2014-05-20 Planning & Organisation Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                     20 MAY 2014


11.   REVIEW OF INSTRUMENTS OF DELEGATIONS

Author           Project Officer Governance, George Corkill
                 Executive Office

Index            ECM/Governance & Executive/Delegation of Authority

Attachments      1.    Redundant Delegations
                 2.    Delegations Council to Chief Executive Officer



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Delegations are the process by which the Council delegates to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
local government powers under relevant legislation to implement and enforce legislation and
standards. Importantly, Council always retains the capacity to exercise the power, to rescind,
amend or condition as Council sees fit, from time to time.

This report seeks Council’s resolution to provide powers to the CEO pursuant to Section 257 of
the Local Government Act 2009.

Following de-amalgamation from Sunshine Coast Council (SCC), 57 Delegations covering areas
such as health, law & order, local government, planning, building etc transferred under the
provisions of Local Government (De-amalgamation Implementation) Regulation 2013 and De-
amalgamation Transfer Methodology.

The Act requires the CEO to review and establish a register of delegations which must record all
delegations by the Council, Mayor or the CEO. The Local Government Association of
Queensland (LGAQ) in conjunction with King & Co. has developed and maintains a register for
councils to use following a comprehensive review of approximately 47 State legislations
impacting on Local Government.

Staff are currently reviewing the transferred delegations relevant to their department’s operations
to determine their suitability and alignment to Council’s new organisational structure and
operations, with further reports to be presented for Council consideration.
The review of Delegations will ensure Council can meet its legal and operational obligations with
State Government legislation. However, given that the State amends legislation daily, the register
must be amended from time to time as State legislation is amended or repealed, or new
legislation is introduced.
Given the voluminous nature of legislation it is unlikely that Council will exercise all powers
identified by LGAQ. Accordingly, if Council wishes, it may exclude any powers identified in the
register. In doing so Council alone (not the CEO), may exercise the power. However, on a
practical level, retaining all powers is not possible as it would require excessive reporting to
Council on operational and administrative matters.




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