2019-08-06 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                  6 AUGUST 2019


3     Key Changes to current Standing Orders
This section of the report is not intended to deal with every single change in the Standing Orders.
The proposed new Standing Orders are set out in Attachment 2.
However, for the information of Councillors, some of the key changes are as follows:
    Clarifying which provisions apply to Ordinary meetings, Special meetings or Committee
      meetings as the case may be. The previous version did not sufficiently make this
      differentiation;
    Clarifying that the Chairperson of a meeting (whether an Ordinary, Special or Committee
      meeting) can make a range of determinations. These might include changing the order of
      business, determining if a non-member can participate etc. It also enshrines the right of
      the members of the meeting to take a dissension motion from any determination of the
      Chairperson;
    Clarifying that a motion can’t be withdrawn (or modified) without the consent of the mover
      and seconder and the meeting;
    Improving the consistency of terminology throughout the Standing Orders;
    Enhancing the current provisions in relation to presentations and deputations;
    Introduction of a public question time for Ordinary meetings; and
    Clarifying that the procedural motion “that the motion be put” cannot be used by the mover,
      seconder or someone who has spoken to the motion for the purpose of guillotining debate.
4     Other issues
This section of the report will deal with issues arising from our Standing Orders and also the
recent notice of motion referred to above.
4.1   Recording Votes
Under our current Standing Orders, there are two ways by which a Councillor can request their
vote be recorded. Firstly, they can request a division. This request must be made before the
Chairperson calls for the vote on the motion. In this case, how each Councillor votes on the
particular motion is recorded. Secondly, a Councillor can request their vote to be recorded on a
particular motion. This request can be made at any time (including after the Chairperson has
called for a vote on the motion). In this case, only the vote of the Councillor making that request
is recorded. For the sake of completeness, there are also statutory requirements to record how a
Councillor voted when they have a perceived conflict of interest but are authorised by the other
Councillors to remain for the debate and decision on the matter.
Obviously, in every other case for both Ordinary, Special and all Committee meetings, the mover,
seconder and whether the motion was carried or lost is recorded.
Item 7 of the notice of motion proposed that the vote of all Councillors present be recorded for all
Council and Committee meeting minutes. In practice, this means that it would be the equivalent
of a division being called on each item such that the individual vote of each Councillor would be
recorded at both Council and Committee meetings.
At present, none of Council’s Committees have any delegation to make decisions. Their sole role
is to make recommendations to the Council’s Ordinary meeting and it is the Council itself that
makes the formal decision at the Council meeting. As such, there may be benefit in recording for
prosperity, how each Councillor voted at the time it made its formal decision at the Council
meeting. That does not appear to be any benefit in applying the same process to Committee
meetings as they are not making the final decision on the matter.
In practice, there would be no additional work involved in recording these votes into the minutes
of an Ordinary or Special Meeting. This is the practice at some other Councils (for example,
Sunshine Coast Regional Council). The CEO is also aware from discussions with the

                                                                                   Page 54 of 170