Savings made, challenges remain: Eurobodalla Council hosts community updates

Twelve months ago the council reported a "serious and ongoing deficit" in its general fund.

"Living within our means starts now," general manager Warwick Winn said at the time.

"We are a medium-sized council trying to do the work of a large council and that is not sustainable."

The work done since will be shared with the community when Mr Winn embarks on another round of financial updates, starting in Narooma on Tuesday, April 9.

He will be accompanied by finance director Stephanie Speedy and Mayor Mathew Hatcher.

Mr Winn said it was important residents understood the council's financial situation and what was being done to stabilise budgets and find a path to financial sustainability.

He said the community discussions would cover savings the council had made and service changes for the coming financial year being proposed as a result.

"Last year in May we publicly outlined our financial situation, and that is, we are facing a serious and ongoing deficit in our general fund," Mr Winn said.

"Almost 12 months on, we're ready to explain to the community the strategy we've developed and the actions we've taken already to step our way out of this.

"We are focused on core business and have managed to reduce the operating deficit by carefully reprioritising and staging our annual work plans," Mr Winn explained.

"We're also using grant funds to support already programmed works and services, rather than adding extra projects to our to-do list."

Mr Winn's comments came in the wake of a public forum with members of the Local Government Grants Commission, explaining the federal financial assistance grants and how they were divided up among councils each year.

Mayor Mathew Hatcher said the general manager and staff have the full support of councillors as the "living within our means" mindset was bedded in.

"Councillors want to leave the organisation in better financial shape than we found it," he said.

"I encourage residents to come along and hear first-hand from Warwick and Steph how we're going about that."

Each session will be one hour and include time for questions and discussion.

Light refreshments will be served from 5.15pm with the presentation to start at 5.30pm. Bookings were not required - just show up.