Lismore has the feeling of moving forward, rather than looking over its shoulder regularly following on from the devastating 2022 big flood.

Of course, there is the continuous threat of our city being hit by another major flood, especially heading into storm season, but medium to long-term plans are being made, which look well into the future.

Lismore City Council is one area of government that is taking the longer-term view while dealing with the short term rebuild issues.

Mayor Steve Krieg sat down to talk about some of those issues in the latest Talking Lismore podcast.

The usual practice for Council is to vote in a Deputy Mayor every 12 months over its four-year term, as it does for when it wants to hold council meetings and at what time.

Both these issues were addressed last week when Council voted to keep Councillor (Cr) Jeri Hall as Deputy Mayor until the next elections, as well as keep its day-time meetings from 10am, with public access from 9am.

"It's really hard in this position. The reality is, I think I've had one week off since the 2022 flood. I make it a conscious effort, as much as I can, to invite all councillors when dignitaries or politicians are in town. But the reality is, Jeri, in her position over the last few years as deputy mayor, has built a relationship with people like the Premier and the Planning Minister and the Emergency Services Minister. She knows Janelle quite well as the Recovery Minister, and there's going to come a time where I'm probably going to have another week or two off. To have that consistency of relationship is really, really important for Lismore," Mayor Krieg said.

"Moving forward, she knows the processes, she knows the people involved. And so that was the main thing; to keep that consistency of relationship with state and federal government ministers and bureaucrats as a constant. And she does a great job.

"To be honest with you, I think people don't realise that the deputy mayor is not a paid position, but she's expected to give up her time and quite often at her own expense, to meet with these people. If, for example, the premier was in town, she would have to get someone in to do her job, to cover her bus run, and all of that sort of stuff costs money. So, it's not an easy job. It's a bit of a thankless job, really. And she loves doing it. That was a bit of a no-brainer to keep her in that position until the end of the term.

DAYTIME COUNCIL MEETINGS

"I know there's a bit of debate about daytime versus nighttime meetings. It costs less, and that's been shown by the staff reports that have come in and our viewership on online is actually more engaged during the day. We've had more people speak at public access in the last 12 months, than what we have the previous 12 months during nighttime meetings, so the statistics back up daytime meetings.

"But there's also a range of WHS issues. We expect our council staff, and they do, to start at anywhere between 7:30 and 8 o'clock on that Tuesday morning. They used to push right through until council meeting finished, sometimes at 11pm and then they'd be back 7:30 or 8 o'clock on Wednesday. We don't expect any other sector of work to put those sorts of hours in.

"So, there is a lot of things that are I'm very mindful and conscious about, as well about having the daytime meetings. For me, you put in a full day's work and then come to a council meeting you're tired before the meeting starts. 10am starts, you're fresh, you make better decisions. And we're not alone in this. More than 50% of New South Wales councils have their meetings during the day. It's not an uncommon practice."

SUPPORTING DETENTION BASINS, CULVERT AND A SEA OUTLET FOR THE CSIRO TO MODEL

Jai Vaze, the lead scientist, is in Lismore and the Northern Rivers this week to present his recommendations to the seven councils, Rous County Council, and other stakeholders. Lismore City Council felt it was important to state its priorities for the CSIRO to model.

"I thought it important that council had an official position, and everyone's entitled to an opinion, that's the beauty of democracy, that's the beauty of living in Australia. And I was sitting in a in a Rous meeting, and one of the councillors brought forward an urgency motion, which was supported that it was urgent, which was good for a start. It didn't get up, but that motion was in and around not supporting the CSIRO in a way, and demanding nature-based solutions as part of the possible modelling.

"There are reasons why nature-based solutions aren't in the CSIRO modelling, because you cannot model subjective matter. And so I thought, that raised discussion at the Rouse meeting, and in talking to the general manager and councillor Gordon, who was also at that meeting, I felt it was important that we support the CSIRO.

"This isn't a small project that they've undertaken. They need to feel like the work that they're doing is valued, and it's critically important to not just Lismore, but the whole region, and we want to see the best model that can be built and protect Lismore.

"And it's really important that every single person in this LGA and in the broader region accepts the umpire's decision of what's going to be modelled. Everyone's had a say, and hopefully, now the right things are modelled and we can get a result that will benefit Lismore and those towns and villages downstream as well.

REGIONAL WASTE PLAN

In a confidential session, it was decided that Lismore City Council would explore a regional waste solution rather than just look after its own backyard. As the discussion was held in confidential, no details can be discussed, but the broader talk about the seven local councils working together has been had, especially since the 2022 floods.

"It's probably fair to say that it is a little bit frustrating that we all think individually before collectively, and you can't do it for everything. After the 2022 flood, when our landfill was totally destroyed, you had to find different options. Sadly, that is shipping to Queensland and and then you find out that every other council, just about, is shipping to Queensland as well. And it's not cheap. Their levy is more expensive than the New South Wales Levy.

"So we've done a lot of work in and around, not only restoring our landfill, and I've had the opportunity to go up there and stand on the wall and see the amount of work that goes into building a landfill site. It is huge, and that'll see us through for, potentially, the next decade. But it takes about a decade to get everything in place for a new landfill site.

"The reality is that out of the seven member councils in our NRJO, Clarence Valley is the only council with a landfill site longer than the next 10 to 15 years. For whatever reason, they've got their reasoning, they said they want to keep the Clarence Valley landfill site, and that's fine. But there's an opportunity here for Lismore City Council to provide an option for the region, and also an economically beneficial option for the region. We can stop taking our landfill across the border, and every time we do we've got to pay the Queensland Government something like $160 a tonne. I think the New South Wales waste levy is about 100, so not only are you saving transportation costs, you're also saving $60 a tonne on a waste levy as well.

