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Proceedings
in Brief
The Mayor
noted that it was the last day before Council assumed a “caretaker”
role before the upcoming 9 September 2017 election.
The Mayor stated
that he felt the current Council should not encumber a new Council to make the
decision on whether to grant funds to Orange Regional Tourism Limited as the
current Council knew the background, where a new Council may not.
The Mayor read
out the recommendation that he had put forward.
It was
noted the time being 12:50pm Clr Wilcox joined the meeting.
Clr Nash stated
that she was against the recommendation as from the Council meeting held 17
May 2017 a decision was made to give no funds until Ministerial approval had
been given. She queried why there was now a rush to proceed.
Clr Nash
stated that she did not feel the entity would benefit Cabonne, and that Council
was already supporting a similar project that was being launched by Centroc.
She noted that she felt that the staff at council were capable of promoting
Cabonne events on their own.
Clr Durkin
stated that he was for the recommendation, however felt that there needed to
be greater involvement of Cabonne Staff to control where money from Orange
Region Tourism Limited would go and there needed to be more
accountability. He noted that he was hesitant to rush through
allocating funds without Ministerial approval.
Clr Wilcox stated
that she was against the recommendation as she was concerned that Ministerial
approval had not been granted and queried why there was now a rush to
proceed.
Clr Wilcox
stated that she would prefer to support the proposal from Centroc.
Clr Davison
stated that he was for the recommendation and that the project was about getting
tourism dollars into the area. He stated that no one knew where Cabonne
is but that people knew where Orange is. He noted that the Wine
industry of the region employed 2,100 people and that for the area to become better known it was reliant on Orange.
Clr Davison noted that Council was only looking to commit to one
year at this stage and that the State Government were only prepared to give
funding if the funding was allocated to a region not individual
councils.
Clr Dean queried who had decided on the titles and positions of
the new entity, and the amount of money allocated.
Clr Davison responded that an interim board had approved the
titles, positions and figures.
The Mayor confirmed that the resolution would be to only commit
for one year with the new Council elected in September 2017 then be able to review
and make decisions on whether to further commit. He also confirmed the
resolution still was based on awaiting Ministerial Approval to form the new
entity.
The Mayor stated that Cabonne will not get funding if it does not
acknowledge that it is part of the region and that although he understood why
councillors were against the recommendation, he felt that this is the right
decision for Council for one year.
Clr Nash queried if the money allocated would be taken from local
events.
The Mayor responded that this money would come out of reserve funds
not tourism funds.
Clr Walker noted that the key word was “Regional” and
a partnership with Orange and Blayney would benefit Cabonne down the track.
He also noted that the Minister had shown interest in the Canowindra Balloon
festival as well as other areas and events in Cabonne.
Clr Durkin queried if there was a way to put a measure on the return
on the investment.
At the request of the Mayor the Acting Economic Development Manager stated that council staff would insist that the new body provide
Council with measurable outcomes as previously when working with regional
projects there had never been a way to measure the impact of events, using
the example of Martin Place.
The Acting Economic
Development Manager stated that Cabonne is in a
region and are competing with other regions for people to come to the
area. The responsibility for promoting Cabonne villages would still be
with Cabonne Council and therefor he would be reluctant to see funds eating
into the tourism budget, hence why the reserve funds were suggested.
Clr Davison agreed that there needs to be measurable outcomes and
that the Committee formed underneath Orange Region Tourism Limited would have
council’s Tourism Officer and other officers decide where the money would
be spent and that Cabonne could have an equal say with Orange and Blayney.
He noted that 2 meetings already have taken place with success and that
Cabonne had gone to events with Orange over the years and Cabonne may not
have enough money to successfully promote events if they stand alone.
Clr Wilcox stated her concern about excessive costs involved and queried
how much money would actually be spent on promotion. She noted from her
previous personal work experience in regional tourism that there is the
possibility of “personalities” getting in the way and that the
same ideas had be carried out before and why would this time be any
different?
Clr Davison agreed that in previous entities personalities had
gotten in the way, however felt that lessons could be learnt from history.
Clr Wilcox stated that she worried that the opinions of the public
would not support this venture.
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