2020-04-30 Ordinary Meeting Agenda

ORDINARY MEETING AGENDA                                                               30 APRIL 2020


Special Council Meetings
It should be noted that Special Council meetings can be called at any time to deal with specific issues
if required.

Online Council meetings and special provisions applying to the COVID-19 Pandemic
As Council would be aware, we are currently facing a significant public health crisis which includes
strict requirements in terms of social distancing. In recognition of this issue, the State government
has passed a special regulation called the Local Government Electoral (2020 Quadrennial Election)
Regulation 2020. This is the same regulation which the government used to change how “how to
vote” cards etc were managed during the election process.
Included in that regulation are new provisions which allow councils to change how they conduct their
Committee and Ordinary meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. A summary of these changes
is as follows:
      An Ordinary meeting or a Committee meeting can be held by teleconference / videoconference
       instead of in person (there have always been provisions allowing an individual Councillor to
       attend a meeting by teleconference but this new regulation makes it clear that the entire
       meeting can be held by teleconference).
      If the meeting is held by teleconference, the Council must ensure the meeting is available for
       real-time viewing or listening by the public either at the Council office or via the Council’s
       website.
      Further, if the Chair of the Ordinary meeting or the Chair of the Committee meeting is satisfied
       that it is not practical for the public to physically attend the meeting because of health and
       safety reasons associated with COVID-19, the meeting can be physically closed to members
       of the public but it must be live streamed.
In practice, our Council Chambers is of sufficient physical size to allow meetings to proceed with
Councillors present while meeting social distancing requirements if the Council wishes to do so. Of
course, any Councillor could seek to attend by teleconference if they wished. Also, we have
technology in place that allows us to live stream all Council and General Committee meetings.
We have set up technology to allow for Standing Committee and Ordinary meetings to be undertaken
by video-conference and live streamed at the same time.
Community Council Meetings
Council has held two Ordinary meetings per year offsite in recent years. These community Council
meetings provide an opportunity for local communities to meet with the Mayor and Councillors and
discuss local issues. Most of these have been held in hinterland towns in recent years and have
mainly been well attended by local residents as an opportunity to meet with elected representatives
and discuss local issues. It is intended to continue this process, however given the current situation
with the coronavirus, we will revisit this issue when safe to do so. A separate report will be provided
to Council on potential community based Council meetings once the coronavirus pandemic threat
recedes.

Previous Council Consideration
Nil.

Finance
Provision exists within the 2019-20 budget to meet any expenses associated with the conduct of
Council meetings.

Risks & Opportunities
Meetings are the principal decision-making forum for local governments and all decisions are made
at the Ordinary meeting with Committee meetings making recommendations to Council.

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