Council now has less debt than it had when the former Wyong and Gosford councils were amalgamated in 2016.
Administrator Rik Hart made the statement at the October 31 extraordinary meeting which started at 4.30pm and finished at 4.43pm.
The monthly financial statements were adopted as was the new glossy 19 page performance report for water and sewerage.
Monthly finances showed a year to date surplus of $10.3M which is better than budgeted by about $6M.
CEO David Farmer said it continues the trajectory of the last 18 months or so of an improved financial position.
$676M is under investment.
All the major funds are in positive except for Water which still has a negative working capital of (negative) 3.4 per cent.
“But that is shrinking on a monthly basis,” Mr Farmer said.
He expects that fund will also be in the positive by January.
Council has $307.9M in loans which has been trending down since December 2020.
That is now $10m less than the two councils owed in loans when merged.
It includes the $150M in emergency loans taken (in December 2020) as part of the financial crisis, Mr Farmer said.
The total gross debt is less than the amount outstanding when the two councils merged, he said again.
Administrator Rik Hart said it was fantastic news considering Council had to repay “a whole bunch of stuff” and recapitalise the organisation and showed the financial crisis is well and truly over.
Council is on up the up and up and is now focussing on productivity and efficiency gains so council can “do more with the rather limited resources we do have,” he said.
He adopted the Investment report and the monthly financial report.
The delivery plan for the water and sewerage dept was also adopted.
Administrator Mr Hart explained that when IPART gave the council their increased revenue which took effect on July 1, there were strings attached.
Water and Sewer Director Jamie Loader said IPART asked for a performance report on Sept 30 and this delivery plan by Oct 31.
A customer charter will be next after after community consultation.
Mr Hart said he had been out that day with the ARIC members (Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee) looking at assets and one ARIC member said they had just realised how big and important the water business is to the Central Coast.
