Rules revised for transparency

CITY of Ballarat councillors have adopted a revised set of governance rules, and transparency policy.

The move came at the 26 August meeting, and both documents underwent a period of community consultation prior to getting the okay.

They were approved with appropriate changes and come into effect from 1 September.

Adjustments to the governance rules include the duty of a delegated authority or advisory committee member to disclose conflicts of interest as they arise.

Also, changes to the transparency policy were made to ensure all of council’s decision-making processes and information would be accessible to the public unless it was a matter of confidentiality.

Cr Daniel Moloney said he was happy to see the documents pass through the council.

“I’m a big fan of the transparency policy because it has progressively changed in our council over time,” he said.

“Now it is assumed something should be publicly available unless you can prove a reason to make it confidential such as a commercial issue or privacy breach.

“This is a step in the right direction.”

Cr Belinda Coates added, “Transparency improvements are an opportunity to raise the bar and build on things like the live streaming of council meetings which has opened up the opportunity for members of the public to engage.”

While Cr Des Hudson said he supported 98 per cent of the motion, including the ability for council to be transparent with rate payers, he had a variety of questions for the City’s executive manager of safety, risk and compliance services, Cameron Montgomery, regarding hiring out of municipal facilities for electoral purposes.

“I’m concerned we may be going too prescriptive in terms of venues that have traditionally been hired by the VEC or AEC that are completely independent bodies and have rules and regulations around polling,” he said.

“We’re potentially cutting off some of that income spread to small community halls and the locations that people have been voting at for years just so we can be seen to be ultra-risk adverse.

“When it’s a commercial hire, I think we should be able to take that path and make that accessible.”

Mr Montgomery said this specification in the governance rules is around managing community perceptions.

“What we are trying to do is to demonstrate a clear differentiation between council controlled and owned facilities,” he said.

“If it is a facility that is managed and operated at arm’s length, that is a scenario when they could be hired for a commercial agreement as a separation through that process.

“The intent is for one’s that are controlled and operated by council facilities aren’t used for electionary purposes.”