What are "Services"? 
Council spends around $90M on "services"
When we categorise the spend based on external benefit to the resident vs benefit to the internal corporation of Council we see the TRUE spend on services that impact where we live (the lived experience)
The data shows us that Council only spends $51M on actual services that benefit you. That's only 25% of income actually being spent on YOU.

Staffing Costs
What strikes us about this budget is the enormous increase in staff costs from last year. This year is an about $6M increase in costs to $75.6M or 60% of all rates.
Where have those staff been increased?
Largely in the "Executive Leadership Team" which has seen a massive upswing in salary costs and also in "Special Projects" which has boosted numbers to hire more staff for projects and shift the cost to the actual project.
It appears that the ballooning staff costs deliver little if any increase in actual services to residents. 

Key Spends on "Services"
The following are items that we believe are included in the services spend that deliver little value to the community and should be reigned in or made more cost-effective.
$3.3 Million on Economic Development - a significant spend and Council can not articulate what this money is spent on. We have asked for minutes of the economic development committee for months - Council has not responded.
$1.2 Million on Environment Policy - again Council can't seem to articulate what this spend actually delivers
$3.2 Million on Communications - a significant spend on marketing, advertising and associated staffing costs to "communicate to the community". We would argue here that Council has a long history of poor communication and engagement, so what value is this function delivering to the community? This appears to be a large amount of money spent on "internal works".
$2.6M on organisational development - this is an internal cost to run the business and does not directly provide any service to the community. This is a large amount of money for a comparable staff-sized organisation in the private sector. This should be included in staff costs.
$3.6M on Risk Management - again a cost of business and appears internal in value and focus.
Councillors and Executives - $7.2M. Given Councillors receive a collective pool of about $400,000 - there is around $6.8M in Executive Salaries and expense here. A significant increase on the past years. Our view is that the organisation is now top-heavy and layered by the CEO with a lot more expense than before with no public benchmarks or KPI's to demonstrate any value for money.
Asset Management & Planning - $2.5M. This is the department that essentially works out the life cycle of council assets and public infrastructure and organises repairs, maintenance and the like. It seems a considerable expense with no demonstration of efficiency. 

​Projects Planned
Major projects planned in this budget are outlined in our article "Major Projects Planned"..

Council Revenue 

• Rates $126M
• Fees & Fines $20.8M
• User Fees $21.7M
• Grants $16.8M
• Loans $10M
• Other $6M
• Total funding $202.7M

Council Expenses

• Staff $75.6M
• Materials/services $63.9M
• Depreciation $20.6M *
• Other $11.3
• Total expenses $171.6M

Budget Feedback
Stonnington Council has a budget submission process that is difficult to navigate, so we have designed our own short form that you can complete and we will send to them for you. Please complete the BUDGET FEEDBACK FORM by clicking the link below..
https://www.stonningtonrp.com/budgetfeedback