Rachel Chambers’ resignation: Union lashes council on budget black hole after mayor resigns

The North Burnett Mayor’s decision to call it quits has again shone the spotlight on the council’s financial woes, with the Services Union slamming the council’s slow hiring pace.

Mayor Rachel Chamber’s resignation has again shone the spotlight on the North Burnett Regional Council's budget crisis. Picture: Sam Turner

The shock resignation of the North Burnett Mayor Rachel Chambers has again shone a spotlight on the dire financial situation the council is facing, with a union making big demands of the remaining councillors.

Cr Chamber’s made a tearful resignation announcement on Facebook on Wednesday, telling residents she would be stepping down on December 11.

The Mayor said personal and “life-changing” events over the past few months have served as a “wake-up call as to how life needs to be lived” and forced her to rethink her priorities.

North Burnett mayor Rachel Chambers make a teary resignation announcement, September 22, 2021.

The announcement of Cr Chambers’ decision to call it quits has again brought the impending crisis into the spotlight.

The Australian Services Union, which represents many council workers, issued a press release saying it “respects” the decision of the Mayor and “wished her well”.

But it took aim at the remaining councillors, calling on them to “do the right thing”.

“The remaining councillors now carry a heavier responsibility for the direction of council and the level of support and services across all the North Burnett communities,” the union said.

The union also hit out at the council’s slow pace in filling job vacancies.

“This week, our Union learned that over 25 positions are sitting vacant across Council,” it said.

It went on to claim half of the positions have been waiting for months for approval to advertise

“It’s time to focus on the future of the North Burnett. Let’s keep local services open, keep money in the region as much as possible, and start employing locally again.”

The union called on councillors to move a resolution directing the organisation to:

1. Prioritise employment arrangements based within the region before facilitating remote working arrangements or engaging contractors in locations outside of North Burnett.
2. Maintain the existing operating hours of customer service and libraries and retain the hours of work for all CSL permanent employees, and 6 casual positions.
3. Identify other work which could be performed by those employees when not required to perform CSL tasks (i.e. information management, other admin support, community programs, etc), enabling opening hours to be maximised.

“The power is in the councillors hands. Do the right – save the North Burnet,” the union said.

The North Burnett Regional Council was contacted for comment.

The revelation the council will have to cover the costs of a by-election to replace Cr Chambers, will place even more pressure on the councillors over the North Burnett’s impending budgetary crisis.

In April of this year, Cr Chambers told residents at a council information session that the organisation’s finances were in disarray.

“Our back is against the wall. We’re running out of money,” she said at the time.

“We’re running out of time and we’re running out of options to save jobs.”

The Mayor warned if nothing changed the North Burnett will run out of money by 2025, due to a combination of factors which started with amalgamation in 2008.

For the council to break even the rates would need to go up by 78 per cent.

Originally published as Rachel Chambers’ resignation: Union lashes council on budget black hole after mayor resigns