Maybe it was the high emotions coming off debating the Lake Wyangan animals, maybe it was the stress of IPART's SRV decision approaching or something in the water - but tensions were the highest they've been in the council chambers as councillors discussed next year's budget.
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Coming off the back of the difficult choice, councillors were tasked to approve the draft budget for the 2024/2025 financial year, but existing tensions and budget stresses proved to be a sore spot.
Mayor Doug Curran and Councillor Dino Zappacosta fought over a previous error in the estimations and whether Cr Zappacosta was informed, culminating in an impressive monologue from the mayor to all councillors about reigning in council's spending.
"This is not appropriate activity for our council. We had to make a very hard decision tonight and I apologise to the people that were upset including some of our councillors, but that is what we're here to do," he said.
"We all sat back three or four months ago when the SRV came forward and said 'Let's get a raise again. Let's get staff to find the savings, let's do all of these things' and now all of a sudden, we can spend more money."
"Not one councillor came forward with a saving proposal. Not one. All we say is 'staff will find the money,' and we keep hearing that ... we've had these conversations, and now we want to spend more money without identifying those savings."
Once things had calmed down in the room, all councillors bar Melissa Marin and Dino Zappacosta voted to approve the drafted budget.
While many projects have been trimmed as a result of the ongoing budget crunch, the budget still includes upgrades for Yambil Street, Kookora Street as well as improvements for Lake Wyangan, the community gardens and a paved carpark at the airport.
The airport carpark improvements will be used to introduce paid parking at the airport - making back some of those funds.
A number of discretionary bids have been made to fund the removal of dangerous trees around Railway Street, to review the Griffith Housing Strategy, fund Christmas Carols and to boost events funding for 2024/2025.
Councillor Shari Blumer has also put forth a $60,000 bid for council to hire people with disabilities who apply for work through disability employment providers.
Cost-saving measures introduced in the next year's budget include cutting out financial advice services from CPG, reducing advertising in the white pages, and significant changes to property, motor vehicle & professional indemity insurance policies.
Submissions and feedback on the budget are now open to the community until June 5. Submissions can be made at griffith.nsw.gov.au/budget or by emailing admin@griffith.nsw.gov.au.
A special budget workshop will be held for community members at the library on May 23 at 6.00pm.