REDLAND City Council has formally noted the findings of a major external organisational review with councillors backing further work on reform priorities while acknowledging community expectations around transparency and accountability.
The confidential Deloitte service and efficiency review — commissioned following a Mayoral Minute in March 2025 — examined every area of council operations and warned the organisation faced increasing structural pressures as service demands continue to grow.
While councillors unanimously supported noting the report at today’s general meeting, several elected members stressed the importance of continuous improvement and ensuring elements of the review process are communicated publicly moving forward.
Cr Wendy Boglary, who moved an alternate motion, described the review as “very in-depth” and praised the work undertaken by Deloitte and council officers.
“It is a very thorough external report by a reputable consultant, that being Deloitte,” Cr Boglary said.
“Page 26 of the agenda report that everyone has publicly states their key findings.
“Naturally, there’s a lot more information in the review itself, but that at present is remaining confidential due to, as the CEO advised us on Monday, legal responsibilities.”
Cr Boglary said the review identified areas where improvements and future actions would be required.
“I’d like to ensure that improvements in this area are going to be taken, and that means we have to do actions as well as consideration and analyse the actions that are required,” she said.
“So, I therefore seek support for this alternate motion to ensure these future works will be occurring.”
The Deloitte review identified what it described as “material issues” within council’s current operating model, including fragmented accountability, duplicated capability across departments, limited organisational capacity to manage large-scale change and inconsistent performance measurement systems.
The report found council had evolved incrementally over time rather than through a deliberate “end-to-end service lens”, contributing to inefficiencies and unnecessary management layers in parts of the organisation.
However, the agenda papers also stressed the review did not find council to be an organisation in crisis and acknowledged the organisation delivered valued services supported by a committed workforce.
Cr Paul Bishop welcomed the review, describing it as the first exercise of its kind during his 14 years on council.
“I absolutely agree in the spirit of continuous improvement that there is a lot going on, and I’d certainly welcome this review, which is the first time in the 14 years that I’ve been here this has come about,” Cr Bishop said.
“So, I think it’s a really important review.”
Cr Bishop also questioned how council intended to communicate broader reform themes and improvement priorities to the public given much of the report would remain confidential.
“Can officers just advise whether there will be opportunities in future to publicly communicate the broader themes, reform priorities and improvement pathways that have been identified?” he asked.
Chief Executive Officer Louise Rusan said councillors would ultimately determine which recommendations, if any, council would proceed with and over what timeframe.
“This report was done by an external consultant, and it’s been brought to you for noting because council is still to unpack that report and decide what it would like to do moving forward,” Ms Rusan said.
“So those future decisions are in your hands in terms of what recommendations you’d like to proceed with.”
Ms Rusan said council already communicated operational improvements and initiatives through its corporate plan, operational plan, media releases and website updates, while also encouraging councillors to share positive outcomes with the community.
“There are countless opportunities and initiatives that the organisation does on a day-to-day basis where great things happen, and we try to get that message out as frequently as we can,” she said.
“We encourage councillors to share those good news stories because unfortunately sometimes only the negative gets reported and not the great things that the officers do.”
Ms Rusan said officers looked forward to working through the review findings and continuing the organisation’s ongoing improvement processes.
“A lot of the efficiencies and effectiveness that has occurred over many years has come from the great work that the officers have done on an ongoing and continuous improvement basis,” she said.
“But it is business as usual for council and the organisation, and we are getting on with the business of council.”
Closing debate, Cr Boglary said she agreed with concerns raised around transparency and expected future non-operational matters would ultimately return to public council meetings.
“I totally, totally agree,” she said.
“Anything which isn’t of an operational matter will be coming to council at a general meeting, so there will be that transparency and accountability.”
Cr Boglary also praised officers and executive leadership for progressing the review process.
“To quote a very old saying, it is a breath of fresh air. I think it’s a change, and out of this will come continual improvements,” she said.
“So well done to the CEO and everybody for actioning the Mayoral Minute to this, and I look forward to these positive outcomes.”
At this stage, council has not committed to implementing any specific recommendations contained within the Deloitte review.
Any future decisions involving structural changes, service reforms or staffing implications are expected to return to council separately for consideration.
