2019-08-06 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                  6 AUGUST 2019


Currently, Council holds its General Committee meetings and Ordinary meetings in the Council
Chambers. Both of these meeting are constituted by all Councillors. Meetings of the Planning &
Environment Committee and Services & Organisation Committee are held in Council’s
Committee Room. Both of these meetings are constituted by four Councillors for each meeting
(Mayor plus three Councillors).
As identified in my report to Council in December 2018, there are some options available to
Council should they decide to commence live streaming of the Planning & Environment
Committee and Services & Organisation Committee meetings. These options are either
relocating these two Committee meetings to the Council Chambers or alternatively, installing
additional equipment in the Committee Room to provide the ability live stream the meetings being
held in that room.
As Councillors would be aware, the Committee Room has different characteristics from the
Council Chambers as the meeting table is not fixed in place and therefore has no easy access to
central USB ports, power etc for the required audio equipment. Initial enquiries have indicated
that it would require considerable work to drill holes into the floor slab to be able to accommodate
a similar system to that which is installed in the Council Chambers that will achieve a similar
audio quality given the room layout and acoustics. Further, there is no easily identifiable location
that a camera can be placed that captures the meeting participants without also identifying
members of the community and staff (many of whom have identified that they wish to retain their
privacy).
There are certainly arguments for and against in relation to streaming the Planning &
Environment Committee and Services & Organisation Committee meetings but, as per my report
to Council in December 2018, on balance, my advice to Council is to continue to live stream the
meetings currently held in the Council Chambers (the General Committee, Ordinary and Special
Meetings) at this stage and not to expand a camera system into the Committee Room for the
reasons outlined both above and also in my report in December 2018.
Part of my thinking in relation to this issue also relates to the fact that our Committee model is
based upon a consensus approach at the Planning & Environment Committee and Services &
Organisation Committee with a level of informality applying. Any issues on the Council agenda
which require debate where there are differences of opinion or where a matter is of significance
are inevitably dealt with at the General Committee and Ordinary meetings. It is these matters that
are primarily of public interest. Debate on issues of contention occurs at the General Committee
and the decision making occurs at the Council meeting.

Previous Council Consideration
Ordinary Meeting Minutes, 20 December 2018, Item 6, Page 16
That Council note the report by the Chief Executive Officer to the Services & Organisation
Committee Meeting dated 11 December 2018 and:
A.   Agree to live video stream Council Ordinary Meetings and meetings of the General
     Committee using technology identified in option 3 of the report by the Chief Executive
     Officer, namely one fixed high definition camera and three omnidirectional microphones at
     an approximate cost of $2,100 with that funding to be incorporated into Budget Review 3;
B.   Agree to make such recordings available on Council’s website for future viewing in addition
     to being live streamed;
C.   Note that such recordings are not the final record of the meeting and that the meeting
     minutes are the official record of the meeting;
D.   Approve the recording of these meetings pursuant to section 38 of Council’s Standing
     Orders and request the Chairpersons of those meetings to announce at the beginning of
     each meeting that such recording is occurring;
E.   Note that for those Ordinary Council meetings that are held in the community twice per

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