2020-05-12 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                               12 MAY 2020


2     AMENDMENT TO COUNCILLORS ACCEPTABLE REQUESTS GUIDELINES POLICY
Author             Director, Debra Iezzi
                   Executive Services Department

Index              ECM/ Council Policies

Attachments        1.     Council Policy - Councillors Acceptable Requests Guidelines


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Nil
RECOMMENDATION
That Council note the report by the Director Executive Services to the Services & Organisation
Committee Meeting dated 12 May 2020 and adopt the amended Councillors Acceptable Requests
Guideline Policy provided at Attachment 1.

REPORT
The purpose of this report is to seek Council approval of the revised “Councillor Acceptable
Requests Guidelines Policy” which was previously approved by Council on 12 March 2015. It is
standard practice to review Council policies periodically, when changes to legislative provisions
occur and when a new Council is elected.
The revised policy incorporates:
-     Reference to the current themes and vision of the Noosa Council as contained within the
      Noosa Council Corporate Plan 2017-2037 updated in June 2018;
-     Changes made to the Local Government Act 2009 following the Local Government Electoral
      (Implementing Stage 2 of Belcarra) and Other legislation Amendment Act 2019 which
      introduced several amendments relating to sections 170 and 170A of the Local Government
      Act e.g. S170A (9-11) the timeframe for the Chief Executive Officer to respond to requests
      for assistance or information, the required timeframe for the CEO to comply with requests
      made to the CEO, the CEO keeping a record of each direction given to the CEO and
      reference to the former conduct review panel.
Section 13(3)(f) of the Act provides that the Chief Executive Officer has the responsibility of:-

(f)   complying with requests from councillors under section 170A—
      (i)  for advice to assist the councillor carry out his or her role as a councillor; or
      (ii) for information, that the local government has access to, relating to the local government.

Section 170A of the Act requires that Council have a policy in place that sets out the way
Councillors may ask employees for advice to help them carry out their responsibilities under the
Act and provides reasonable limits on the requests that a Councillor may make.

Section 170A Requests for assistance or information
(1)   A councillor may ask a local government employee to provide advice to assist the councillor to carry
      out his or her responsibilities under this Act.
(2)   A councillor may, subject to any limits prescribed under a regulation, ask the chief executive officer to
      provide information, that the local government has access to, relating to the local government.
      Example of a limit prescribed under a regulation—
      A regulation may prescribe the maximum cost to a local government of providing information to a
      councillor.

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