CITY of Ballarat council unanimously passed a motion at a special meeting on Monday afternoon that gives further instrument of delegation powers to the municipality\u2019s Chief Executive Officer.<\/p>\n
The move was made because of the current COVID-19 pandemic and gives CEO Justine Linley the power to make purchasing decisions up to $5 million if council or its contracts special committee are unable to meet.<\/p>\n
Once the current emergency is over the power will be reviewed. Normally the CEO can only make contract or purchasing decisions up to $500,000 without council approval.<\/p>\n
Cr Daniel Moloney said it was extraordinary that council has had to approve such a vast expansion of the CEO\u2019s powers in so little time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would hate to think that this has potential to be our last council meeting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe enter a caretaker period ahead of the council elections in September, so our last act as councillors could be to effectively handover a significant portion of our roles and powers to the CEO.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut again, I support the motion for the reason that we\u2019re in extraordinary times and we don\u2019t have much choice. Any other time, I\u2019d be frustrated having to approve such wide sweeping changes to the CEO\u2019s role, but I\u2019m comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cr Moloney said local councils and democracy are always important, but the City of Ballarat will be playing a huge role in Ballarat\u2019s recovery after the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be hard to do that effectively with one hand tied behind our backs if we\u2019re not able to have formal meetings and make formal decisions as councillors, purely because there\u2019s an archaic requirement in the Local Government Act<\/em> which requires us to be physically present,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully, that is something that comes to the State government\u2019s attention in the very near future.\u201d<\/p>\n Deputy-mayor Cr Belinda Coates also spoke for the motion, and said councillors are in a difficult emergency management position.<\/p>\n \u201cI thank the CEO, directors and staff for really stepping up. It\u2019s incredibly important for community confidence to see really clear leadership and messages, and to maintain calm and confident decorum around how we\u2019re dealing with it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a health crisis, but it\u2019s a social crisis as well. Anxiety levels are high for a lot of members of the community, with health and business concerns, financial and environmental concerns, and connecting with each other…<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity to pull together and learn some strong lessons quickly around building community resilience and social connectedness. If there one small positive, I\u2019m hoping that will be one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CITY of Ballarat council unanimously passed a motion at a special meeting on Monday afternoon that gives further instrument of delegation powers to the municipality\u2019s Chief Executive Officer. The move was made because of the current COVID-19 pandemic and gives CEO Justine Linley the power to make purchasing decisions up to $5 million if council […]<\/p>\n