2014-04-28 General Committee Meeting Agenda Pages 65-200

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                     28 APRIL 2014


REPORT

Standing Orders

The Noosa Council inherited the Standing Orders of the Sunshine Coast Regional Council as
part of the de-amalgamation process. Standing orders regulate and control meeting procedures
for both Council meetings and Committee meetings. The Standing Orders of the Sunshine Coast
Regional Council were quite comprehensive but were not really applicable to the type of
Committee system being operated by our Council.

Accordingly, the Standing Orders have been revised so that they apply more practically with the
Committee system being used at Noosa Shire Council. The proposed Standing Orders had
previously been reviewed by Councillors at a Councillor workshop held recently. While not really
an exciting issue, the adoption of the Standing Orders is another step in the finalisation of the de-
amalgamation process.

In addition to the Standing Orders, a set of Committee System Guidelines have been developed
to help explain how our Council’s Committee system works. Many of our Councillors and staff
have not worked in a Committee system such as this before and these guidelines are intended to
explain how the system works and how decisions are made through the Committee/Council
process.

It is also intended to provide these guidelines on the Council’s website.

Recording of Minutes at Committee Meetings

As Councillors would no doubt be aware, a Council must keep Minutes at its Council Meeting
recording movers/seconders and the outcome of voting on resolutions. As our Council is using a
Committee system, it has the ability to exempt its Committees from the requirement to keep
Minutes which would require it to record movers and seconders and the outcome of voting on
resolutions during a Committee meeting. It can only do this where the purpose of the Committee
is to provide advice or recommendations to the Council Meeting. The relevant provisions of the
Local Government Regulation 2012 are set out below. The key sections are subsections (6), (7)
and (8): –

      Section 272 - Minutes

      (1)   The chief executive officer must ensure minutes of each meeting of a local
            government are taken under the supervision of the person presiding at the meeting.

      (2)   Minutes of each meeting must include—
            (a) the names of councillors or committee members present at the meeting; and
            (b) if a division is called on a question—the names of all persons voting on the
                 question and how they voted.

      (3)   At each meeting, the minutes of the previous meeting must be—
            (a) confirmed by the councillors or committee members present; and
            (b) signed by the person presiding at the later meeting.

      (4)   A copy of the minutes of each meeting—
            (a) must be available for inspection by the public, at a local government’s public
                 office and on its website, within 10 days after the end of the meeting; and
            (b) when the minutes have been confirmed—must be available for purchase at the
                 local government’s public office.



                                                                                   Page 178 of 200