Kiama Council mid-year review 2023

Published on 11 July 2023

Thomas Jefferson said, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.” The same goes for your council, and Kiama Council believes its community deserves a transparent, hardworking, results-focused council. With this in mind, to mark the end of the Financial Year 2022-23, we have released our ‘mid-year review’.

Ahead of the full annual report due in October 2023, the mid-year review provides a snapshot of results to inform our community and stakeholders of our achievements to date and progress taking place in a number of different areas.

As many residents will be aware, in April 2022 the Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP) was created, and in November 2022, the NSW Government issued us with a Performance Improvement Order (PIO). In April this year, we closed off our initial SIP and issued a revised and updated SIP2.

The importance of these documents is to ensure we are achieving meaningful results for the people of Kiama. Through these initiatives, this year we have already achieved:

• Accreditation for our Blue Haven aged care facility operations
• Sale of property holdings in Akuna Street, restoring reserves and working capital for the council
• Repaid $30m of our debt to TCorp (the NSW Treasury Corporation) for the construction of Blue Haven Bonaira and negotiated a 2-year extension for repayment of the remaining $15 million
• Finalised the first SIP, completing 75 actions, leaving 12 outstanding actions for SIP2

Kiama Council has also completed:

• 144 Council resolutions (Feb-May 2023)
• 181 Council reports (Feb-May 2023)
• 72 events on Council reserves this financial year (2022-23)
• 9 Capital Projects this financial year (2022-23)
• Public exhibition of 12 plans projects and policies (2022-23)
• 17 major events including Kiama I Do, Kiama Rugby Sevens, Gerrigong SurfLife Festival
• 19 community events held (such as Australia Day and Anzac Day)

Council continues to promote transparency and communicate with our residents, having successfully:

• Taken 2,000 phone calls per month to our main number (90% within 60 seconds)
• Sent 25,500 emails per month
• Reached 7,500 subscribers to our newsletters
• Achieved an average of 250 live views per Council Meeting (and further 250 views per recording).

Kiama Council is well along the road to improvement and working better together. Our Councillors have completed 9 workshops or briefings and 4 training sessions since January 2023.

Neil Reilly, Mayor of Kiama, said, “At Kiama Council we understand we need to achieve results for our residents. For the community to trust the council is working for them, they need to see outcomes. That is why we have released this mid-year report. We are proud of the work we are doing, supporting our community. The people of our municipality are the lifeblood that keep us going, and we are proud to be held accountable and work for them. We look forward to sharing our continued success in the full year annual report.”