2014-08-19 Planning & Organisation Committee Agenda - Pages 102-155

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA   19 AUGUST 2014




                                                    Page 138 of 155

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                   19 AUGUST 2014

  COUNCIL POLICY - COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
  COUNCIL POLICY

  Noosa Council recognises that community engagement and participation processes are a vital part
  of democracy. Effective engagement is good business practice and critical to good government.
  For this reason Council is committed to engaging with the Noosa community.
  The benefits of effective engagement include:
  e   Council and community working together to address local issues;
  e   increased level of community ownership and acceptance of decisions affecting the local
      government;
  e   increased community awareness of Council’s services, planning and program delivery;
  e   increased awareness across Council of community views and the issues that should be
      considered as part of decision making;
  e   increased awareness of the needs, priorities and diversity of the local community, which in turn
      ensures that Council’s service provision and planning functions are aligned appropriately;
  e   potential for time, resource and cost savings for Council as a result of better alignment of
      community needs to services; and
  e   Improved perception of Council by the community.
  PRINCIPLES

  Effective community engagement is built on trust, respect and goodwill. Council has a commitment
  to community engagement that is governed by a set of principles that underpin good engagement
  processes. The principles are described below:
  Integrity and transparency- Engagement involves trust and transparency.          The levels of
  community influence will be clearly communicated. Consultation and higher forms of engagement
  must be genuinely must be genuinely purposeful and not tokenistic. Council will carefully consider,
  and accurately portray, the community’s role in the decision making process and reflect back how
  the community has influenced decisions.
  Open and inclusive — Council encourages involvement from a wide cross section of the
  community using engagement processes that are accessible and inclusive;
  Mutual respect- Council’s goal is to ensure that all voices matter, all opinions are valued and
  considered. A recognition that both the community and the local government are responsible for
  outcomes.
  Timeliness- Council will engage with its community in ways that are timely, open to all, easily
  understood and not overly bureaucratic or resource intensive.
  Well Planned — Engagement requires informed judgement and planning in its approach and
  implementation in order to be effective, practical and suitably resourced. Consideration will be
  given to ensuring that sufficient timeframes and adequate resources are allocated to engagement
  processes; community engagement processes are co-ordinated where possible to optimise
  resources, ensure efficiency and avoid duplication; the skill required to undertake community
  engagement is recognised and staff will be provided with opportunities for further skill development
  and training.
  Foresight-Council engages with its community not only to learn about and respond to present
  needs, but also to gain a better understanding of our communities’ perspective on emerging issues
  that may affect our preferred future.
  Accountability-Council will seek community engagement to enhance its decision-making,
  however where the Council is responsible and accountable for a given matter, it will accept its
  responsibility to make the final decision and to provide leadership.

                                                                                    Page 138 of 155