The story:

North Sydney Mayor Zoë Baker and North Sydney Council CEO Therese Cole have hosted two live consultation events this month, as the affluent north shore catchment area searches for solutions to huge cost blowouts. Increasingly, it seems likely these solutions will involve sizeable temporary increases to council rates for both residents and businesses.

At the online consultation on December 16, North Sydney Council figures stepped attendees through the financial crisis it currently found itself in and the proposed remedies. 

CEO Therese Cole and other council representatives pointed towards the delayed and massively costly redevelopment of the North Sydney Olympic Pool as one reason for the cost shortfall. In November, estimates for the project were revealed to have now reached at least $90 million, about $25-$30 million over budget.

One solution offered by the council has been the introduction of a Special Rate Variation – essentially a temporary, but sharp, increase in council rates for both residents and businesses to ensure financial sustainability.

The local view:

While much of the prepared presentations had already been disseminated on a number of occasions over the past few weeks, the community sentiments expressed through the Q&A at the end of the forum revealed residents’ hesitancy to comply with the new rate changes.

Questions like Why does your consultation survey not provide an option to reject or not support the Special Rate Variation? received an informative, but terse, response from Cole, who said that while the question about the Special Rate Variation was now optional, “doing nothing is not an option.”

“What we would ask is, in question two, if you don’t agree with any proposal that you put forward your ideas for how we address the current challenges.”

Other community questions had more concrete suggestions, with queries coming in about possible council cost-cutting and asset sales.

Cole noted the Council had significantly reviewed their workforce costs and were looking at maintaining staff vacancies to save on payroll and reviewing procurement procedures, with further measures outlined in the improvement plan. 

“There is no magic wand we can wave that will allow for costs to be cut and services to be maintained,” she said.

Mayor Zoë Baker said that everything was on the table when considering solutions to the Council’s financial issues. 

“Pretty much everyone who was elected knew they were gonna be part of a clean up crew, around financial repair and sustainability, so we’re not ruling anything out and that is the purpose of this community consultation,” said Baker.

Perhaps the most specific question of the night was about pool membership and admission price, querying the possibility of a free or subsidised rate for North Sydney Residents who had paid to redevelop it.

While Gary Parsons, Director of Open Space and Infrastructure, said that Council would be presented with a pool operational plan in the New Year and that there was currently no intention of varying rates for residents, Mayor Baker said that was “something that every councillor has at top of mind.”

“My personal view is that it has to be competitive so that as many people come to use the pool as possible, but I have it top of mind, given the sacrifices our community has made for what was an incredibly poorly managed vanity project,” she said. “We ought to consider if there’s some room to at least for a fixed period of time give something back to the community who have sacrificed for this.”

Finishing off with a question about the exemption of churches and schools from council rates, the community forum concluded and the stream went dark.

The facts:

Consultation around the Special Rate Variation will conclude on January 10, 2025.

The Council has developed a draft Long-Term Financial Plan to strengthen the council’s financial position.

The Special Rate Variation is not just being put forward as a solution for the area’s problematic North Sydney Olympic Pool development. The council also cited revenue for the current fiscal year related to on-street parking, fines, advertising, and commercial rental income was down by $9.9 million (adjusted for inflation). It also referred to outdated information systems and technology, asset maintenance and renewal, and a now-unsustainable history of low rates.