Cell 2B, which was destroyed by the big flood in 2022 should now be ready to reopen before the end of the year.

"That was supposed to be finished, I think, at Easter next year. Thank goodness for nice, fine weather. These guys have managed to work even when it has rained, to be able to get this cell up and operational. We should start with what they call a fluff layer. I've been learning so many terms since I became the mayor, but they want to start putting a fluff layer down, which is basically a bedding layer before Christmas. So that's good."

THE CITY OF LISMORE WITH A POPULATION OF 60,000

Lismore City Council is using two very experienced and highly credentialed people to plan for Lismore's population growth up to 60,000 residents.

"One is Gary White, who is the former head planner for New South Wales and Queensland. Another guy, Brendan Nelson, who's been awarded Australia's best planner two years in a row. They are very highly credentialed gentleman that see Lismore and the Northern Rivers as the great untapped market of New South Wales.

"They have been up here several times, and they just see unlimited potential in what Lismore and the Northern Rivers can offer as a growth area. This is something I don't want people in Lismore to get all nervous or worried about. This is over many decades, but we're probably two decades behind other regional centres that have experienced a lot of growth pretty quickly. Tamworth is an example. It gets floated around our council chambers very often, but Griffith, Wagga, Bathurst, Albury, have all experienced 5 or 6% growth per year when the state average has been around 1-1.5%. Lismore has been less than 1%.

"We've got a bit of catching up to do, to be honest with you. There's a lot of positives for growing your population and for people that get worried about it, think cheaper rates, for a start, more money to put towards roads and infrastructure. The bigger your population, or the more secure your population, the more opportunity have to build that critical infrastructure.

"We've just opened the skate park, for example. Things like that, we're able to not only maintain but build on. When you've got a bigger population, it also encourages more retail outlets wanting to come to town, and more industry and more jobs. So the goal is to create really good employment opportunities, get people here, and then get them to stay.

"Nothing is going to be perfect, no plan is going to be perfect, and no area is going to have green lights the whole way. There's always going to be some element of give and take with things. But if we want to see a really thriving and successful regional city, we've got to have that give and take. We've got to be able to give up some of our ideals to allow certain things to happen and but we hope to iron all of those sorts of things out. Caniaba is a classic example. Look at that place now. It's a beautiful estate, amazing people living up in Caniaba.

"There were a few issues when that development was first flagged, and it's worked out really, really well. Eastwood Estate Stage 1 has sold out in record time. They're about to start work on Stage 2 in the near future, which is really exciting there. It wasn't a perfect plan at the start, but we've gotten to a point where they've given up a bit, we've given up a bit. You find your middle ground, and you move forward, and I think if we can do that unilaterally, across all political influences, I think Lismore has got a really, really bright future."

PROPERTY STRATEGY REPORT

When do we see the Property Strategy Report?

"It's close, and within a matter of months that should be coming back to council. That will guide Council's decision-making about where we want to be as a council, what assets we need. The reality is, for a council our size, and you talk about growing your population. Lismore Council is carrying way too many assets for our current population base. All of these things go through my head as to how we can keep rates as low as possible for our residents. I know the discussion is that we're already paying two higher rates. I get it. I'm paying rates on two properties, my business and my house, and it's hard, it's hard to manage.

"So, that property strategy will guide what properties we as a council need. There's potential that we can possibly sell some of our assets that are unused or could be used in a better purpose, or by a different organisation or group for a better purpose. But the reality is, if we're going to stay a financially sustainable and a financially viable Council, we need to look at our asset base, and how we can run our organisation in a more lean and more fit for purpose way.

AIRPORT and BRIDGES

This week, Mayor Krieg, Deputy Mayor Jeri Hall and General Manager Eber Butron are in Sydney for meetings with Transport NSW, the USU and an airline for potential flights back into the Lismore airport.

"We're also meeting with Transport for New South Wales about a lot of topics, actually, the train station, being one of them, and where our roads program is at.

"I'm also meeting with a few professional sporting organisations about the potential of coming to Lismore for a few different things. The Newcastle Jets is one group I'm meeting on Monday afternoon, because after their visit they absolutely fell in love with Lismore. They wanted to do a five-team, week-long pre-season tournament. So, we'll begin the early stages of engaging the interest of that first and foremost, and what we need to do to make that happen in Lismore, and make that a, hopefully, regular event.

"We're also meeting with the USU, the union. As an organisation, we're trying to get better, and that involves a bit of change, and we need the support of the unions with everything we want to do at Council, but it's exciting. It is really exciting about what Lismore is transforming into, and we just need everyone to get on board and get behind us, and we'll make it happen.

"I migrated here from the West Coast in 1997, thinking I'd stay for two or three years and move on, and I fell in love with the place like we all do. I was listening to or reading Jenny Dowel's article in the Echo last week, and she came up from Melbourne with the same sort of thing and settled here. It's just the most beautiful part of the world to call home, and we should be optimistic about the future. We might not agree on everything, but that's no reason to not be optimistic about our future.

"Be optimistic about the potential that we have here as a city and as an LGA, and I'm excited to see what we can deliver for the residents of Lismore over the next two or three years."

The full conversation with Lismore Mayor Steve Krieg, can be heard by clicking Talking Lismore podcast for the App version or by clicking https://talkinglismore.buzzsprout.com/ for the website version.