2018-06-12 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                       12 JUNE 2018


conflicts of interest or material personal interest declarations and details of all matters deliberated
on by the General Committee and the final Committee recommendation on each item
(determined by majority vote). Council then deliberates on these final recommendations at the
Ordinary Meeting.
If the “full minutes” approach was to be taken, then in addition to the matters already reported to
Council, the following additional items would need to be included:
      movers and seconders of motions;
      details of all motions/amendments that are moved whether they be carried or lost; and
      details of individual Councillor votes in the event that a division on voting has been called
       or if an individual Councillor requests their vote be recorded on a particular matter.
As Councillors would be aware, our meeting management staff currently record all of these items
already in “live format” and project them on screen during the meeting to allow Councillors and
the public attending the meeting to keep track of the debate as the General Committee meeting
is taking place. Therefore, the “full minutes” are being recorded in “live format” however only the
final recommendations of the Committee are being reported to the Ordinary meeting which is
consistent with the process applied for the other two Council Committees.
There are arguments for and against as to whether or not the General Committee should be
exempt from the keeping of “full minutes”. The arguments for include:
    The final recommendation of the General Committee (reached by majority vote) is what
     ultimately needs to be considered at the Ordinary meeting. Including all deliberations that
     occurred at the General Committee (including those that are procedural in nature) could
     potentially distract from the final recommendation of the Committee;
    At the Ordinary Meeting Council can, of course, make a decision that is different to that
     which was recommended by the General Committee. There may be some confusion if at
     the subsequent General Committee meeting the minutes of the previous General
     Committee meeting need to be adopted, particularly if the recommendations are different to
     what was ultimately decided by Council at the Ordinary meeting;
    Including additional information is not relevant because the primary purpose of the General
     Committee is to make recommendations to the Ordinary meeting, not to make the final
     decision. The additional information is mainly relevant at the decision making stage (the
     Ordinary meeting of Council);
    Consistency with the Planning and Environment and Services and Organisation Committee
     meeting processes (in the event that Council also exempts those committees under section
     272 (6)).
The arguments against include:
    These “full minutes” are already taken by meeting management staff during the meeting so
     there is no additional workload required to produce this information;
    The “full minutes” would show the process that the General Committee took to reach its
     final determination on its recommendation to the Ordinary Meeting; and
    The “full minutes” would show more information about the General Committee
     deliberations.
On balance, the CEO is recommending that we retain the current practice of reporting the final
recommendations of the General Committee (reached by majority vote) to the Ordinary meeting.
The reason for this recommendation is that ultimately, the General Committee’s role is to make
recommendations to the Ordinary meeting and it is the final recommendation that is the most
critical aspect that should be reported to Council as the outcome of the General Committee. This
would require a resolution under section 272 (6) of the Local Government Regulation 2012 and
the report recommendation is framed accordingly.




                                                                                      Page 91 of 118