Sunday, September 6, 2009

LOCAL LAW #1: COUNCIL

This law deals primarily with the rules under which the council operates, and for the most part is procedural.

However it is worth a look as these rules establish how meetings are conducted and what rights ratepayers have in meetings.

5 comments:

  1. Part 1 Section 2.e: promote and engage community participation in local govt:
    Some guidelines should be established on how to achieve these goals. The section should be expanded to include more info on how it works.

    Where Sections of Local Governance Act are mentioned (section86, 89(2) for example) there should be an appendix which outlines these rules. Could just cut and paste the section from the law.

    Part 1 Section 8: Definitions:
    Petitions needs to be expanded to allow for current electronic situations. For example an e-petition.

    Part 3 Section 19: Order of business:
    add acknowledgement of indigenous contribution (not sure of exact words here but happens at all meetings.

    Part 3 Section 22: Minutes of meetings: Expand this section to include posting public questions and answers to the web site. This must include the posting of public answers that are delegated to an officer for further investigation. These are public questions and the answers should be public also. Not doing this is a direct affront to the Shires’ policy of Transparency.

    Part 3 Section 24.1.b: Substantive question: The term “substantive” needs to be defined so that we have an idea of what is substantive and what is not. This decision should not be solely at the discretion of officers and bureaucrats. There need to be some guidelines developed. Another term that needs to be defined is “Material Detriment”.

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  2. Part 3, Minutes of Meeting: need to add that minutes are to be electronically recorded.

    Definitions: Define what determines an item to be confidential. The discussion and agreement to send two people to Copenhagen should not have been confidential.

    Part 3, Agenda Items: where items are considered confidential the agenda must, at least, state the subject of the confidential item (Paving Contract, Personnel issue, Copenhagen trip, etc.)

    Part 3, 17 (2) change forty eight (48) hours to two (2) clear working days.


    Joe Lenzo, Editor

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  3. Minutes need to be more copious and detailed rather than just a summary. Every word does not have to be included in the written minutes but significant items should be included. For example Cr. Susan Beverages comments on the accuracy of the minutes of a previous Council meeting.

    Joe Lenzo, Editor

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  4. Page 11 Minutes There is no mention of public availability of this document .The councillors can ammend minutes but the ratepayers are not in a position to know or comment on their authenticity . So much for transparency.

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  5. Council meetings need to be recorded and the recordings made freely available to Councillors & ratepayers to ensure the accuracy of the Minutes.

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