2020-11-10 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                  10 NOVEMBER 2020


B.   Closed Meetings
     Although our Council closes meetings relatively rarely, it should be noted that the basis
     upon which meetings can be closed is being limited for councils across Queensland. In
     practice, this will not impact our council as none of the reasons for closing a meeting that
     have been removed have been used by our Council in the past. The main reason that our
     Council would close a meeting is to receive legal advice in relation to court proceedings or
     to commence commercial negotiations for the purchase of land and both of these
     exemptions continue. The reasons for closing a meeting are now defined in the Local
     Government Regulation and we have incorporated these into our Standing Orders to be
     consistent (see section 26 of the Standing Orders for Council Meetings – Attachment 2)
C.   Council Committee and Ordinary Meeting Minutes
     There is a new provision (section 254F (9)) of the Local Government Regulation which now
     requires councils to include in the minutes of their meetings any additional material which
     was not included in the report to Council (which is available publicly online). In practice, this
     means that someone who is reading the minutes should be able to see the same
     information as someone who was present at the Council meeting. For the information
     Council, the relevant provision of the Local Government Regulation is set out below.
     (9)   In this section—
           relevant report, for a local government meeting, means a report or other
           document—
           (a) directly relevant to a matter considered or voted on at the meeting; or
           (b) presented at the meeting for the consideration or information of the local
                  government or committee.
           Examples—
              a video or recording, or a transcript of the video or recording, watched or listened to by
                councillors at a local government meeting before making a decision
              a chart, diagram, spreadsheet or picture considered at a local government meeting
              a copy of an auditor-general’s observation report presented at a meeting of the local
                government under section 213(3)
              a petition or media release presented at a local government meeting
      Our Council commenced this new process from 12 October 2020.

Previous Council Consideration
Ordinary Meeting Minutes, 20 December 2018, Item 15, Page 10
That Council note the report by the Governance Advisor to the Services & Organisation
Committee Meeting dated 11 December 2018 and:
A.   Adopt the Model Meeting Procedures provided at Attachment 2 to the report;
B.   Adopt the updated Standing Orders for Noosa Shire Council 2014 (provided at Attachment
     3 to the report) to remove any inconsistencies with the new Model Meeting Procedures;
C.   Note that the CEO will undertake a comprehensive review of the Model Meeting
     Procedures and Noosa Shire Council Standing Orders 2014 in early 2019;
D.   Repeal the current Noosa Council Councillor Code of Conduct to be superseded by the
     Councillor Code of Conduct prescribed by the Department of Local Government, Racing
     and Multicultural Affairs provided at Attachment 4 to the report;
E.   Agree that each Councillor will sign a declaration to abide by the new Councillor Code of
     Conduct at all times; and
F.   Adopt the Investigation Policy provided at Attachment 5.


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