2021-10-12 Services & Organisation Committee Meeting Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT                                12 OCTOBER 2021


4     COUNCIL MEETING SCHEDULE 2022

Author            Chief Executive Officer, Brett de Chastel
                  CEO’s Office

Index             ECM/ Subject/ Council Meetings General

Attachments       1.    Council Meeting Schedule 2022

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Not applicable.

RECOMMENDATION
That Council note the report by the Chief Executive Officer to the Services & Organisation
Committee Meeting dated 12 October 2021 and approve the Council meeting dates for 2022 as
set out in Attachment 1 to the report.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Council adopts its meeting timetable on an annual basis. This enables the community to be
aware of when Council meetings are scheduled and for staff to develop timetables for preparing
agendas for those meetings. This report puts forward for adoption the proposed timetable for 2022.
REPORT
At the Ordinary Meeting on 30 April 2020, Council adopted its Council meeting structure
incorporating three Standing Committees and an Ordinary meeting.
In consultation with the Mayor and Councillors, no changes have been proposed to these existing
arrangements at this stage, however it would be appropriate for the Council to review the
chairperson/membership of the committees in April 2022 which marks the halfway point of this
Council term.
A draft Council Meeting Schedule for 2022 has been prepared for Council’s consideration (refer to
Attachment 1).
As per previous years, the first meeting round of the year (January) will only consist of a General
Committee Meeting (17 January) and an Ordinary Meeting (20 January). There won’t be a
Planning & Environment Committee or Services & Organisation Committee meeting held in
January. This is due to the timing of report deadlines conflicting with the Christmas/New Year
period and the availability of staff over this time. The agenda for the January meeting is normally
quite a small one in any event.
The only other timing difficulty is in April with Easter resulting in the General Committee being held
on a Tuesday instead of the Monday. April is always a difficult month with timing due to public
holidays.
Also, as recently discussed with Councillors, some administrative changes are being put in place
to assist with streamlining the process of Council meetings. This includes:-
     all reports to Council having Executive Summaries – these are being phased in this and the
      following round of meetings;
     staff providing a verbal introduction to their report at the Council committee meetings to help
      frame the key issues for consideration; and
     endeavouring to reduce the number of reports going directly to General Committee (without
      going through the Planning and Environment and Services and Organisation Committees) to
      provide Councillors with more time to consider those reports.


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