TWO Moorabool Shire councillors have questioned what they consider to be overuse of notices of motion at monthly council meetings.<\/p>\n
And one of them is planning to try to have the practice curtailed.<\/p>\n
Crs Tom Sullivan and Paul Tatchell are questioning whether the regular inclusion of notices of motion on meeting agendas, along with their resulting demand on officers’ time and council resources, is justified.<\/p>\n
Their comments came in the wake of the recent February council meeting, which dealt with four of them and resulted in lengthy debate, which blew out the meeting time to longer than two hours.<\/p>\n
At least one notice of motion appears on nearly every monthly meeting agenda.<\/p>\n
Cr Sullivan told the Moorabool News his main issue was the drain on officers’ time when reports were called for in motions.<\/p>\n
“My concern is that it just seems to be dominating the whole procedure,” Cr Sullivan said, questioning whether officers being diverted from other duties to investigate and prepare reports in response to a notice of motion was the Shire’s core business.<\/p>\n
“It could potentially take a lot of resources and time to get that report by the time they do their research etcetera,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I wouldn’t like to see a situation where it was prohibited but it’s got to be used responsibly and not just used to promote some particular thing that’s seen by that councillor as important.”<\/p>\n
Cr Sullivan said when an officer had to research and prepare a report, they were taken away from their other responsibilities.<\/p>\n
“That’s not how I believe we should be doing business, that’s all,” he said.<\/p>\n
Cr Sullivan asked a question about repeated notices of motion at the February meeting, which was overruled on a point of order on the grounds that it was not urgent business.<\/p>\n
“It costs time, money and resources. Over the last year we’ve had probably umpteen notices of motion.<\/p>\n
“We spent more time last meeting dealing with notices of motion than we did on the other agenda items.”<\/p>\n
Cr Sullivan said he was following up with Shire executives how much in money, time and resources the last six concluded notices of motion would have cost.<\/p>\n
He said the people who ultimately paid for officers having to investigate and prepare reports were the ratepayers because they were the ones who paid salaries.<\/p>\n
“We’re not an extremely affluent council and we haven’t got oodles of people sitting around doing nothing; they’re all doing work on behalf of the community, and I don’t think they should be distracted from those tasks,” Cr Sullivan said.<\/p>\n
Cr Sullivan said he would wait to find out the information he is seeking before deciding on his next step.<\/p>\n
“It’s just an inefficient use of resources \u2013 and most of it comes to nothing anyway,” he said.<\/p>\n
Cr Tatchell, meanwhile, said he would indeed take some type of formal action on the issue.<\/p>\n
He said he planned to submit his own notice of motion \u2013 although he described doing so as something of a paradox \u2013 aimed at refining the way they are dealt with.<\/p>\n
Cr Tatchell, the immediate past mayor, said there were “absolutely” too many notices of motion coming before councillors.<\/p>\n
“We’ve dealt with more notices of motion in this term of council than I’ve done in five terms (as a councillor),” he said.<\/p>\n
“I’m going to put a notice of motion up … to say that if you want to put a notice of motion through it has to be treated exactly the same as urgent business and has to show relevance to the council, and it has to be agreed to by every councillor before it’s put up.”<\/p>\n
Cr Tatchell said he had told CEO Derek Madden of his plans, adding that in his opinion notices of motion were better suited to being treated as matters of urgent business.<\/p>\n
The new nine-member council has no ward structure and was elected in October of 2024, replacing the former seven-councillor ward structure.<\/p>\n
Cr Tatchell said the new makeup of the council had created “a void a mile wide” because six councillors came from the east of the municipality and three from the more rural western areas.<\/p>\n
Voting patterns and notices of motion reflected that divide, he said.<\/p>\n
Mayor Steve Venditti-Taylor said there was not much he could do about notices of motion because they are allowed in the council’s governance rules.<\/p>\n
“As long as it goes through governance, compliance and through the CEO there’s not much you can do,” he said. “As long as it’s compliant I’m not against notices of motion.<\/p>\n
“If a councillor has … got a passion about a notice of motion, as the mayor I’m going to support my councillors.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TWO Moorabool Shire councillors have questioned what they consider to be overuse of notices of motion at monthly council meetings. And one of them is planning to try to have the practice curtailed. Crs Tom Sullivan and Paul Tatchell are questioning whether the regular inclusion of notices of motion on meeting agendas, along with their […]<\/p>\n