Susanna Freymark
Kyogle Council held a special meeting (called an extraordinary meeting) yesterday, Monday, October 28. An extraordinary meeting is held outside of the regular monthly (ordinary) meetings.
Councillors present: John Burley, Rob Cullen, Olivia Taylor, Brett McNamara, Janet Wilson, Kieran Somerville and Robin Harley.
Absent: Danielle Mulholland and Tom Cooper.
The main reason for the meeting was a presentation from the auditors about the council’s financial statements for 2023–2024.
This was done by Jodi Bosworth from Thomas, Noble and Russell.
“The take home message is everything is good,” Ms Bosworth said.
The council’s financial statement is available for the public to read here and will be discussed at the November council meeting.
The full meeting agenda can be read here.
Who wants to be a delegate for this group?
The delegates for the positions in the community groups were selected by councillors nominating themselves.
The only contentious one was the General Manager Selection/Review Committee. This reflects the history of the GM being dismissed and another leaving after seven weeks in the last council term.
Things between Mr Cullen and Ms Wilson got snippy when Ms Wilson accused Mr Cullen of having friends in the group and that he shouldn’t be on the committee.
Originally – four delegates were meant for this committee and if the vote was locked the mayor would have final say.
After a brief discussion, it was decided that five councillors would be better for this committee.
There are several groups and committees that councillors sign up for as part of their role. Here is the selection:
General Manager Selection/Review Committee: Danielle Mulholland, John Burley, Janet Wilson, Olivia Taylor, Brett McNamara
Kyogle and District Chamber of Commerce: Olivia Taylor, Brett McNamara
National Timber Councils’ Association: Danielle Mulholland, Kieran Somerville
Reconciliation Committee: Robin Harley, John Burley
Joint Regional Planning Panel: Danielle Mulholland, Olivia Taylor
Audit Risk and Improvement Committee: Janet Wilson, Olivia Taylor, Kieran Somerville
Climate Change Working Group: Brett McNamara, John Burley, Kieran Somerville
Arts Northern Rivers: Janet Wilson, Olivia Taylor, Kieran Somerville
Traffic Committee: Rob Cullen, Robin Harley
Northern Rivers Bushfire Committee: Brett McNamara, Tom Cooper
Some groups are automatically designated for the mayor Danielle Mulholland and deputy mayor John Burley.
These are the:
NSW Rural Fire Service ‘Service Level Agreement’
Northern Rivers Joint Organisation
NSW Country Mayors’ Association
Police Accountability Team
The meeting then went into confidentiality to discuss the purchase of land by the council.
Read about that here.
The next council meeting is on November 11 at 2pm.