2019-08-06 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                   6 AUGUST 2019


      local government elections. Again, it proposes to consult further with stakeholders but
      appears likely to introduce this requirement for the March 2024 elections.
    Public funding of candidate election campaigns – similar to the above, the State was
      proposing to introduce this for the upcoming local government elections but has deferred
      consideration at this stage. It will consult further on this issue but appears to be keen to
      introduce public funding of election campaigns for the March 2024 elections (using similar
      methodology to the current state election processes).
In relation to these electoral matters, I would expect that the State government will commence a
public consultation process shortly after the current Bill is through parliament.

3.2   Proposed reform for governance matters

The State government has also announced a number of proposed reforms to governance
arrangements for local governments. These are as follows:

1.    Council meeting agendas

Current requirements
   The notice of each Council meeting must be given to each Councillor at least 2 days before
     the day of the meeting.

Proposed reforms
   The meeting agenda must be published on the Council website at the same time it is made
     available to Councillors (our Council already does this).
   Reports to be considered at the meeting are to be published on the Council website at the
     same time they are made available to Councillors (our Council already does this).
   Making clearer that a legislative exemption exists for putting confidential reports on the
     website (our Council doesn’t publish our confidential reports at the time they are
     considered but often makes them available once the confidentiality element has been
     implemented).

2.    Council meeting minutes

Current requirements
   Minutes of the Council Ordinary or Special meetings must be taken and confirmed at the
     subsequent Ordinary meeting.
   They must be available for inspection by the public within 10 days of the meeting. In our
     Council’s case, we make the minutes available for public inspection normally on the same
     day as the Ordinary or Special meeting by publication on our website.
   The Council must keep minutes of its Council Committee meetings unless it passes a
     resolution to exempt those Committee meetings from keeping formal minutes. Our Council
     has passed such a resolution but obviously, we keep written records of the proceedings of
     those Committee meetings including all of the recommendations from those Committees to
     Council (including details of attendance, movers/seconders, conflicts of interest
     declarations etc). In practice, the only real difference is that we don’t record lost motions or
     amendments to motions – only the final recommendation being made by the Committee to
     the Council for consideration.
   The written records of the proceedings of all of our Committee meetings are made
     available to the public within 5 business days via the Ordinary meeting agenda.
     (The question of minutes and Council meetings was addressed in some detail in my report
     to Council in June 2018.)



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