Meet Your Candidate Report...Yorkeys Knob Division 8

March 14, 2016

Report from ‘Meet the Candidates’ forum

On 10 March YKRA held a meet the candidate forum at the community Centre. More than 50 residents from Division 8 had an opportunity to listen to and question the mayoral and divisional candidates for the upcoming local council elections.

It was terrific for the community to be able to discuss issues relevant to the Cairns and northern beaches.

Some of the issues of particular and concern were:

1. Approval of seven story apartment in Atherton Street, Yorkeys Knob. Residents expressed dissatisfaction with the lack on consultation and transparency regarding this decision. Current Division 8 councillor, Jesse Richardson, when asked about her position on this, acknowledged that more consultation should have occurred. The Connect Cairns team agreed that the process was flawed and that they would consult and engage with the community on any development that was not in line with the approved local government planning guidelines.

2. Green train. Cr Bob Manning confirmed at the meeting that the proposed light rail between Gordonvale and Palm Cove would not commence for some time yet and that over the four years, Council would engage a consultant to undertake a feasibility and finance study. He acknowledged that it would be necessary to discuss this with State and Commonwealth in the future. Cr Manning also commented that the Cairns Post did not report correctly his statement about the costings. There was also confusion with Cr Jesse Richardson advising some residents that another scenario may include the construction of a bike path, instead. Connect Cairns re-confirmed their transport policy which includes securing a light rail corridor in line with anticipated future population growth and working with the State government to by-pass the Smithfield roundabout.

3. AQUIS. Cr Bob Manning confirmed that the Unity Team would approve the development proposal, but that he understood it would be a scaled and modified version of the current plan. He suggested that the Unity team would be making an announcement on this project, but that approvals from State and Federal levels of government were some time away. Connect Cairns stated that they were willing to talk to anybody that wanted to invest $8Billion into our economy, and that it was the responsibility of council to ensure proper process once the material change of use (MCU) application is received by the proponent.

4. Council procurement. Following a statement from Jim Brooks accusing the current council of questionable purchasing a resident directed a question to Jim Brooks requesting an example of such questionable purchasing.
5. Jim Brooks provided two examples including one which he claimed a ‘sole provider’ contract was given to a company to the value of $1.2M, when there were clearly other potential suppliers of goods and service of that nature. He also spoke of a company which was given “preferred supplier” status 9 weeks before it went into liquidation, and queried the effectiveness of the pre-qualification assessment.
   Given the seriousness of the accusation Cr Bob Manning committed to having an immediate review to be available within 24 hours of the issue by council 's internal auditor. He commented that “one of us will have to apologise when the report's findings are available”

Once again the YKRA provided a forum for the community and all reports show that it was another successful event.

We thank the participants and in particular, you, the community who attended this presentation.

Maurice Milliner

President – Yorkeys Knob Residents Assoc. Inc.

STOP PRESS. Re item 4. YKRA has received a reply from the CRC CEO Peter Tabulo responding to the concerns raised about council procurement. We are providing this reply for your information: an internal auditor rather than an independent investigator had looked at only the parking machine issue.

From: Tabulo Peter <p.tabulo@cairns.qld.gov.au>

Subject: Meet the Candidates Forum

Date: 11 March 2016 6:15:18 pm AEST

To: "'mauricemilliner@tpg.com.au'" <mauricemilliner@tpg.com.au>

Dear Mr Milliner, at last night’s meeting a matter was raised in the Mayoral Candidate forum relating to the procurement of parking meters in the CBD. The Mayor indicated that he would have the matter reviewed and information provided by today.

Given that this matter was raised at your association’s event, I considered it only reasonable for you to receive a copy of the review by an independent internal auditor and I ask whether it is possible for you to circulate it to those residents who were present.

I will be providing Mr Brooks with the details as well.

I thank you for your assistance in the matter.

Peter Tabulo
Chief Executive Officer
Cairns Regional Council
Phone: +61 740443017 Mobile: +61 0409596244
p.tabulo@cairns.qld.gov.au | cairns.qld.gov.au
PO Box 359, 119-145 Spence St, Cairns Q 4870

Preliminary Advice - Regulated Parking Technology Upgrade - Procurement compliance- 11 March, 2016

Dear Peter,

Thank you for your time today, and for making senior executives and officers available to walk-through at a high-level the procurement approach for the selection and award of Regulated Parking.

Technology Upgrades, including the rationale and approach for use of s.235 Other Exceptions allowed under the Local Government Regulation 2012, Part 3 - Default contracting procedures.

I understand from the information provided by your team, and my examination of the Governance Committee Resolution (17 June 2015) Item1. Sole Suppliers and Council Original Meeting

Resolution (29 July 2015) Item3. Project Launch Approval Regulated Parking Technology Upgrades, that benefits existed for the organisation to adopt consistency in the make and model in

its fleet of Pay & Display Parking Machines (Regulated Parking Technology) and to take advantage of technology advancements.

The organisation had various makes and models of Pay & Display Parking Machines in active use in the field for many years. This enabled CRC officers to assess the performance of the various

technologies equipment maintenance and suppliers in a Rlive practical day-to-day settings. Based on the results of officer Rin-field observations and a test of the market through a medium-scale contracting arrangement on two occasions, officers had evaluated that one provider of Parking Ticket Machines and associated maintenance was most suitable for the organisation s needs.

This provider was the Reino International Pty Ltd (trading as Duncan Solutions).

In June 2015 the Governance Committee resolved, on advice of Officers, to accept the Annual Sole Supplier list for the 2015/16 Financial Year, which included the Reino International Pty Ltd (trading as Duncan Solutions). In July 2015, Council resolved at its Ordinary Meeting to accept the Officers recommendation that Regulated Parking Technology Upgrades be undertaken The Officers Recommendation Report noted that a supplier from the Approved Sole Supplier Listing 2015/16 would be the engaged party to complete the contracted components of the upgrade project.

From the information provided to me on 11 March 2016; my enquiries of your team about the process of evaluating the suppliers of Regulated Parking Technology locally and the basis for their decision to recommend Reino International Pty Ltd (trading as Duncan Solutions) to the Governance Committee as a Sole Supplier, together with my knowledge of the application of the legitimate exceptions to open tendering available to Councils under the Local Government Regulation 2012, Part 3 - Default contracting procedures s.235 Other Exceptions, I am satisfied that the legislative requirements were complied with.

Peter, please note this represents my preliminary advice, and is my view in the absence of any other

information being disclosed that may alter the conclusions I have drawn. I will provide a formal letter next week covering the above.