Maroondah COVID-19: Council plans recovery, but quiet on predicted future cost of pandemic

It moved to flash new offices and took a massive income hit at its venues. And senior staffers kept their paypackets in check despite workers being temporarily laid off.

Maroondah Council's new offices at Ringwood Town Square are nearing completion. Picture: Kiel Egging.

Top officers at an outer east Melbourne council didn’t take a pay cut during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite close to 500 workers being temporarily laid off.

Maroondah Council has shed a light on the impact of the virus outbreak on its operations — but has not said what the overall impact would be at the end of the financial year.

Leader revealed last year the council tipped it would lose $10 million in expected income from its leisure facilities as a result of the pandemic, and $5 million in savings.

It forced the council to shake up its budget for 2020-21, with $7.43 million redirected towards COVID-19 relief and recovery measures.

The council still managed to boost spending at its new Ringwood offices by $500,000 for solar panels.

It was expecting a $1.3 million surplus when it adopted the budget in late July.

But the forecasted impact on the surplus and the council’s income since then is unclear.

Mayor Kylie Spears said the council had maintained “most” of its services despite the “profound” impact of COVID-19.

“While the priority on relief and recovery has impacted some areas of council activity, no services or programs have been cut,” she said.

Cr Spears said 701 residents had applied for rate relief this financial year, which was a similar number to previous years.

She said the impact on next year’s rates would not be known until the 2021-22 draft budget was presented in May.

Cr Spears said no executives, council officers and councillors took pay cuts during the pandemic as “council business and activity associated with relief and recovery continued to

be at a very high level during the period”.
But she said some staff opted to amend hours or take leave.

The council stood down 56 part-time workers and was “not able to provide shifts” for 424 casuals at its leisure centres and the Karralyka Theatre while they were closed due to the pandemic.

Chief Executive Steve Kozlowski claimed the casuals were technically not stood down as they “only work when they are offered shifts and it suits them to work the available shifts on offer”.

Cr Spears said the council had received more than 3000 responses to a community survey for its draft Maroondah COVID-19 Recovery Plan, which would be presented at a future council meeting.

The council did not fulfil Leader’s request to view the survey responses.