City of Melville Minutes – SMRC RRRC WCF Odour Issue – 28 June 2011
10. REPORTS OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
C11/6042 – CONSIDERATION AND ADOPTION OF THE 2011/2012 BUDGET (AMREC) (ATTACHMENT)
The City’s approximately 100,000 residents accommodated in 38,000 homes generate 32,000 tonnes of waste, equating to 0.84 tonnes per household per annum. Following consideration by the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council (SMRC) of their draft budget, it appears that there will be increases in the waste disposal gate fees charged by that organisation to the City of Melville from $183 per tonne to $194 per tonne, an increase of $11 per tonne or $352,000 per annum. The cost of disposal of the 15,000 tonnes of kerbside domestic recycling materials collected has remained the same at $85.00 per tonne. These net additional costs have been factored into the Waste Services domestic refuse charges resulting in a $9 increase in the domestic refuse charge from $365 to $374. A review of the Swimming Pool Inspection program as part of the Budget preparation process indicates that the charge for inspecting the 8,928 swimming pools in the City, which occurs once in each four year period, needs to increase from $25.60 to $27.00 per annum. Should the fee remain constant the fee paid over four years would be $108.00 which, after paying the Goods and Services Tax, results in net revenue per inspection of $98.18 being received by the City. Full cost recovery has not been achieved resulting in the inspection program being partly cross subsidised by non pool owning ratepayers to the value of $32,200. This subsidy equates to $3.61 per pool without which the inspection fee would be $30.61 per pool. All fees raised for levies and service charges are used solely for the purposes they are raised. Any surplus funds are quarantined and placed in an appropriate reserve or restricted fund account at the end of the year to be used to offset costs of pool inspections in future years.
The Property Security and Surveillance Service Charge will remain unchanged at $48.50 per property. Like the Swimming Pool Inspection fee above, all fees raised by this charge are used solely for the purposes they are raised. Any surplus funds are quarantined and placed in an appropriate reserve or restricted fund account at financial year end and used to offset future year’s costs. $51,500 has been transferred from this reserve to subsidise the charge. The Emergency Services Levy, which is a State Government charge, is collected on behalf of FESA by all Western Australian Local Government Authorities. In the May 2011 State Government Budget it was announced that the State Government’s
Emergency Services Levy (ESL), which is used to fund the State Fire and Emergency Services Agency (FESA) will be as follows:-
ESL Rates and Minimum and Maximum Thresholds
MINIMUM AND MAXIMUM ESL CHARGES
BY PROPERTY USE
Residential, Farming and
Vacant Land
Commercial, Industrial and
Miscellaneous
ESL Rate
per $ of GRV
ESL
Category 1 Minimum Maximum Minimum Maximum
$0.0114
($0.0145
10/11)
$55
($50 10/11)
$280
($260 10/11)
$55
($50 10/11)
$160,000
($150,000 10/11)
SPECIAL MEETING OF COUNCIL
28 JUNE 2011
Due to the revaluation of properties the ESL rate in the $ has decreased by 21.4%, the minimum ESL levy has increased by 10.0%, the maximum for residential and vacant land by 7.69% and the Commercial, Industrial & Miscellaneous by 6.67%. The overall amount of levy that will be raised from City of Melville property owners and remitted to FESA, will be
approximately $10.08 million. The total amount estimated to be raised for the ESL levy in 2011/2012 is $0.178 million or 1.79% higher than the actual amount raised in 2010/2011.
Schedule of Fees and Charges
The Schedule of Fees and Charges was presented to and noted by Council at its Ordinary meeting held on Tuesday 17 May 2011. Since the report and agenda was prepared, new fees have been introduced in the Development Assessment Panel Regulations. The May report to Council on the review of the City’s Fees and Charges did not include fees and
charges for Development Assessment Panel Applications, lodged to the Local Government with the Planning Application fee, but then forwarded on to the Department for Planning. The Annual Inspection fee for private swimming pools was also updated following subsequent amendments to the service budget. The fee was amended from $25.60 (10/11 fee) to $27.00.
Considerable work was also undertaken on the Waste budget and as a result a number of the Waste charges were updated. Costing estimates from the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council had not been received prior to the initial collation of the Fees and Charges. The term “awaiting SMRC prices” has been removed and the fee/charge inserted. The fees for Bulk Bins were originally not shown, but have since been included at the same amounts as were charged in 2010/2011.
Concessions
At the time of adopting the budget it is appropriate for Council to also disclose any waivers or concessions granted to rateable organisations and to disclose the financial impact of those concessions. The following concessions have previously been granted by the Council and are recommended to also be adopted in the 2011/2012 budget.
General Rates Concessions
Following representations from owners of individually strata titled and therefore rated storage units Council reviewed the impact of the overall rates applied to these properties when compared to similar storage units located on land that remained as one large title. As it was evident that the rating outcome was substantially greater where the units were individually strata titled Council decided to apply a concession so that the rating outcome yielded a result similar to if they were located on a single lot. The 2011/2012 Budget proposes to continue this concession, with the concession applying to appropriately zoned and used strata titled storage units of 18m2 or smaller. The minimum rate for the eligible storage unit properties is $330.00, with the value of this concession amounting to $19,500.
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PUBLIC CONSULTATION/COMMUNICATION
Whilst no specific public consultation has taken place in regards to the 2011/2012 Budget, community consultation has occurred for a number of the major projects identified within the budget document. A notice of intention to impose differential rates was also advertised in the Melville Times on Saturday, 14 May 2011 and the 21 day public comment period ended on Monday 6 June 2011. No comments were received.
CONSULTATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES / CONSULTANTS
• Fire and Emergency Services Agency with respect to the Emergency Services Levy;
• Landgate (The Valuer General) in relation to the Gross Rental Valuations used as a basis for calculation of Municipal General and Specified Area Rates;
• Office of Energy and Western Power with respect to Underground Power Projects.
• Southern Metropolitan Regional Council (SMRC) in relation to the Waste Disposal operation run by them on behalf of the City and five other local authorities.
