OVERVIEW
General Manager’s report As General Manager, I am responsible for implementing the Council’s decisions which are aimed at achieving outstanding results for the community and the Local Government Area. My focus is to continuously improve our services, facilities and infrastructure and, particularly during 2019/20, to support our community during unprecedented challenges.
Social responsiveness
The COVID-19 pandemic compelled us to be more agile in our approach to service delivery. In response to the closure of our frontline services under the NSW Public Health Orders a program to redeploy staff from frontline services ensured we kept our staff not just employed, but working and providing invaluable support to the wider community in an incredibly challenging time. Operational staff shifts were changed to respond to the higher demand placed on our open spaces, parks and public amenities. Redeployed staff undertook ‘care calls’ to elderly people in the local area to support the most vulnerable in our community and also facilitated iPad loans for seniors, to help them stay in touch with loved ones and access key online support. In recognition of the importance of public spaces for our community during lockdown and restricted travel we persevered with the completion of the Oatley Park inclusive adventure playground and opened three other inclusive playgrounds in Penshurst Park, Simpson Reserve and Paddy Tyler Reserve. We installed the world first award-winning ChillOUT hubs and completed Kempt Field adventure playground and amenities, Meade Park adventure playground and amenities, and Charles Pirie Reserve inclusive sports amenities building.
Building financial sustainability
Our consultation with the community in 2019 confirmed support for a single, fair, equitable and consistent rating system for Georges River Council ratepayers. More than 7,000 ratepayers told us they wanted the minimum rate to be the same across the entire local government area and we are working towards this goal. Council staff have achieved $9 million in savings but the challenge remains in balancing community expectations
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Georges River Council // Annual Report 2019/20
with future financial sustainability. There is a growing gap between the cost of providing services and facilities for our growing and diverse community and the funding available to meet those costs. Whilst the harmonisation of rates is a mandatory requirement of the NSW Government in 2020/21, the generation of additional income from rates is necessary to continue to provide the services and facilities our community values.
Achieving excellence
The continued hard work of our staff, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, was recognised throughout this financial year: •
The 2018/19 Annual Report won a Bronze Award in the Australasian Reporting Awards.
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The development of the ChillOUT Hubs received Highly Commended in the national Smart Cities and Communities Awards.
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Council was a finalist in the Renewable Energy category of the 2019 Cities Power Partnership Awards for the hydropanel array at Hurstville Aquatic Leisure Centre.
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In the 2020 Local Government Excellence Awards Council was a finalist for: - The Norm O’Neill Cricket Training Facility - Charles Pirie Inclusive Sporting Amenities Building - Smart Collaboration – ChillOUT Hubs - Oatley Park Nature-based All Inclusive Adventure Playground - ‘The Green’ Pop-up Park - Carss Bush Park Foreshore Naturalisation - TRUE Women Female Leadership Program 2019 - River Run All-Staff Conference.
Our annual staff survey has continued to gather strong participation from all staff and has provided valuable insights into the perceptions and sentiments of staff regarding key drivers of employee engagement and organisational performance. Over the last year we continued to see positive increases in results in 29 out of 32 categories including high levels of staff passion and engagement. Georges River Council is outperforming other councils on 31 of the 33 Council benchmark categories such as leadership, staff passion and engagement, progress and work satisfaction.
