2019-08-06 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                     6 AUGUST 2019


Council currently keeps the following records for Council Committee meetings which are provided
on Council’s website and form part of the Ordinary Meeting Agenda:
   Name of the Committee
   Date of the Committee meeting
   Council Committee members in attendance
   Other Councillors in attendance
   Apologies
   Full list of items considered
   Details of any conflict of interest declarations by individual Councillors and how they were
     determined
   Details of how a Councillor who has a conflict of interest voted on that matter
   Details of movers and seconders of motions (with such motions being to make a
     recommendation on a matter to the Council)
   Details of all recommendations being made to Council from the Committee (Council
     Committees do not have decision making power)
   Details of any changes made to staff recommendations (shown in revision mode in the
     Council agenda)
The CEO is not recommending any changes to the current Council approach based on its
decision in June 2018.

Notified Motion Items 1 and 2 – Councillor Workshops / Forums
The Notified Motion included the following:
1.    Make all informal councillor meetings on council matters open to the public, including
      councillor workshops, briefings and discussion forums, unless declared to be closed for
      reasons listed in Section 275 of the Local Government Regulation 2012.
2.    Request the CEO to make the schedule of such informal councillor meetings publicly
      available, including any reasons for closure, and to ensure records are kept of
      recommendations and decisions made at such meetings and included as an addendum to
      the minutes of the succeeding Ordinary Meeting.
Throughout these four related reports, the CEO has consistently highlighted the fact that
decisions can only be made at an Ordinary meeting or Special meeting of Council. Decisions
cannot be made at any workshops/ briefings/ forums or the like. That is certainly the case at our
Council with no delegations to Standing Committees and no decision making powers for any
workshops/ briefings/ forums.
All councils have various types of workshops/ briefings/ forums. The CEO is aware that some
councils use these types of workshops to review reports that will appear on a Council agenda.
That is not an appropriate use of these types of workshops and our Council does not do that.
Rather, an opportunity for Councillors to have a free-flowing discussion with staff is an excellent
way to identify issues that might need to be addressed in a policy, to gain an understanding of a
complex issue, to provide Councillors with training on new legislation, to share information
between Councillors or to receive an update on a particular topic.
As identified in the separate report on legislative changes, there is currently no legislative
requirements/ limitation on the use of Councillor workshops or the like. However, the State
government does recognise that they are a practical and commonly used format for councils and
the State government does intend to introduce some legislative recognition of this process
(particularly in relation to how conflicts of interest are dealt with). Further details on the potential
legislative changes are set out in the report to this round of meetings. Given that legislative
uncertainty, it is recommended that no further action be taken at this time but that the Chief
Executive Officer keep Council informed as to the development of these proposals by the State
government.



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