Despite Serpentine Jarrahdale community engagement director Brian Oliver saying the council views a review of the emergency services governance as critical work, council is deferring the review.
At the shire’s recent audit, risk and governance committee meeting, a motion which called on the chief executive to start procurement for the emergency management governance review (EMGR) lost one to five.
Mr Oliver said the shire carried a greater work health and safety responsibility, and failing to do the review at this time posed risks.
“The risk is the shire and council could be seen to not be reviewing its strategic risks relating to work, health and safety responsibilities as well as the strategic planning for brigade operations as well as facility management,” he said.
“Given the new Cardup courier fire station now operating within the shire, it’s already having impacts on the current structure and management of our brigades.
“From our perspective (it’s) critical that we undertake that strategic review work to engage with the stakeholders, both the brigades, state government counterparts, primarily (Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES)) to understand what the future landscape looks like.”
Mr Oliver said the shire didn’t currently have the resources to do the review.
“We wouldn’t have some of the relevant expertise to undertake the review work,” he said.
According to the shire’s 2025 emergency services review scope, the review comprised of two parts, first was the emergency services governance review, followed by the review of the shire’s 20-year facilities plan.
The report said the governance review would assess the effectiveness, accountability and coordination of governance arrangements for the shire’s emergency services business unit and the shire’s volunteer bush fire brigade.
“In the 2025-25 budget, there’s been $60,000 allocated for the governance review of emergency management,” Mr Oliver said.
“Second part of this is $120,000 allocated for the emergency services strategic facilities review (SFR).
“Once the governance review has been completed and made recommendations, that would then inform the SFR.
“The key aspect of that is looking at council doing a concept and feasibility for a new level three (incident control centre) facility within the Mundijong precinct.”
Shire President Rob Coales asked if there were alternative funding options from the DFES or another government agency.
“Does it have to be $60,000 from ratepayers’ money?” he said.
Mr Oliver said state government funding was available for the development of emergency management plans.
“I’m not aware that funding is available to undertake an internal review of management for operations of a shire business unit,” he said.
Mr Oliver said brigade captains were concerned about the timing of the audit.
“They raised concerns about their availability over the high-threat period being November through to April which is when a key bulk of the work would be undertaken,” he said.
“We have pushed out to the audit program for this (review) and that identifies we’ll be presenting back to the audit risk and governance committee in August next year.”
An alternate motion to explore other funding opportunities was moved by Mr Coales and carried, five to one.
The alternate motion: requests the Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale to advocate for a contribution for state funding to go towards the EMGR, requests the chief executive present a report back to the ARG committee on the outcome of this advocacy once known, and requests the chief executive reflect the deferral within the corporate business plan and internal audit program accordingly.
In response to questions about the amount of funding the shire was seeking, Mr Coales said a specified amount hadn’t been confirmed.
“We have written to DFES South East Metropolitan Region office seeking funding towards the EMGR project and/or for DFES to advise available grant funding programs that the shire can apply to for the project,” he said.
“With community volunteers providing year-round support to be able to respond to, and recover from, the hazard of bushfires, the shire recognises the shared responsibility between state and local government with respect to supporting our local brigades.
DFES declined to comment.
