Also facing the chop are some of the city’s annual fireworks celebrations, kids’ playgrounds, ocean rock pools, the council-run crematorium and at least half of its new Crown Street facade rejuvenation scheme.

According to an extensive list of suggestions released by the panel yesterday, pool and library fees would go up, spending on the arts would go down and even charities and pensioners would not be spared, with their interest and waste exemptions slated to be removed.

Councillors deprived by ‘undemocratic’ process

Further, tourist parks, marketing and cleaning would be outsourced and staffing levels across multiple council departments would be cut through  attrition.

The 34 citizens’ panel members were randomly chosen by market researchers to play a pivotal part in the council’s comprehensive financial review, which is designed to add an extra $21 million to its yearly budget to meet a growing infrastructure backlog.

The unusual consultation process has drawn criticism from community groups and some councillors, who believed the panel would unfairly set the agenda for the rest of the consultation process and take responsibility for financial decisions out of the councillors’ hands.

Selected to represent Wollongong’s age, geographic, educational and cultural demographics, the panel members met four times during September and October to discuss ways to reduce services, raise revenue and make the council more efficient in the long term.

Led by an independent consultant from community engagement firm Straight Talk, they came up with a list of recommendations that – if accepted by councillors – will have far-reaching consequences for all  citizens of the Illawarra.

In their report, which is now on public exhibition, the panel members suggest the council implement at least $10million of its $13million worth of suggested savings over the next three years, while introducing a maximum rate rise of 7.5per cent and striving for further staffing and service efficiencies.

Faced with a list of more than 65ways to cut costs or raise revenue yesterday, Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery acknowledged he and other councillors had difficult decisions ahead of them in the coming months.

‘‘I looked at some of the recommendations and thought, ‘Oh boy, we’re in for an interesting debate’ – but that is what this is about,’’ he said.

‘‘I’m not resiling from that fact and I think the council has been very courageous in doing this because this should have been done years ago.’’

Cr Bradbery said he recognised not all the panel’s suggestions would be welcomed by other residents, but urged them to ‘‘face reality’’ and realise the council needed to operate more efficiently if it was to meet citizens’ expectation in the future.

He also emphasised citizens’ panel recommendations were not the end of community consultation under the financial review, and said councillors would make the ultimate decision on what changes go ahead.

Citizens’ panel member Nicola Stanistreet said she believed the group’s proposed measures represented the views of the wider Wollongong community and would be disappointed if the councillors did not act on their plans.

‘‘If you look at the demographic of the group ... we are the community,’’ she said.

‘‘We’re pretty confident that, given the same amount of information that we had...they would come to the same conclusions as us.

‘‘I don’t envy councillors having to make the final decisions...but we  sat down and made these decisions and we will be very disappointed if they don’t take them to heart.’’

The panel members had decided they needed a 66 per cent majority in order to gain ‘‘consensus’’ before putting forward each recommendation, she said.

Another panel member, Andrew Prusek, said he and his fellow members had held many passionate discussions during their meetings, only deciding on a rate rise after a lengthy and sometimes tearful debate.

‘‘The rate rise was the most passionate debate, and that’s where tears happened,’’ he said.

‘‘There were some people that were putting forward a much higher [rate rise percentage] but as a panel, we decided to keep the rate rise modest and phase it in over a number of years.’’

Ms Stanistreet said the panel hoped the ‘‘affordable’’ rate rise would lessen the impact of service cuts.

‘‘We simply could not cut any more because there are disadvantaged groups in the community, among others,’’ she said.

Comments on the panel’s recommendations can be made at haveyoursaywollongong.com.au until November 20. Councillors will then debate the proposal at the December 9 council meeting.