Shire ends breach of Local Government Act by passing governance motion

THE Surf Coast Shire council has ended its breach of the new Local Government Act by belatedly passing a governance motion earlier this week.
Victorian councils must have repealed and replaced several required items within a four-month grace period that expired on September 1 to comply with the state government’s Local Government Act 2020, including governance rules, and before the caretaker period begins for the local government elections.
The Surf Coast Shire council would have met the deadline had it passed Item 4.4, relating to its Governance Rules, Local Law No. 2 (Common Seal and Miscellaneous Penalties) and Public Transparency Policy, at the August 25 meeting.
Debate about the governance rules in particular led to the item being deferred until the council’s next meeting, causing the breach, despite the efforts of acting chief executive officer Anne Howard to intervene.
The council resumed the debate at a special meeting on Monday this week, where Cr Heather Wellington’s alternate motion to exclude several clauses from the Governance Rules was defeated.
Cr Clive Goldsworthy then successfully moved the original motion with an added amendment to review the Governance Rules within 12 months of the 2020 council election.
Cr James McIntyre said he agreed with the principle of Cr Goldsworthy’s motion but unsuccessfully proposed reviewing the Governance Rules within six months instead.
Cr Wellington welcomed the eventual review of the Governance Rules, which she described as a “sunset clause on these rules” and “a bit of a cop out but better than nothing.”
“What we’re really doing here is putting the decision onto the next council – in some ways that’s not a bad thing – but I’ve been seeking these amendments for 18 months,” she said.
Cr Wellington’s original motion sought to strike out several clauses in the Governance Rules, including:
Preventing members of the public asking questions that the chair considers relate to proposed developments
Questions must be directed to the council as a whole and not to individual or specific councillors
Councillors other than the chair will not be permitted to answer any questions at a council meeting relating to an item on the agenda
A question will not be read out unless the person asking the question, or their proxy, is in the gallery at the time it is due to be read, and
Two councillors are needed for a notice of motion to be included on the council meeting agenda.
She said she had reviewed the Governance Rules of five or six of the councils neighbouring the Surf Coast Shire, and of the 10 rules she objected to, six were “Surf Coast specials” and unique to the Surf Coast Shire council.
Supporting his motion, Cr Goldsworthy said it was a shame that he had not seen Cr Wellington’s proposed changes to the Governance Rules until the night of the previous council meeting.
“We had discussions about this, but it wasn’t put in front of us to give us time to consider and to review and to understand, and we chose on that night to not accept the amendment to the motion.”