{"id":331381,"date":"2023-04-27T14:18:53","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T04:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=331381"},"modified":"2023-04-28T16:25:41","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T06:25:41","slug":"council-spends-112k-on-xmas-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2023\/04\/27\/council-spends-112k-on-xmas-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"Council Spends $112k On Xmas Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
FLASHBACK: Murgon’s Christmas Tree in QEII Park … this year the town will be getting a new tree because the former one has reached the end of its useful life (Photo: Sherianne Talon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 27, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Burnett Regional Council will spend an estimated $112,322 to erect and decorate eight Christmas trees around the region this year.<\/p>\n

The cost of mounting community Christmas trees was outlined at a meeting last December when Cr Kirstie Schumacher asked how much it cost Council to erect trees in Blackbutt, Nanango, Kingaroy, Wondai, Murgon and Proston.<\/p>\n

Staff told the meeting the operational cost (ie. staff labour) to mount and decorate the six trees was $40,322 in 2022.<\/p>\n

But this week, Councillors voted to add a further $72,000 to this year’s bill by agreeing to erect two new trees in Hivesville and Kumbia, and replace Murgon’s tree after it fell into disrepair.<\/p>\n

Staff estimated the cost of making the three new trees – and building footings to hold them in place – was $42,000.<\/p>\n

They also estimated $30,000 would need to be spent to decorate the new trees.<\/p>\n

The money will be drawn from an underspend in the 2022-23 Capital Building account.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Complaints about the conduct of South Burnett councillors during the past 27 months have blown an estimated six-figure hole in the SBRC’s budget.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the Council’s Complaints Register<\/b><\/a>, 34 complaints have been lodged against SBRC Councillors since January 2021.<\/p>\n

The majority of the complaints relate to social media posts and nearly all of them have been dismissed.<\/p>\n

A single complaint was found to have some substance but was so trivial the OIA elected to advise the Councillor how to avoid repeating the same error in future.<\/p>\n

Complaints ranged from conduct in meetings to interactions with residents, but most focussed on social media posts.<\/p>\n

Under the Local Government Act, the cost of investigating complaints is borne by Council.<\/p>\n

southburnett.com.au<\/b> was told in December 2020 that every complaint lodged with Council costs ratepayers about $10,000 to process.<\/p>\n

If this figure still holds true, the SBRC is out-of-pocket at least $340,000 for complaints lodged during the past few years.<\/p>\n

Privacy rules means the public will never know who lodged the complaints.<\/p>\n

[UPDATED with correction]<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Burnett Regional Council will spend an estimated $112,322 to erect and decorate eight Christmas trees around the region this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":110470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,3],"tags":[1131],"yoast_head":"\nCouncil Spends $112k On Xmas Trees - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"South Burnett Regional Council will spend an estimated $112,322 to erect and decorate eight Christmas trees around the region this year.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2023\/04\/27\/council-spends-112k-on-xmas-trees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Council Spends $112k On Xmas Trees - 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