Council
16 October, 2026
Yass Valley councillors divided on path forward
Yass Valley Council will start a ‘robust’ conversation with the community about its financial position and the potential for a Special Rate Variation (SRV) following an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday.
Yass Valley Council will start a ‘robust’ conversation with the community about its financial position and the potential for a Special Rate Variation (SRV) following an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday.
However, councillors were clearly divided on the issue with Mayor Jasmin Jones’ amended motion only narrowly getting across the line with a 5-4 vote.
It means council will now undertake a comprehensive community consultation program starting this weekend at the Murrumbateman Field Days.
Mayor Jasmin Jones described Wednesday’s meeting as a “pivotal moment in council’s trajectory”.
“We need to do something,” she said at the start of Wednesday’s meeting.
“To do something is not an option.”
She moved an amended motion that council proceed with a community consultation program but that it present three different options to the community for a potential SRV application.
The debate was at times extremely tense, with Cr Fleur Flanery at one stage accusing the mayor of holding a secret meeting to discuss her amended motion with five other councillors.
It was an accusation the mayor refuted.
She said she had sent an email to all councillors at 2.30pm on Wednesday outlining her amended motion.
Deputy mayor Kristin Butler also angrily denied there had been any ‘pre-meditated’ meeting.
“I won’t have that on the public record,” she said.
Later in the meeting, Cr Alvaro Charry tabled a foreshadowed motion seeking State Government intervention.
He believes the course of action needed to get council back on track financially is “far greater than what was agreed to”.
On a number of occasions during the public forum and in the council debate it was suggested that council’s financial problems were due – in part, at least, to the Crago Mill Precinct project.
Was it part of the reason council needed to consider an SRV? Cr Jones asked rhetorically.
‘Yes’.
But council needed to look after its staff (through construction of a new administration centre) and the project had been delivered for significantly less than originally projected.
“It’s an investment in our community,” she said.
Cr Jones said many other councils across the state were in the same position financially and were applying for SRVs through the Independent Pricing and Administrative Tribunal (IPART).
She said the SRV would not be a ‘nice to have’ but would be used to fix a structural financial problem.
Cr Jones said the cost of business was going up and Financial Assistance Grants (FAGs) were going down.
She said the funding backlog for infrastructure across the LGA had “come home to roost” with the current council.
Cr David Cameron said council had inherited some “fundamental financial challenges”.
“The issues that we are dealing with today are not issues that have materialised immediately,” he said.
He said they were the result of a systemic failure to invest in infrastructure across the LGA for some time.
“We are being asked to account for a systemic decision by council not to make hard decisions.”
He said an SRV wouldn’t provide any tangible benefit to the community and wouldn’t solve the overall problem.
Cr Alvaro Charry said it was “unacceptable” for council to be asking for more money without committing to increased service levels.
He said many residents would find it impossible to pay their rates.
Cr Charry said every decision he had made in the council chamber had been about building trust and confidence through honesty and accountability.
“I have failed,” he said.
“There is very little trust in council at the moment.”
He believes the current crisis is beyond council’s capacity to rectify and Ministerial intervention is the answer.
Cr Adrian Cameron said the question to residents needed to be rephrased.
He said council needed to be asking residents what they wanted and what they were prepared to pay.
He said there needed to be ‘real’ engagement as opposed to consultation and told councillors there was a distinct difference between the two.
Cr Burgess asked how long it would be before an Administrator gets appointed if council doesn’t make a decision to consult over a potential SRV.
Council’s chief executive officer Gayleen Burley said council was already having monthly discussions with the Office of Local Government.
She said the next step would be a Performance Improvement Order (PIO) before the appointment of an Administrator.
“Not all councils end up in Administration because of finances,” she said.
Cr Fleur Flanery said the current council also had to accept some responsibility for its financial problems.
She said it had made some poor decisions and failed to pull its socks up or look at its options.
Cr David Rothwell said council needed to “get in there and fix the problems”.
He said council also needed the community confidence that “we will do the best with their money”.
Ms Burley said the consultation process would last for approximately five to six weeks and would exceed IPART expectations.
She said it would be finalised before the school holidays get underway in December.
Councillors Burgess, Butler, Jones, McGrath and Rothwell voted in favour of the motion with councillors Cameron, Carter, Charry and Flanery voting against.
Stay tuned to the Southern Wire for full coverage of the Yass Valley consultation over the next couple of months.
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