2019-08-06 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                  6 AUGUST 2019


   Deputations - under our current Standing Orders, there is already a provision which
     enables a deputation to be made to a meeting where there has been written application
     prior to the meeting and the Mayor has agreed to such a deputation. This does not occur in
     practice as requests are seldom received.
   Participation - in the past, there have only been a few instances where non-Council
     members have been invited to participate in a Council meeting discussion. Two examples
     which spring to mind include members of the community jury in relation to their report to
     Council and also the Chairperson of NBRF in relation to their annual report on their
     operations. In both instances, this added value to the Councillors understanding of the
     issues that they were required to deliberate on. One of the practical risks in this scenario is
     that many matters before Council for a decision require the Council to make a decision
     where there are competing community views (e.g. development applications, permits etc).
     It would not be good governance practice to hear only one position in such circumstances.
   Presentations - the current Standing Orders make provision for presentations of awards/
     certificates etc from the community and also for presentations from Council staff or other
     persons/ entities. In practice, there are sometimes presentations from Council staff on
     particular topics (e.g. asset management) which assist Councillors understanding the
     context of the matter being considered.
   Public question time - this is a new proposal which will need to be promoted to our
     community as one opportunity to engage in the Council meeting processes. Public
     Question Time Guidelines will need to be developed for adoption by Council before this
     element can be implemented (and therefore promoted).
It is intended to re-vamp our website for the topics of deputations, participation, presentations
and public question time along the lines of what we have previously done to make it easier for
our community to understand petitions. We can also use our other communication channels
(including social media) to promote these other options. The recommendation in this report is
framed accordingly.

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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