In documents released on Monday, the first sentence of the introduction to the 2015-16 budget says: "At the council meeting held on May 13, 2105, council considered and resolved to place on public submission the 2015-16 budget."

The bizarre thing is they didn't. The draft budget was not an attachment to the council agenda, nor was it tabled on the night.

It therefore could not have been considered on that night. Nor has it been considered at any other council meeting.

The Local Government Act requires councils to make all decisions in formal council or committee meetings. Councils can deal with confidential matters away from the public gaze, and can receive late reports.

Ballarat City Council just didn't deal with it neither confidentially, nor as a late item.

Same thing with the council plan, on which the budget is based.

Bad procedural advice from officers makes the status of the documents released on Monday unnecessarily questionable and open to challenge should people not like the final budget when it is adopted in a little over a month's time. What's the likelihood of the budget coming unstuck? Who can say?

But a 5.5 per cent rate increase, borrowing a further $15 million, increasing the waste management charge by 9.2 per cent, and pretending that Ballarat City Council will be immune from rate capping by the Andrews government from 2016 all without explanation, could be enough reason for some.