Councillors grasp reins of Shire of Augusta-Margaret River grant streams with major amendments

Councillors have wrested back control of the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River’s generous grants program after floating amendments at a meeting last month.

The amended decision backed by all councillors except for David Binks follows on-again, off-again concerns cited by elected members.

New councillor Melissa D’Ath, backed by deputy Shire president Tracey Muir, tabled an amendment for changes to the officer’s recommendation around the Community, Economic, Environmental and Events Funding Policy.

In July, the Shire detailed the latest winners from its grant funding for major events determined by officers with more than $120,000 handed out.

The endorsed changes would mean in future only grants under $10,000 would be allocated by Shire officers through delegated powers to chief executive Andrea Selvey.

The amendment also ordered a report back to councillors about the options for creating a committee to decide future grant outcomes from the total funding pool last measured at about $865,000 per year.

The council item initially proposed another staff position for a $70,000-per-year-grants-officer to help groups finesse applications to outside bodies.

While speaking in support of that concept, Cr D’Ath’s change deferred recruitment until elected members undertook their mid-year budget review and funnelled the salary back into the prize pool.

The changes to the policy first developed in 2021 also amended some budget amounts for the various grant streams and reinforced the “sustainable economy” focus.

Meanwhile, a $30,000 pool for “community development easy grants” was added to help groups access small funds quickly when needing to help bring projects to fruition.

The Times previously reported angst around the ratepayer-backed funding process – most recently in December last year, just before the latest review was requested – with community groups having multi-year agreements cut back to 12 months without much notice.

In December, the Times also questioned whether the Shire intended to reel back operating grants for community groups reliant on funding for administrative costs not covered by external agencies.

Cr D’Ath said the latest changes ensured “strong accountability” and solidified changes made during previous reviews.

“This is about coming to the nice middle ground,” she said.

“In the past it has gone too far to the council (running the program), and then too far (to officers).”

Cr Binks was the only dissenter, arguing council should set strong policies Shire officers then carried out.

“Our policy needs to be robust and directive so our staff can do they job they are there to do,” he said.

“We should be taking a long-term, big picture look at things.”

But in backing the amendment, Shire president Julia Meldrum disagreed and said it was appropriate councillors oversaw the allocations because the program was a key mechanism for strengthening the community.