2017-21. 1 City of Boroondara Annual Report 2019-20 The table below lists the Themes and Strategic Objectives in the Council Plan 2017-21. Theme Strategic Objectives Community services and facilities are high quality, Your Community, inclusive and meet a variety of needs now and into Services and Facilities the future. Your Parks and Green Inviting and well-utilised community parks and Spaces green spaces. Our natural environment is healthy and sustainable The Environment for future generations. Protect the heritage and respect the character of Neighbourhood the City to maintain amenity and liveability whilst Character and Heritage recognising the need for appropriate, well- designed development for future generations. Travel options that are connected, safe, Getting Around accessible, environmentally sustainable and Boroondara well-designed. A vibrant local economy and shops that are Your Local Shops and accessible, attractive and a centre of community Businesses life. Ensure that ethical, financial and socially responsible decision making reflect community Civic Leadership and needs and are based on principles of Governance accountability, transparency, responsiveness and consultation. The Budget 2019-20 defines actions that contribute to the successful delivery of the Council Plan 2017-21 during the financial year. 2 City of Boroondara Annual Report 2019-20 This Annual Report is divided into four parts: 1. Report of Operations 2. Financial statements 3. Performance statement 4. Indexes. The Report of Operations contains information about our community, our councillors, our organisation, and most importantly, how we performed throughout the year. The section on our performance is divided into the seven themes of the Council Plan 2017-21. The financial statements and performance statement provide detailed information that fulfils Council’s financial reporting requirements. Indexes are included for ease of reference to the content of this report. Symbols in this report Directorate The following symbols identify the directorate or executive management team that has responsibility for delivery of each commitment. CEO's office City Planning Environment and Customer Infrastructure Experience and Business Transformation Community People, Culture Development and Development Status Council’s progress against each commitment is illustrated by the following symbols: Completed Commenced Deferred Outcome The outcome of the progress against each strategic indicator is illustrated as a percentage depicted by the following symbol: 0 100 Percentage indicators 3 Report of Operations 4 Introduction 4 Council snapshot 6 Highlights of the year 8 Challenges and future outlook The Report of Operations is our primary means of advising the Boroondara community about our operations and performance during the financial year. Council snapshot Vision Purpose Values A vibrant and inclusive We work together to We will create a City, meeting the needs deliver the community collaborative and and aspirations of its priorities and place our customer-centric culture community. customers at the centre which connects our of everything we do. people to our purpose, inspires them to be their best, and provides a great place to work. The six organisational values are outlined below: Our values What it means Think customer Always working with our customers’ experience in mind and experience taking pride in supporting our community. Act with Doing the right thing, speaking up when it’s important integrity and striving to live our values every day. Treat people Valuing each person for who they are by listening, with respect understanding and showing that we care. Work together Working together constructively to break down silos, putting as ‘one’ our shared needs first and moving forward in a unified way. Explore better Challenging the status quo to improve things through ways curiosity, courage and learning. Own it, follow Taking responsibility for what is ours and following through through to ensure great results. 4 City profile • The City of Boroondara includes the • 31% of Boroondara residents were born suburbs of Ashburton, Balwyn, Balwyn overseas. North, Camberwell, Canterbury, Deepdene, Hawthorn, Hawthorn East, • Boroondara residents were born in more Kew and Kew East, and parts of Glen Iris, than 145 countries and speak more than Surrey Hills and Mont Albert. 120 languages. • Boroondara has an estimated residential • A quarter of Boroondara’s employed population of 183,199 people (as at 30 residents work within the City of June 2019). Boroondara and just under a quarter work in the City of Melbourne. • 25% of the population is aged between 0 and 19 years, and 34% 50 years and • The median household income in over. Boroondara was $2,083 per week, compared to $1,542 for Greater • Boroondara has the fifth largest Melbourne. population in Victoria of people aged 85 years and over. • 14% of Boroondara households live on less than $650 a week. Fast facts 163 groups 1,923 161,284 Indigenous trees, shrubs, received Council phone calls grasses and groundcovers and 115,835 online community grants planted during the year requests responded to 1.85 million 1,338 78,312 library items borrowed planning rateable properties applications receive 71,669 1.89 million 567 kilometres tonnes of waste collected visits to Boroondara’s leisure of local roads from kerbside bins and aquatic centres 5 City of Boroondara Annual Report 2019-20 Highlights of the year A summary of our achievements divided into the seven themes of our Council Plan: Theme 1: Your Community, Services and Facilities Strategic objective: • Community services and facilities are high quality, inclusive and meet a variety of needs now and into the future. Achievements: • Council adopted an Asset Management Strategy which outlines the objectives and supporting actions that will be carried out over a five year period to advance asset management practices across the organisation. • Following the adoption of the Flood Mapping Study in 2019-20, approximately 6,000 properties have been identified as liable to flooding. This allows residents and Council to plan and reduce any potential impacts. • Launched the new Boroondara Families section of our website, designed for families to discover local services and activities for children from birth to eight years of age. • Introduced a new Boroondara Volunteer Resource Centre (BVRC) portal ‘VIKTOR/VIRA’ to enable the BVRC to centralise volunteer recruitment, registration and records management, promote volunteer